Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport has enjoyed strong passenger growth so far this year, with the launch of several new routes and the arrival of new airlines, aided by the government’s policy of providing subsidies to improve the country’s air connectivity. However, this winter, a number of carriers will reduce their operations to the Slovenian capital, resulting in a decline in capacity on scheduled flights when compared to the previous year. At this point, the airport will see a 1.6% dip in capacity in the fourth quarter of the year and a 3.2% decrease during the first quarter of 2025. These are subject to change as airlines are yet to finalise their operations for the winter, however, it follows on from year-on-year capacity growth of 30.3% in Q1, 23.3% in Q2, and 15.6% in Q3.
This coming winter season, which begins on October 27 and runs until late March of next year, British Airways will suspend its flights between London Heathrow and Ljubljana. The airline plans to resume seasonal summer operations next April. Since launching flights in 2019, British Airways initially maintained a seasonal summer service between London and the Slovenian capital, however, last winter upgraded the route to year-round. British Airways is the only carrier to link Slovenia with Heathrow Airport. The development comes after Wizz Air discontinued its service between London Luton and Ljubljana in February, which will also impact figures this coming fourth quarter when compared to last year.
Greece’s Aegean Airlines plans to suspend flights between Athens and Ljubljana for the entirety of the upcoming winter season. Last December, the carrier announced plans to upgrade the seasonal service to year-round, however, it has now decided to completely remove the two weekly rotations during the 2024/25 winter season. Air France will reduce its operations between Paris Charles de Gaulle and the Slovenian capital both on its initially planned schedule for this winter, as well as the previous winter season. The French carrier intends on maintaining a daily service between the two cities this winter, down from the initially scheduled eleven weekly rotations. Its revised frequencies also represent a decrease on the previous winter when flights were operated eight to nine times per week, depending on the month.
Luxembourg’s flag carrier Luxair will also reduce operations on its flights between the Grand Duchy and Ljubljana over the coming winter season. The airline will suspend flights on the route between November 3 and December 19 after which services will operate twice per week until January 5. Operations will then be suspended again until February 16 when they will be restored twice per week. Last winter season, Luxair maintained two weekly rotations between the two capitals throughout the season.
Bravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteOh come on, same comment under every single article. It’s not all Fraport’s fault FFS
DeleteIt's just the local market, but some seem to always want to blame Fraport. If a route is profitable it will be flown, if not it gets canned.
DeleteUnless if Fraport works for LHG?
DeleteBut they don't, get over it.
DeleteI'm not surprised. The only new airlines that have come in the last 2 years were due to government subsidies. Airport management could not care less. But good thing they have been very vocal that a new national airline is not needed and that they are doing an amazing job. Constantly patting themselves on the back. At least they built a shiny new empty terminal, I guess in anticipation of 'charter hub' status. Meanwhile we have to transfer to get to Berlin, Barcelona, Stockholm... Well done
ReplyDeleteStop with conspiracies! How dare you say anything negative!
DeleteFraport on their way to explain how it's the market's fault while the airport regressed from 3 daily to less than 2 daily flights to London and a halved capacity to Paris
DeleteMa kakvih 2 daily to London. It has 3-4 weekly this winter. The worst in EX-YU. Bravo Cartel!
Deletewhen are people going to realise a national carrier will not fix anything? It would still fly half empty just as other airlines would during winter, with the exception that slovenes taxpaying money would be paying for that poor performance and bad results, even if never ever flying with them.
DeleteThe only people benefiting by the existence of a national carrier are those with strong enough political connections to get hired.
DeleteThe rest of the country would just have one more government owned black hole sucking up their taxes.
And I don't want my tax money being spent on Drugi tir, Tretja razvojna os, new Ljubljana train stations, new trains for SŽ, Karavanke tunnel.. I won't benefit from this. If you want all this pay it by yourself.
DeleteAll of these combined do not cost nearly as much as just one year of Adria subsidies.
