Slovenia to transform Maribor Airport into a “smart hub”
The Slovenian Minister for Infrastructure, Jernej Vrtovec, has presented parliament with a new vision for Maribor Edvard Rusjan Airport, which has not been served by scheduled flights for over a year. The Minister noted that he has been working with local mayors on plans to transform the airport into a “smart hub”. This would entail turning the airport into a modern multimodal cargo logistics centre. “If someone thinks the airport will thrive based on strategies that have been used so far, they are wrong. So far it has not worked”, Mr Vrtovec said. Maribor Airport saw no cargo traffic this year. However, it handled 2.414 passengers during the first three quarters, all of which were travelling on charter or private flights.
If the proposed plan receives necessary approvals from local authorities and the Slovenian government, work will begin on extending Maribor Airport’s runway and building a rail link between the airport and the Magna car company in the Hoče-Slivnica municipality. Furthermore, a modern logistics centre, the largest in Slovenia, will be built at the airport, which would serve as an inland warehouse for port operator Luka Koper. “The Maribor area has an extraordinary logistic opportunity to develop such activities and we must take advantage of this”, Mr Vrtovec, who is still in talks with potential investors, said. A letter of intent to get the project off the ground is expected to be signed by the end of the year, while an international architectural competition would be launched in 2021.
Two countries have shown interest in investing in Maribor Airport’s redevelopment. Maribor Airport is currently being operated by the state-run Investment Management Company (DRI) until the end of the year. In 2019, a fifteen-year concession of the airport, awarded to Chinese investors, was terminated after they failed to meet obligations set out in their contract with the state, with each side blaming the other. The Chinese claim the state dragged its feet over the adoption of a spatial plan which would have enabled the operator to extend the airport’s runway and thus turn it into a European hub for flights from China. To this day, the state is yet to adopt a new spatial plan. Mr Vrtovec noted it would be required in order for the airport to be transformed into a cargo hub.
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