Ljubljana Airport prepared for Adria collapse
Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport has said it is ready for the likely demise of Slovenia’s national carrier and its biggest customer, which has ‘temporarily’ discontinued most of its flights until at least Saturday morning. "The situation is being monitored. Regardless of the outcome, it should be emphasized that air travel exists mainly because of market demand which speaks in favour of maintaining services that are commercially viable and potentially profitable", the airport said. It added that a strategy has been devised in case of Adria’s bankruptcy, which cannot be publicly disclosed at this time. “We are currently in talks, persuading and analysing the sustainability of new potential routes with fifteen new carriers. This is done on a daily basis and is a continuous and never-ending process", the airport noted.
Ljubljana Airport, whose traffic trends and business has been heavily dependent on Adria Airways over the years, has eased its reliance on the national carrier, with foreign airlines having an increasing impact. Adria's passenger share at its home base in Ljubljana stood at 56% in 2018, down from a high of over 77% in 2010. This year, the Slovenian carrier was expected to account for around 50% of Ljubljana's traffic. Adria faces no competition on a number of routes from the Slovenian capital. They include: Brussels, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Munich, Prague, Pristina, Sarajevo, Skopje, Sofia, Tirana, Vienna and Zurich. Routes that are operated by both Adria and another carrier are Amsterdam (Transavia), Berlin (easyJet), Paris (Air France) and Podgorica (Montenegro Airlines). The Slovenian carrier also maintained a number of charter flights.
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| Adria Airways network |
In 2011, when Adria faced significant financial uncertainty, the General Manager of Ljubljana Airport, Zmago Skobir, said, “If Adria were to go bankrupt, the airport would experience a twelve-month crisis during which it would have to find partners to fill in the void of up to 70% of flights operated from the airport”. Late last year, Mr Skobir said “it wouldn't be the end of the world for the airport or Slovenia's connectivity” if developments at Adria “did not go according to plan”. Foreign carriers have begun responding to developments taking place at Adria Airways with Air Serbia scheduling double daily flights between Belgrade and Ljubljana from the start of the 2019/2020 winter season, up from eleven weekly last winter, and Montenegro Airlines adding an additional weekly flight from Podgorica for a total of five weekly. The Serbian carrier will add extra capacity on routes that were operated by the Slovenian airline. Air France HOP! will more than double its operations between Paris and Ljubljana this winter, with the carrier to maintain thirteen weekly flights, up from six last winter season. The airline will maintain two daily services, with the exception to Saturdays. Furthermore, LOT will add an extra weekly rotation between Warsaw and Ljubljana this winter for a total of eight weekly flights.
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