The Slovenian Minister for Infrastructure, Alenka Bratušek, has said the government is evaluating a proposal by Cyprus Airways to launch operations out of Ljubljana Airport. Ms Bratušek told the country’s public broadcaster, “RTV SLO”, the airline applied to operate “quite a few destinations”, through the government’s subsidy scheme aimed at improving Slovenia’s connectivity. As previously reported by EX-YU Aviation News, Cyprus Airways held talks with the Slovenian government on three occasions last year, the last being in October. The Cypriot airline has said, “There have been talks and it’s part of our strategic plan to grow with new bases around the Mediterranean and beyond. We are open to continue discussions".
Cyprus Airways has been attempting to play a greater role in the region by either setting up bases or providing its airline-in-a-box business concept. The airline-in-a-box concept aims to replicate the succusses Cyprus has had in replacing its bankrupt carrier with the new reincarnation of Cyprus Airways several years ago. The model is aimed either at countries whose flag carriers have gone bankrupt, or those where the national airlines are struggling. As part of the package, in markets with no carriers, clients would set up something similar to a virtual airline under its own brand, where the majority of operations would be outsourced to Cyprus Airways. The virtual carrier would benefit from Cyprus Airways’ EU Air Operator’s Certificate, as well as EASA and IOSA compliance. Apart from Slovenia, Cyprus Airways has floated the concept to the Montenegrin government as well.
Cyprus Airways currently operates a fleet of two Airbus A220-300 aircraft and two A320s. After facing bankruptcy in 2015, Cyprus Airways was revived within a year and is currently expanding its operations. The airline plans to incorporate another eight A220s into its fleet over the next four years, with ambitions to connect around thirty destinations by 2026. Currently, the carrier serves nineteen destinations across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East out of its base in Larnaca, including key cities such as Paris, Rome, Athens, Beirut, and Cairo.
What a shocker. But a good one, after quite a few bad ones for Ljubljana. I think no one expected that
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWow. Wonder which routes they suggested
ReplyDeleteEven if it's just 3 routes
ReplyDeleteDo they have the capacity?
They are receiving new A220s and a 3 destination scedule would only require one aircraft to be based in LJU.
DeleteThey only operate 2 A220. A320 is i think leased to Aegan
DeleteAirports in the unoccupied areas welcomed a total of 11.639.444 passengers in 2023 (PFO and LCA). We are talking about a carrier with 4 planes where one is leased to Aegean. They are obviously a badly run business.
DeleteAegean and Wizz Air are the new masters in LCA while Ryanair absolutely dominates in PFO.
Probably some sort of W-rotations?
DeleteLCA is too far to operate W rotations as crew hours would expire. My guess is that they are asking for money to set up a base. I wouldn't be surprised if they are asking a lot since these negotiations are dragging on forever.
DeleteAfter all, operating those A220s isn't cheap, especially the lease payments.
The A220 seems the perfect aircraft for our region. Way more economical than an A319 which has similar capacity.
DeleteAnd with the price of Oil nearing 90$ a barrel it could make all the difference on whether a route would stay or will be terminated.
Just my2cents
I agree with you but new planes are rarely cheap so lease payments might create a lot of problems especially if you are flying these A220s out of low yield markets like eastern Europe and the Balkans.
DeleteToday's Eastern Europe is not the same place as it was 30 years ago.
DeleteHence the massive increase in air traffic.
No place in the world is the same place it was 30 years ago. However, that said, areas of eastern Europe are doing well but most places are still underdeveloped. There is a reason why LCCs thrived in eastern Europe while Western legacy carriers (Europe, the US and Canada) struggle. Look at the long-haul offer from Bucharest, Sofia or Prague. It's very limited/modest despite all the economic development compared to 30 years ago.
DeleteBudapest is struggling to sustain flights to the US and Canada while it is focusing on Chinese carriers for whom profitability is not the primary concern.
LO had abysmal loads when they used to operate BUD-ORD.
Eastern European countries over the last 30 years have economically thrived.
