Slovenia to outline subsidised air routes today
The Slovenian Minister for Infrastructure, Alenka Bratušek, and her counterpart at the Ministry for Economic Development and Technology, Matjaž Han, will today in parliament at 10.00 CET present the Program for Greater Aviation Connectivity of Slovenia until 2025, which is expected to include a list of routes the state plans to subsidise in order to secure new destinations. The government will provide a total of 16.8 million euros in subsidies to airlines over the next three years to launch new routes and boost frequencies on existing services. The incentives will amount to up to 50% of the carrier’s airport fees in Slovenia. It is hoped the government’s plan will help kickstart the country’s aviation sector which has been hit by both the demise of national carrier Adria Airways in late 2019 and the coronavirus pandemic.
The government has remained tight-lipped as to which routes could be subsidised, however, during a visit to Skopje late last year, Mr Han said, “We know that with the bankruptcy of Adria Airways we no longer have connectivity with Skopje, even though it was one of the busier routes. The Ministry for Economy and the Ministry for Infrastructure will subsidise flights across Europe and also across the region. Skopje will be part of it, which is very important for our economy and tourism". Some of Ljubljana’s busiest unserved routes based on indirect traffic data include Bucharest, Copenhagen, Skopje, Berlin, Prague, Stockholm, Barcelona, Hamburg, Tirana and Sofia. Athens and Helsinki, which are also among them, will be introduced by Aegean Airlines and Finnair this summer.
Ljubljana Airport has supported the government’s push to subsidise airlines to either maintain or launch new operations to the Slovenian capital. Regardless of the state’s plans, the airport anticipates a strong summer ahead. “The start of the year has been encouraging, with a significant increase in passenger traffic. The summer season will offer more destinations and flights. We are happy to soon welcome back Helsinki and Athens to our flight network. These popular travel destinations also serve as important hubs and will broaden the possibilities for our passengers to continue their journeys to the Middle East and Asia. We are also excited to see the third daily Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt and other frequency increases, which will substantially raise seat capacity on flights from Ljubljana Airport”, the General Manager of operator Fraport Slovenija, Babett Stapel, said.
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