Turkish Airlines has remained Slovenia’s busiest carrier during the January - May period, just a few hundred passengers ahead of Lufthansa, data provided by the Slovenian Statistical Office shows. Although both flag carriers saw strong growth, Lufthansa benefited from a 30.8% increase in passengers numbers with the introduction of its second daily service from Munich. With Lufthansa now offering more capacity to Slovenian travellers than Turkish Airlines, and the Turkish carrier decreasing flights due to issues with engines on select aircraft types, Lufthansa is expected to overtake its Turkish counterpart in the coming months to become Slovenia’s busiest carrier.
Ljubljana Airport passenger performance, January - May 2024
Swiss saw some of the strongest growth on the Slovenian market by handling an additional 11.349 passengers compared to the January - May period last year. Although the likes of Transavia from Amsterdam and GP Aviation from Pristina saw triple-digit growth, this was mainly due to a lack of flights last year. Transavia suspended its service between Amsterdam and Ljubljana from February until late March of last year, while GP Aviation commenced operations from Pristina during the last day of March 2023. Figures on flights between Ljubljana and London, maintained by three different carriers, also improved. The 20% growth was primarily fuelled by British Airways which has been maintaining services to the Slovenian capital over the winter months for the first time. On the other hand, Wizz Air discontinued its London Luton route in February.
Wizz Air continues to perform strongly on its flights between Skopje and the Slovenian capital. The service, launched last September, registered a high average cabin load factor of 93.2% over the five-month period, with 116 flights operated by the Airbus A320 aircraft, and the remaining fourteen by the larger A321 jet. Luxair, which commenced services to the Slovenian capital around the same time as Wizz Air introduced its flights from Skopje, registered an average cabin load factor of 65.4%. It exclusively uses the Dash 8 turboprop on its operations to Ljubljana.
Swiss is the best of the Lufthansa group airlines. No wonder they are doing well.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThe majority of my flights are with LH-group and imo, all three are very comparable. I really haven't found anything about LX that makes them even slightly stand out from the rest.
DeleteMy ranking:
1.OS
2.LX
3.LH
4.SN
5.EW
For me they are (with really slight differences):
Delete1. LX
2. EN
3. OS
4. LH
5. SN
6. EW
Well done to TK which with its one route and no frequency increases keeps adding passengers. But like the text says LH will probably overtake them. But still.
ReplyDeleteBravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteWell their goal is for Lufthansa to be number 1 :D
DeleteBravo for being the worst connected airport!
Delete@09:06
DeleteHow come Fraport doesn't have the same goal for the other 17 airports it operates in Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey but only in Slovenia?
And how come no one is attacking Groupe ADP for not having Emirates and Air Canada back in Zagreb?
DeletePerhaps you should first know the difference between LJU and those other airports. It is the only airport they fully own and can do whatever they want.
Delete" The service, launched last September, registered a high average cabin load factor of 93.2% over the five-month period, with 116 flights operated by the Airbus A320 aircraft,"
ReplyDeleteThose are really good loads! Shows how needed these flights were.
Agree. They would have the same result if they started LJU-PRN.
DeleteWizz is avoiding LJU. They started two routes in TRS this year (TIA and OTP) and soon will have more flights and capacity. Bravo Fraport!
DeleteSKP-LJU was much needed then OTP or TIA thats why Wizz launched it. It wouldnt make sense for them to start Trieste from SKP cause they already serve Trebiso / Venice Marco Polo. Plus the majority of those pax live in LJU or nearby and all they needed was a direct flight to SKP from LJU not somewhere else. 93.2% LF shows how much this route was needed. I dont see a problem for five weekly flights once they return to SKP with growth.
DeleteLJU-BEG market is already well developed (both direct and indirect), however there is still a lot of room for improvement, so i have not doubt LCC could easily serve this route, at least 2x/w.
DeleteThanks admin for the informative articles! Performance of Norwegian and airBaltic also looks good. What is the load factor like there?
ReplyDeleteIn May airbaltic, Norwegian and Luxair had around 70-75% I believe.
DeleteairBaltic had an average cabin load factor of 70.9%, while Norwegian had 68.5% by the end of May.
Delete70% LF in first month of ops for a new route is great actually. I think Air Baltic is performing really well.
DeleteAdmin, do you have LF for A3?
Delete71.8%
DeleteThank you! That was super fast :)
DeleteIt's a bit sad that basically no single route has more than one airline. I don't count Paris since Air France and Transavia France are the same company.
ReplyDeleteLondon has three?
DeleteLondon has one this winter with 3-4 weekly flights, the worst in EX-YU :)
DeleteLondon is down to 2 airlines at the moment as Wizz Air discontinued their flights in February. Also, they are to different airports and as Anon 9.32 mentions, there will be just one airline this winter. Sad because in 2019 London had many flights from Ljubljana to almost all airports in London.
