Decision time for Ljubljana Airport’s new terminal

Shareholders to vote on new terminal tomorrow

Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport’s shareholders will tomorrow decide whether to go ahead with the planned construction of a second terminal building. The decision will rest on the minority shareholders as the Slovenian Securities Market Agency has denied the airport’s operator, the Slovenian government, the right to voting. The minority share owners have mixed feelings about the multi million euro investment but are uneasy about the government’s plans to privatise the airport. On the other hand, the management is firmly in favour of the new terminal with CEO Zmago Skobir recently announcing that, “A new terminal would ensure long term traffic development at the airport". He added, "Today, during the busiest part of the day, the airport has insufficient capacity to handle all passengers as the terminal was built in 1973”.

The minority shareholders fear that such a massive investment, at a time of economic hardship, would be unjustified. Furthermore, they believe the money could be better spent. In the lead up to the vote, the airport has been unwilling to comment on the issue. The Slovenian government has also refused to state whether it is for or against the project. Shareholders were originally planned to grant approval for the terminal building in early June, however, the vote was put off in light of the government’s plan to privatise the airport.

Earlier this year, Ljubljana Airport signed a contract to co-fund a 73 million euro new terminal to be in use by January 2015. The airport management team has since said the project could be completed for less than sixty million euros. The new terminal, which is to be built next to the existing passenger building, would cover an area of 31.200 square metres. Furthermore, the airport would have the capacity to handle 1.800 passengers per hour compared to the current 700 passengers.