First flight to Greece opens the main charter season
26. 5. 2023
With the first charter flight to Greece this year, Ljubljana Airport has entered the main charter season. Organized by travel agencies the most popular destinations in the Mediterranean and beyond will be available. The summer season 2023, valid until end October, will serve with charter flights to 39 destinations in 20 countries. The growth of charter traffic is encouraging. Already this year the number of passengers in this segment is expected to climb to the level it had been recording before the covid-19 pandemic. Over 150,000 passengers are expected to be handled on charter flights until end of 2023.
On Friday, May 26, this year's first charter flight to Greece took off for Crete and Santorini. During the summer the widest offer of flights will be available to Greece, Spain, Egypt and Turkey. Passengers will be able to fly to 10 Greek islands – Crete, Karpathos, Kefallinia, Kos, Lefkas, Lemnos, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini and Zakynthos. A more varied offer of flights to Spain is available this season, where vacationers can discover Barcelona, Vittoria, Seville, Girona, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and Tenerife. Multiple charter flights per week will also be operated to Egypt (Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh) and Turkey (Antalya). In the summer season, 39 destinations in 20 countries will be available. Besides the already mentioned, holidays with travel agencies will take passengers also to Tunisia (Monastir and Djerba), Malta, Madeira, The Azores, The Cape Verde islands, Porto, Palermo, Morocco, Lourdes, Split, Tivat, Jordan, Manchester, Cologne, Rotterdam, Riga, Rovaniemi and to Iceland.
Charter flights to the aforementioned destinations will be operated with eight airlines: Trade Air, Aegean Airlines, Nouvelair, Freebird, Fly Egypt, Air Malta, Red Sea Airlines and Corendon. The tour operators are Slovenian travel agencies Palma, Kompas, Relax, Intelekta, Oasis and Austrian DTA Touristik.
Recovery of charter traffic already in 2023
The growth of charter traffic at Ljubljana Airport is encouraging. From January to April 2023 we handled 92% more passengers than last year in the same period. Compared to the pre-pandemic period (2019) we have handled 38 % more charter passengers in the first four months of 2023. We expect the numbers this year to climb to the levels we had been recording in 2019 – we plan to handle more than 150,000 charter passengers.
»The travel agencies are offering an outstanding range of charter flights during the summer. The holiday season will take passengers exploring destinations from The Azores throughout the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and the Northern Europe. Charter traffic is at the forefront of recovery, already this year it is expected to return to the levels we had been recording in the pre-pandemic year. We are looking forward to a traffic intense summer, when we will be able to greet the holidaymakers every day at Ljubljana Airport, « said Dr Babett Stapel, the Managing Director of Fraport Slovenija with the beginning of the main charter season.