Aerodrom Ljubljana u pregovorima sa Wizz Airom i easyJetom

LJUBLJIANA, Slovenia – Slovenia’s Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport is in talks with low cost airlines Wizz Air and easyJet for the two to launch new flights to the Slovenian capital later this year. The CEO of Ljubljana Airport, Zmago Skobir, says, “We are in the final stages of talks with Wizz Air and easyJet on launching routes to northern Germany and maybe Scandinavia towards the end of the year”. He adds, “The airport offers links to 23 destinations, however, Spain, Italy, Scandinavia and northern Germany remain grey areas”. Wizz Air currently operates flights to Ljublana from Charleroi and London Luton, while easyJet maintains flights from London Stansted.

The two are the only low cost airlines currently operating scheduled flights to the Slovenian capital. They are credited for lifting passenger numbers at Ljubljana Airport in 2013. Wizz Air and easyJet now account for 12.3% of all passengers using the airport, up 4.2% on 2012. easyJet is currently the second busiest airline in Ljubljana after Adria Airways. In less than a year, Wizz Air has become Ljubljana’s third busiest airline with some 50.000 passengers carried to and from the airport. In 2012 easyJet also operated flights from Paris to Ljubljana but discontinued the service later on.

Ljubljana Airport hopes to see passenger numbers improve by 7% this year but it will need new destinations to do so. Adria Airways has already announced plans to launch flights to Warsaw and Prague from Ljubljana in late March and early April respectively. The airport’s CEO says growth in 2014 will be fuelled by Adria, Turkish Airlines and Air Serbia. Furthermore, Ljubljana Airport will invest 5.8 million euros in its facilities this year, primarily on necessary adaptations after the airport’s shareholders last year rejected a state backed plan for the construction of a new terminal building. It remains to be seen how the airport’s sale, expected by mid 2014, will impact on its operations.