Flydubai registered growth on both its Ljubljana and Zagreb service during the first half of the year when compared to the same period in 2022, with the airline to add additional flights to the two cities over the coming winter season, which begins on October 29. The Dubai-based airline welcomed 29.551 passengers on board its Ljubljana service, according to Slovenia’s Statistical Office, with an average cabin load factor for the entire six-month period standing at 68.2%. The carrier registered a 44.1% increase in the number of travellers handled when compared to 2022, while its average cabin load factor improved twelve points. Flydubai will initially run four weekly rotations to the Slovenian capital 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 until January 14, after which flights will be reduced to five weekly before increasing again to daily from February 1 onwards. Changes to the schedule remain possible.
Flydubai Ljubljana performance, H1 2023
Flydubai handled 28.309 passengers on its Zagreb route during the first six months of the year, according to the European Union’s Statistical Office. The figure is up 26.7% on last year but down 47.7% on the pre-pandemic 2019. However, back then Flydubai operated the service during the winter months, while Emirates took over from late March with its widebody B777 aircraft. Flydubai’s average cabin load factor on the route during the first half of this year stood at 75.5%, up 8.9 points on 2022 and an increase of 11.8 points on 2019. The carrier plans to boost its frequencies to Zagreb this winter, with a total of five weekly services, up from four last winter.
Flydubai Zagreb performance, H1 2023
Flydubai has announced a new agreement with Smartwings from the Czech Republic to wet-lease four 189-seat Boeing 737-800 aircraft from October 17, 2023 until mid-April 2024. The Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance (ACMI) deal with Smartwings will see the all-economy class jets deployed on select routes. The aircraft will be utilised on the Zagreb operation on October 18, however, it will only be used on the inbound flight to Dubai, as there is no service scheduled that day from Dubai to Zagreb. Similarly, it will be deployed from Dubai to Zagreb on April 18, 2024 only on the outbound flight. On both occasions, the flights are being used to ferry crew and position aircraft for Smartwings, however, the airline has made it possible for passengers to book tickets on the legs. The jet will also be deployed to Ljubljana (outbound service only) on April 15.
Interesting. Although Ljublana has a bit more passengers, Zagreb has fewer flights and better LF.
ReplyDeleteThey have stronger winter in LJU, but stronger summer in ZAG. Overall, there will be more ZAG pax in 2023,especially because LJU winter is daily just in December.
DeleteNoup. Ljubljana will have more pax in 2023 4sure.
DeleteWell lets wait and see
DeleteSo for winter they reduced Ljubljana compared to the previous plan? I remember they wanted to fly daily from 18th December until the end of winter but now they have few weeks in January with 5 flights
ReplyDeleteYes they reduced. Not the first time. They scheduled daily ops from ljubljana a few times already but it never materialised
DeleteFlydubai is extremely flexible with their Ljubljana schedule - every school vacation week there are daily flights, and they schedule them on demand basis - so one week there can be 7 flights and the very next only 3
DeleteThat only goes to show that FZ has recognized the potential LJU has. That's why they are so flexible.
Deletethey handled almost the same number of passengers on both routes.
ReplyDeleteGood news
ReplyDeleteWould be interesting to see load factor in premium cabin for both routes.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience Ljubljana business class is always always at least half full
DeleteIf they are putting Smartwings to ZAG then premium demand is probably not that strong.
DeleteDid you mind reading the text? They are not putting Smartwings to ZAG. It's only one flight, to position the aircraft and the crew. And there is one from Ljubljana as well. And Emirates chose ZAG primarily because of yields, thanks to Far East and Australia passengers. And premium class was almost always full in EK, and is in FZ as well. And some people were claiming FZ would leave ZAG once LJU starts because all passengers are Slovenian in ZAG which we see didn't happen, and the, and have same number of passengers from both cities. And this is another pathetic try to show there is "no demand" in ZAG. Failed try, of course.
DeleteWell EK is not back. And wont be;)
DeleteEK came and left and isn't coming back, that's a fact.
DeleteLJU has more passengers to DXB which proves that EK's success in ZAG was in large part thanks to Slovenes.
