Ljubljana Airport anticipates a strong summer this year with its growth to be fuelled by the record 22 airlines that will serve the airport during the height of the season. Ljubljana will be linked to 25 scheduled destinations, and a further 57 through charter traffic. This expansion is projected to result in double digit growth throughout the summer months. Capacity on scheduled flights over the summer season, from March 31 until October 26, currently stands at 1.079.787 seats, representing an increase of 14.7%, or an additional 138.140 seats. However, figures are still down some 30% on 2019 when Adria Airways was still in operation. The airport anticipates overtaking its pre-pandemic results in 2026.
Projected capacity growth at Ljubljana Airport by month, summer 2024
The airport’s General Manager, Babett Stapel, said, “When I think about the summer highlights it is definitely the three new destinations we are going to offer. Two of them start in April - Riga and Copenhagen - and we will see Madrid in July. The cherry on top is the charter traffic. The tour operators are really busy and successful”. Ms Stapel added, “What matters and what is really exceptional is that we have 22 different airlines here. I think that is very unique for the size of our airport and the size of our country”. Slovenia’s largest tour operator, Kompas, is chartering an aircraft specifically to serve the Greek and Turkish holiday traffic over the summer.
Apart from the arrival of three new carriers including airBaltic, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Iberia, the airport will see existing airline customers boost frequencies. Lufthansa will start operating two daily flights to Munich from May, while Air Montenegro will run services from both Podgorica and Tivat, rather than alternate between the two over the summer like previous years. Furthermore, Air Serbia and Transavia France are increasing frequencies to Belgrade and Paris Orly respectively, while British Airways will fly daily from London Heathrow, as will Brussels Airlines from the Belgian capital. Wizz Air will maintain three weekly flights from Skopje, with the route introduced late last year.
Ljubljana Airport’s largest airlines by capacity share, summer 2024
The airport anticipates overtaking its pre-pandemic results in 2026.
ReplyDeleteIt's moved back by a year
No, they said 2026 from the very beginning.
Delete2026 as numbers, 2024 a s point to point
DeleteThey said 2026 or 2027 from the start
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2022/01/ljubljana-airport-eyes-pre-covid.html
I think it may be possible that they overtake it next year. Let's see.
DeleteIt depends what is defined as "pre-pandemic". You have to keep in mind that 2019 was not a normal year anymore. They lost Adria in September. We have to compare with 2018 and in this respect, they will still not recover even P2P this year (it will be at least 100k below). Compared to competitors in the region this is still a bad performance. But they are good at PR, I agree with that. :-)
DeleteThese comments "compared to competitors in the region"... Which airports are those? Do they have similar passenger structure to Slovenia? Did their national carrier go bankrupt just before covid? I mean, many European airports are still 10, 15 or even 20% behind 2019 numbers and they didn't loose the home carrier. All I am saying is - context is important, otherwise you are just comparing apples to oranges.
DeleteYou can take the category definition of ACI, who group airports to five different categories (according to pax traffic) and compare it to the airports from the same group and the same region. The collapse of a home carrier is not an excuse but one of the contributors to bad performance. In the case of LJU in definitely not the only reason. Airport ownership is even more important. 5 years from the collapse of the home carrier we could expect at least a full recovery of P2P traffic plus an average traffic increase which is seen in the region, but this is not the case. The main damage goes to the state as "air" and "congress" tourists are going somewhere else due to poor air transport connectivity.
DeleteWhat was the number of transfer passengers at the time of Adria?
Delete200-250k per year
DeleteWho would have thought that Transavia would be the largest LCC at Ljubljana :D
ReplyDeleteNow someone will answer you that it could have been FR or W6😄😄😄
DeleteLCC presence in Ljubljana is still very low
DeleteAt the end of the day FR or W6 would generate 10 more traffic than Transavia.
DeleteIs Slovenia the only country in Europe where that's the case? Other than maybe the Netherlands?
DeleteWhat other destinations could Transavia flight to from Ljubljana? If any..
