Air Albania, which had planned to launch subsidised flights between Tirana and Ljubljana this September, is now unlikely to proceed due to mounting financial difficulties. The carrier intended to introduce a weekly service between the two capitals on September 1, but tickets were never released for sale, and Ljubljana Airport has since removed all references to the planned route from its communications. The airline has suspended most of its network after several of its aircraft were repossessed, and it now operates only a single route to Istanbul with its lone Airbus A320 aircraft. Ljubljana and Tirana were last connected by scheduled flights in 2019, prior to the collapse of Adria Airways.
Meanwhile, low cost carrier Eurowings has brought forward the suspension of its Düsseldorf - Ljubljana service, launched in April with support from the Slovenian government’s Improved Air Connectivity Scheme. The route will now end on October 11, two weeks earlier than planned, with no tickets available beyond that date. It remains unclear whether the three-weekly service will return in the 2026 summer season. Eurowings had previously planned to launch flights from Berlin to Ljubljana on April 11, but the service never materialised.
Despite these developments, Ljubljana Airport is on course for a strong winter, with three new routes launching over the upcoming period including Las Palmas by airBaltic, Manchester by easyJet and Barcelona by Vueling. Furthermore, unlike the previous winter, Aegean Airlines will maintain services to Slovenia’s capital for part of the season. Italian regional carrier Air Dolomiti will also enter the market, taking over six of the ten weekly Munich services operated by its owner Lufthansa. According to filed schedules, Ljubljana’s available seat capacity is expected to grow by more than 20% year-on-year in November and December, with increases in the high teens projected for the remainder of the winter season.
LJU and passengers doged a bullet there with those Air Albania flights. The airline is in free fall.
ReplyDeleteExactly!
DeleteKakšna sramota s temi razpisi, ne samo z Air Albanio. Ali v Sloveniji sploh še kdo ve kaj dela? Sedaj se dobro vidi razlog, zakaj smo bili skozi celotno zgodovino pod tujo upravo...
DeleteAnd when somebody is rejected not complying with the rules (described in the European aviation guidelines anyway) you are also complaining...Air Albania simply complied to all requirements when they asked for subsidies. They were approved but the contract was never signed. State is not a private company to make up their own (potentially discriminatory) rules.
DeleteAir Albania is following the same faith of B&H Airlines. Didn't Turkish do the same with B&H Airlines? At the end they also ended up flying a single plane before completely shutting down.
DeleteNot serious airline.
ReplyDeleteIt was always a political project with not enough funding created at an era when the LCCs hadn't yet entered TIA.
DeleteI remember when people here were writing it will be a force to be reckoned with.
Delete^ Back then Rama and Erdogan were making big speeches and big promises about it!
DeleteWe can also expect TIA numbers to go down soon.
DeleteRyanair just announced their new base in TIA for 2026 so keep hoping and expecting please!
DeleteIs this sign Air albania to collapse soon ? Operating only one single route doesnt seems to have a smart future as an airline....
ReplyDeleteTK no more sees use of this airline so it will soon shut down completely.
DeleteIt has Alpha Jet for these type of flights.
Seems like TK has destroyed everyhting it has touched outside of Turkey. Poor Air Europa will be next,
DeleteThats very correct 09:06
DeleteBtw I dont know is there any in the world exist an airline to operate a single route, even not in the Canadian north :D
Both Ryanair and easyJet started off with only one route and one Aircraft.
Delete09:20 and now you compare airlines which operates 200+ aircrafts and serve all Europe continent , are you for real ? Yes they start with onr plane , but where are they now and where is air albania??
DeleteWhat part of "started with" do you not understand?
DeleteAir albania isn't starting now is it
DeleteThere's a few airlines in Africa that operate on a single (or very few) routes with a small jet (like Air Sinai), but these usually have their entire business model around that. Air Albania is just a failure
DeleteEmirates started with one route to Pakistan, everyone has to start somewhere
DeleteSMFH
Deletewell one route has to be the first. they intended to expand from that one route, where as this is shrinking
DeleteYes all airlines starts with one aircraft and ome route and now they had 100+ aictafts as well routes , air albania is far away from that , clearly its just wrong decision and political project between teo countries and will probably dissapear
DeleteTo me it looks like DUS is gone for good. We will see.
ReplyDeleteThey should start with Berlin and not Dusseldorf
DeleteWhy didn't they start Berlin. I don't get it.
DeleteMaybe they should take a class on how to advertise flights. I haven't seen a single DUS-LJU add, only about BER-GRZ.
Delete^ agree
DeleteProbably they decided not to cannibalize BER transfers via FRA and MUC. The only candidate I see for BER route is Easyjet. On the other side DUS is (in case of LJU) leisure/city-break route and without marketing can't work. It will not return next summer.
Delete
DeleteAnonymous09:19 - probably you dont know how ads work ;) ...
Well, seems like the TIA bubble is showing signs of deflation. Several routes are being suspended over the winter and there is minimal growth planned.