Asians have returned to Europe, they are just not coming back to Croatia. BUD, VIE, VCE and even BEG have more flights to Asia these days. ZAG management is incompetent in attracting these airlines just like they failed to attract Luxair, airBaltic and now we even have Vueling and Finnair terminating flights.
Btw Finnair will still be flying to LJU next summer.
@9.34
DeleteRead the article! The Smartwings flight is just extra on top of usual operations. But I recommend you read the article and why this aircraft is flying for total of 2 flights
If there is a single person here who is critical about politics influencing aviation in Croatia, disastrous OU, bad moves of ZAG airport, and there are plenty of those lately as well, that would be me. On the other hand, I very much dislike people who don't have enough knowledge of aviation, who refuse to admit that Far East and Australia haven't fully recovered yet, who refuse to admit that vast majority of EK passengers in ZAG were precisely from the Far East and Australia, not Slovenians or Croatians, and who use crystal ball to predict that EK would never be back in ZAG. And above all, who are not here to discuss aviation, but to discuss whose is bigger, which is disgusting. Have a nice day!
DeleteSo why are Asian carriers boosting flights to Europe? Even KE downgraded ZAG charters.
DeleteSo why isn't ZAG seeing better results like the rest of regional airports. Heck even WRO is getting a weekly flight to ICN.
For the people willing to understand, there is always an explanation. For example, Korean is not (yet) back in ZAG on scheduled flights, and there is weekly flight WRO-ICN, because Wroclaw is center of region in Poland where most of Korean companies are located and there is demand for business travel with good yields. Unlike Poland, Croatia has no Korean companies and no business travel, so it's totally dependent on leisure travel, and leisure travel, not only in Korea, but entire Far East and Australia has NOT recovered yet. Korean didn't downgrade ZAG charters. The first flight in charter chains is always empty outgoing, and the last one is empty ingoing. It's the case this year with KE charters in ZAG, the service hasn't been "downgraded". Now it's entirely up to you, to understand what I wrote, or continue with your generalization and sick desire to show ZAG as something it isn't.
DeleteIt was downgraded because ZAG will have one less flight than initially planned.
DeleteLike I said, BUD, VIE, PRG, VCE... are all getting more connections but ZAG isn't.
Heck even Hainan increased BEG.
4 flights are initially planned and 4 flights will happen. First outgoing and last incoming are empty, like in all charter chain operations, all over the World, always and ever. But as your purpose here is to deliberately spread LIES in order to belittle ZAG, which is now evident and obvious, I quit this conversation because it's below my level of aviation knowledge, and because it's waste of time
DeleteSo is it the article from EX-YU that is spreading lies too?
DeleteYou can write a lot and search for explanations, but in short:
Deletenot enough demand.
Not enough demand cause the merket is not recovered yet! Why do you mention that Hainan is increasing Belgrade? We all know how many Chinese people are living in Serbia, its obvious that the route will be increased. Go and check how many aircrafts EK has still parked and stored since the pandemic which means that the market is still not well recovered. All info you have is that other cities in central europe have more connections then zag, which is little to no knowledge in aviation. Emirates will return in Zagreb when the demand will be more recovered as welll as Fly dubai to Skopje.
DeleteWould not want to spend so long in a Smartwings plane. Avoid those travel dates.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete9:12 have you read the article? It is one flight and same goes for Lj.
DeleteImportant thing is passenger numbers are growing on both routes
ReplyDeleteWill Emirates come back to Zagreb in the foreseeable future?
ReplyDeleteOnly if they get 787s and even then Ljubljana makes more sense because of the cargo
Delete9:22 and that is why they chose Lj from the very beginning. For the cargo.
DeleteIt doesn't matter for the cargo at all. Back when 777 was flying to ZAG, we just collected cargo at LJU and trucked it to ZAG. It's close so it doesn't matter really.
DeleteAnn 9:38 - yes when they didn't have Ljubljana operations, now that they do it's a no-brainer
DeleteIt really doesn't matter for cargo. They would probably fly wherever there's a bigger premium yield on business and premium economy. That's what makes the most money, cargo is just a side hustle.
