Slovenia aims for national carrier with eleven routes

The Slovenian Minister for Economic Development and Technology, Matjaž Han, has confirmed the country will continue to advance plans to establish a new national airline. It comes after speculation the government may shelve the initiative following the recent devastating floods in the country and changes to the state budget aimed at shoring up funds for the recovery effort. "Slovenia needs an airline, it's a matter of discussion under what conditions, and it will definitely need a strategic partner. We should not be complacent just because there are enough airports in our neighbourhood", Mr Han noted over the weekend. Previously, the government said additional details about the planned new carrier set to replace Adria Airways, which went bankrupt almost four years ago, would be outlined this autumn.

Mr Han, alongside the Minister for Infrastructure, Alenka Bratušek, have been staunch supporters of establishing a new airline, although not all their cabinet colleagues have shared the same enthusiasm. The Slovenian government is seeking a strategic partner to help set up the airline and share the financial burden of running the business. The state has held talks with several potential investors, including Amelia International, Cyprus Airways and Croatia Airlines. “My feeling is that they are interested. The goal is to find a strategic partner that could perform approximately sixty operations per week to eleven destinations from Slovenia”, Ms Bratušek said.

In its final full month of operations out of Ljubljana in August 2019, Adria Airways performed a total of 1.513 flight operations (both inbound and outbound) and had 146.813 seats on the market. At the time, it maintained scheduled flights out of the Slovenian capital to Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, Prague, Pristina, Podgorica, Sarajevo, Skopje, Sofia, Paris, Tirana, Vienna and Zurich. Furthermore, it operated regular charter services to Antalya, Barcelona, Corfu, Chios, Karpathos, Kefalonia, Kos, Heraklion, Hurghada, Lemnos, Manchester, Preveza, Rhodes, Santorini, Samos, Lamezia Terme, Tel Aviv and Zakynthos. Out of the scheduled services, Ljubljana Airport is yet to find alternatives for flights to Copenhagen, Prague, Pristina, Sarajevo, Sofia, Tirana and Vienna.