Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport welcomed its millionth passenger this year in early September, a month earlier than last year, as passenger numbers were up by 18% year-on-year in the first eight months.

According the airport operator Fraport Slovenija, the airport served more than 979,500 passengers in the first eight months of the year.

The number of passengers is expected to reach some 1.4 million by the end of the year, equalling 92% of the pre-pandemic levels.

However, when making comparisons with the pre-Covid figures, Fraport Slovenija noted that it needed to be taken into account that Ljubljana airport lost the status of the Balkan aviation hub in 2019, as direct routes to outside destinations have been established across the region in the past five years.

On a positive note, routes from Ljubljana to Istanbul, Zurich, Brussels, Warsaw, Belgrade and Skopje have exceeded the numbers from before the pandemic, with the routes to Frankfurt and Paris coming close.

At the height of this year's summer season, the airport saw 22 airlines operating flights to 25 destinations, which was one of the factors that contributed to the million-passenger milestone being reached a month sooner than last year, Fraport said in a press release on 13 September.

The most popular destinations so far this year have been Istanbul, London, Frankfurt, Zurich and Paris, while the most popular charter destinations were Hurghada, Antalya, Rhodes, Monastir and Karpathos.

In one and half months the airport is switching to winter schedule, with Fraport saying that Lufthansa is to increase the frequency of its weekly flights to Munich from seven to ten, while the flag carrier Swiss is to increase the number of flights to Zurich from eleven to 14 a week.