Neighbouring airports are attempting to attract as many passengers from Slovenia as they can as the country begins offering subsidies to airlines for the launch of new routes and mulls the possibility of setting up a new national carrier. In Maribor, Graz Airport recently promoted the upcoming opening of a Eurowings base in the southern Austrian city. With 10% of Graz Airport’s travellers being from Slovenia, Eurowings called on the Slovenian tourist board to attract as many tourists as possible from the northern part of Germany to Slovenia via Graz Airport with the help of the budget airline. The carrier also said it is counting on Slovenian passengers to fill up its new Graz flights.
Croatia’s entry into the Schengen Area has resulted in an increase in travellers from Slovenia using Zagreb Airport. “We already see a lot of passengers from Slovenia on our Zagreb flights. Even if you go to Zagreb Airport, either in departures or arrivals, you will see that there are lot of Slovenians. At the airport’s parking one will notice many cars with Slovenian car plates. We know and we are sure that we are covering the Slovenian market well from Zagreb Airport”, Ryanair said, adding that there are also a number of Slovenian staff working for the company in Croatia, especially among pilots.
Croatia Airlines is also benefiting from the Slovenian market and expects to see more feed from its northern neighbour. “We have had some gain on the Slovenian market since Adria Airways’ bankruptcy where we offered certain solutions in order to react to the demand that was there. However, we had not added any flights to Slovenia because our hubs are nearby and we were more focused on our sales and marketing activities in Ljubljana at the time, which helped us significantly increase our market share in Slovenia”, the Croatian national carrier said.
Trieste Airport in Italy is also competing for Slovenian travellers. The airport’s General Manager, Marco Consalvo, said the recent increase in Ryanair flights presented an opportunity to attract more passengers from Slovenia. “We certainly have traffic from regional neighbours, who are progressively no longer going to Venice with the increase in our flight offer. Ryanair’s growth will enable us to retain our catchment area, which today uses Venice in large volumes. We definitely see an opportunity in attracting more passengers from Slovenia”.
It is time Slovenia to transport their own passangers and not to export them to neighbouring countries.
ReplyDeleteSlovenia is not transporting anything. EU firms can. It's business, not a competition in patriotism.
DeleteCorrupt..bad management and no national pride
DeleteThis is a major handicap from Ljubljana Aiirport
ReplyDeleteIf LJU had flights to main European hubs, people would not be flying from other airports.
DeleteWe have flights to EU hubs but numbers of those flights is way to low and for those few we have the timings are just not most convenient.
DeleteMany airports around Europe face a similar predicament but somehow perform better than Ljubljana. Salzburg is way smaller than Ljubljana but pax numbers are much higher than Ljubljana despite the fact that Munich is so close and train connections are excellent.
DeleteVerona airport has way way more pax than Ljubljana.
Ljubljana could try to possibly try and take back passengers by doing what other airports around major hubs do, by offering much cheaper service. Like the airports around Heathrow, or the airport around Paris orly. In this way they can attract wizz and ryan air and easy jet away from surrounding airports to Ljubjana just by becoming the much cheaper alternative and ofcourse they do need their own airline.
Deletebut Salzburg has huge winter tourism
DeleteVerona - north Italy is way more congested then Slovenia
Delete10% of Graz passengers being from Slovenia is a lot!
ReplyDeletethan what around 120k passengers for graz airport last year were from Slovenia?? that is extreamly high number if you ask me
Delete* then
DeleteI am the one of this. After LJU open new terminal. Why? Arrogance in short. Status flyer...
DeleteThere go chances of Eurowings starting flights to Slovenia.
ReplyDelete"Eurowings called on the Slovenian tourist board to attract as many tourists as possible from the northern part of Germany to Slovenia via Graz Airport"
ReplyDeleteOuch
It would be interesting to see the percentage of Slovenian passengers flying from ZAG.
ReplyDeleteWhich airlines fly from Ljubljana that do not fly from Zagreb?
ReplyDeleteRyan
DeleteMontenegro, Brussels, easy, Swiss, Transavia, Wizz
DeleteI think Venice still gets the most Slovenian passengers.
ReplyDeleteYes. Similar to Graz, around 10% of passengers in Venice and Trieste are from Slovenia.
