Ljubljana Airport to accelerate recovery this winter

Ljubljana Airport is expected to handle over a million passengers by the end of the year for the first time since 2019, with the airport still recovering from the demise of Adria Airways, as well as the coronavirus pandemic. Despite Ljubljana’s recovery being one of the slowest on the continent, the airport has seen airlines increase frequencies on existing routes, while two new destinations are currently scheduled to launch by the end of the year. Charters, which account for a notable share of the airport’s operations, have also seen strong demand. During the first seven months of the year, Ljubljana Airport welcomed 685.585 passengers through its doors. For the remaining five months of the year, its total scheduled capacity is projected at 652.148. This does not include charter traffic.

Next month, Luxair will commence two weekly operations between Luxembourg and Ljubljana, linking the two cities for the first time with a scheduled air service. The airline has received state subsidies in return for the new route. Also in September, Wizz Air will launch flights between Skopje and Ljubljana, reconnecting the two cities after more than four years, with Adria maintaining flights between the capitals for the last time in September 2019. During the upcoming winter season, airlines have put just over 600.000 seats on sale on scheduled flights to/from Ljubljana. This is up 46% on last winter but still down 31.7% on the 2018/19 winter season, which was the last winter not to be affected by either the coronavirus pandemic or Adria’s bankruptcy.

British Airways will operate flights to Ljubljana throughout the winter, upgrading its route from London Heathrow to a year-round service. On the other hand, Flydubai is increasing frequencies to the Slovenian capital. The Dubai-based airline will initially run four weekly rotations to Ljubljana during the winter season, with additional services in early November, however, from December 18, the carrier will increase frequencies to daily which will be maintained for the remainder of the winter. Similar to last year, Lufthansa will maintain double daily flights from Frankfurt and daily from Munich, however, it will boost capacity on the latter. The airline plans to deploy its A319 on the service from the start of the winter season on four of its weekly flights, while the remaining three weekly rotations will be run by the CRJ900. Last winter, the A319 was introduced into service on the route later on in the season, with the majority of flights being operated by the CRJ900s. Transavia will deploy its new Airbus A321neo aircraft on its flights from Amsterdam starting December 21. The Slovenian capital will become one of the first cities where the airline will utilise the new jet, which boasts 232 seats, up from the 189-seat Boeing 737-800 it currently deploys between the two cities. Finally, Egyptian leisure carrier Red Sea Airlines plans to maintain its regular charter service between Hurghada and Ljubljana throughout the coming winter season. The company, established in 2021, launched a one weekly regular charter service from the Egyptian resort town to the Slovenian capital in late May with its 186-seat B737-800 jet.