The Ljubljana-based cargo airline Solinair has held talks with the Slovenian Ministry for Infrastructure last week over the possibility of launching passenger flights or establishing a new national carrier. According to the daily “Delo”, the airline has proposed two strategies for improving the country’s connectivity following the bankruptcy of Adria Airways late last year. Solinair has suggested for it to either commence commercial passenger flights or establish a new airline which would serve as a national carrier. It is also seeking financial support from the government for the project. It comes following reports that Croatia Airlines will this week submit a proposal to open a base in Ljubljana.
The Slovenian Economy Minister, Zdravko Počivalšek, has confirmed that talks are being held with several airlines. "I'm optimistic that we'll find a solution which will better connect Slovenia with the world by improving its air connectivity, and as part of this, I believe we will find an adequate and EU-compatible solution to encourage airlines", Mr Počivalšek said. He added, “We will opt for a solution that will best connect Ljubljana with destinations that are important to us in terms of business such as Brussels, Frankfurt and Zurich”. Airport operator, Fraport Slovenija, has proposed for the government to provide incentives for airlines to fly to Ljubljana, warning that coronavirus-related restrictions are still hindering the airport’s recovery when compared to its competitors in its immediate region.
Solinair was established in 1991 as a flight training organisation and air taxi operator based in Portorož. Over time it acquired Let L-410 Turbolet aircraft and partnered up with DHL to provide cargo services. It has since relocated to Ljubljana. It currently operates a fleet of two Airbus A300-600 freighter jets. In 2008 it was acquired by Turkish cargo operator MNG Airlines. Solinair also provides maintenance services, maintenance training and flight planning.
Slovenia’s former flag carrier, Adria Airways, declared bankruptcy on September 30 of last year. It’s Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) was purchased by the Slovenian company Air Adriatic, owned by businessman Izet Rastoder, for 45.000 euros. Air Adriatic was set up just days following Adria’s bankruptcy. The carrier’s AOC has been suspended until September 30, 2020, however, it will be reinstated once Air Adriatic fulfils certain obligations set out by the Slovenian Civil Aviation Agency, among which is the possession of operational aircraft. Mr Rastoder’s company will also have to take on a number of obligations. Among them is the amendment of any discrepancies that arose following the revocation of the airline’s AOC and the launch of bankruptcy procedures. A Slovenian AOC gives its holder rights to maintain commercial services from Slovenia and other European Union-member states.
If there is a demand Slovenia should support Slovenian air company and not foreign
ReplyDeleteIt's just Slovenian on paper. It's owned by the Turks.
DeleteGet even more spicy, its majority owner is a Bulgarian citizen to circumvent the 51% EU ownership rule, even though the real owner is that Turkish company.
DeleteEmployees are Slovenian. Better to give them job than paying companies from other countries to make profit in Slovenia
DeleteEmployees or self-employed, which mose of them are?
DeleteSo it seems the Slovenian government has finally decided to do something about aviation. Now it's just a question of who will prevail.
ReplyDeleteI doubt the government will choose this option in the end. It is more expensive then giving subsidies for foreigners.
DeleteI hope they will choose Solinair
DeleteWhatever they choose, at least they have finally woken up.
DeleteThey finally decided to wake up because they saw the outcome of them doing nothing.
DeleteI think that Amelia would be a better option.
DeleteHaplek
What happened to the banana king?
ReplyDeleteWhich aircraft would they acquire for passenger flights.
ReplyDeleteLet 410 sounds quite right!
DeleteThis is the best chance for locals to get new employment opportunities. So I really hope they agree to provide some funds for Solinair to set up an airline.
ReplyDelete+100
Delete+10^100!
DeleteWhy do you think other people from EU will not apply for the positions? There will be a lot of jobless aviation professionals on the job market, willing even to relocate to put the food on the table.
DeleteThese times showed the importance of having a national carrier, even when they have a small fleet of 2-3 planes. I support any of the ideas which will lead to the set up a national carrier but they will need to partner up with a major airline to survive though, similarly like Albania did with Turkish. It's a good business model for the small Balkan countries.
ReplyDeleteSlovenia is a beautiful country and they deserve to have good national air carrier connecting Ljubljana but also Maribor to the other European cities.
DeleteAgree!
DeleteI fully agree. Supporting MBX makes even more sense now, because the airport and its operator (DRI) are owned by the state.