DeleteGrowth was and still is higher than western Europe with the sole exception of Ireland.
And that is way we see the massive increase in air traffic. Also higher than western Europe.
Nemjee 10:55
Delete"LO had abysmal loads when they used to operate BUD-ORD."
It wasnt doing good, because there were no connecting flights neither in ORD nor in BUD. But 2020 American Airlines wanted to fly to BUD and PRG from ORD, but those flights were cancelled bcause of Covid.
A220 is more efficient and over the span of 20 years of use will show the benefit. However that isnt the only consideration. the a319 and a319 neo especially is better for cargo weight. it has a higher MTOW and beats the a220-300 by 5 tonnes. thats a lot of cargo for the airlines which want to develop that side of the business or are in need of it.
DeleteSadly the A319neo is a big commercial failure with only 62 orders for it.
DeleteIt wasn't doing good because there is almost no demand to ORD from BUD. AA is different because they have a hub so they offer connections.
DeleteAnonimno10:39
DeleteDanašnja vzhodna Evropa ni več ista kot pred 30 leti.
Od tod ogromen porast letalskega prometa.
Samo v Sloveniji se to ignorira.
OU ignoring Ljubljana is another example of how hopeless that airline has become! Especially when you consider the frequent flyers would have mostly been miles and more members.
ReplyDeleteI agree, been using Miles & More for awhile now and having OU in Ljubljana would be really nice. I mean, I won't use the Miles on OU's flights, but at least I'd be able to generate them for lounge service
DeleteWhy would OU cannibalize its own home base???
DeleteBecause Ryanair isn't?
DeleteWhy would OU waste money operating from Ljubljana when it's only 1 hour drive away from Zagreb?
DeleteYeah, that'd be the stupidest idea of all time, now when there are even no border controls.
Delete3 mains reasons.
DeleteIt would be relatively cheap to base 1 Q400 and 1 A319 there to serve places like London Brussels, Paris, Frankfurt with any extra cost probably covered by subsidiaries
It would have addressed OU seasonality issues during the winter.
Because there would have been a market for it.
Bravo Frtaport!
ReplyDeleteThey literally have nothing to do with this
DeleteJust stop replying to these "Bravo" comments. They're just trolling but someone always replies fueling this "Bravo" guy even more....
DeleteThis is huge news. Hopefully this realises!
ReplyDeleteThere's been nothing but good news for LJU as of late, God bless
ReplyDeleteZa LJU je vse dobra novica. Svojemu prevozniku je bilo težko dajati subvencije, za tuje pa ni problem.
DeleteHow are the ticket prices from Cyprus Airways? Because sadly most slovenes would rather drive with Goopti to Bergamo to catch 20€ cheaper flight with Ryanair.
ReplyDeleteThis is not true. Slovenians know how to calculate. So if there is a group of 4 people and ti ket per person is 150€ Cheaper than yes they will fly. If its 20 than they will fly from Ljubljana. But u need to also calculate time. Sometimes its faster to drive to venice and have a direct flight rather than fly to munich/frankfurt and wait for a connection
DeleteWhen it comes to LCA-ATH I read that their prices are ok but that their business class product is overpriced. For example they charge a premium and then serve you a meal with wooden cutlery. Paying business class with them would only make sense if the flight is longer than 2 hours (dedicated business class product with comfy seats).
DeleteThis won't end well. Several top managers from CY have recently left the airline (last two, three months) including their CEO.
ReplyDeleteLast year LCA welcomed 8 million passengers. The market is there, they just failed to capture it. Current Cyprus Airways has nothing to do with the old one which was liked by the traveling public. Last nail in their coffin was the removal of the legendary moufflon from their tail. This was a symbol of Cyprus Airways.
CY 2.0 will either go bankrupt or will end up wet/dry leasing its equipment to other carriers. If I remember well one of their A320s is supposed to fly this summer for Aegean (I might be wrong but I think it will be based in HER).
Why else do you think they're eyeing service out of LJU and Podgorica? Too much competition on home soil, so they might as well expand
DeleteAgree with Anon. According to Wiki LCA is served by 57 airlines, LJU by 24.
