Turkish overtakes Lufthansa as busiest carrier in Slovenia

Turkish Airlines has continued to perform strongly on its flights between Istanbul and Ljubljana, positioning itself as the busiest carrier in Slovenia during the January - October period. According to the European Statistical Office Eurostat, the Turkish flag carrier welcomed 145.539 passengers between the two cities during the ten-month period. Turkish Airlines’ passenger numbers on its Ljubljana flights have increased 52.8% on last year and are up 9.2% on the pre-pandemic 2019. Istanbul was Ljubljana’s busiest individual destination during the January - October period, ahead of London (all airports combined). On its 1.030 flights between the two cities (includes operations in each direction), the carrier utilised the Airbus A321 aircraft on 33% of rotations, with the A320, A330 and Boeing 737-800 jets deployed on the remaining services.

Lufthansa has placed as Ljubljana’s second busiest carrier, having taken top spot in 2022. The German airline, which maintains operations from both Frankfurt and Munich to the Slovenian capital, handled a combined total of 141.365 passengers during the January - October period. Passenger numbers on flights from the two German cities are still notably down on the same period in 2019 when Slovenia’s former national carrier Adria Airways was the sole operator on the two routes. Back then, it handled a combined total of 184.570 passengers over the six-month period. Between January and October of this year, Lufthansa used the CRJ900 jet on 94% of its Ljubljana flights.

Hurghada, which is served on a regular charter basis, saw the largest increase in passenger numbers compared to four years ago, while among scheduled routes, the biggest growth was recorded by LOT Polish Airlines, which improved its result by almost 40%. Among carriers that operated to Ljubljana in 2019, Air Serbia improved its result this year. Although easyJet improved its figures on the London Gatwick route, it no longer maintains operations from London Stansted or Berlin to the Slovenian capital as it did four years ago.