Ljubljana Airport registered its busiest month on record in August, handling 222.958 passengers. The figure represents an increase of 19.7% on the same month last year and is 5.3% above the previous record set in August 2019, when Adria Airways was still in operation and the airport welcomed 211.595 travellers. “This comparison is important, but the number alone does not tell the full story. Today, Ljubljana Airport’s growth is supported by a broad and diversified airline portfolio, strong connectivity and close cooperation with our airline and tourism partners. This makes the achievement not only historic, but also strategically significant for the future development of the airport”, the airport’s CEO, Jürgen Deischl, said.
Ljubljana's largest airlines by scheduled seat capacity, August 2026
The recently announced seasonal service between Newark and Ljubljana, which United Airlines will launch next year, has not only raised the airport’s ambitions but also changed the way it can position and market itself to other carriers. Speaking to the “Bloomberg Adria” network, Mr Deischl noted, “New York for us changes the scale of our ambition but it does not complete it. We are working on additional European and international connectivity, stronger frequencies and further strategic opportunities for next year. We will not speculate about airlines or destinations now, but we will announce those flights as soon as they are ready to take off”.
Commenting further about the United service, the CEO noted, “The commercial case was compelling. We have a significantly underserved market. We have a cross-boarder catchment of around five million and approximately 200.000 American visitors expected this year without a nonstop connection. So, in a remarkably short time, we turned that potential together with United into a credible and executable business case. Ultimately, the decision was United’s, and we are absolutely delighted with it. We expect more than 40.000 passengers to use this route during the next summer season. However., the opportunity goes well beyond the passenger numbers. A nonstop service changes how a destination is received, sold and assessed”. He added, “Our responsibility as an airport is to create conditions for a strong performance from day one and to build the foundation for a lasting service”.
Bravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteRemarkable results for an airport that was struggling so bad in the last years. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteGreat results.
ReplyDeleteEspecially considering these numbers are pure O&D since no network carrier exists to boost statistics with connecting passengers.
+1
DeleteLjubljana started using the slogan "The airport of choice for the region" instead of "Charter hub" since new CEO came. What a difference, for the first time in 10 years airport is actually doing stuff to attract the airlines. Happy for Ljubljana
ReplyDeleteI truly believe the new era of Ljubljana has just started with the new CEO coming in - I pray to everything that Fraport doesn't change him anytime soon
ReplyDeletePray? Hahah calm down mate
DeleteFigure out speech
DeleteChill, it’s just a saying. Nobody will go to church in hopes of more routes to LJU airport. I agree with everything he wrote and am praying for further success as well.
Delete@9.06 lol indeed
Delete"We are working on additional European and international connectivity, stronger frequencies and further strategic opportunities for next year."
ReplyDeleteThat one guy who said China flights are coming might actually be right?
That would be fantastic!
DeleteIt certainly is looking more and more likely. Especially since there is no direct flights to China in the near area, we could also catch passengers from Croatia, southern Austria and Italy.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2026/09/photos-air-china-touches-down-in-zagreb.html
Delete09:10 said 'direct'
DeleteDirect means exactly what the Zagreb route is.
DeleteNonstop would mean a route without an intermediary point.
Securing a Chinese carrier is a great achievement for ZAG, but if we are completely fair, this is just a connection to Budapest with a possibility to continue to China. I don’t know how the prices are, but I would say transferring in Vienna or some other airports with more frequencies to China can probably be better time wise, more flexible schedule and shorter waiting times - three hours is quite of a wait.
DeleteBucharest*
DeleteI wonder when the new rumoured routes will be announced. Any info on that?
ReplyDeleteNext week
Delete+36k passengers is one month is crazy. What were the increases that brought such higher growth in August than in other months?
ReplyDeleteIt was me. I flew out of LJU in AUG ;)
Deletee bravo
DeleteHaha thanks for improving the statistics! Mind sharing with is where you flew to and what the loads where?
DeleteIm also boosting the numbers by 6 this september ;)
DeleteI wanted to do so as well but there is no Emirates in LJU so I am on my way to Milano.
Delete10:40 trying to sound important when Flydubai has arguably the same if not better business class
Delete@10:40 going to Milan to use a specific airline sounds a deep waste of time mate, but each to their own.
DeleteIt's not specifically because of Emirates but rather because of an a380, which you can't even compare to b737max8
Deletecomng close to the ceiling tho
ReplyDeleteWith three new routes announced (New York being one of them), and multiple new routes rumoured for next year, the ceiling is still higher than Triglav bro.
Deleteincluding those bro
Deletebro
DeleteHey #EDI guy, do you know if there are any upgrades happening on terminal now when UA announced flights? I know it’s not completly related but I wonder if some things might get an upgrade
ReplyDeleteIn the United announcement article people were saying that the lounge is getting an upgrade and they are also possibly hiring new border officers. Go read the comments there.
DeleteI know that, but maybe in the last week as the talks go further, they decided to do more things? Also he was talking about catering company but never mentioned who… that’s why I am asking, but than you anyway :)
DeleteLjubljana used to have Lagardere catering that went away together with Adria…I am also curious which company they would bring
DeleteThere are many variations of upgrades in discussion… one of them is also opening of old business lounge in no schengen area. Also another one is to open one more in schengen (old rooftop cafe) and split users (credit card business and airline business). Security check will get one additional lane. Etc #edi
DeleteOld business lounge was superb. I remember the downgrade in offerings alone from the old to the new one...