DeleteLol. Adria had between 10 and 20 mio loss/yr. how much does it cost the latest infrastructure railway project? 1.5bio?
DeleteSo Drugi tir (1 billion), Tretja razvojna os (1 billion), new SŽ trains (0,5 billion), Ljubljana train and bus station (300 million) and Karavanke tunnel (100 million), together almost 3 billion is much less than what Adria was losing a year? What a liar.
DeleteYou're comparing infrastructure projects that will bring in billions, move billions worth of freight, move millions of people, move local people who commute DAILY (not once a year), open a geographic sector to economic growth to something that brought millions in it's own losses and maybe an equal amount of offseat in local economy as a positive outcome.
DeleteReally? And aviation doesnt have its own multiplication trigger? How much does an air tourist spend per day? How many tourists do we get via railways?
DeleteAs if aviation doesn't do any of that. Then we can just close LJU.
DeleteAlso you can commute on old roads, on old trains via old stations. No need to spend billions.
DeleteYou can commute via stopovers. No need to spend hundreds of millions on a national carrier.
DeleteWe can just close the airport so we spend nothing. In fact, lets just sell the whole country to Austria. The only problem they probably won't take countries with mentality like yours.
DeleteKdaj bodo nekateri komentatorji dojeli, da brez nacionalnega prevoznika resne povezljivosti ne bo? Teče že 5.leto od propada Adrie, pa se vse debate vrtijo na istem mestu. A poročil o dogajanjih na drugih ex-ju letališčih nobeden ne gleda?
DeleteAgree. Orchestrated, gradual collapse of Adria A., by foreign decisionmakers and local, politically blessed management dilettants, make Slovenia "a third world aviation country" in less than 5 years. With SLO aviators spread on all 7 continents to keep their job/licences. /// Broken staff without experienced
Delete...broken staff continuity wihout enough new pilot, mx engineers, flt pln/ops specialists, cabin crew...supply in country. Means AA collapse helps aviation regression in SLO. Country with bright, 105+ years old aviation history. And excellent achievements during a century.
DeleteCorrection: 115+ years (if Rusjan family is considered)
DeleteBravo Fraport! Last in Europe!
ReplyDeleteIssue here is that ZAG and LJU are just too close to each other. LJU management needs to understand this. With Ryanair becoming increasingly aggressive in ZAG it will remain a real problem for LJU.
ReplyDeleteRyanair has caused problems for many (both in LJU and in ZAG) as they are going for the kill. They know that the only way they can blackmail ZAG is if the latter has a lot to lose from their departure.
I think LJU needs to wait for ZAG to publish their 2024 financial reports and only then see what it can do. If ZAG keeps on losing money then they will have to change some (maybe hike fees for FR). If ZAG starts making money then they need to go into crisis management mode.
LJU needs to find a way to bring down the average cost of air fare so that at least Slovenians no longer use other airports in the area. Merely giving subsidies to airlines obviously isn't the way forward. They need a strong PR campaign to inform potential passengers on why they should use their services.
Personally, if I were LJU management, I'd drop all these subsidy programs and just give a lot of money to Wizz Air to base at least two planes in LJU. I think this is the only way LJU can counter ZAG, you fight fire with fire. Expecting someone who flies from ZAG on FR to switch to BT from LJU is madness.
First Fraport needs to leave LJU.
DeleteTime to expropriate Fraport you say?
DeleteWell, I don't see that happening any time soon, so ...
DeleteZAG long haul network also hasn't recovered since 2019, yet no one calling Groupe ADP to pack their bags..
DeleteWhat do you mean "if Zagreb keeps on losing money"? Are you repeating the misinformation that Ryanair's hundreds of thousands of extra passengers in Zagreb are causing the airport to LOSE revenue? Do you seriously think these passengers would have flown on other airlines if it wasn't for Ryanair?
DeleteAnon@10:43 I agree with ALL the critics of Fraport, but your last comment makes NO sense as you dont understand how airports make money. Its the same logic as with carrier, high LF doesnt mean profit.