DeleteHaplek
Did Počivalšek just mention Zurich, Frankfurt and Brussels again?!!? We have those flights already!
ReplyDeleteWe don't have it! JP flew to FRA 3 times per day, BRU 2 times and ZRH 3 times. And we had morning departures from LJU so you actually could catch connection flights on those hubs. Now with one daily flight and even this one is in afternoon its a nightmare to connect any flights. So please don't mix two completely different products.
DeleteLH was supposed to have a morning departure to FRA if it wasn't for the virus. BRU is mostly a P2P for government and EU employees. I think morning ZRH would be a very nice thing to have, though.
Deleteit would, but now we see how LJU is important for them. Indeed BRU is mainly P2P destination but there were a lot of passengers travelling in the morning and coming back in the same day, now this is not possible anymore. In addition BRU has some really nice connections to certain destinations, more offer (or more competitors) means also lower price for end customer.
DeleteIf so, they have to codeshare with LH, LX and SN, otherwise it doesn't make sense I guess.
DeletePočivalšek just doesn't give up with the national airline plans. And as an outsider, is it just me or is he in every government?
ReplyDeleteWell he is one of the people who buried Adria since he was the one who negotiated its sale to 4k Invest.
DeleteExactly. Instead of him proposing new ideas, he should be investigated for his role in destroying Adria.
Deletethere is nothing to investigate, as his role is clear. the ministry put forward invitations for non binding bids, and then afterward for binding bids. only 4K sent a binding bid. JP was already insolvent for quite some time and couldn't get any more state aid, as the 10 year rule hasn't passed yet. and then it was either bankruptcy proceedings or hoping for a miracle with 4K as the only interested party. end of story. there is no conspiracy. JP was a too hot potato at the time.
DeleteGiven that LH group forgot Slovenia real quick, I think Slovenia indeed needs an airline as it will be recovering for Adria for years to come and maybe will never recover fully.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't forget it, they are slowly resuming flights they had before this crisis.
DeleteIt doesn't need to recover fully. There's simply no market for many of the routes, including most of the Balkan.
DeleteSo are these the options?
ReplyDelete1) Croatia Airlines bases aircraft in Ljubljana
2) Solinair begins passenger flights
3) Solianair creates new national airline
4) Slovenia subsidises all foreign carriers
Whatever they do it will be loss making, at least for the first couple of years.
DeleteThis would be the best solution for Slovenia and Slovenians.
ReplyDeleteIf the government is now willing to create a new airline or fund foreign was, why did it give up on Adria? Why didn't it bail it out?
ReplyDeleteBecause Adria would need more than 100m EUR just to repay its debt, let alone develop into an eventually profitable carrier.
Delete4k were crooks. Whatever money they would have given them they would have come back asking for more within a month.
DeleteWell they could have nationalized it. I remember that 4K was prepared to leave.
DeleteRemember the EU state aid rules. It would likely be determined to be illegal later on.
Delete4K actually asked for a loan, which the government could have provided, but didn't want to.
DeleteWe all know they wouldn't be able to repay the loan. Just look at the debt-to-asset ratio after the bankruptcy and you will see why it was a bad idea.
DeleteThey really should have just kept Adria, kicked out 4K and found a partner because that way they could have kept IATA code, codeshares, agreements etc. Now it's all from square one.
DeleteBut they would still have to repay the enormous pile of debt Adria managed to accumulate in the last couple of years.
DeleteSlovenia would be crazy to pay Croatians to fly the routes from their own capital.
ReplyDeleteWhy? It's like paying any other carrier, plenty of countries/municipalities in Europe do that.
DeleteBecause they have resources and knowledge to build their own national airline.
DeleteWhat resources? previous government left a 300 million eur minus at the start of the year, and the corona situation has decreased tax revenue by 845 million in the last 3 months alone. That's 1.2 billion EUR nonexsisting and with the industry sector biased toward the automobile industry with not very bright outlook for the rest of year.
DeleteIt's not like the "new and inproved" national airlines would require a couple of hundred thousand of EUR cash. We are talking serious millions. Probably for startes at least 50 or above. Not counting the yearly losses for flying don't know who to don't know where if these corona restrictions are not lifted.
I would really like to know where the money will be printed out of thin air.
And current government has just increased it for another 300 mio in two months with their medical business.
DeleteSlovenian airline does not need to start flying tomorrow but at least preparations could start now, so when Corona is over we are fully prepared. Otherwise even Tuzla will have more connections after this is over.
