Brnik - As airlines finalise their flight schedules for the winter, the operator of Ljubljana airport says the indications so far are that passengers from Ljubljana will have a greater choice of flights to six existing destinations: Amsterdam, Belgrade, Dubai, Istanbul, Podgorica and Zurich.

According to Fraport Slovenija, the low-cost carrier Flydubai will increase the frequency of its scheduled flights to Dubai, codeshared with Emirates, from five a week in the summer flight schedule to daily flights starting from 22 December.

Turkish Airlines, which now flies between Ljubljana and Istanbul ten times a week, will start operating 12 weekly flights on the route from February 2023.

More frequent flights to Ljubljana during the winter season, which starts in late October, have also been announced by Air Serbia, Swiss Airlines, Transavia and Air Montenegro.

The Serbian flag carrier is to fly to Belgrade twice a day, Swiss Airlines will link Ljubljana with Zurich on nine weekly flights, Transavia will fly to Amsterdam five times a week and Air Montenegro three times a week to Podgorica.

On other destinations, airlines will keep a similar number of flights on the winter schedule as they operate at the moment.

Air France flies to Paris eleven times a week, Air Serbia to Niš two times a week, Brussels Airlines flies to Brussels four times a week and Easyjet up to five times to London Gatwick airport.

LOT Polish Airlines operates eight weekly flights to Warsaw, Lufthansa two daily flights to Frankfurt and one daily flight to Munich, and Wizz Air flies to London Luton airport three times a week and to Brussels Charleroi airport twice a week.

"After the busy summer months we are looking forward to positive signals from airlines to increase the volume of flights in the winter season," Fraport Slovenija managing director Babett Stapel was quoted as saying.

Ljubljana airport served more than 122,000 passengers in August, an increase of 68% on the same month a year ago. In January-August the figure trebled year-on-year to almost 631,000.

Fraport Slovenija expect to register around 120,000 passengers in September.

"The number of passengers served in the summer months was above expectations, which will help us surpass the planned 880,000 passenger mark by the end of the year," the Ljubljana airport operator said, adding that this would allow it to at least double the figure posted in 2021.