Lufthansa remains Ljubljana’s busiest airline, Turkish second

Lufthansa cemented its position as Slovenia’s busiest airline, handling 147.150 passengers on its Ljubljana flights in 2022. The German carrier held a 15.2% market share at Ljubljana Airport, ahead of second placed Turkish Airlines with a 12.3% passenger share. Together with its equity partners, Swiss and Brussels Airlines, the Lufthansa Group has played a dominant role in the Slovenian aviation sector since the bankruptcy of Adria Airways in 2019. However, passenger numbers on flights to Germany were still notably down on 2019 when Adria was the sole carrier up until late September, handling 213.985 passengers, within a nine-month period alone. However, it should be noted that the first quarter of 2022 was still significantly impacted by travel restrictions resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

Passenger traffic on scheduled flights at Ljubljana Airport, 2022

Turkish Airlines was the second busiest in Ljubljana last year, handling 119.337 travellers. Many carriers operating into the Slovenian capital were not present during the first three quarters of the pre-pandemic 2019. Among those that were, Air France has seen the strongest come-back. In June last year, the airline introduced a second daily flight to the Slovenian capital, exceeding its pre-Covid capacity levels. Jointly with Transavia France, which commenced seasonal summer operations from Orly Airport to Ljubljana in late April, passenger numbers between the two capital cities reached 98.7% of pre-pandemic levels. Air Serbia managed to reach 78.5% of its pre-Covid traffic on the Slovenian market.

Flydubai saw its first full year of operations at Ljubljana Airport with the airline handling 45.263 passengers between Dubai and Slovenia. Of those, 22.443 departed Ljubljana for the largest city in the United Arab Emirates, while 22.820 flew from Dubai. The average cabin load factor across the year stood at 60% with a total of 229 flights operated each way on the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Air Montenegro also marked its first full year of flying to Ljubljana in 2022, with the carrier welcoming 22.305 passengers on board its Slovenia flights.

EX-YU Aviation News

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