DeleteNo airline will write cargo off if it's there. If LJU has it then they will be happy to carry it as it also counts in the overall extra revenue.
DeleteLJU is now on the road to post JP recovery. BA does well, Luxair is arriving, airBaltic chose LJU over ZAG etc.
People nag about Fraport but so far they are doing an ok job.
AN OK JOB? What will Luxair change? Two or three weekly flights on a 70-seat aircraft is not going to change anything or make better recovery!? The airline which will change something will be Wizz Air with 1380 weekly seats Skp-Lju-Skp. Still it is not something big and special which will make the airport recovery the collapse of Adria. Those numbers that we currently have are the real numbers of pax travelling to and from Slovenia, just in the past they were bigger because of the connections from SKP, TIA, PRN, TGD and SJJ. The airport will recover from the collapse maybe next or after two years, which is still a shame as nearly all airports are having new pax number records compared to 2019.
DeleteApart from the cabin load factor, Zagreb has Qatar too. So Flydubai performance is very good.
ReplyDeleteYes and LJU is overall a much smaller market so there is really no excuse for ZAG.
DeleteLJU market is almost whole Slovenia, while Zagreb is central and east Croatia. So comparing that, it os not big diffence in area they attract passengers
DeleteSo they had a drop in other markets since there is no mention of them? How much of a drop did they have in BEG? Maybe going double daily so soon was not a good idea.
ReplyDeleteThere is no mention of them because there is no data available at the moment.
DeleteAnother conspiricy theorist, clinging to any hope he can. Yes, numbers to BEG are terrible, that is why they are about to start their third year with double daily fights. Jeez, some people here.
DeleteIsn't 68% kind of bad?
ReplyDeletethis is what i wanted to write right now too
DeleteIt is but FZ sees they huge jump they had compared to the year before. Also the fact they have strong premium demand means yields are very good.
DeleteDepends, if the premium cabin is full, 68% is a decent profit
DeleteLjubljana also has cargo that Zagreb doesn't
Also please don't forget that FZ/EK have been present in ZAG for over a decade. So LJU overtook them in just 2 years. Quite impressive to say the least.
Deletesry but you cant in any way describe 68.7% as good
Delete9:46, does Lj have Qatar? Oh ok, no. So they are almost at the dame level, plus Zag has Qatar. You do the maths.
DeleteYet zagreb is twice as big. ;)
DeleteMore than twice.
DeleteSo since Lj is such a gold mine, why on earth hasn't Emirates started Lj? Jusz wondering...Zag has a lot of problems, OU doing nothing, high taxes, bit still...Btw, didn't Ryan intend to open a base in lj? But honestly, as much as Beg is not comparable to Zag, so is Lj.
DeleteLJU has more passengers than ZAG so for FZ it definitely is a gold mine. That is why they are so committed to it.
DeleteWell how come EK is not back than? ;) and dont start with australia is not open
DeleteYou say that lju overtook zag with pax numbers of flydubai, but dont forget that they started the operations to lju after the pandemic, while they have been present in Zagreb for decade. And for what are u talking about? The difference is 500-600pax, you have become so desperate for doing better then other airports in ex-yu you dont even know for what to start to compare about. Compare yourself with Sarajevo, not with bigger and stronger airports then LJU. Maybe FZ had more pax to LJU, but LJU does not have any normal connection to Europe, dont tell me that u have FRA, MUC, ZRH, AMS, CDG and LHR cuz nobody cares, people want direct routes not connections via the busiest airports across the continent. And btw Austria is still 11% under the pre-pandemic levels, similar to you :)
DeleteSo if ZAG is such a "strong" airport why did Luxair, Finnair, airbaltic.. chose LJU? Why is Ryanair terminating 3 routes? Why doesn't Vueling have flights on sale for next year? Why are making it like LJU has 100k passengers per year and ZAG is busier than BEG?