Deletewell that s the information I was talking about (thanks #edi). Maybe it isnt so important but finaly getting additional security lane is nice touch, so LJU will have 3 automated and two older ones?
Delete12.05 I agree, the old bussines lounge was way nicer in my opinion, would be realy nice if lju will have two lounges.
Amazing results, and I too believe that United flights (and mere announcement of it) will do a lot to further future growth of LJU.
ReplyDeleteGiven that many times routes fail because of lack of promotion/communication, I actually have high hopes for United flights. Out of 10 new routes they announced, LJU has been receiving most of the buzz. There were already 3 articles for example in WSJ, which emphasized on United expansion and singled out Ljubljana, and even United CEO Kirby mentioned that he is most excited to visit Ljubljana out of the list. This is the answer he gave to a WSJ journalist, not to Slovenian media hungry for affirmation, so it might just be genuine.
Super excited - what I think is needed is also strengthening connection to the hubs. I think capacity to FRA/MUN/AMS/CDG could be increased. I mean - what could be the other reason for flights to the US from TRS and LJU (through FRA and with same itinerary from FRA onwards) being 500EUR more expensive in LJU (on some dates). Just wondering, doubt taxes&fees amount to that difference.
I totally agree that United will bring a lot of good for the airport, however, i think that the hub connections (especially Lufthansa group’s) are starting to hit the limit, outside of a few top summer months. The LFs were in the lower 70% until June. Maybe the market just needs to pick up all of the increases by Lufthansa this year. AMS and LHR has a LF of >90% though, so a lot of room to grow there
DeleteDuring the whole summer season, more than 1000 Americans arrive to Slovenia per day, this goes up to 1,5k per day around May and now in September. And this is all without any direct flights. I don’t think United will have any problem filling the flights up.
Delete@10:06: Good point! I mean, I would ‘kill’ for BA flights that would allow connections to NA - just to have some options. Not sure that is likely, though. Anything that would help with year-round connectivity is more than welcome.
Delete@10:09: 100%! I am still hoping they might decide to extend it into winter schedule if the results in summer justify it, as most of my trips are between Oct-April. But, can’t get greedy all of a sudden, but a man can dream
It’s always good to dream, let’s wait and see how it plays out ;)
DeleteI wonder if A321XLR can come to Slovenia in winter (thus colder) months. Could be a viable option...if not - can the 757 make it?
Deletewhat will they do in winter months?
DeleteSlovenia in winter is in my opinion more picturesque, add Christmas Ljubljana to the package too... there surely is enough demand for the 2-3 weekly flights, the question is the yields, but with premium heavy config that they are using during the summer, i think that's sorted out
Delete757s are a no go - C16Y160 config for most of them is a no go
DeleteXLR would be on the limit, so it really depends what their comfort margin is - they would be cutting it close. Would probably need to limit cargo.
DeleteRegarding premium pax, I assume there should be enough in the winter months as well. I guess we’ll have to wait and see; but I do think US - Europe travel is booming year-round. After all this traditional winter/Christmas travel to Europe is on the upward swing.
I think if they would operate flights in winter, that they would stick to 767, maybe even the 300 version with heavyer bussines class configuration. And also because of cargo, this will be first direct flight to USA and we export a lot of things so it will definetly play an immportant role, it would definetly help for the winter operations on bigger plane
DeleteThe first and most important thing Fraport should fix is to do something with the taxi mafia in front of the airport…Do something like a fixed price to Ljubljana city like ORY has…
ReplyDeleteIf nothing else, at least Uber should make booking from the airport available, we don’t want to become known for the taxi scams as they do it in Croatia.
Delete^ Not to mention Belgrade, Sarajevo, Skopje, Tivat etc..
Delete@Admin is there any possibility we get the numbers for airline’s capacity in August? It’s always great to see how ‘the cake’ was divided.
ReplyDeleteIt has been added to the article
DeletePerfect, thanks!
DeleteA proof that airport can be successful without the two price dumping LCCs Ryanair and Wizzair. I think the potential of Ljubljana is big. It serves the whole country with about 2mil people in a healthy country.
ReplyDeleteI mean with a bigger share on the airport :-) Wizzair is flying from Ljubljana, but with lower share.
Delete@10:12 two million is a tiny tiny market mate
DeleteDepends on the comparison. Globally it's a tiny market, but in the exyu region it's not insignificant.
Deletewhat are you on about Mario? No, the potential of LJU is limited if they cannot attact the two price dumping LCCs
Delete@10.18 its actually one of the smallest markets without a diaspora
DeleteYes, you can grow even faster when providing more discounts. If you prefer to work for peanuts, then this would be a good strategy. I think it's better to have a bit lower growth, but a healthy one. Ljubljana is growing with double digits and I still think they have more room for growth. It's not all about diaspora. Leisure routes are growing faster across the whole exyu reagion.
DeleteThe one benefit that no one mentions here is that if the biggest player in Ljubljana exits, they lost 10% of the capacity and 4 routes (3 cities), while if the same happens in Belgrade, Podgorica, Skopje, Zagreb, Sarajevo half of the capacity andhalf of the destinations.
DeleteSo overall while Ljubljana isn't the best connected, it is VERY redundant
I don't totally follow your logic here. You mean to say that Ljubljana has a good 'spread of airlines', this is correct. Comparisons with other places really have so little meaning its hardly worth it. The Slovene market is specific and influenced by: Tourism, lack of a large migration population around Europe, close and efficient links to neighbouring airports. All in all its doing just fine and personally i wouldn't think that a massive increase in aviation is much needed.
Delete