DeleteThat’s over 1 mil passengers
Deletelol over 1mio? thats exaggerated
DeleteI'd say Trieste is around 20-25%. Each time I fly from there I see a ton of Slovenian people.
DeleteMarket is taking care of itself!
ReplyDeleteagreed. its too small a market surrounded by larger ones for anyone apart from locals to take an interest in it, and they went bust as a result
DeleteWhat Ljubljana need is KLM to AMS, Iberia to MAD, and British to LHR - Year round... it's such a shame those 3 aren't operating.
ReplyDeleteBritish Airways flies to LHR (seasonally)
DeleteWhat LJU needs is based airlines with 5 aircrafts. If that's someone from LH group or national carrier I don't care but this is one and only solution to get back to figures we had before.
DeleteA lot of Slovenians also work at Graz Airport. If Maribor Airport was developed, there would be no need for it.
ReplyDeleteThere would be if the Austrians pay them better.
DeleteOMG, just forget about MBX already. There is no chance, not a single small one, that there would ever be a functional airport in Maribor in near to mid future.
DeleteWhat happened with establishing Ryanair base in Slovenia?
ReplyDeleteIf there is anyone who really thought that would happen then I suggest him to stay out of airline business.
DeleteThey shouldn't be fixated on Ryanair. There are many other airlines they could have gone after. There was Eurowings which in the end chose Graz Airport. There is Voloeta too. There are many options. You just have to do some work to attract them.
DeleteAir Dolomiti was by far the best option judging by their fleet but of course lju didn’t take oportunity
DeleteLove Air Dolomiti! Great service, pretty cabin staff, good catering. By far the best what LH Group has to offer!
DeleteIndeed
DeleteAnd LJU claimed that Zagreb is not their competition.
ReplyDeleteTheir previous CEO also claimed that they are against national carrier and LJU can get all the passengers back...
DeleteThat worked out well...
DeleteThis reduces the chances of airlines introducing routes from Ljubljana
ReplyDeleteLjubljana's first hit was loosing Adria, second was corona, third is Ryanair base in Zagreb, fourth is Croatia entering Schengen.
ReplyDeleteThis would be in large part solved with the creation of a new national airline.
ReplyDeleteHow? People that want to fly with low fares would still use alternatives.
DeleteOf course they will keep doing that and everything is ok with that. But there is a problem that passengers who are not price sensitive, are "forced" to fly from other airports due to lack of connectivity.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteLjubljana Airport would benefit from better marketing strategy, lower costs and better service and hopefully better growth prospects.
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteDoes anyone know if any airline has so far applied for those subsidies to launch new routes from Slovenia?
ReplyDeleteThere is still more than half a month for airlines to apply.
DeleteIn Western Europe, this is quite a common practice
ReplyDeleteNo one said it isn't but most airports try to avoid this problem by attracting airlines and offering more destinations.
DeleteGood article and good topic to think about. Interesting to read what each of the main players have to say.
ReplyDeleteI really don't understand people who will drive and then have to pay to park their car at some airport just to save a few euros.
ReplyDeleteMost of the time it’s not just that. Had to fly to Seville, Tenerife and Vilnius this year for example. Much easier to drive 2 hours to Treviso and take direct flight from there for a fraction of a cost of connecting flight from Ljubljana which would overall take me longer to get to destination.
DeleteI need to go to HAM in May. Price from LJU is 1000+ EUR, whereas flights in almost the same time slot from GRZ, ZAG and TRS are half of the price. The difference in the end is not just “a few” euros, even when counting in petrol and parking costs.
DeleteExactly
DeleteIf there is a flight from lju to somewhere 30€ or something more expensive than from zag then I will happily fly from Lju. But if the difference in price is like 200€ than it will be a no brainer to drive half an hour more to zag and fly from there.
DeleteAnd they say that JP had expensive tickets :) Deutschland Uber Alles!
DeleteAnd how do you imagine to come to LJU? Again with own car an pay parking. With so desperate connections there is the only logical option. Train takes too much time and without connection to the airport. Shuttle service is very expensive matter. So, there is no difference driving with the car to any nearby airport, with better connections and prices.
DeleteNational airline would reduce the needs to use alternatives
ReplyDeleteLJU needs to attract as many airlines as it can to avoid bleeding passengers to nearby airports.
