Neighbouring airports are seeing a steady increase in passengers from Slovenia, despite the country's ongoing efforts to attract airlines and enhance connectivity. Ljubljana views the high concentration of nearby airports as a significant challenge. Attending the Alpe-Adria Tourism Fair in Ljubljana over the weekend, Maximilian Wildt, the CEO of Klagenfurt Airport, said, “We are seeing a steady increase in interest among Slovenian travellers in flights from Klagenfurt. Currently, Slovenian passengers make up as much as 20% of traffic, depending on the destination. The airport's convenient location and easy accessibility make it an appealing alternative for passengers from Slovenia. We are dedicated to expanding our offering and providing attractive connections for our Slovenian guests”. Klagenfurt Airport sees significant potential in the trend for further growth and stronger ties with the Slovenian market.
Graz Airport in Austria, located some seventy kilometres north of Maribor, said around 10% of its total number of passengers are from Slovenia. It saw an increase in Slovenian travellers after Eurowings opened its base in the city in 2023. Furthermore, the airport reported that a sizeable number of Slovenian travellers utilise its extensive summer charter programme each year. Trieste Airport in Italy, which last year handled 1.3 million passengers, is also competing for Slovenian travellers. The airport’s General Manager, Marco Consalvo, said last year’s opening of Ryanair’s base at the airport has led to an increase in passengers from Slovenia. “We certainly have traffic from regional neighbours, who are progressively no longer going to Venice with the increase in our flight offer. Ryanair’s growth enables us to retain our catchment area, which uses Venice in large volumes. We definitely see an opportunity in attracting more passengers from Slovenia”.
Ryanair noted its Zagreb base caters for a sizeable volume of passengers from Slovenia. “We already see a lot of passengers from Slovenia on our Zagreb flights. We know and we are sure that we are covering the Slovenian market well from Zagreb Airport”, the budget carrier said.
Ljubljana Airport has worked on improving its connectivity and expanding its range of destinations. Last year it welcomed new carriers including airBaltic, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Iberia, while KLM is set to launch operations to the Slovenian capital next month. "Ljubljana Airport is competing with five airports in a radius of just 250 kilometres. Fierce competition demands agile and innovative communication approaches. We created our own web platform to highlight attractive live flight deals from Ljubljana Airport. Extending these into online advertising within a private data management platform allows us to carefully and cost effectively target our passengers and stimulate demand", Monika Jelačič, the airport’s Head of Corporate Communications, said.
At least 500.000 pax is flying from other airports if not more
ReplyDeleteThat's big. I'm guessing Trieste is number 1 for Slovenians among these? Or Venice?
DeleteIt is time Slovenia to transport their own passengers and not to export them to neighboring countries.
DeleteWhy? Why is it time?
Delete@09:28
DeleteJP thankfully for Slovenians is not coming back.
Your goal should be for Slovenes to travel as much as possible. Regardless of where, why does it hurt you if someone from Maribor goes to Graz instead of Brnik?
DeleteThis should be seen as an advantage: better offer, more connections, lower prices... I don't understand why people are complaining, you guys voted for this when you joined EU, or you expected that Ljubljana will become hub for this part of Europe?
DeleteZagreb is biggest for Slovenian travellers, around 10% of all travellers using Zagreb airport are from Slovenia.
DeleteAnonimno09:51
Delete@09:28
JP se na srečo Slovencev ne vrača.
Velika sreča, da 500.000 Slovencev potuje iz tujih letališč. Dokler bo ta mentaliteta v Sloveniji prevladovala, jih bo še več. Slovenija je unikat v Evropi - edina, ki slavi izgubo nacionalnega prevoznika.
So Trieste will overtake LJU this year. It had just 100,000 passengers less in 2024.
ReplyDeleteRyanair effect. As FR grows, I expect the number of people from Slovenia too.
Deleteit is 10%, airport posted data, which indicate Slovenian travellers constitute around 10% of all travellers. Ryan Air in particular is main driver of this growth in passanger traffic.
DeleteWell once zagreb said 10% is slovenians…
ReplyDeleteIt was 5% of total ZAG traffic, not 10%
DeletePpl not from slovenia don’t understand that we are 20 years in schengen… well connected to other airports so we got used to check also other airports since they had more options, better price annd more frq.
ReplyDeleteIf LJU had an LCC based there or with more than one route, the number of people using other airports would decrease sharply.
DeleteOnly in the Balkans do people see this as a problem instead of an opportunity.
DeleteOnly people fixated with national full service airlines and hate the liberalization of travel in Europe do not want LCCs on their local airport.
DeleteThe rest are voting with their wallets.
The day Ryanair goes bankrupt, I will be very Happy!