DeleteI dont know for others but i am not making Zagreb busier then Beg or lju handling 100k per year. You use Air Baltic and luxair as an argument to prove that lju has something better then zag? Lets compare then! Lju: FRA, MUC, ZRH, CDG, AMS, ORY, LHR, LTN, LGW, WAW, IST, RIX, LUX, HEL, DXB, ATH, that is pretty much all isnt it? Also, BEG, SKP, INI, TGD/TIV. What routes do we have from Zagreb? Pretty much all of the above plus other 20+ routes. So, the comping of Luxair and Air Baltix will not change anything and will not make Lju better then zag. You are the ine who wants to maje lju better then zag just like most of the others here. Lju has its iwn market which will slowly grow in future, and Zag has its own, dont compare two different markets just bevause one or two routes are busier at one then the other.
DeleteYou are literally the one who tried to make ZAG better with comment that LJU doesn't have QR. Someone said that LJU has same number as ZAG after 2 years and you stated that this isn't anything because ZAG has QR. Just stop please.
DeleteI didnt say that. My first comment was 18:06. You are mistaken but no worries we all anonumoys so it is expected.
DeleteWhat were the prepandemic numbers for SKP.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember corectly, they were similar to both ZAG and LJU. Wondering why they still don't reopen SKP?
They were not similar at all.
Delete" In its last three years of operations, passenger numbers averaged at around 27.000 per year."
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/06/skopje-in-talks-over-qatar-airways-and.html
But that is for the entire year. The numbers in this article are for the first six months.
The prices from SKP were almost always low, there likely just wasn’t enough demand. I remember in early 2018 our whole family flew JP LJU-SKP and then connected (separate tickets) to FZ SKP-DXB. The connection times were just right and the overall price was much lower than taking other connecting flights from LJU or direct flights from ZAG, VCE,…
DeleteAlso, from what I remember the LF on both FZ legs was quite low.
Probably Wizzair with its prices to AUH would do better in SKP than FZ.
DeleteThe usual reminder when comparing FZ number between LJU and SKP: 27k was pax nr out of SKP for the entire year vs 6 months from LJU, but QR was also flying to SKP
Deletebut 27k for 2 weekly
Delete@13:17 yes i wanted to say the same, FZ had 27K per year on 2 weekly flights, when the math is done that means that their average load factor was 72%, still better then LJU. I dont understand how come you all just want to make somebody worse then you, before doing that i advice you to check the numbers and the statistics correctly. Plus Skopje had four weekly to Doha in addition to Dubai.
DeleteSkopje numbers were 24.270 in 2019, that would be 64% LF.
DeleteThat is 66% not 64%.
DeleteHuge difference!
DeleteYeah now enjoy your night knowing that lju does better then skp. Strashno!
DeleteI feel anxious every time i read discussion on this forum. Even though i really like the news from Exyuaviation because the information are very useful, people commenting here are like some grumpy old people always arguing in between Ljubljana and Zagreb, Belgrade and Zagreb etc. Can’t you all just relax a bit being happy that you have opportunity to travel around the world for cheap price even if you have to drive to some airport or change the flight. Reading comments here is just showing me that people are never happy with any news and any opportunity. Just relax and spend some time thinking where to go next instead of arguing here is Ljubljana or Zagreb better. For God sake !
ReplyDeleteon one hand, you can read some totally unrealistic comments where sarcastic replies can be amusing... but God forbid somebody praises an airport`s good results in some metric, then there`s immediately replies which have nothing to do with the topic and involve insults... indeed, some sad and angry readers here....
DeleteThats also reason for and the result of Yugoslavia splitting up into small tiny statelettes.
DeletePeople dislike and belittle each other, sabotage each other,
At the end of the day everyone is ruined.
They are jealous of one another for similar to same results, comparing something with no logic, totally different markets and with little knowledge of aviation, just to make them self feel like a winner in something and better then the others.
DeleteExact description of self proclaimed aviation analyst.
DeleteFlydubai leti i Dubrovnik ovoga leta tako da vecina aziskih putnika odlazi direkto a ne preko Zagreba.
ReplyDeleteTIV = 31000 pax in S23
ReplyDelete