DeleteBrexit.
DeleteLOL! Sure LJU is the only airport in region hit by Brexit while every other airport has more flights than before. Another delusional fanboy.
DeleteWhy is LOT declining? Too much competition?
ReplyDeleteAir Baltic starting flights and competing for the same Nordic and Scandinavian transfer passengers will likely have an impact on them.
DeleteI don’t agree that Air Baltic is a major reason. I think it’s the LH group offering much more frequency and so better options and great flexibility, even for flying to other Polish cites than WAW, sometimes even WAW. LO could be competitive only with more aggressive penetration to Slovenian market with 2 daily flight throughout the whole year. Key would be overnight stay in LJU.
DeleteWhat happened to AF?? :(
ReplyDeleteAF completely gave up. AF-KL group is not doing anything in LJU when it comes to competing with LH group. AF-KL is actually the biggest disappointment in LJU.
DeleteTbh ljubljana has a nice mix of airlines
ReplyDeleteHow dare you say anything positive about LJU?
DeleteHow dare you say anything againts Fraport! Best company!
DeleteSaying something positive about LJU automatically makes you a Fraport fanboy. Nice.
DeleteSaying something negative about LJU automatically makes you a conspiracy theorist. Nice.
DeleteAh kids... stop seeing fanboys and conspiracies everywhere. Airline business is way more complex than that and I hate seeing how every success or failiure in LJU is always reduced to one single childish reason.
DeleteWhich new route launched sinde JP went belly up was a failure? None!!!
DeleteAll new routes in the last 3 years are subsidised by the government.
DeleteIt just means if carriers are willing to start ops to LJU just because of few euros per pax then Fraport should lower their airport fees for a bit, just for a bit and they would get more routes. If the GOV was able to trigger 3-4 new carriers with this small help. True? Yeah, but Fraport doesnt care, they preffer to make more money via LHG. Dont forget that Fraport didnt even publish the GOV tender on their website because they simply dont want more carriers at LJU, they prefer to canalise everyone via LHG hubs. Very simple.
DeleteOh how dare you with conspiracies again!
DeleteAnon 13:06 This is a complete nonsense. Why you don’t look at Fraport ownership structure before publishing anything like this?
DeletePure sarcasm or?
DeleteFinnair should finally commit to year round flights after 18 years of seasonal Ljubljana flights....
ReplyDeleteFolks, it wont get better as long as Fraport is defending Mutti. Time to expropriate Fraport!
ReplyDeleteConspiracy theories!
DeleteJust facts. What could be the reason that ALL comparable neighbouring airports have much broader list of different carriers if not my “conspiracy” like you call it? What would the relevant difference be for this discrepancy?
DeleteFraport is doing everything in their power to bring more airlines! It is just that LJU has absolutely zero demand.
DeleteFraport doesnt even publish new routes on their website or make any kind od promotion to facilitate the development of new routes, so its hard to say its making any effort.
DeleteAnon, 9:55, Croatia is focusing on mass tourism and Trieste or rather the region Friuli-Venezia is giving dubious tax cuts to Ryanair. Even with that, Trieste has only ITA Airways, Air Dolomiti and Ryanair regularly flying. Klagenfurt and Graz, still haven't come back to 2019 figures, with much worse airline diversity. I'm curious, which competitor of Ljubljana airport has a broader list of airlines flying to it?
DeleteIndeed, it’s really hard to read these facts Anon 09:55. First, which are comparable airports? And agree with Anon 10:18 about the portfolio of different airlines. Even ZAG has less diversity when it comes to the list of different airlines.
DeleteLjubljana is a first tier airport in Slovenia, but you want ti compare it with 3rd tier airport. Check the list of destinations TRS, TSF, ZAG have??
Delete@Anon 09:51
DeleteHow come Fraport doesn't sabotage traffic to the other 17 airports it operates in Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey but only in Slovenia?
What so special about Ljubljana that the Germans want to harm it by not attracting more airlines?
Do you know what are the airports LJU should compete with (but it doesnt, because Fraport together with its Excel manager)? Its not damn GRZ, but VCE, ZAG, but LJU is legging behind the airports like TRS, TSF. Does fraport pays you extra to be so blind?
DeletePay*
DeleteSince they came to Ljubljana they only care about the land business, nothing else. Its not the same if you own the land or if you only use it for some years.
DeleteAnon 10:40 You talk about number of destinations, the whole previous discussion was about the diversity of the airlines. When you can have the right about the topic you just switch to a different one to follow the negativity line of discussion.
Delete^^^
DeleteWhen are you gonna give us an explanation for Fraport choosing to sabotage LJU but not the other 18 airports it operates in Europe?
Waiting, waiting, waiting....
@10:54
DeleteYou are getting more and more desperate.