Delete@09:55
DeleteEvery other airline in the world will go bankrupt before FR does.
What would it cost for the goverment to buy back LJU from Fraport?
DeleteAsk Fraport for how much are they willing to let it go.
DeleteThis is such a dumb opinion from 09:05... If there were LCCs from Ljubljana, people would fly from Ljubljana. Now you have to have waste so much time. The best case example to Zagreb, you pay 10-20 euros for transport to the airport, you make sure that you arrive 2.5-3H before, so you start 4H-5H before the flight from your home + let's say 2H flight + 1H getting to your hotel at the destination. That's like 7-8H in a perfect world, it's pathetic. You could do it in 4-5H if it was in Ljubljana.
Delete
DeleteAnonimno09:49
Samo ljudje, ki so vezani na nacionalne letalske prevoznike s polno storitvijo in sovražijo liberalizacijo potovanj v Evropi, ne želijo LCC na svojem lokalnem letališču.
Ostali glasujejo z denarnico.
Normalni ljudje ne sovražijo LCC, želijo le redne povezave z domačega letališča.
Tistim, ki glasujejo samo z denarnico, ni pomemben ne čas, ne dolžina poti, onesnaževanje, gneča na cesti (500.000 potnikov obremenjuje avtoceste)., omejuje se dostop tujih turistov, ki polnijo hotele, kongrese itd.
Ljubljana used to attract passengers from neighboring countries with Adria. Not anymore.
ReplyDeleteIt still does. Only 53% of LJU passengeres in 2024 were Slovenes.
DeleteIn summer charters are full of Italians.
DeleteIt doesn't mean that LJU is attracting A LOT of pax from neighboring countries. It is not. It means only that there are a lot foreigners flying to LJU (inbound).
DeleteIt's hilarious how neighboring airports are doing more to attract Slovenians than the Slovenian airports.
ReplyDeleteThats why I urge the GOV to expropriate these clowns at Fraport
DeleteThe government can definitely make an offer to Fraport to buy back the airport and operate it themselves.
DeleteYeah, that will be even better lol
DeleteNo worries! Fraport will dramatically increase number of passengers with their charter hub idea!
DeleteWhat would it cost for the goverment to buy back LJU from Fraport?
DeleteThey can't force them to sell it back except for with emergency clauses, which they naturally can't utilise in this case. Their net asset worth is around 115mil atm so somewhere around that
Delete^^^
DeleteThank you for the info.
yes because current gouverment is so good at managing this country, that they will manage airport better than germans. Stop with BS, it is better to have fraport than someone like alenka bratusek managing the airport.
DeleteZ.o.o. those who need it should be able to buy it, manage it and use it, using our own capital but then also benefiting from it if it works or taking the risk if it doesnt
DeleteAnonimno09:13
DeleteHecno, kako se sosednja letališča bolj trudijo privabiti Slovence kot slovenska.
Če poznate slovensko politiko in velik del slovenske javnosti, ni prav nič hecno. Pri obojih prevladuje neverjetna alergija do nacionalnega prevoznika.
Besides Zagreb, Graz, Klagenfurt and Trieste, a lot of people drives to Vienna, Venice and even Munich for flights.
ReplyDeleteMunich is around the same distance from Lju than Vienna so no surprise people drive to Munich too.
DeleteI also use Milan for agood price.
DeleteWhat I am annoyed about is that all these airlines that started flight to LJU started them because of the subsidies (except KLM). So it wasn't the airport that brought them to LJU.
ReplyDeleteRyanair also launched flights to all neighbouring airports with subsidies. That's just how aviation works nowadayd
DeleteWell there are many austrians traveling from LJU too. Even their travel agencies offering packages from LJU airport..
ReplyDeleteTo where?
Deletetrue, as an austrian living in klagenfurt region i use LJU for 80% of my flights..
DeleteThere are more then 40 daily shuttles from Ljubljana to Venice.
ReplyDeleteTRS has been attracting people from Slovenia for years. Very popular with people from the coast.
ReplyDeleteIt's closer that's a fact, and better choice: destinations and prices.
DeleteTtieste is great. Multimodal cenntre with affordable parking, perfect size, you can even manage it i Slovene. My "home" airpott, and I live in Ljubljana.
DeleteI think Ljubljana Airport needs to do more when it comes to marketing because being active on LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok is unfortunately not enough.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI appreciate the efforts Ljubljana Airport is making, but it still feels like we are falling behind. More airlines are needed, and we desperately need a low cost carrier base.
DeleteCould not agree more with you 9.29. A fancy website with deals isn’t enough. We need real airline partnerships and more direct flights.
DeleteThis is a major handicap from Ljubljana Airport
ReplyDeleteI think it is good to have choices.
