Ljubljana Airport eyes pre-Covid traffic levels in four to five years
Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport aims to double its passenger numbers this year but expects its full recovery to take at least four to five years. “During the ongoing winter season, we are linked to fourteen destinations, which is a nice increase compared to the same period last year, when we had just six routes available. For the summer, we expect to offer flights to at least 22 destinations”, the Head of Airline Management at Ljubljana Airport, Janez Krašnja, said. He added, “Based on our estimates, we expect to reach 2019 traffic levels in 2026 or 2027”. The Covid-19 pandemic is not the only reason the Slovenian market has lagged behind most others in Europe over the past two years. The airport is yet to recover from the demise of Adria Airways in late 2019. “We were unable to make up for the shortfall in traffic caused by the demise of Adria Airways to the amount we planned due to the pandemic”, Mr Krašnja noted.
Ljubljana Airport expects to handle up to 900.000 travellers in 2022 with four airlines to commence new services to the Slovenian capital in the coming period. Following on from Air Serbia’s resumption of flights between Niš and Ljubljana earlier this month, and the introduction of operations from St Petersburg by Aeroflot subsidiary Rossiya Airlines yesterday, the airport is anticipating the arrival of Nordwind Airlines from Moscow, Windrose Airlines from Kiev and Transavia from Paris Orly in the coming months. “We are pleased with our recovery during the second half of 2021, as traffic at the end of the year was actually a little higher than we expected. Considering existing plans made by airlines for 2022, we can look forward to even greater traffic growth. Present estimates show we should welcome twice as many passengers in the new terminal than we did last year”, the General Manager of Ljubljana Airport, Babett Stapel, said.
Traffic development at Ljubljana Airport will also highly depend on whether the country decides to set up a new national carrier, which Slovenia’s former Prime Minister, Alenka Bratušek, has vowed to do if her party wins the upcoming April elections. The Head of the Slovenian Aviation Agency, Rok Marolt, said, “I have always objected to those who claimed the market would take care of connectivity following the collapse of Adria Airways. The market would certainly take care of itself at major hubs such as New York, Frankfurt, Brussels, Paris … In Slovenia, in my opinion, the market will never take care of itself because, unfortunately, we are not interesting enough to foreign carriers”.
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