The Dutch airline KLM has announced its plans to launch a new daily flight between Amsterdam and Ljubljana from March 30th next year. This will officially mark KLM's entry into the Slovenian market and at the same time strengthen its presence in Southeast Europe. This strategic decision marks another milestone for the airline, which already operates in Croatia and Serbia. The connection will be operated with an Embraer E190, a modern short- and medium-haul aircraft with a capacity of 100 passengers.
The route between Amsterdam and Ljubljana is by no means new, but has a long history. Before the collapse of the Slovenian airline Adria Airways in 2019, this route was served eleven times a week - by Adria and Transavia, the low-cost airline subsidiary of the Air France-KLM group. With the new daily connection and the continued flights of Transavia, which serves the route four times a week, the frequency will reach pre-pandemic levels in summer 2025.
Strong demand despite difficult past
The Amsterdam-Ljubljana route has proven to be attractive in recent years. Between January and September this year, Transavia carried 45.771 passengers on this route, an impressive increase of 51,3% compared to the same period last year. These figures illustrate the potential of the Slovenian market, especially considering that the increase is partly due to the lack of flights in the first quarter of 2023.
Another indicator of the route's popularity is the cabin occupancy rate, which averaged 2024% in the first nine months of 86 - a figure that is above the industry average and underlines the economic attractiveness of this connection.
expansion of presence in Southeast Europe
With the addition of Ljubljana to the route network, Slovenia will become the third market in the former Yugoslavia that KLM serves directly, after Croatia and Serbia. The company is pursuing a comprehensive growth strategy in the region and is planning a total of 2025 weekly flights to the Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia markets in the 64 summer season. In particular, the high frequency to Split (20 weekly flights) and Dubrovnik (nine weekly flights) in the peak season shows how important Southeast Europe is for the airline's expansion plans.
The new connection to Ljubljana complements Transavia's existing offer, which will be operated in summer 2025 with Airbus A321neo and Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The combination of the premium KLM brand and the cheaper Transavia option enables the Air France-KLM Group to appeal to a wide range of customers.
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