DeleteRotterdam
Deleteanyone know why are ryan air and wizz air avoiding Slovenia? is it fraport trying to keep slovenia with minimal connection so lufthansa remain in control there
DeleteFrom 2 months ago
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/01/ryanair-ceo-ljubljana-airport-simply.html
Basically Ryanair doesn't fly when they don't get incentives to fly for free
DeleteWizz somewhat same + they're currently constrained by P&W engine issues
Easyjet meanwhile is having issues with their founder over expansion. He opposes it, other shareholders want it, nobody is happy
Good picture of the terminal with Transavia and Trade Air! 😊
ReplyDeleteIs it just me or are none of the aircraft in the photo using air bridges even though they are parked at one?
DeleteLCC usually don't use jet bridges.
DeleteAir bridges are expensive to deploy. Cheaper to have passengers use stairs
DeleteAir bridges? You mean jet ways?
DeleteAir bridge, jet bridge, jetway, airgate, airbridge, finger, skybridge, airtube etc.. are all commonly used. "Jet way" with a space however is not.
DeleteThanks to the government for attracting all these new airlines through their incentive program.
ReplyDeleteWill their be more incentive tenders?
DeleteWe are still waiting for results from the previous one :D
DeleteNo one applied most probably
DeleteLast one was two months ago so if there was no news then noone applied
DeleteFlights to Italy are needed. Hope they work on it.
DeleteIsn't it a bit too close?
DeleteEasyJet operated Milan flights a while back, Rome is also a good possibility
DeleteBravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteI agree, they are serving LH group and *A very well. :-)
DeleteLjubljana is still at the bottom of all capital cities in Europe when it comes to pre Covid recovery.
Delete4 x A321 today @ LJU. Well done!
Delete@ 14:03h
DeleteAs long as it’s not at the bottom economically, then I’m fine with slow(er) traffic at LJU.
Over 50 billion euros in exports in 2023: that’s the same as Croatia and Serbia combined.
LJU is really moving forward this year! Good luck.
Delete^ At a snail's pace...
DeleteAnonimno01:32
DeleteLJU gre letos res naprej! Vso srečo
Naprej gre - s čarterji, redne linije so žalost.
What happened to Air France? They used to be one of the biggest airlines in Ljubljana during the pandemic.
ReplyDeleteThey decreased Ljubljana and increased Zagreb.
DeleteThey were hunting for subsidies from Slovenian government last year but didn't get them.
DeleteUsed to be very strong due to incredible transfer opportunities to North America. Then 2 daily to FRA and Zurich came. And LOT. And Transavia for p2p. They're too expensive for p2p and they face a lot or competition in transfers
DeleteLooks like Lufthansa may overtake Turkish as Slovenia's busiest airline this year.
ReplyDeleteHighly likely
DeleteGood growth but still far from 2019, let alone 2018.
ReplyDeleteI think Kompas will have their own livery on the airplane, and that's the biggest news here. Can't remember any other travel agency in exyu having that (https://www.kompas.si/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/letalo_pravi-1200x767.jpg)
ReplyDeleteAlso that means that TradeAir is losing business?
Been done in the past :D
Deletehttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Boeing_737-529_Kon_Tiki_Sky_%28MAT_Airways%29_Z3-AAM%2C_DUS_D%C3%BCsseldorf_%28Duesseldorf_International%29%2C_Germany_PP1303212873.jpg
Fair enough, either way it's a rarity, and just shows that leisure routes are under-presented from Ljubljana
DeleteDon't other companies contract witg Trade Air?
DeleteSome yes. There will be several charter providers. Kompas will use White Airways https://sierra5.net/novice-novo/novice/6738-kompas-za-lastne-carterje-najel-white-airways
DeleteI thought White Airways went bust. They probably are dirt cheap
DeleteSo Trade Air doesn't have enough capacity right? Another A320 is being leased for that, right?
DeleteNo TradeAir had plans of stationing one of A320 in Ljubljana. I don't know how much Kompas leasing their own airplane changes the situation. I think they will be adding another A320 this month tho
DeleteAnon 10:33 White Airways is a well-established and renowned charter provider in Portugal. The only recent issue they faced was in 2022 when TAP ended its wet lease contract with White Airways due to insufficient performance. However, this decision was disputed by White Airways, as the maintenance was performed by Portugalia (which is essentially TAP). The dispute was resolved through mutual agreement. I don’t see any reason for being "dirt cheap".
