Ljubljana Airport expects United Airlines’ upcoming Newark service to support the development of further long-haul connectivity. In an interview with EX-YU Aviation News, Ljubljana Airport's CEO, Juergen Deischl, discussed how the landmark route was secured following six months of intensive talks, the airport’s preparations for Boeing 767 operations and the potential for additional long-haul services. United’s four weekly seasonal flights, launching next May, will provide Slovenia with its first nonstop connection to the United States since the country gained independence.
How significant is United’s arrival for Ljubljana Airport and Slovenia as a whole?
United’s decision to launch nonstop service between Newark and Ljubljana marks a defining new chapter for Slovenian aviation. For the first time since Slovenia gained independence, the country will have a direct, nonstop connection to the United States. Previous services belonged to a different era and operated under fundamentally different circumstances. This is Slovenia’s first direct transatlantic gateway to America.
It is far more than a new route. It connects Slovenia directly with one of the world’s most important aviation markets, provides seamless access to United’s extensive network across North America and places the country more firmly on the global aviation map. For Ljubljana Airport, it is a powerful statement of confidence in the market, the destination and the airport’s future as the leading gateway for the wider region.
What are your expectations for the new service, both in terms of its initial performance and its potential development in the years ahead?
We approach this service with confidence and a clear long-term vision. The fundamentals are strong, with demand spanning leisure and business travel and the wider regional market that Ljubljana Airport serves.
We expect the route to build momentum from the outset and establish itself as a sustainable and strategically important part of United’s transatlantic network. But the real opportunity extends well beyond the launch. As the service gains visibility and Slovenia’s international profile continues to grow, we see considerable potential to develop the route further and broaden its reach across the region. Our ambition is clear: to make this not simply a successful new service, but an enduring transatlantic connection that creates long-term value for United, Ljubljana Airport and Slovenia.
How did Ljubljana secure the United service, and how long were negotiations between the airport and the airline underway?
Long-haul routes of this significance are not secured through a single presentation or meeting. They are built through relationships, market intelligence and the ability to see an opportunity before it becomes obvious to everyone else.
While engagement with United had been under way for some time, the decisive phase began at the end of March this year, when we intensified the dialogue and jointly developed the full strategic potential of the route. From my experience in airline development at Frankfurt Airport, such a process would typically take two to three years. To move from focused discussions to a shared commitment within six months is therefore an exceptional achievement.
United deserves considerable credit for approaching the opportunity with vision and entrepreneurial courage. Rather than relying solely on conventional traffic models, the airline recognized the wider story: Slovenia’s tourism appeal, its economic and trading links, the demand across the wider region and the potential of a market that had never before enjoyed a nonstop connection to the United States.
That combination of insight, speed and shared ambition transformed an opportunity into a route. It is a powerful example of what can be achieved when two partners look beyond the obvious and act with confidence.
Does United’s arrival potentially open the door for additional long-haul services in the future, and is Ljubljana Airport actively pursuing other long-haul opportunities?
United’s arrival changes the perception of what is possible from Ljubljana. It demonstrates that the airport and the wider region can support a high-quality long-haul service when the right market opportunity is matched with the right airline partner. That will undoubtedly attract attention across the industry.
We are ambitious about the future of Ljubljana Airport and are actively pursuing further long-haul opportunities. We take a focused and disciplined approach, targeting markets where Slovenia’s tourism appeal, economic links and the wider regional catchment create a compelling and sustainable proposition for both passengers and airlines.
Our immediate priority is to make the United service an outstanding and enduring success. At the same time, we see it as the beginning of a new chapter rather than the conclusion of one. It gives us a powerful platform from which to advance Ljubljana Airport’s global connectivity and strengthen its position as the Airport of Choice for the Region.
How will Ljubljana Airport accommodate United’s Boeing 767 operations? Will the aircraft be handled at a remote stand, and does the lounge have sufficient capacity to comfortably accommodate passengers, given the route’s relatively premium-heavy profile?
Ljubljana Airport is no stranger to widebody operations. We have successfully handled a range of widebody aircraft in the past, including long-haul charter services, and we continue to welcome aircraft such as the Boeing 747 on special operations. From both an airside and terminal perspective, the airport has the infrastructure, operational expertise and dedicated people required to support United’s Boeing 767 service to a high standard.