ReplyDeleteNot good for LJU.
DeleteAgree with @anon 9.33. it’s good for passengers. More choices and cheaper flights. Why should we be loyal to just one airport?
DeleteI don't mind driving a bit further if it means better flight options and cheaper tickets. Ljubljana Airport has to realize that loyalty doesn’t come for free.
DeleteOn this forum people would prefer that we are all hostages of the airports in our own country.
Delete^ how exactly? It is a discussion why Ljubljana Airport is not doing more to attract people from its own market. Something an airport that is about to be overtaken by Trieste should think about.
DeleteAnonimno09:45
DeleteNa tem forumu bi ljudje raje videli, da smo vsi talci letališč v lastni državi.
Prej bi rekel, da so tu talci tisti, ki želijo normalno povezljivost (frekvence, ustrezen jutranji čas, evropske destinacije). Forum o ljubljanskem letališču bi se moral imenovati forum ljubiteljev LCC.
TRS or VCE are cheaper and have more flights.
ReplyDeleteWhere does Ryanair fly from Trieste.
ReplyDeleteGoogle it and tell us.
DeleteBarcelona, Bari, Beauvais, Berlin, Brindisi, Budapest, Catania, Charleroi, Dublin, Kraków, London–Stansted, Malta, Naples, Palermo, Seville, Valencia
DeleteSeasonal: Cagliari, Lamezia Terme (begins 30 March 2025), Olbia, Prague (begins 30 March 2025), Stockholm–Arlanda (begins 2 July 2025)
It’s no wonder Slovenians are flying from other airports. Ljubljana simply doesn’t offer enough destinations at competitive prices. I always check Trieste, Graz, and even Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteFor those of us in the east, Graz and even Zagreb make more sense than Ljubljana. It’s easier to get there, and the ticket prices are often lower.
ReplyDeleteWhy even Zagreb? It is very close.
DeleteEvery time I want to book a flight, I compare Ljubljana with other nearby airports, and most of the time, I find a better deal somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteLucky Slovenians, they have more options to fly than any other ex-yu country! ;)
ReplyDeleteSo you need to sit in a car and drive an hour at least to get to another airport, pay for parking and then sit on a plane and fly. How many hours in advance do you have to go to the airport?
DeleteNot all Slovenia is in Ljubljana center. Even if you are going to LJU, you need to drive. ZAG is closer to Maribor and Novo Mesto than LJU anyway, Primorje is very close to Trieste, and all countries around are in Schengen. So there is no big drama about driving somewhere.
Delete@Anon 09:51 - Typical thinking of the people of Ljubljana They think that driving to LJU is almost free for everyone outside the center of the country, but it costs money to get to other airports. OMG
DeleteMany Croats fly from Vienna, Venice and Budapest as well.
DeleteAnd Ljubljana and Belgrade, besides Croatian airports.
DeleteRyanair is opening bases all around us, but Ljubljana still doesn’t have one? That should tell us something about how airlines view our airport’s competitiveness.
ReplyDeleteStop with conspiracies!
DeleteGraz makes a lot of sense for us in eastern Slovenia. It's closer than Ljubljana in some cases, has good connections, and Eurowings really made a difference.
ReplyDeleteIf Ryanair can make a base work in Trieste and Zagreb, why not in Ljubljana? There must be something behind the scenes preventing this.
ReplyDeleteThey already said it was due to high fees.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2024/01/ryanair-ceo-ljubljana-airport-simply.html
Delete:(
DeleteRyanair doesn't fly to secondary airports if they doesn't give them special discounts or incentives. That's how they make their prices lower than competitors. Fraport has a feud with FR, hence why they'll never do so
DeleteHow come Fraport doesn't have a feud with FR on the other 16 airports it operates in Bulgaria and Greece but it has one with LJU?
DeleteThey did. When FR bought up half of Greece they asked for subsidies, didn't get them and then left. Then they came back because Greek leisure destinations are nevertheless very high yield routes. They tried to blackmail Fraport, it didn't work out
DeleteFinnaly some people that use brains and understand that FR is not the best option. At least we have some legacy carriers that bring bussines pax which are way more important than those lcc ones.
DeleteI don't mind using other airports as long as I get better prices and more choices. It’s all about convenience, and right now, Ljubljana is not offering enough.
ReplyDeleteWhat is enough? Whenever someone ask this question, you get five different answers...
DeleteBravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteLJU has a pretty unfortunate position. From the eastern part, GRZ is much closer than LJU and ZAG, which is also closer to the country's southeastern part. Of course, VIE is not too far and is easily accessible by the Austrian train network. The western part is very close to the TRS and even VCE. Considering the traffic situation on Slovenian highways and a local road (spread with speeding traps) to LJU from most directions, the airports mentioned above have become a logical choice. The prices at neighboring airports are usually more attractive than at LJU. The transport costs to most neighboring airports are generally the same as those of LJU. Yes, location plays an important role in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteFrom that logic Trieste (who has more passengers now than Ljubljana) is lucky because there are no competitive airports around? We all know this is not true. LJU problem is not close vicinity of other airports (passengers migrate in all directions) but expensive, ultra-passive and german (LH) owned airport owner who is not interested in connectivity.
DeleteTrieste will only benefit as long as Friuli Venezia is subsidizing salary taxes and paying social benefits of Ryanair employees. Once that stops, Ryanair is gone and so is Trieste as a functional airport.
DeleteThey know very well why they do that. FR is bringing much more benefits to the region (via tourist spending) that the cost is.
DeleteFor long-haul flights, usually flying from Ljubljana is cheaper than from Zagreb or Vienna. But it is true that Ljubljana is losing customers because of their inactive policy. I guess they just care about cargo. Fraport Slovenia is profitable and they don't care about anything else...
ReplyDeleteFor long haul Venice is the best option.
DeleteIt’s frustrating that our own airport isn’t competitive enough. Why can't Ljubljana attract Ryanair or Wizz Air to open a base? That would completely change the situation.
ReplyDeleteIt's no surprise Slovenians are using nearby airports more often. Ljubljana just doesn't have enough connections, and ticket prices are often higher. Klagenfurt, Graz, and Trieste are all solid alternatives with better offers.
ReplyDeleteThe main problem is, that there is no strategy behind, no real analysis. Govt is only hoping and Fraport is only begging for any routes from LJU. And not even participating on fares, not doing anything. As I said long time ago, they are satisfied with such slow pace of traffic increase, since they earn just enough amd are not interested in anything. Fraport academy is clear proif of thst concept: put something on market and let it live its own life without any interaction. Fraport academy is modern trsining centre, and is just standing there, idle. LJU apron looks like aviation graveyard - full of planes on mid or long term storage. Many actualy on death bed.
ReplyDeleteProof, typo
DeleteI'm from Murska sobota and I fly from Zagreb,Budapest,Vienna,Treviso,Venice. But last 2 years from Zagreb and Vienna. It's great to have Ryanair and Wizzair 👌😊 Ok last year I fly to Skopje from Ljubljana. Now I look for Riga but from Vienna is much cheaper than from Ljubljana and Slovenia pay for Riga fly 🤦 I hope for some new route from Zagreb🤞🤞🤞
ReplyDeleteWhy isn't there any journalist to ask hard questions to Fraport leaders, and not be satisfied with answers like "we cannot do anything else", "there is not enough demand," or "we have great connections to LG hubs"?
ReplyDeleteThey usually give some passive aggressive statements through LinkedIn that the media is being dishonest about their success.
DeleteAny new routes on horizon?
ReplyDeleteCoredon seemingly cancelled Antalya and heraklion flights that they operated last year...so there is no summer destination apart from Tivat to be booked....insane for an airport that size
Antalya and Heraklion will be operated as charter flights the upcoming season, it seems
DeleteSometime ago I wrote about the geography factor. Ljubljana Airport is situated near the Austrian border closer to Kranj than to Ljubljana. So it is in the north corner of the country. For the seizable part of the Slovenian population it is not quite easy accessible. If you are in Koper or Izola - Trieste is the closest airport, Venice and Treviso are close too. If you are in Maribor - Graz. Zagreb is closer to many places in the east and overall quite accessible from Maribor and Celje. Especially with the Schengen, it all becomes even closer.
ReplyDeleteThis has nothing to do with geography. Go to TRS or ZAG, you will see plates from all over Slovenia. Not even mentioning VCE and the GOOPTI and others. What matters is flight and price. You woul be astound if how many different registration plates you can see in Treviso or even Bergamo!
DeleteWhat they are missing the most is a small LCC base with maybe 2 planes to take care of cheap leisure destinations within Europe to make it popular with the masses... while the long-haul flights I find are usually the cheapest from LJU compared to ZAG or VIE (Venice I find irrelevant since it is to far of a drive for me).
ReplyDeleteThey are to blame themselves for this mysery! While other airports "smelled" their chances, was LJU in a deep sleep and still is!
ReplyDeleteand you are the smartest man in the world, ofc
Delete??? And you are obviously not able to reply by facts.
DeleteI visited last year. I flew into LJU from the UK but had to change planes in Frankfurt and missed our connection, luckily there was space on the next one but it was a pain. Returning we got flix bus from Maribor to Zagreb to fly home as we didn't want to change planes again. It would be great to be able to fly directly to LJU when we visit again this year.
ReplyDelete