DeleteSo, Kompas will paint the White Airways A320 into the Kompas livery. The all-white White Airways A320 is actually a perfect aircraft for that, and if it's used for all Kompas charters (including destinations such as Amsterdam, Iceland, and Morocco), then the aircraft will probably be stationed in LJU.
DeleteThe aircraft will fly from Ljubljana from Thursday to Saturday every week. I highly doubt it will be painted.
DeleteFrom the shared link you can see that the file was named "letalo pravi" (correct airplane) so I think they will actually paint it
DeleteStickers at most
DeleteWhatever happened with the government's plans to set up a new national airline?
ReplyDeleteUnfulfilled election promise.
Delete9:45 one of the 151385416 that stayed unfulfilled :D
DeleteTo be fair, it was just one party promising it. They are now part of a coalition.
DeleteIt's dead. After the floods the funds were redirected elsewhere.
DeleteDamn :(
DeleteThere is a poor public approval on establishing a new airline in Slovenia, so it probably won't happen
DeleteV Sloveniji se niti politika niti velik del javnosti ne zavedata, kaj pomeni imeti nacionalnega
Deleteprevoznika. Tu smo Slovenci evropski posebnež. Iščejo se vse mogoče rešitve (že 5 let!), le tiste, ki je najbolj logična ne.
Very interested to see how air Baltic will perform
ReplyDeleteSeeing that they moved flights 2 weeks ahead, prices being high and them moving over to winter flights before the launch...yeah they'll preform well
DeleteTickets are reportedly selling really well, likely due to having an affordable transfer network to the Nordics via Riga
DeleteGood to hear
DeleteNo nearer to Manchester/Liverpool flights, or to anywhere else in the UK north of London!
ReplyDeleteI think there are less options to London than before Covid. Easyjet used to be massive from LJU. now it is a shadow of what it was.
DeleteFlyDubai will have less flights than last summer,but still not in top 10? Seem strange that AF has more seats than FZ with 4 weekly 737max
ReplyDeleteFlydubai has 42.685 on the market during the same period, some 2.000 fewer seats than Air France, with a market share of 4%.
DeleteThank you
DeleteExYu, how many seats does Air Serbia have in peak season?
DeleteAt this point, 76.020
DeleteAnd, dear exyu, what is the LF?
DeleteSituation in LJU is far from ideal but the diversity of airlines (bot regular and charter) is impressive. Still no info about White Airways on LJU page though :) https://lju-airport.si/sl/leti/letalske-druzbe/
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThe destination maps in Ljubljana advertisements also don't show Corendon flights to Antalya
DeleteAnd when looking at the schedules some of the airline logos are missing... They should fire the designer
DeleteGood news. Hope they manage to attract carriers for new destinations and to keep steady work to improve timetable to existing destinations.
ReplyDeleteThey should work to get Aegean to extend flights into winter.
ReplyDeleteAlready done!! Aegean now lists ATH-LJU as year round service with 2 flights per week until March 2025!! Same with Zagreb no pause in February as they used to do.
DeleteExcellent, thanks
DeleteOnly missing flights to Thessaloniki and Corfu now by Aegean and we're golden
DeleteAegean will introduce HER seasonal service from LJU next as they always do. SKG is connected to bigger European hubs.
DeleteVery good news for LJU
ReplyDeleteHow many passengers per year do charters generate at LJU?
ReplyDeleteLast week in an article here it said over 150,000
Deleteso after seeing those numbers they will have 1.5 MIO, 1.6 is probably not reachable
DeleteGreat to see them improving but still a way to go
ReplyDeleteAgree. It's good to see some positive news coming from Slovenia again
DeleteAustrian?
ReplyDeleteNot gonna happen.
DeleteWhy not?
DeleteAustrian is still very interested. To move some operations from KLU to LJU and to establish feeder route to their VIE hub.
DeleteTAROM should start Ljubljana. Demand between Bucharest and Ljubljana is surprisingly high.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThe Iberia flights are a joke. You can count the total number of flights for this year on one hand.
ReplyDeleteI believe those flights are launched only with agreement with some travel agents. According to the price policy (400+ EUR for basic return economy fare), they will not attract a lot of individual passengers.
Delete