Naturally, a route of this significance requires every aspect of the operation and passenger journey to be examined in detail. We are doing this in close cooperation with United, whose operational experts will visit Ljubljana as part of the preparations. The final operating concept, including whether the aircraft will be handled at a contact or remote stand, will be determined jointly based on safety, efficiency and the best overall passenger experience.
Our facilities, including our premium services, provide a strong foundation for the new route. We will nevertheless make targeted enhancements where they add value and ensure that the entire experience meets the standards expected by United and its customers. Passenger satisfaction at Ljubljana Airport consistently exceeds 90 per cent, and we intend to bring that same focus on quality, efficiency and personal service to this important new connection.
Our objective is not merely to accommodate a Boeing 767. It is to deliver a seamless transatlantic experience that reflects the quality of United’s product and the standards for which Ljubljana Airport is recognised.
This new CEO is so much better than the last
ReplyDeleteHe is crazy, where will they get the staff for all the traffic. They are already strugling
DeletePressumibly, they will hire more staff.
DeleteBut is there enough people to hire?
DeleteThe bigger issue may be retaining staff rather than finding them. Better pay and working conditions would probably make recruitment much easier.
DeleteI mean joke about him or call us Fraport fanboys, I don’t really care because he is taking his job seriously unlike the previous CEO and even doing what he is supposed to do seems a lot compared to the previous one, which does tell a lot. Hopefully Ljubljana airport will grow further like this, in terms of both transatlantic flights and more European connections. Hopefully we soon get the results of the tender to see who did really apply and if they were successful.
ReplyDeleteI hope it will be handled at contact gate, in the past such operations happened from time to time (767-4 from Atlas…) but I think that the parking position was removed, but that doesn’t mean they can’t bring it back :D.
ReplyDeleteFor a premium heavy long haul service, a contact gate would certainly offer a much better passenger experience. Hopefully the necessary adjustments can be made before May.
DeleteI really hope they use the contact gate too. I just flew on both, LH and KLM to/from LJU last week and the amount of stairs you have to use is just insane. I guess using those air bridges must be expensive for airlines, so passengers have to go down the set of stairs when disembarking the plane and then when entering the terminal, you have to go up almost 2 floors and then again downstairs to claim your luggage and exit the terminal. I really feel bad especially for older passengers with mobility issues carrying their bags up and down those stairs. AMS was the same if not even worse with all those buses that take forever to get you from your plane to the terminal to get you to your connecting flight.
DeleteWell done LJU.
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear that more long hauls are planned!
ReplyDeleteVery good interview. What I like is that Deischl is not pretending Newark solves everything. Ljubljana still badly needs better connectivity to major European hubs and more frequencies on existing routes.
ReplyDeleteYes. And good to hear them emphasising frequencies as much as new destinations. Ljubljana has quite a few routes where the schedule is simply not convenient enough for business travellers.
DeleteSlovenia is a small market, so every route cannot be daily.
DeleteDefenitly every route is not for daily service, but even three weekly is much more convinient then two weekly.
Delete40,000 passengers in one summer season would be an excellent result for LJU. I think people underestimate how much traffic Slovenia currently leaks to Venice, Zagreb and Vienna.
ReplyDeleteHow it is possible, the exact data about nationality of passenger at airports never come public and nobody speaks about it? All are just asumptions (based on car plates parked at airports). Probably bigger airports are not very interesting in this data, but it seems CEO in Ljubljana is aware of it.
DeleteNationality data may not be publicly available but airlines and airports have access to booking and market data that can provide a much clearer picture than simply looking at car registration plates.
DeleteI would still like to know how much incentive money is behind the United deal. Nothing wrong with incentives
ReplyDeleteMaybe there are no incentives.
DeleteIncentives are common when launching a new long haul route
DeleteFor Slovenian tourism this is huge. Americans are high spending visitors and a nonstop flight makes Slovenia much easier to package and sell in the US
ReplyDeleteImagine telling someone in 2020, when LJU was struggling badly after Adria's collapse and Covid, that United would eventually fly Newark-Ljubljana. Quite a turnaround.
ReplyDeleteThe airport has come a long way in a relatively short period.
DeleteHalf a year has more development that previous 4 years
Delete^ true!
DeleteI remember when there were days with just 5 flights. And this was well past the covid crisis.
