Slovenia avoids €10 million fine over Maribor Airport
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Slovenia has avoided the risk of having to pay back over ten million euros in European Union funds for the overhaul of Maribor Edvard Rusjan Airport since it managed to stay operational despite having almost no traffic, the country’s Ministry for Infrastructure said. A new passenger terminal was opened at Maribor Airport in 2012 backed by EU funds. Under the terms of the financing arrangement, the EU required for no major changes to occur with the airport up until November 11, 2021. Despite the minimum scale of air traffic and changes to the management, the Ministry for Infrastructure believes the airport’s operations have been preserved and the country has thus avoided having to return 10.54 million euros in EU funds. The airport has been managed by the state-owned consulting and engineering company DRI since 2019, after Chinese investors terminated their fifteen-year lease contract signed in 2017. Since then, the airport has cost the state 3.15 million euros in expenses, while revenue has amounted to 870.000 euros, the Ministry said. The contract with DRI expires at the end of the month, and the airport's future remains uncertain. The Ministry is planning to find a new long-term manager and a preliminary public invitation in March 2020 showed there was interest among potential investors. Unofficially, DRI is not keen on continuing to manage the airport, but the Ministry is planning to extend the contract with the state-owned company as a stop-gap measure until a new manager is selected. Maribor Airport is Slovenia’s only other commercial airfield after Ljubljana.
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