During the pre-pandemic 2019, some 19.483 passengers flew between Ljubljana and the Middle East as origin and destination passengers, based on OAG data. Out of the Gulf markets, Dubai was the largest, accounting for 3.782 travellers. It was followed by Muscat, Abu Dhabi and Doha. These figures indicate travellers who either started or ended their journey in these cities. Flights to the Gulf are also largely used for transfer purposes, which would add to the overall loads for carriers launching flights from the region. In 2019, Istanbul was overwhelmingly used by Ljubljana passengers as the transfer point to reach Dubai with 74% of travellers opting to fly via the Turkish city. Accordingly, Turkish Airlines was the busiest feeder airline, with the same passenger share.
Flydubai and Emirates have a close partnership, with the latter planning to codeshare on the hybrid carrier’s Ljubljana service. Both are owned by the government of Dubai. Emirates’ Area Manager for the…