ReplyDeleteAlso DUS-LJU suspension is no surprise looking at the overall state of German economy.
they use to have a cheap prices for a family vacations in the past few years and they made a boom with tourists , but not anymore , they increase all products , hotel stays , transportation all goes very high from this year , and if that continues Albania will not be anymore a cheap sea destination
DeleteDoubt i'd call a 1.3 mln / 10% growth in July - a deflating bubble.
DeleteAnd Ryanair just announced 9 new routes from TIA.
DeleteMore than half of the readers of this portal are malpensanti!
Delete@Anonymous 10:01
Delete+1000
Definitely a bubble - Ryanair just announced a base in Tirana (3 a/c from April 26)
DeleteCaro mio, more than half of them have no clue what malpensanti could be. Not even remotely. They would probably ask what it has to do with MXP 🙂
DeleteAnon 11:44 , for someone like me who speaks fluent italians , it's a piece of cake !
DeleteSo Albania becomes only the 2nd non UK/Eu country that FR opens a base! The other one is Morocco.
Delete"Ljubljana’s available seat capacity is expected to grow by more than 20% year-on-year in November and December, with increases in the high teens projected for the remainder of the winter season"
ReplyDeleteNever beleived I would say this but bravo LJU. That must be one of the best winter increases in the continent.
I think TIA had a larger one when they started subsidizing LCCs a few years ago.
DeleteIt's easy when you have barely any flights.
Delete@09:07
DeleteThey did but they started from a very low base and they have a huge diaspora all over western Europe. But for winter 25/26 LJU growth is seat capacity is indeed very impressive.
The three new routes are very welcome. Regarding the growth, remember that 2024/25 winter actually recorded decline compared to the previous winter, with overall low baseline. So 20% growth is nice in relative terms, but insignificant in absolute. More is needed to return passengers from neighboring airports.
DeleteThe government should do a better job of vetting these airlines before awarding them subsidies.
ReplyDeleteThe subsidies from the tender are retroactive. No airline is getting them before they actually launch flights.
DeleteThe main issue is that no other airline was interested in launching TIA.
Delete09:20 thats actually how it needs to work, simple example is Skopje-Dubai , how they to get money before launching when nobody is sure 100% should they launch or not , you get money if you start flights and thats it , so simply!!
Delete@09:23 Not so sure https://www.exyuaviation.com/2025/05/ljubljana-tipped-for-new-tirana-and-las.html
DeleteWill Eurowings get subsidies for their 6 months of flights to LJU?
ReplyDeleteDepend what contract they signed , if they sign to operate a year or two and they cancell for 6 months I assume they will not get anything , and I am pretty sure no airline will sign 6 months contract with government
DeleteBravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteObviously no demand.. no surprise
ReplyDeleteNo demand for what?
DeleteDon't feed the troll.
DeleteNo demand for slovenians to visit albanian coast :D :D :D
DeleteHighlit likely that like many he read the headline and went straight to writing the comment.
DeleteCould we see wizzair tirana flights?
ReplyDeleteDoes Wizz fit into Fraport's business model?
DeleteAll routes to and from Tirana are seasonal , except Wizz air and Ryanair , and year round Dubai and Amstetram everything else is just summer seasonal, so Tirana basicly is low cost airport you can expect anything from Wizz to be launched
DeleteIt does in all of its other airports in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria. What is so detrimental to them in LJU?
DeleteWell LJU Airport CEO said a year or two ago how they after airlines that fit into their business model and that not all LCCs do.
DeleteHe probably knows a thing or two about the Slovenian market.
DeleteShe* and yes Ryanair does not fit the Slovenian market as the airline wants significant financial help in order to enter the market. Giving significant tax cuts to Ryanair and their employees is in the hands of the government and not Fraport.
DeleteOnly LH fits into Slovenian market :)
Delete@Anon 0945 Now tell me what are the tax cuts in Slovenia which are requested by Ryanair and Wizzair? I will tell: nothing. They don't employ in Slovenia and there is no state level aviation tax, so nothing to reduce. LJU terminal charge (airspace) is subsidized already today. What they *really* complain is 40 EUR cost per departing passenger which Fraport is charging and even 50% state subsidy (which is the maximum according to EU rules) is not good enough.
DeleteOnly airlines that are able to find the market without significant tax cuts and help that caters only to that one airline.
Delete40 EUR per departing pax is beyond ridiculous for LJU.
Delete@9:54 Slovenia does not have an agreement with Malta about avoiding double taxation. So every pilot or flight attendant based in Slovenia that works through Ryanair's Maltese companies, needs to pay excess income tax to Slovenia. This makes every Slovenian based Ryanair employee a thousand Euro or so a month more expensive than lets say an Italian based employee. Ryanair wants this gone. I don't know about Wizzair, I don't know why they don't want to open more routes but one of Ryanair's biggest problems is double taxation. The passenger's fees are high at LJU but how do you expect to convince Fraport that they should reduce their profit so that Ryanair can have a larger one? Which company nowadays is happy to take a profit hit? Even if LJU was in the hands of Slovenian shareholders, they wouldn't be happy to take a profit hit just to be able to say "hey, we brought 2 weekly Ryanair flight to some random holiday destination".
