Lufthansa Group has announced a significant expansion into Ljubljana in the wake of the bankruptcy of its Star Alliance partner and long-time feeder Adria Airways (Ljubljana).
According to a group press release, Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) will launch 2x daily services from Frankfurt International on October 27, 2019. It will also add daily service from Munich on November 1. Flights will be operated by Lufthansa CityLine (CL, Munich) using CRJ900s.
Swiss (LX, Zurich) will also add 5x weekly services from Zurich to Ljubljana on October 16, expanding them to daily connections from October 27. It will use an A220-300 on the route. However, the airline also said in a separate statement that it will not resume flights from Zurich to Lugano, a city in southern Switzerland. The 4x daily route was operated with Saab 2000s wet-leased from Adria Airways. Swiss said that it will instead offer train connections.
"In view of the forthcoming opening of the Ceneri Tunnel next year, Swiss has been in close contact with [national rail operator] SBB for some time now. This will now be intensified in order to ensure a reliable and comfortable connection for our passengers between Lugano and Zurich as soon as possible," the airline said.
Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National) will also launch a 6x weekly connection to Ljubljana on November 4. The airline will deploy A319-100s on the route.
Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna) will not launch services to Ljubljana for the time being as it hopes to capture the market through its 3x daily domestic services to Klagenfurt. The Austrian city is located less than 50 kilometres away from Ljubljana airport.
According to the ch-aviation schedules module, Lufthansa Group does not currently serve the Slovenian capital as it used to rely on Adria Airways to feed passengers from both Ljubljana and the wider region of former Yugoslavia and Albania. The defunct carrier used to operate 3x daily to Frankfurt and Zurich, and 2x daily to Munich and Vienna from Ljubljana. It also flew 3x weekly from Tirana to both Frankfurt and Munich, as well as from Pristina to Frankfurt (8x weekly) and Munich (6x weekly).
