Ljubljana Airport expects half a million passengers in 2020
Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport expects to handle 500.000 passengers this year “at most” due to the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, it is expected to register its slowest year since 1994. Ljubljana has been impacted not only by the virus but also the bankruptcy of its main customer, Adria Airways, late last year. Flights are slowly resuming to the Slovenian capital, with Lufthansa returning from Frankfurt and Wizz Air from Charleroi this week. They follow Air Serbia and Montenegro Airlines which reinstated operations from their respective hubs earlier on. “We are very pleased that traffic is resuming, especially with larger carriers. However, these figures are far from what we are otherwise used to at this point in the year”, Ljubljana Airport’s General Manager, Zmago Skobir, said. He expressed concern that some airlines might not have enough demand to justify maintaining services to the city during the winter.
Following an almost three-month hiatus, the first flight from Frankfurt to Ljubljana on Monday saw 92 passengers while there were 35 on the return Lufthansa service. Wizz Air handled 97 travellers on its flight from Charleroi, while there were 54 on the way back. However, there were significantly more people booked that simply did not show up for their Wizz flights, which is a trend being seen across the continent. "It's important to note that airlines have downsized, meaning they now have smaller fleets and are looking towards markets that are open, commercially attractive, and where they won't have problems with the consequences of Covid-19", Mr Skobir said.
As a result of the significant decline in traffic, Ljubljana Airport plans to lay off up to 120 employees. “Without such a measure, the company will run into even greater liquidity problems”, the General Manager noted. Unions have requested for any decision over staff dismissals to be delayed until the end of the year when the full impact of the virus can be better assessed. They have also requested for all infrastructure investments to be delayed in order to save money, and in turn jobs. Mr Skobir has said that all non-essential investments, valued at some eight million euros, have been halted, while the construction of the airport’s new passenger terminal is ongoing as it has been deemed necessary for Ljubljana’s long-term development.
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