NEWS FLASH
Serbian millionaire Miodrag Kostić has acquired a 30.5% stake in Aerodrom Portorož, the operator of Portorož Airport, in a bid to strengthen his foothold in the Bay of Piran. The businessman purchased his stake from Fraport Slovenia. The remaining shareholders are the Piran Municipality (28.8%), Luka Koper (15.2%), Istrabenz (15.2%) and CPK (10.2%). Mr Kostić, who made his fortunes in the sugar industry, previously acquired the Kempinski Hotel in Portorož and is also seeking to buy Marina Portorož. The tycoon's company, the MK Group, previously said, "Portorož has the potential to further develop and increase the number of foreign visitors. That is why we want to develop both the airport and marina. We want to promote Portorož as a high-end destination and it is in our interest to boost the number of flights in order for the airport to work at full capacity". Portorož Airport is the smallest of Slovenia's three commercial airports. It handled 8.890 passengers in 2016. The lengthening of the airport's runway is seen as crucial for attracting new airlines.
"The lengthening of the airport's runway is seen as crucial for attracting new airlines" - why new airlines? Which OLD airlines do fly there?
ReplyDeleteAir Valee used to fly to Portoroz. Last year Awex flew Belgrade-Portoroz-Zurich during the summer. It was organised by Kostic and I think it will resume this summer as well.
DeleteOT: Ljubljana-Ashgabat route in the offing?
ReplyDeletewww.azernews.az/region/113914.html
And still nothin will happen.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Too many owners in first place plus the nature reserve also prevents any significant and necessary runway lengthening.
Deletewould be cool if Portorož could grow into something like Pula or Zadar. I think it has the potential.
ReplyDeleteIf Portoroz can developed existing airporton in ranking like Pula, that will be great benefits to Slovenian tourism. Maybe Ljubljana airport be effected? But to Slovenian Riviera and western parts of the country that should be great oportunity for greater development.
DeleteRodney Marinkovic
Sydney Australia
If they can lenghten the runway to acomodate a320's and 737's then they hit the jackpot. People willing to visit Slovenian Riviera would be separated only by a plane and then a super short ride to the hotels, apartments,... I do believe that it would offer great connections through summer and maybe even 1 or 2 winter low cost ones. But low costs would flood the airport (gradually and if they'd have low fees of course, I don't know what kind of fees they have now). I doubt Ljubljana would be affected that much. Ljubljana has a lot of transfer pax and a few over night staying pax and a lot of outgoing pax. People right now don't use LJU as a gateway for the Slovenian Riviera. They use it as a gateway for Slovenia and then maybe something more. Portorož would definitely be just a gateway for the riviera.
DeleteMaybe I'm shooting blanks here, but I really do believe it has potential of Pula/Zadar sort
Unfortunately we can't reverse the past, but I would prefer if Slovenian government invested all those millions into POW instead of MBX.
DeleteTrue. If the slovenian government would pump all that cash into POW instead of MBX, it would already show significant results by now. But as said above, even with lengtening the strip they can reach around 1500 or max 1600m, which is very short and I doubt rynair, easyjet, wizz or norwegian would fly there
DeleteI think they should go for boutique tourism, not LCCs on a massive scale.
DeleteOnly problem with this grandiose development? Pula or Portoroz? Pula wins. I think Portoroz has limited appeal but for a few salt pans
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