ReplyDeleteEasier said than done.
DeleteThey don't care. As long as LH is there. Less competition for them.
DeleteTrue
DeleteFraport is to blame. They have been far too slow to react to any changes on the market.
ReplyDeleteI agree. And now all of us (tax payers) will pay for Fraport's incompetence by subsidizing 50% of the costs at Ljubljana Airport while Fraport does not lift a finger and gets 100% of its expensive charges. Great work and well done to the government who sold (not gave up for concession) but sold Ljubljana Airport to Fraport.
DeleteWhat I find interesting is that they are doing a generally good job at other airports they are running. I don't know why Ljubljana is their black sheep.
DeleteI find this odd to. Can someone explain what possessed the government to sell the airport instead of offering a concession?
DeleteI don't even understand why to give it as concession if Airport LJU was profitable year by year...I really don't understand this.
Delete“ I don't even understand why to give it as concession”
DeleteIts a collusion of private and public interests. Its everywhere.
It’s unfortunate because situation is absurd. Privatizing profits and socializing losses. That is explanation in one sentence. But it could be seen everywhere in the world not just in this example of Ljubljana Airport.
What is the distance between Zagreb and Ljubljana airports? How long will it take by car between the two without border check?
ReplyDeleteAlso is there train connectivity between ZAG and LJU?
DeleteYes there are trains between Zagreb and Ljubljana. Not the airports though.
DeleteIt’s roughly 150km (1.5hr drive) to get from Ljubljana to Zagreb airport.
DeleteJAT transfer service between Ljubljana and Zagreb in the 80s :)
Deletehttps://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YklL0biSNbQ/U43zFdkeS1I/AAAAAAAAM0w/4rZDjohpWvg/s1600/1959537_645406995507653_1332350255_n.jpg
Anonymous09:46
DeleteWhat is the distance between Zagreb and Ljubljana airports? How long will it take by car between the two without border check?
Not the question I’d ask, you should ask distance between Ljubljana and Zagreb, the answer is 127km using bus, or 141km using train, in either case it is between 90-120 min travel by a public transport option or 80 min by car on the motorway. Distance between Zagreb and Ljubljana airport is 160km, by a bus, or 25km out of Ljubljana. Also, cause Schengen, Zagreb is now a better option for most Slovene travellers, around 20% of all travellers through Zagreb are from Slovenia.
Add to this that Slovenian Railways plan to start hourly rail service to Zagreb, there’ll be even more Slovenian travellers when that happens later this year.
10.40 loving that zeleni vlak
DeleteThe drive is 1 hour 15 minutes, now that there are no borders.
DeleteNot to ZAG airport...
DeleteYou forgot to mention Ryanair at KLU. Just today they are flying to ALC and PMI.
ReplyDeleteThe way things are going, Graz will overtake Ljubljana sooner or later.
ReplyDeleteHow many passengers did they have last year?
Delete561,375
DeleteThe development of Graz Airport first and foremost kills off any chance of Maribor developing. They are like 70km by car.
ReplyDeleteJust for a perspective for those not very familiar with distances from Ljubljana (which is roughly in the center of Slovenia):
ReplyDeleteLJU 25km (20min drive)
ZAG 150km (1.5hr)
GRZ 190km (2hrs)
TRS 120km (1hr 15min)
KLU 85km (1hr 20min)
PUY 200km (2hr 20min)
RJK 140km (1hr 50min)
VCE 230km (2hr 20min)
TSF 230km (2hr 20min)
BLQ 370km (3hr 50min)
VRN 350km (3hr 40min)
VIE 390km (4hrs)
SZG 270km (3hrs)
MUC 430km (4hr 30min)
BGY 450km (4hr 30min)
and the list goes on…
Very competitive region for air transport. Thanks for the list
DeleteBut this is only for Ljubljana. Most parts of Slovenia have less distance to ZAG, GRZ, TRS, VCE, VIE etc. From Maribor for example, it takes about 1h20min to ZAG and the whole distance is covered by the highway. Which is not the case for LJU. To GRZ anout 30min.
DeleteConsider that too
ReplyDelete/not considering Klagenfurt/
For more than 40% of Slovenians: Zagreb, Graz, Trieste are closer and more convenient /less time to get to the airport from home, better cost effective parking at the airport etc/ than Ljubljana airport.