DeleteDo we know what the results of the tender are? Presumably Berlin, Dus and Bru... what's the 4th?
ReplyDeleteThere are whispers of Wizz entering Ljubljana next summer for an expansion, so let's wait and see.
DeleteThe authorities said the process should be completed in early October so the successful routes and airlines should hopefully be announced soon.
DeleteChina is next, while I do think that either Korea or Japan will follow within year or two. Maybe if New York works well another destination from USA is on the table as well?
ReplyDeleteIs there demand from other US cities? I would think there would be more from/to Asia.
DeleteI would think so, Doncic turism is a thing. There's even word of Ljubljana hosting NBA pre-season next year
Deletegosh ^^
Delete@10.14 there is demand from/to Cleveland.
Delete@11:57 not even London has direct flights to Cleveland. Never gonna happen in the modern era.
DeleteNewark already provides excellent connectivity across North America. A second US route would probably require substantial point-to-point demand, so strengthening and potentially extending United’s existing service may be the more realistic next step.
Delete@11.57 Some demand may exist but it can be served efficiently through Newark. Like anon @18.49 said Even much larger European markets do not have nonstop Cleveland flights so such a route from Ljubljana would be extremely unlikely.
DeleteInteresting that they seem increasingly confident about Ljubljana’s wider catchment area. That is probably essential if they want to attract more major airlines.
ReplyDeleteYes, they realised they are losing too many pax to others.
DeleteLJU fanboys starting to talk about catchment area, well welcome to the club!
Deletebtw what else do you exect from a PR?
Like it or not, LJU-Newark is gonna be the only direct route to USA in radius of more than 200 km. You can call it the catchment area or not, but the fact is people from different countries will use it for sure. Be happy the region is developing.
DeleteLjubljana is becoming a much more interesting market because airlines can increasingly rely on both inbound tourism and local demand.
ReplyDeleteWhich markets are the biggest remaining gaps for LJU?
ReplyDeleteStill waiting for better connectivity towards Scandinavia. That part of Europe remains surprisingly weak from Ljubljana.
DeleteThe airport now needs to convert strong summer demand into stronger winter traffic. That is probably the biggest challenge for the next few years.
ReplyDeleteSlovenia in Winter for tourism is not an attraction except the Xmas market in LJU. And Ski tourism can not compete with other alpine destinations due to the altitude of most of their ski resorts. For Slovenians the airport can work on warm leisure destinations on top of the DXB, LPA, TFS flights. But for more than AGP or Egypt Charters, I dont see any potential, as for nonstop long hauls the market is too small.
DeleteWell we could get traffic for koroška region where bigger resorts are (nassfield, gerlitzen, katschberg, bad klein kircheim…) along with slovenian resorts which are smaller and cheaper.
Delete+1 These resorts should work together with LJU Airport to attract foreign tourists from the UK for example
DeleteAnd lets not forget all the thermal resorts
DeleteAgree, thermal tourism in combination with skiing could be interesting for far away markets as well.
DeleteAirMontenegro should codeshare on these flights!
ReplyDeleteLol
Deleteno need for that they fly to DBV anyway
DeleteObviously only we dinosaurs remember American Trans Air operating between LJU and I thing Cleveland in mid nineteens. For a short period but it did. Summer season 1995. Aircraft L-1011
ReplyDeleteIt was Rich International it flew every other wednesday in summer inbound was direct and return had a stop at gatwick
DeleteYes of course! RICH. Dinosaur like I said
Delete:) was a great day for spotting on the good old terrace, it was at the time of day when all Adria fleet had a turnaround + air malta 737-200 charter so it was for long time the liveliest time block at LJU I can remember from those days
DeleteIt’s always interesting how CEOs cite some questionable survey results. Where do they come from? And just because 100 people respond doesn’t mean their answers apply to 200,000. LJU Airport has the advantage of being a small airport, which is a positive. The security check is also usually a positive experience. On the negative side, the quality of the lounge is poor, there are too few seats in the gate area, the retail offerings—such as stores and restaurants—are lackluster, Gate A1 still doesn’t have a jet bridge after 5 years, the lines at immigration are often too long, website maintenance needs improvement, and emails sent to LJU AP frequently go unanswered—which says a lot about how the airport is run.
