Former Etihad boss holds talks with Slovenian government
The former President and CEO of the Etihad Aviation Group, James Hogan, and the former Serbian Minister for Finance and Economy, Mladjan Dinkić, have held talks with the Slovenian Ministry for Infrastructure, according to the daily “Danas”. The duo are believed to have discussed potential solutions for Slovenia’s lack of air connectivity, which has been an ongoing issue since the country’s former national carrier, Adria Airways, declared bankruptcy in late September of 2019. Mr Hogan is acting in the capacity of Founder and Executive Chairman of the Knighthood Capital consultancy company, while Mr Dinkić, who was instrumental in Etihad’s takeover of Jat Airways and its subsequent rebranding into Air Serbia, is today a Managing Partner at the Belgrade-based MD Solution.
Talks with the Ministry for Infrastructure, which is responsible for Slovenia’s aviation sector, took place this Tuesday. According to the daily, the talks were conducted by the State Secretary in charge for aviation. The Ministry has also previously held talks with LOT Polish Airlines, Air Serbia and Croatia Airlines in a bid to overcome the country’s poor air connectivity, which has been further compounded by the coronavirus pandemic. During the first seven months of the year, Ljubljana Airport reached just 12% of its pre-pandemic traffic from 2019. Plans to establish a new national airline using European Union Covid-19 recovery funds were dropped earlier this year following the block’s objections.
The Slovenian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economic Development and Technology, Zdravko Počivalšek, said last month the government was looking into ways to fill the void left by Adria. “If we want to have better air connectivity in Slovenia, we will have to do something in this sector and find a way forward to enable progress, in cooperation with a private stakeholder. Currently, we do not have a national carrier, and air traffic is severely affected by the pandemic”, Mr Počivalšek said.
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