DeletePlus LCA is a base for W6 while in LJU has minimal LCC presence. It might just work.
Had they resumed operations with the old branding they could have positioned themselves in some key high yielding and high volume routes. Even though there is quite a lot of seasonality, LCA does have enough demand in winter time. What we are seeing here is them being unable to fight for their own piece of the market.
DeleteThere is a reason why LCA is served by 57 airlines and LJU by 24. With both JU and W6 shrinking in LCA this summer was a perfect opportunity for CY to jump in with 2 weekly flights. Don't forget that last summer Wizz operated 5 weekly flights with A321 while this summer they will have 3 weekly with A320. Flights in late May and June are already selling for a small fortune.
The engine situation has really damaged W6.
DeleteP&W would have to pay hundreds of millions of Euros in damages to them.
Could be an interesting option for some currently unserved P2P routes like BER and PRG. But considering how many times they've been meeting with the government, I suspect that CRL flights are high on the list as well. LCA could also work since it's quite a popular leisure destination for Slovenes with Ryanair flights to PFO from Treviso and Zagreb usually full of Slovenes.
ReplyDeleteI forgot its only Slovenes using FR at ZAG
DeleteThey are not, and it's not even implied in the comment. It just says that a lot of slovenes are using Rynaiar to PFO which is just a simple fact.
DeleteIt's a well known "fact" that neighboring airports in Croatia, Austria and Italy are full of Slovenian travelers.
DeleteAnonimno10:36
DeleteDa so sosednja letališča na Hrvaškem, v Avstriji in Italiji polna slovenskih potnikov, je dobro znano.
To je v Evropi posebnost in mnogi Slovenci so na to še ponosni.
So...which routes would be viable?
ReplyDeleteAmsterdam, Madrid, Berlin?
My guess:
DeleteLIS
MAD
BCN
NCE
MAN
BGO
ARN
KRK
NAP
MLA
FCO
BUD
^^^
DeleteAll good choices.
Of this happen than 2 mio pax in 2025?
DeleteDoesn’t really matter which ones.. At this point everything is good for LJU. Also A220 is perfect plane..
DeleteI think they will go for a mix of eu destinations and there might be some connections to ex yugoslavia and other balkan countries like Romania and Bulgaria?
Delete(Romania is north of Danube, thus not a Balkan country)
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThey should start Barcelona, Berlin, Lisabon, Manchester...
ReplyDeleteThey don't even fly to LIS from LCA and they are launching seasonal BCN this summer from LCA... I think that says a lot
DeleteCyprus Airways has barely even established flights in its own market where there are many underserved routes. This is bizarre
ReplyDeleteWhich underserved routes are there left in LCA?
DeleteNo connections to MAD or LIS
DeleteSo a 5 hour flight for minimal O&D demand.
DeleteNo wonder no airline is flying it.
Albawings scenario
ReplyDeleteAlbawings was bankrupt, not even close
DeleteI’ll take a wild guess they are asking somewhere between a mil and two mils/year to establish a base at LJU. With two planes they could do max 6 daily rotations on shorter routes, and probably 4 on longer. There is no way they can maintain high loads on fixed set of routes, most likely there will be drastic seasonal change. But I’m 95% sure they will ask for subsidize. There is no way they can maintain profitable margin with such large planes on same routes throughout the year
ReplyDeleteNo way they asking for money.
DeleteIt is in the article: "the airline applied to operate “quite a few destinations”, through the government’s subsidy scheme". So, they just applied just all the others could.
ReplyDeleteI’m talking about establishing base, not point to point scheme…
DeleteThey can support creating of a base with subsidizing all the new routes one by one.
DeleteAfter the loss of the Russian market Cyprus Airways has to look for new ones.
ReplyDeleteSlovenia will probably compensate for it ...
And soon the loss of the Israeli market
DeleteHappy to hear that they are coming to “Balkan”. I have flown with them from Milan to Larnaca and I must say I was super satisfied with service.
ReplyDelete