What a disappointment. One month of flights with CRJ1000.

LJU has been a disappointment for many years.

lame.

This means that either they failed at applying for subsidies, or that they'll extend the service once the tender results are public.
My guess is that 1st option is more likely


Also 2022 saw Iberia operating A320s for the same period, now we'll have CRJ1Xs, so "maybe" the aircraft is meant to operate in winter months as well

A) They didn't fail. They will get money for their month long flights. Rules have never been of much importance to the Slovenian government or the tender commission. They gave millions to Swiss for almost two years even though it was not operating any flights to Ljubljana, in clear breach of the tender rules.
B) Iberia flew to LJU in 2021 not 2022.

A. The rules say that the flights need to be year-around or the airline gives back all the money received. Regulated by EU; they can't possibly accept an application for a month worth of flights
B. Fair enough, my bad

The only smart suggestion about Slovenian aviation I heard is that airport should never be privatized, and should be joint together with Adria. Airport profits would cover Adria losses (which weren't bad when it was a gov company). If we had that now, Slovenian aviation would be thriving

So much for Fraport "wanting" flights to Spain (and also to other airports) and their "talks" with airlines. According to Sierra5 they had zero talks with both Iberia and Norwegian. I also doubt that they had talks with Luxair, AirBaltic... Without those barely any subsidies we would get nothing for next year.

Technically speaking the route will be operated by Air Nostrum, which operates the regional division of Iberia. On the Iberia website it already says that. It also seems they are still not ready 100% with the fares because they are currently too high for instance to Tenerife via Barajas:

lun., 2 sep Logo AIR NOSTRUM
15:30 18:05
Ljubljana Joze Pucnik(LJU) - Madrid Adolfo Suarez-Barajas(MAD) T4
IB8667 . Canadair (Bombardier) Regional Jet 1000
Operado por AIR NOSTRUM
2h 35min.
Escala en Madrid Adolfo Suarez-Barajas MAD - Tiempo largo de conexión: 2h 45min.
Logo Iberia Express
20:50 22:45
Madrid Adolfo Suarez-Barajas(MAD) T4 - Tenerife Norte Los Rodeos(TFN)
IB3938 . Airbus A320 (Sharklets)
Operado por Iberia Express

Asegúrate el mejor precio


Básica
918€
Avios
Obtén un mínimo de 4.410 Avios

Equipaje de mano
Incluida 1 pieza hasta 10 kg (56x40x25cm).

I think they are still adding Ljubljana to the system

2020: planned 4 weekly for one month with A320/A321, cancelled
2021: 2 weekly for one month with A320
2022: nothing
2023: nothing (despite Fraport saying they would be back)
2024: 2 weekly for one month with CRJ1000
2030: 1 weekly for two weeks with Cessna 172

Yes, some flights are selling for 85€, some for 178€ one way. So it's not finalized yet

Schedule and frequency are finalised.

Rules in previous tender stated that airline needed to fly to Ljubljana in previous 6 months. SWISS did not fly for 2 years and still got money. So rules are selective.

Swiss entered Slovenian market in 2019 and was there since (bar covid restrictions)

Slovenia keeps on winning! ☠️

Yes, but LX had a code share. In the tender there was no specification about actual flying and this was actually eligible. Now the tender is specific about a year-around operations.

Thats literally nothing lol.

I was hoping for an A320. What is happening with the national carrier, sorry I didn't follow the processes? This seems to be the solution to develop new markets…

As soon as I send CRJ, it means that the search is only touristic to Spain. Why not just Trade Air? Barcelona are doing fantastic this summer. Although these are charters. Let's hope IB increase the flights in 2025, or else extend the flights to year-round.

They*

Tenerife also works with C3. Looks like the A320 is big for IB. If they think so….

" Too big" lol

16:16, yes indeed but not the fares yet. The Latin American connections are not showing up yet, nor the Spanish domestic routes (all of them). The schedule is very good because it also securing many connections via Barajas especially the late evening flights to South America.

Yes. That would have been great! That way we would have had 2 failing businesses instead of one and Slovenian aviation would indeed be thriving - NOT. No country’s aviation can “thrive” when so few of its people travel by plane.

So sad what a poor memory people have. LJU made a couple of millions in profit each year when it was state owned, while Adria needed 100+ million every few years. And you suggest to use the airport’s profit to cover these huge losses? I hope you never run a business with math like that. Also, where do you expect the airport to then find the money to invest? Get a loan and pay interest, further burdening the company? Ay, yay, yay.

Average operating profit of the airport in the last 10 years was 6.5mio
Average net loss of adria was 4.3

This is just pathetic...Fraport keeps doing their absolute best at keeping LJU down

Feel like it should be obvious by now that Fraport has less than zero interest in developing LJU, they're happy with their flights to Zurich, Frankfurt anf Munich and that's the end of it

Average net loss of Adria, after all the state aid.

All adria got in last years is officials buying their tickets.

This is extremely disappointing, I was really looking forward to year-round flights.

There is no such requirement about year-round operations in the current tender. Airliners are free to specify the period.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

^Big for LJU

Ah yes interesting that in 2020 they even upgraded some flights from A320 to A321 but now everything is too big. Just excuses as always.

Yes, they want as low traffic as possible and as low income as possible. There is a bigger picture behind their intentions since they are not interested at all in profit.

I'm still hoping they will pull a British Airways move and increase flights in the coming years, but needless to say I was hoping for more.

The geography is very bad for LJU. It is not well connected to the rest of the country especially by public transportation. By public transportation from south of Ljubljana to the airport it takes 1h30 or more. From Maribor, Celje, Koper, Novo Mesto 2h30-3h. Add to be there 90 min before the flight.

@Anonymous 22:06 This has nothing to do with geography. It would be hard to find a better position for the airport. Public transport is another thing, here I agree with you it should be better connected. Considering the low traffic at the airport the timetables should be aligned with departures and arrivals, for Ljubljana at least, and from there to the rest of the country.

Just wondering why here it's listed as a CRJ while the Iberia press release says A320neo.

It does not take 1h30m from ljubljana to lju, some direct buses are 30 mins flat, while other non-direct can take up to an hour.

The English language press release is full of errors, including the wrong operating days and equipment. The Spanish language press release is correct and reflects information in the GDS.

The English press release is copied from 2021 one lol

I said from the south of Ljubljana all by the bus it does take. I have done that because taxi is more expensive than here in Germany. From the bus station it is less, but the direct bus goes every now and then.

On Simple flying they said that the destination LJU was chosen because of people interest on social media, and that it's going to be operated by an A320neo

Because it is copy pasted from the English language press release which is incorrect, as explained.

Is this still not finalized yet? Some days ago, it was said that the two airlines that applied for subsidies hadn't even talked with the government yet, and the results are still not public/ The Slovenian government hasn't published them yet (if they successfully applied and stuff..)

Flights are in the system and bookable.

The tender says that airline can put flights on the route on sale after the tender is closed, my guess is that they put the flights on sale for the dates where they'll operate them no matter the results of the tender

What’s wrong with CRJ1000? I think it’s a great machine.

Not correct, the tender says that airline can put flights on sale after SUBMISSION of the application. So they are free to sale anything.

It's a very low capacity plane that'll be operating on low frequency flights for a short period of time

Yes, I agree with your observation. But you have to start (or re-start) somewhere. Especially in Ljubljana, which is a very complicated airport in a very complicated situation and a very competitive market. From my point of view this is great news!