The Slovenian government will decide in June whether it should create a successor to Adria Airways (Ljubljana), with the aim that the new carrier would be operational by the end of next year to improve the country’s faltering connectivity, the local news site 24ur reported.
A final decision should be made in the coming weeks, when the Ministry of Infrastructure completes its analysis of a feasibility study on the economic effects of establishing a new airline. According to 24ur’s sources, this will reveal that the Slovenian economy, especially tourism, has suffered losses of about EUR150 million euros (USD163 million) since Adria’s collapse.
Departures from Ljubljana Airport, also known by its previous name Brnik, are less frequent, and connections with other European capitals have deteriorated. The participants of a recent large-scale medical congress were driven with cars and buses from other nearby airports because of their better connections, one of the sources said.
Demand is buoyant, but aviation experts cited in the news report, such as a former chief executive (1992-2001) and president (2001-2005) of Adria, Peter Grašek, and a former chief executive of Fraport Slovenia, Zmago Skobir, warned that the government should not have any illusions that Slovenians will be willing to pay more to fly with a national carrier. The prerequisite is European Commission approval, which Grašek said he doubted, and according to Skobir part-ownership with a foreign airline will be necessary to make the project viable.
A recent state tender providing subsidies to airlines to launch new routes from Slovenia saw just two airlines apply, Luxair (LG, Luxembourg) and Air Montenegro (4O, Podgorica).
According to the ch-aviation capacities module, 17 airlines currently fly to Ljubliana, chief among them by seat capacity Lufthansa (17.08%), Turkish Airlines (15.27%), Swiss (8.27%), Air Serbia (7.72%), Air France (6.97%), and LOT Polish Airlines (6.69%), followed by two low-cost carriers, easyJet UK (5.81%) and Wizz Air UK (5%). No scheduled carriers currently fly to Slovenia's other two airports, Maribor and Portoroz.
