Ljubljana’s busiest routes: Warsaw and Hurghada see fastest growth

Several routes out of Ljubljana outperformed their pre-pandemic passenger figures in 2023, with Warsaw and regular charter services to Hurghada seeing the highest pace of growth on five years ago. According to data by the statistical office of the European Union - Eurostat - LOT Polish Airlines managed to improve its figures by 31%, while services to the Egyptian resort town grew almost 40%. Istanbul became the busiest destination, with Frankfurt second. If the sum of travellers flying between all of London’s airports and the Slovenian capital were to be combined, it would come out as the second busiest destination. However, passenger figures between Ljubljana and London are still significantly down on 2019. In addition to Gatwick, Heathrow and Luton airports, flights to London Stansted were maintained prior to the pandemic. In 2019 alone the route generated 120.288 passengers.

Swiss performed strongly on its Zurich - Ljubljana flights, outstripping Adria Airways’ performance in 2019 by 17.5%, with the former Slovenian carrier discontinuing flights at the end of September of that year. The Swiss city had more passengers out of Ljubljana than the Frankfurt route during the final two months of last year. Air Serbia also put in a strong with 9% growth on its Belgrade service and a 17.7% increase on the Niš flights, however, the latter was only introduced midway through 2019. Unlike five years ago, the route is now maintained with the smaller ATR72 turboprop aircraft rather than the Airbus A319 jet. During the month of December, Air Serbia’s Belgrade flights were the second busiest at the airport, behind only Turkish Airlines, with the trend continuing into January 2024.

Lufthansa has placed as Slovenia’s second busiest carrier, having taken top spot in 2022. The German airline, which maintains operations from both Frankfurt and Munich to the Slovenian capital, handled a combined total of 166.822 passengers in 2023. Figures on flights from the two German cities are still down on the same period in 2019 when Slovenia’s former national carrier Adria Airways was the sole operator on the two routes. Back then, it handled a combined total of 249.262 passengers.

The table below, provided by Eurostat, indicates passenger numbers for the majority of Ljubljana’s scheduled destinations, although not all. The figures in the table account for just over 90% of Ljubljana’s total passenger numbers in 2023, with the remainder mostly being charter services.

Ljubljana Airport's passenger performance by route, 2023