And they offer significantly more destinations.
Deletelol surely Graz has more destinations ... stuff you read here... they have only 5 year round routes VIE, MUC, ZRH, FRA ans AMS. lets see how their new Eurowings base develops
DeleteAnd Fraport is doing everything in their power to facilitate and expedite the migration to those airports
ReplyDeleteExactly. Such a shame
DeleteThant's why they built a brand new terminal *sarcasm off*
DeleteGot to say though that Ljubljana Airport looks great on that photo.
ReplyDeleteGood luck LJU!
ReplyDeleteMaybe ZAG should do some advertising campaign in Slovenia. They could attract more passengers and it would help with their recovery.
ReplyDeleteRyanair advertised their Zagreb flights in Slovenia.
DeleteSame when Flydubai started in Zagreb.
Delete“@Anonymous10:41
DeleteMaybe ZAG should do some advertising campaign in Slovenia. They could attract more passengers and it would help with their recovery. “
Most if not all Slovenes know what is happening in Croatia and any transport options, especially when it comes to air travel. It’s like advertising bread. Slovenians know every flight option out of Slovenia, and they know Ryan Air flies to what destinations out of Zagreb. On average, every Slovene visits Croatia three times a year and three quarters of all Slovenes holiday in Croatia every year. Telling them there’s this magical place called Croatia next door is bit silly.
"On average, every Slovene visits Croatia three times a year?"
DeleteHaha. Of course not! More than half of regular people do not leave the country for even once a year.
"They know Ryan Air flies to what destinations out of Zagreb"
Everage Slovene don't know where Ryanair is flying from Zagreb. I'm sure that also more than 70% of Croatian people don't know that. Don't forget: 80% of people in the world have never been on a plane!
Few years ago, a colleague from Slovenia asked me if I could find some cheap old house on the island of Krk, because he wants to buy something. And he said :"I don't want to be the only person from Slovenia not having a place on Krk". About 80 % of people in the World have never been on the plane - are you for real? You really count billions in Africa, Asia and Latin America to prove your statistics point?
Delete@Anonymous15:10
DeleteMost Slovenes travel on holiday, their first port of call is Croatia, where 1.5 million Slovenians spend their holiday, roughly, 4 million (twice the population) visit Croatia every year for w.e reason, shopping, tourism, work related. One of my very good friends from Medvode is in Zagreb almost every month, and he is typical gen-x, millennial, who travels a lot and spends his money. Older generations don’t travel as much, that is true, but younger generations travel a lot, spend weekends where ever they want.
Expected
ReplyDeleteWhich destinations is Eurowings operating out of Graz?
ReplyDeleteYear round: Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg , Stuttgart
DeleteSeasonal: Chania, Corfu, Hurghada, Karpathos, Kos, Larnaca, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes
That's pretty good. I could see a lot of Slovenians taking those leisure flights in the summer.
Deletearent there charters to most of them from LJU?
DeleteYes they are to all of them (seasonal) except Larnaca
DeleteIs there any news if anyone applied for subsidies?
ReplyDeleteLJU should just become LEJ. Cargo airport with occasional charter flights. I seriously don't understand why anyone is still fixated on the idea of increasing passenger numbers.
ReplyDeleteBCS Slovenia is an actual country and needs air connection? Don't be dumb now
Delete@22:45:
DeleteWhat?
Pax is driven by flight prices and connectivity.
ReplyDeleteNew SI national carrier would not be solving either.
So if understand you right, new national carrier would not solve problem with connectivity? Also prices go down where competition is bigger..
DeleteI did not see anyone mentioning that Ljubljana is home to only 15% of Slovenian population, less than 300000 people. I am not an expert in Slovenia, but it could be that for a lot of people, other airports are of the similar distance like LJU. I have also noticed that the only way to get to LJU is by car or taxi, which also adds to the over all cost. Last December I paid taxi to LJU similarly like from my hometown to FRA, around 45 EUR.
ReplyDeleteCorrect. Thats the point which LJU cannot realize.
Delete+ Gastarbeiter population is smaller than other ex-yu and mostly cross border to Austria - does not use planes to visit home country.
ReplyDelete