STA, 6 July 2021 - The Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport has seen traffic tick up at the start of the summer tourism season. Scheduled flights to eleven destinations and charter flights to twenty destinations are currently available, with 2,000-2,500 passengers passing through the airport daily.
On Tuesday scheduled flights between Ljubljana and Tivat were formally launched, a three times a week service operated by Montenegro Airlines.
Janez Krašnja, head of airline management at airport operator Fraport Slovenija, said six more destinations would be added in the coming months.
"Barring any fundamental changes in the epidemiological situation, we will have 17 scheduled lines this summer, which is a good achievement for the first year of recovery," he said.
The current daily number of passengers is a significant improvement over the peak of the epidemic, but it represents only a third of the normal daily number before the pandemic.
The airport operator fears what autumn and winter will bring. "Tourism and air traffic are practically the biggest victims of the pandemic, we sincerely hope there will be no fourth wave to sweep away the returning traffic," Krašnja said.
A setback came recently when a new government regulation determined that passengers from all countries on Slovenia's red list, including Egypt, Tunisia, UK and Ireland, had to quarantine on arrival.
Krašnja said such decisions reduced the speed of recovery of the aviation sector and were a big blow for the airport. There have not been many cancellations as yet and with indications that the restriction may be eased, Krašnja hopes it will not have too much of an impact on air traffic.
"We are hoping there are no more obstacles like this and that passengers can enter our country just like they can enter other countries in the region ... The fewer the obstacles, the more demand there will be," he said.