ReplyDeleteSo there’s still a lot of work to be done to reach 90%.
It remains to be seen whether LJU can hold on to UA. Beyond a seasonal flight to China, I don’t see any further long-haul potential.
+100
DeleteThe arrival of United will raise expectations, particularly among premium passengers so improvements to the lounge, gate areas and border control experience should form part of the preparations.
DeleteGood luck Ljubjana and well done!
ReplyDelete"the potential of a market that had never before enjoyed a nonstop connection to the United States."
ReplyDeleteEhhh, seriously? He said that?
means the "catchment area" in his mind is not that large
DeleteThe most encouraging thing is that Ljubljana finally seems to have momentum :)
ReplyDeleteI'm sure having a big name like United will make some airlines have a think about flying to LJU.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely
DeletePeople said the same when Emirates started flying there but it didn't happen.
Deleteand in the same time LuxAir, Norwegian, Transavia are struggling
DeleteWell Transavia has officially confirmed it is cancelling LJU
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2026/09/transavia-france-to-discontinue.html
@12.05 well what exactly can the airport do about that?
DeleteLuxair isn't struggling now that they figured out what their schedule is (summer only, with all December and February vacation flying), Norwegian is now flying without subsidies and has extended the flights for next year; and Transavia wasn't struggling (AMS was full, ORY was around 85% on average), but the parent company decided that competition isn't good for the yields of the main airlines. If you want to find a route that's struggling from LJU right now its DXB followed by INI.
DeleteNorwegian has shortened the season, starting later and ending one month earlier. The parent company "decision" re Transavia is rekla kazala talk.
DeleteSo Transavia confirming they are discontinuing Ljubljana is rekla kazala?
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2026/09/transavia-france-to-discontinue.html
Norwegian next year flies from May 14 till end of the summer schedule, same schedule as this year
Deletefirst time that i hear that Sept 20 is end of the summer schedule, but if you think so OK, you are alway right anyway
Delete@13.17 no but this sentence of yours is "but the parent company decided that competition isn't good for the yields of the main airlines."
Delete13:25 don't be stupid. Most of the airlines accept booking for around a year in advance, not more. See Easyjet as prime example of this.The flights will be from May 14th till Oct 25th
DeleteNorwegian will 100 % extend their schedule till the end of October next year. I was following their schedule closely last year, and the same thing happened. If you try to buy the flights and choose 9 pax, you can see that three flights are already sold out for October, I think Oct and Sept are more successful months for them than May and June.
DeleteBravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteIs the new CEO the most proactive airport CEO in the region?
ReplyDeleteSecuring United within such a short period and openly discussing the airport’s shortcomings and ambitions is certainly an encouraging start.
DeleteAny idea how the United sales are going? I know it's early, but surely someone on here booked a flight and saw what the seat map looks like
ReplyDeleteFirst flight is sold out with Jansa, Trump, Melania and Bibi in the back 😜
DeleteYou can see the seat map of each flight immediately after choosing the dates and clicking "search". You don't even need to choose the flights. There is at least a couple of seats already bought on most of the flights, the first flight is already approx 25 % full and I saw one flight in the middle of June, which had around 30 seats bought in the same area, probably a group tour or something. All in all, I think the flights are selling quite good.
DeleteInterestingly in August every flight has rows 51-53 seats A+B booked. Seems like an agency booking to me, it's just odd that seemingly package only includes 6 pax. Maybe an agency is selling some packages and booking the flights once they are confirmed? In any case, I had a browse through a few flights and I'm shocked how well booked business class is. Only a few flights remain with all business class seats available and quite a few with 5-8 ones already booked
DeleteSeat maps are not a reliable indication of total bookings, as many passengers do not select seats in advance and some seats may be blocked by the airline.
DeleteGreat interview! @Admin Any info on Aegean? They seem to have scheduled most of other flights (including Zagreb) for S27, there's still nothing in Ljubljana.
ReplyDeleteIts scheduled as 3x weekly in March so let's wait. Zagreb wasn't available last week either
DeleteMarch is still the winter season.
DeleteAegean makes modifications till February for their summer schedule so we’ll see.
DeleteYes. Aegean often finalises parts of its schedule gradually, so the absence of flights at this stage does not necessarily mean the route will not operate. As far as I can remember, they scheduled the flights late for this summer too.
Delete