Wizz Air Returns to Slovenia

Central and Eastern European low-cost carrier Wizz Air is to resume flights to Slovenia from October with the relaunch of flights to Ljubljana from both Brussels South Charleroi and London Luton. The airline is to offer a three times weekly service to the UK capital and a twice weekly link to the Belgian capital from October 29, 2012 over four years since it last served these markets.

Wizz Air first launched flights to Slovenia in May 2006 when it inaugurated flights to Ljubljana from both Brussels Charleroi and London Luton. However the UK link to the Slovenian capital was closed less than a year later in February 2007 and the Belgian service closed just a year later in March 2008. There is currently no direct competition on the Brussels route, although Adria Airways does offer up to twice daily flights to Brussels National. Wizz Air will compete directly with the Slovenian national carrier between Ljubljana and London Luton (a route which was launched earlier this year) and indirectly with easyJet from London Stansted.

The table below highlights the estimated O&D demand between Ljubljana and the two European capitals. Wizz Air expects the two new routes to deliver over 70,000 passengers in the first year and create up to 70 jobs in Slovenia.

“Wizz Air is delighted in launching these two new routes to Brussels and London. Over the last 4 years Slovenian passengers have travelled to airports in neighbouring countries to access low-fare flights. Wizz Air returns to Slovenia with increased efficiency and low costs and will offer Slovenian passengers and visitors really low fares. We expect these low fares on our five weekly flights to be very popular and hope to invest further in Slovenian tourism and job growth in the future,” said József Váradi, Chief Executive Officer, Wizz Air.

“We are excited about Wizz Air’s return, which in the current recession really is something to celebrate. We’re focused on delivering value for money flights for the passengers at Ljubljana Airport and our relationship with Wizz Air means that travellers can take advantage of low fares to new exciting destinations” said Zmago Skobir, Chief Executive Officer, Ljubljana Airport.

In 2011, just over 1.36 million passengers flew from Jože Pučnik Airport in Ljubljana; the fourth year that traffic numbers have declined since the facility reached the record figure of 1.67 million in 2008. Unsurprisingly, capacity at Slovenia’s largest international airport is dominated by local carrier and Star Alliance member Adria Airways, which this month accounts for 76.9 per cent of the weekly flights and 73.1 per cent of the weekly seat capacity.

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