And you are only going to make people laugh at you if you are unable to justify LJU poor performance just with Fraport doesn't want to have customers. 😄😄😄
@10:59 when is charter hub idea going to realize? That will for sure increase numbers :)
Delete@12:16 Nice troll. That's how it is when you run out of arguments to prove your point.
DeleteI love facts you provided!
DeleteFraport fans should read the recent connectivity report from ACI. You can mislead slovenian public with “innovative statistics” for some time, but you cant mislead it for ever. https://www.aci-europe.org/downloads/publications/ACI%20EUROPE%20Airport%20Industry%20Connectivity%20Report%202024.pdf
ReplyDeleteYes, and people should stop living in the past and realize that no one will fly anymore with 70-90 seater airplanes to places with low demand to maintain an abysmal load factor.
DeleteObviously people still fly with 90seaters because LH regularly sends crj900, what is ur point???
DeleteNo, Slovenes should actually start living in the past and start using horse carriages to actually get somewhere (you know, go green and all)
DeleteYes, that LH, that can't even send an A319/A320 when Slovenia is playing in Frankfurt it's first ever round of 16 in the Euro and the demand goes through the roof. They could learn a bit from Turkish and FlyDubai how to harness the market.
DeleteWhat will be the replacement for those MRJ's? How many airlines still operate a 70 or a 90 seater airplane?
The point is that the ACI report is referencing a time when Adria used to fly CRJ7/CRJ9's to destinations with poor demand with poor load factors, all being propped up by Slovenian taxpayers. Those times are gone and we need to move on.
Lol, adria had poor figures bit still managed to bring almost the same number of pax LJU handles today with all “different” carriers. Lol.
DeleteYou missed the fact, that all of that was artificially propped up by taxpayers with yearly injections of 10-20 million euros, sometimes even more. We were living outside of our capabilities.
DeleteAdria managed to carrier 1mio/yr with no revenue management, no analitics, using aircrafts with high costs to operate, with no proper management for a loss of 10mio?!?! They were fucking doing miracles.
DeleteI would call it more creative accounting than miracles.
DeleteLast few pages, enough said:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.aci-europe.org/downloads/publications/ACI%20EUROPE%20Airport%20Industry%20Connectivity%20Report%202024.pdf
As someone who visits Slovenia for work, I have to say that LJU is not very well positioned geographically. It is not even in Ljubljana but Kranj. Bus connections to LJU are poor. It is on the opposite side of Slovenia for the passengers from Maribor, Celje, Novo Mesto, Koper. For many of those places surrounding airports are closer or of a similar distance. Some of my clients never assume that I am arriving from LJU to them but rather other airports. I am often arriving at ZAG and depart from LJU. It is quite convenient.
ReplyDeleteFor the size of the population LJU is doing just fine. LF on existing flights is nowhere near 100%, so no need whatsoever for extra flights. Just look at the basket case that was JP, never made a profit, flew half empty small planes and artificially inflated pax numbers at LJU by offering cheap transfers.
ReplyDeleteLol even this article proves you wrong, but as u r paid to troll around u dont even read the article.
DeleteWTF?
DeletePlease, explain how this article proves him/her wrong.
DeleteThe only one trolling every comment under this article is you @anon13:07. It seems you make it your mission to post 20+ negative comments after every LJU article. That's a definition of a troll. And we all know which comments are yours based on your immature tone.
DeleteLF on existing flights is nowhere close to 100%.
DeleteThe service, launched last September, registered a high average cabin load factor of 93.2% over the five-month period, with 116 flights operated by the Airbus A320 aircraft, and the remaining fourteen by the larger A321 jet.
Nowhere close? 93,2% is nowhere close? A route which was launched less than a year ago operates with 93% LF in the first 6m of the year, 93% in the slower half of the year.
In the first 5m*
DeleteMost flights have around 40-50% LF as LJU has no demand.
DeleteExactly. One Wizz route at high occupancy can't cover up poor LF on many other routes. Airlines don't cancel routes or reduce frequency for no good reason. Airlines are in the business of making money.
DeleteI don't know why should airlines fly to LJU. It has zero demand. Should fly to other airport nearby (TRS, KLU, GRZ, ZAG...) as they have much more demand.
DeleteAbsolutely, LJU is just fine, it covers what is needed. The market is small.
DeleteIn my opinion it has so little demand government should close it so we can use other airports.
DeleteWeren’t there Aegean flights to Greece (Athens) last season too? Idk why there is not % comparison to 2023?
ReplyDeleteBecause last year they started in June. There is nothing to compare with in March, April and May.
DeleteTo me it is absolutely incredible how Wizz with only 3 weekly Skopje flights had more passengers than Lot who has like 10 weekly or so.
ReplyDeleteLO during winter has 6 flight per week and the data is from January to May.
DeleteHow about aircraft size comparison?
DeleteI think it is obvious what is the difference. The data is available in a few clicks.
Delete