Three LCCs seek state support for new Ljubljana flights
Low cost carriers (LCCs) Wizz Air, easyJet and Ryanair have all shown interest in concluding cooperation agreements with the country’s Ministry for Infrastructure and the Ministry for Economic Development and Technology concerning the launch of new routes to Ljubljana, according to the “Dnevnik” daily. However, no agreement has so far been reached. The trio have held talks with the relevant ministries over the past few months. Wizz Air and easyJet, which already serve the Slovenian capital, are instead reducing their presence in the city over the winter months. All three are seeking some form of subsidies or support from the state in order to introduce new services.
The Slovenian government is in favour of concluding such cooperation agreements in order to improve the country’s connectivity. The government believes that such form of financial support would be more sustainable than investing in a new state-owned flag carrier. Since the demise of the former national airline Adria Airways in September 2019, the government has attempted to soften the impact of the company’s collapse by offering subsidies to airlines already flying to the country to continue doing so. It has also considered using European Union funds to establish a carrier as part of its post-Covid development strategy, however, this was struck down by the block.
Over the past two years, the Ministry for Economic Development and Technology has turned down several offers by airlines to either establish the country’s new national carrier or station aircraft in Ljubljana, noting that none would have sufficiently improved the country’s connectivity and were “short-term oriented”. “There was actually no appropriate proposal which would have enabled passengers travelling from or to Slovenia to benefit from high quality service, based on the proposed destinations, the timing and flight schedules, as well as the opportunities for connecting onto flights at Europe’s most important hubs”, the Ministry told EX-YU Aviation news earlier this year.
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