Ex-PM pitches Air Slovenia to voters ahead of polls

Ljubljana solicits, rejects offers for new Slovene carrier

Slovenia's Ministry of Economic Development and Technology received proposals from six airlines to establish a new flag carrier - or a base for an existing airline catering to the local market - based out of Ljubljana but rejected all of them, vowing to continue looking for a better offer.

"All meetings were informative and proposed solutions that would not have financial consequences for the ministry or the state of Slovenia... We examined all the received proposals at the ministry and also responded to them. The proposals varied widely in terms of the destinations to be covered by the carriers, the number of frequencies to each destination, and the types of aircraft to be operated by the new airline. So far, Slovenia has not accepted any offer," the ministry told Sierra5, a Slovenian aviation news website.

The ministry underlined that it is still soliciting bids, hoping for an offer that would be more favourable to the state and compliant with European Union competition laws.

While it did not name the airlines involved in the bids, they were...

Solinair ponders Air Slovenia launch with Dash 8 fleet

Slovenia's cargo specialist Solinair (SP, Ljubljana) is pondering launching a passenger subsidiary, Air Slovenia (Ljubljana), with a fleet of five DHC-8-Q400 turboprops connecting Ljubljana with key gateways in the region, General Director Janez Jelenc said during a V2 conference in Slovenia discussing the future of the market after the collapse of Adria Airways (JP, Ljubljana).

Jelenc said that the airline also evaluated the CRJ900 and ATR72 as potential aircraft for the start-up but concluded that the De Havilland Aircraft of Canada turboprops offered the best economics. Air Slovenia would initially operate to Lufthansa Group hubs at Brussels National, Frankfurt Int'l, Munich, and Zurich airports, where the airline would hope to establish a commercial parntership with Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int'l), Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National), and Swiss (LX, Zurich). In addition, Air Slovenia is also evaluating potential flights to Tirana, Amsterdam Schiphol, Skopje, and Pristina.

In order to launch the project, Solinair would...

Slovenian gov't eyes subsidies rather than own carrier

Slovenia gives up on new flag carrier