Delete@Anon 12:38 I agree this might be an issue, maybe even your personal one. But this is not the main obstacle as there is no base and significant local employment in LJU. What I can tell you is that neither Ryanair nor Wizz air didn't mention that as a decision-making factor. Regarding the profit it's obvious that Fraport business policy is optimising profit, not only Ljubljana airport profit, but group as such. If the airport would be owned by the state then different business model applies - lowering the costs and incentivizing LCCs to generate inbound passengers would benefit the state income (profit, if you want) a lot.
DeleteShame about Air Albania, but honestly not surprising given their financial state. At least Ljubljana is managing to attract other airlines.
ReplyDeleteRyanair will apparently launch 3 weekly TRS-TIA next year. TRS will get two airlines with 6 weekly flights in just three years while LJU got nothing since 2019. Bravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteWhy the need to lie? Many new airlines came to LJU since 2019, like Norwegian, KLM and now Vueling.
DeleteI think this was related to TIA only.
DeleteLjubljana is to Air Albania what Liverpool was to Adria Airways
ReplyDeleteMore like Everton...
DeleteThere goes my hope with Eurowings launching Berlin next year
ReplyDeleteLJU remains a challenging destination especially for routings such as DUS-LJU. I doubt the route will return next SUTT. Lets hope Eurowings will return with BER where I see more potential. And Wizz Air should try LJU-TIA as Albania gets more and more popular.
ReplyDeleteThose are not the best news, but still glad for all of the other new routes:
ReplyDeleteLoad factors for June for select routes from Ljubljana:
Aegean to Athens: around 72 %
Norwegian to Denmark: 74 %
Turkish to Istanbul: 74 %
AirSerbia to BEG and INI: 77 %
Swiss to Zurich: 81 %
LOT to Warsaw: 84 %
AirBaltic to Riga: around 86 %
Brussels Airlines to Brussels: 87 %
London (easyJet+British): 90 %
Wizz to Skopje: 97,5 %
Wizz is clearly killing it even after an increase to 4x per week. They really should try some other routes. London is also booming this year, no surprise easyJet is starting a 2nd destination in the UK.
Those are my calculations btw, take it with a grain of salt.
DeleteDo u work at LJU AP?
DeleteNo, but monthly passenger numbers for each country are published frequently by our statistical office and I get the available capacity numbers on this amazing website. It gives a good estimate of the route's success, but as I said, take it with a grain of salt.
DeleteWizz is surely missing on some good potential routes out of Ljubljana...LTN, Larnaca, Malta, etc would all work
DeleteThanks anonym 1104h
DeleteWhat about Finnair and Flydubai
DeleteDon't have the capacity for those, sorry, so not able to calculate the LF. Finnair had 3.367 passengers, which is around 25 % less than last June, when they had 4 flights per week (this year they are flying 3 times pw). FlyDubai carried 2.917 passengers in June, which is 11 % less than last year. As far as I know the capacity stayed the same. This seems like a big drop, but in the first six months of this year, their passenger numbers are down only 0,3 % on the same period last year.
DeleteFlydubai had 49,31 % LF (5916 capacity, 2917 PAX)
DeleteHelsinki had 88,56 % LF ( 3802 capacity, 3367 PAX)
All 3 German airports had 80,44 % LF ( 32,188 capacity , 25,893 PAX)
to be fair Wizz is killing it because of the MK diaspora in Slovenia but a leisure destination could maybe work too
DeleteRyanair just annouinced Tirana-Trieste route
ReplyDeleteA huge expansion it seems...3 737s will be based there
DeleteNo surprise concerning Air Albania and expected situation with LJU-DUS. State funds are consumed and birds are leaving the nest. Predictable since the beginning.
ReplyDeleteyou have no idea what you are talking about, gov doesn't pay anything in advance and the amount is calculated based on the number of takeoffs
DeleteThere are limits in the amount reserved for the ops and no open end budget.
DeleteEurowings leaves LJU despite of good load factors? And NO, they should NOT fly to Berlin, no one wants to go to awful Berlin, also called "Kolkata upon Spree" by the Germans, all the industry, the dense population is next to Dusseldorf, not Berlin.
ReplyDelete"no one wants to go to awful Berlin" almost 40.000 passengers on BER-LJU in 2019, which is more passengers than Ryanair has on half of the routes from ZAG.
DeleteWell Slovenians living in Berlin would definitely want to come home on an aircraft every now and then.
DeleteThey are more than welcome to come home vie FRA.
DeleteLufthansa and it's sub-companies have been treating BER as an unloved step-daughter. It's a classic West-German attitude. Missing any opportunity to make BER a more important airport. Of course, Berlin is not as central to Germany as Paris or London, but certainly more important than Rome for Italy
DeleteAren’t there enough flights to TIA from Trieste, both Venice airports and ZAG? If you live in Ljubljana or western half of Slovenia, that Trieste drive is easy peasy
ReplyDeleteThen just close LJU?
DeleteDUS (and generally the NRW region) is a gasto market from ExYu what were they thinking with launching LJU and they already fly CGN-KLU I have learned here
ReplyDeletethe only market they could try DUS is SKP but they missed then chance when there were no CGN flights from Wizz.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
DeleteIt seems that Slovenia is not that relevant market overall.
ReplyDelete