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...