Strong interest for Slovenian airline subsidies
There has been a strong response to the Slovenian government’s public call to airlines for the provision of financial assistance for the introduction of new routes from the country to select destinations. The tender will close this Thursday, after which a special Aid Granting Commission will select the winners based on a number of criteria, including frequencies, flight times and onward connections, among others. The opening of the received applications will not be public and will be carried out within fifteen days from May 4. Although the Ministry for Infrastructure could not disclose the number of airlines that have applied so far, both low cost and legacy carriers are believed to have shown interest in the public call.
The Slovenian government is prioritising the introduction of flights from the country to Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Madrid, Prague, Vienna and Skopje. If any additional funds are left over, the government will launch a second tender over the summer to subsidise a second set of routes, including Barcelona, Lisbon, Oslo, Paris Orly, Pristina, Rome Fiumicino and Stockholm Arlanda. A total of 16.8 million euros have been set aside in subsidies over a three-year period. The state will cover 50% of the value of airport charges related to an individual route. Out of the listed priority destinations, Amsterdam and Helsinki are served from Ljubljana, with the latter maintained on a seasonal basis, while summer flights from Athens will launch next month. Furthermore, Wizz Air plans to introduce services from Skopje to the Slovenian capital this November after winning a separate tender in Macedonia to introduce subsidised flights from the country.
The Slovenian government has held direct talks with a number of airlines since 2021 in a bid to improve the country’s air connectivity, among which are the Lufthansa Group, Air Serbia, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, easyJet, Wizz Air and Ryanair. Several meetings have taken place with both Wizz and Ryanair, most recently in late January of this year. Both airlines outlined destinations they would be willing to launch out of Slovenia but also emphasised that existing fees at Ljubljana Airport were too high. During the first quarter of this year, Slovenia was the second slowest recovering aviation market in terms of passenger growth when compared to the pre-pandemic 2019, behind only Slovakia (and excluding Ukraine). Passenger numbers at Slovenian airports are still down over 40% on four years ago.
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