Delete"I think LJU needs to wait for ZAG to publish their 2024 financial reports and only then see what it can do. If ZAG keeps on losing money then they will have to change some (maybe hike fees for FR). If ZAG starts making money then they need to go into crisis management mode."
DeleteSure this will happen. You are a great analyst so it must be true.
Airports have huge fixed costs. To cover them, they need passenger volume. Massive volume. Zagreb got volume thanks to Ryanair. If Ryanair pays 5,5 euros but brings in 1 million passengers, isn't that better than 10% of those passengers flying Eurowings or Iberia and paying 23 euros per pax but the other 90% bringing in 0 because they don't fly from ZAG at all?
DeleteA@10'43
DeleteZagreb is objectively losing money as an airport and has been since the subsidies program for Ryanair. FR's arrival has been a net positive for the country, but ZAG is bleeding nonetheless
Source?
DeleteI never understood why people attack others without knowing all the facts. ZAG lost €5.671.571,80 last year. It's the same period when FR started to grow.
DeleteThe year before ZAG had a profit of €10.360.505,54. So tell us experts like Anon 11.53, Anon 10.43. Though I think it's the same person.
Source:
https://www.companywall.hr/tvrtka/medunarodna-zracna-luka-zagreb-dd/MM1ZYLjY
Anon @12:49 The contract between ZAG and Ryanair is public. The subsidies program for Ryanair has consisted of waving all fees for 2021., paying 25% of all fees for 2022. 50% for 2023., 75% this year and paying all of the fees starting as of next year.
DeleteSubsidies currently barely exist and there will be no subsidies starting in several months.
ZAG management has done what OU couldn't, and not only made a recovery after covid, but surpassed 2019. results last year already.
Technically, one airline paying about 50% of all the handling fees, breaks it even for airport with respect to that one airline.
Paying 75% of fees generally already brings profit,, since that is how fees work.
And where are all the other airlines that are paying 100% of fees - including Ryanair as of next year?
Then there are all the fixed costs/profits mentioned above dependant mostly on the quantity of passengers.
Anon @6:57 Please stop spreading misinformation. Your own link proves you wrong.
DeleteThe profit of €10.36 million is the latest data for last year - 2023. and the loss you're talking about is from 2021. when indeed Ryanair first came. That loss however had nothing to do with Ryanair, since we can see it was quickly turned back into profit. The 2021. loss was connected to covid pandemic and you know there very well.
..and you know *that very well
DeleteAnd not the mention that Zagreb is 2x population of Ljubljana and Croatia is 2x population of Slovenia, as well as tourists number in Croatia is 3.5x of tourists number in Slovenia?
DeleteMichael what are you going on about?! Profit of €10.36 million was in 2022. In 2023 they had a loss of -5.671.571,80 Euros! It's all in the link over there.
DeleteAnd mind you they had €15 million less in profits even though they handled a lot more passengers and their revenue fell from €81 million to €73 million. So obviously something very wrong happened at MZLZ.
All this, while having 290 million euro+ debt.
DeleteI'm sorry, you're right but the information is not on that link. The last data on their site is for 2022. I had to go through FINA to get to all the the numbers with their context and turns out that yes, ZAG technically had a €10.36 million profit in 2022. but that same year the European Commission assisted it with €14.3 million on account of covid.
DeleteSo de facto they were €4 million in the red in 2022.
Last year they had a €5.67 million loss without any EU subventions, but they also signed a €6.25 million contract with Swietelsky construction company late last year after a tender. This was for renovating the taxiways. Without that contract they would've returned to real profit last year - not the artificial one due to the EU commission's help.
Therefore, as you can see context is important and the minus has nothing to do with flight operations, but rather with investments.
There's no drama, nothing went horribly wrong, in fact they are growing and are on the verge of complete recovery from the covid disaster - most likely this year.
