Crunch time for Adria

Privatisation nears

The Slovenian national carrier Adria Airways is expected to be privatised this year under a cloud of heavy financial losses, sliding passenger numbers and rising fuel prices. The tender call for the privatisation of Adria will be prepared by next month, according to a statement released by the airline. Rumours have circulated that both Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines have shown interest in Adria. However, similar speculation was made for other privatisation attempts of former Yugoslav carriers, all of which ultimately turned out to be false.

In the first quarter of the year, Adria Airways generated a loss of eight million euros. The airline’s CEO, Klemen Boštjačič, claims that the losses are at the same level as last year but adds that fuel prices have significantly increased over the past few months. Furthermore, Adria has been unable to either lease or sell two of its grounded aircraft as there is simply no interest on the market. The carrier has also reacted to Wizz Air’s new flights to Ljubljana. Adria says that while the public have blamed the airline for reducing the mobility and connectivity of Slovenians to the rest of the world, Wizz Air will launch flights on routes already operated by Adria (Brussels and London). The airline says that it is yet to make a decision whether to extend its seasonal flights to London throughout the year, but adds that Wizz Air’s arrival will be taken into account.

Meanwhile, Adria Airways Tehnika, the airline’s technical division which it sold to Ljubljana Airport as well as the state run PDP restructuring firm, have published an international call to offload their 100% holding of Tehnika. The maintenance company has been plagued by financial losses and further impacted by the loss of its second busiest customer, Spanair, which declared bankruptcy earlier in the year.