Slovenia in “urgent need” of national carrier
The former Prime Minister of Slovenia, Alenka Bratušek, has said her country is in urgent need of a new national airline. In addition, the Mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković, has hit out at Slovenia’s lack of air connectivity noting it is hurting both the country’s and city’s tourism industry. With just months to go until Slovenia’s Parliamentary Elections in April, Ms Bratušek’s party is advocating for the launch of a new national carrier - Air Slovenia. “First, we have to wait for the final results of the upcoming elections. However, if my political party wins the vote in April 2022, we will establish a new national airline in Slovenia. We believe that our plan will succeed, as Slovenia urgently needs a new carrier”, Ms Bratušek told the “Aviation Market” portal.
The Mayor of Ljubljana noted that the central government needs to do more to secure flights from Ljubljana to key European markets, some two years following the collapse of the national carrier Adria Airways. “The biggest problem with tourism is our airport. There is an insufficient number of flights”, Mr Janković noted. Based on OAG data, the busiest unserved routes during the pandemic-stricken 2020 were primarily those previously served by Adria. Bucharest was the busiest followed by Copenhagen, Skopje, Helsinki, Athens, Izmir, Prague, Stockholm, Barcelona and Prague. This list includes only destinations that were not served for the entirety of 2020.
Ljubljana Airport’s operator, Fraport Slovenija, noted it would support any solution that would be sustainable and improve connectivity. General Manager Babett Stapel, said, “The government subsidies for airlines aimed at increasing connectivity have helped us a lot. The current scheme expires this year and all stakeholders, including the airlines, the tourism sector and the airport, want it to be extended”. She added, “Before its bankruptcy, half of the passengers at Ljubljana Airport travelled with Adria's planes. We served 1.8 million passengers in 2019, We plan to reach 900,000 travellers next year, if there are no surprises with Covid-19, of course”.
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