Travel habits also change a bit over time. First of all, there was Brexit, which deffinitely has some effect on everything. Second of all, there might be a bit of a shift of "travel wishes". In my younger days, almost everyones top destination to go to was London. I remember schools having excursions there, either by bus or plane. Nowadays I don't see schools having excursions in that of a big way anymore. If I listen to the younger generations now, their top destinations are anything but London. I don't pick up people wanting to visit London anymore when outside and when talking to others. Seems people have already been there and don't have a wish to return and there's no equally high demand anymore from people who have not been there as other destinations are more attractive and on top of people's lists. Those are just my subjective thoughts from observing conversations around me.
ReplyDeleteWow, all that happened in 3-4 years? Please, such a non-sense.
DeleteIt could be sped up by Covid and a drastic change in travel habits?
DeleteSo Covid didnt affect all the other hot spots like Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, but it affected the demand for London? Ok
DeleteThat London that we liked to visit is forever gone
DeleteEveryone forget that Fraport main income comes from Logistic proces. Cargo area around airfield is big... Noone from Fraport never promise to extend pax trafic from airport. They always mention to extend cargo trafic in the first step when they come.
ReplyDeleteBiggest warehouse at LJU is the one of Kuehne+Nagel, in majority ownership of Klaus-Michael Kuehne, who also has stake in Lufthansa with 17,5%, which also has stake in Fraport with around 10%. But that is just conspiracy theory :)
DeleteLjubljana joins Maribor in hibernation.
ReplyDeletePortoroz too.
DeleteSubsidies should be illegal. If there is sufficient demand on certain route that some airline can make profit's.'..airlines will come. Pure and simple.
ReplyDeleteAgree. And it should be strictly implied for all airports and carriers.
DeleteNorwegian doesn't operate CPH flights during the winter at all?
ReplyDeleteAren't they getting paid the most out of all for those flights??
They get paid per realisation.
DeleteYes, by the passengers and it’s for all airlines the same, so no such thing as someone "getting paid the most" in advance.
DeleteThe subsidies are actually peanuts. Under 2 million euros for 4 airlines. No wonder no one stays over winter.
DeleteBabett tells us the future is bright and everything is OK. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/back-track-ljubljana-airports-journey-rebuild-babett-stapel-mvkdf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&utm_campaign=share_via
ReplyDeleteBravo Fraport!
DeleteHow come there are so many reduction this winter?
ReplyDeleteTime to expropriate Fraport?
DeleteDoes this idea of nationalisation have any grounds?
DeleteLJU is unattractive only for high prices, but the connectivity plays a huge role. No reasonable public transportation, expensive shuttle transfers, and a risky highway for all potential passengers comming from the other parts of the country, due to the daily accidents or regular congestions. Eastern part of the country gravitates to Zagreb, Graz and Vienna, also to Budapest. The western part gravitates to the Trieste, Venice, and Zagreb too. Klagenfurt also has some new connections, but I believe it is not so attractive. Still, some passengers use KFT.
Delete*unattractive not only for high prices
DeleteNo, there is no gravitation, because if you look at the destinations, which are well covered from LJU, there is NO spillover to ZAG, VCE etc (ex. IST). Its just a narrative which cant be justified on facts.
Delete...forget to mention unfriendly staff also
Delete@Anon 9:13, no narrative. Many passenger from Eastern or Western part rarely consider LJU as departing point. Including myself. I know many people using all other airports than LJU. It ugly truth.
DeleteNumbers don't agree with you, therefore you will hardly find Slovenians on routes to DXB, IST etc from ZAG or VCE, because these routes are well covered. Furthermore, Slovenians RARELY fly out of neighbouring airports if they need to connect anyway, so LJU is still the primarily choice for Slovenians for connecting destinations. Where Slovenians do use neighbouring airports when this brings direct connection.
DeleteOf course there are some routes more interresting from LJU, but just some. The major routes Slovenians use are definitively not from LJU. Can you present numbers showing the LJU is the primary choice? I travel much and many other people i know too, but LJU is not the primary choice. Rather VIE or ZAG.
Delete