PREMIUM
Turkish Airlines lost its position as the busiest airline for connecting traffic out of Ljubljana in 2020. It was outperformed by Lufthansa, which entered the Slovenian market with its own flights in late 2019, following the collapse of Adria Airways. In 2019, the Turkish carrier handled 24% of all passengers who either started or completed their journey in Ljubljana but reached their final destination via another airport. In 2020, its market share declined to 21%. During last year, Turkish carried 24.781 travellers who transferred via Istanbul to and from Ljubljana. On the other hand, Lufthansa had almost 10.000 more connecting passengers than its Turkish counterpart.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic impacting passenger flow last year, the top connecting markets for Turkish Airlines on its Slovenian operations did not differ much. In 2020, the busiest indirect destination for the Turkish carrier to and from Ljubljana was Izmir, while in 2019 it was the capital Ankara. Several other destinations in Turkey were among the top ten last year, including Antalya and Kayseri. Turkish Airlines also carried a notable number of passengers to Bucharest, which was Ljubljana’s busiest unserved route both in 2019 and 2020.
Turkish Airlines' top O&D destinations to/from Ljubljana in 2020
Turkish Airlines' top O&D destinations to/from Ljubljana in 2019
During the upcoming 2021 summer season, which begins on March 28, the Turkish carrier will operate 666 flights (return service included) on its Ljubljana route, making it the second largest on the Slovenian market in terms of frequencies, behind Lufthansa. Capacity-wise, Turkish will be the largest airline in Ljubljana, offering 111.314 seats on sale, ahead of its German competitor with 100.530 seats. At this point, Turkish Airlines plans to primarily operate two aircraft types on its Ljubljana service, the Airbus A321 jet and the Boeing 737-family aircraft. The A321 is set to be utilised on 54.1% of all flights, the B737s on 45.6% of flights, while the A320 will only be used on a single rotation.