And you exaggerate with 50 mio for start. With 5-6 planes in current situations where prices are much cheaper than 1 year ago, with knowledge ex JP employees has, this amount should not exceed 20 mio.
" knowledge to build their own national airline."
DeleteName one Slovenian manager with experience and track record of operating a profitable airline the size of Adria.
Janez Kocijancic. And his counterpart Miljenko Zrelec. Those two managed to make both Adria Airways and Yugoslav Airlines some of the most successful and most distinctive European airlines. And than someone "switched the lights on" so we now have bright lights, excellent lives and good airline companies throughout ex-yu LOL
DeleteThe gentlemen has sadly passed away recently.
DeleteYes, I have information Mr. Kocijancic is no longer with us. The purpose of my post was not to actually suggest him to take over managing possible new company but to point out disgrace throughout ex-yu aviation, and not only aviation
Delete@Anonymous16:55: Name one Slovenian manager with experience and track record of operating a profitable airline the size of Adria.?
DeleteSimple answer: Peter Grasek - Adria Airways' CEO from 1993 till 2001. After Slovenia became independent, tourist industry on the Adriatic slumped and Adria was grounded for more than half a year with a hefty bill to repair all the airplanes damaged during bombing of Ljubljana airport, while still functioning as a company, i.e. paying salaries to its employees etc. (Compare that with the current Corona crisis which is been going on for how long ... 2, 3 months now.) In early 1992 / 93 Janez Kocijancic was out of ideas how to save Adria .... Hence Enter Peter Grasek era.- He was the man responsible for successfully transforming Adria to a profitable national flag carrier. During all of his years AA was a profitable airline company and when he left the company in 2001, AA had almost no debt. It took more than a decade for all the CEOs after him (e.g. Lučpvnik, Tajnnikar & Tufk, not to mention Malecic, Klmencic etc.) to slowly but surely kill the company.
This is great news. I hope it materializes.
ReplyDeleteNothing good will come out if Mr. Počivalšek is involved. He was and still is part of the problem, not a solution.
ReplyDeleteWould be nice to have a passenger airline based in Slovenia.
ReplyDeleteHope for the best
ReplyDeleteCould a new Slovenian airline work?
ReplyDeleteWork as in carry around passengers, sure.
DeleteWork as in run as a profitable business, next to impossible.
What do you mean if it can work? If you mean if it can be profitable that it's negative, but on other hand we can't find many airlines which are profitable, 90 % of them are receiving financial injections from their countries.
DeleteOU is also not profitable but despite it they exist and want to get piece of Slovenian market.
DeleteIt would be great to have a local airline back in business
ReplyDeleteIf this gets off the ground it will be another VLM Slovenia with the same outcome.
ReplyDeleteBad idea
ReplyDeleteEx-Yu area is too small and too poor for all these micro national airlines.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWhat's the point of establishing a new airline if only 9 of the former carrier's routes have not been covered yet? Provide some finances to foreign airlines to cover them and that's it. Much cheaper.
ReplyDeleteWhich 9? I think that only TGD and CDG are covered in same way as it was before. If you fly to FRA once per day (and even that flight is in middle of the day) its not the same as 3 times per day. That's not covered at all!
Deletewrong, that (route) is covered, just not to the same extent. learn english.
Deletethe ideas for new airlines are comming from the gang that can't find jobs at the moment and they keep pumpimg up the minister, who has some strange viewpoint on state owned enterprises vis-a-vis his party that should be more center than left. but hey, to each his own.
From your point of view is covered but I assume that you are flying once per 2-3 years from VCE with U2 for 13 eur in total for whole family. But for frequent flyer situation even before Covid-19 was disaster, not to mention situation we have now.
DeleteHope they set up the new company on some healthy foundations and I wish it much luck in the future.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that it seems that Fraport doesn't want a new national airline or an airline based in LJU and just wants foreigners to be subsidised?
ReplyDeleteBad experience with an airline with a base in LJU?
Delete^ it seems they are doing much better now :)
DeleteWell, JP has left 4.25 million eur unpaid invoices, so I would kind of bet they don't want that sort of airline anymore.
DeleteAnd their profit was still above 8 mio last year. Which means that they were drying out JP, now let's see how they will do without them.
DeleteI like the Solianair logo :D
ReplyDeleteHope it happens! Makes much more sense than paying foreign airlines to fly out of LJU. This way, the state can collect taxes from the company and the employees.
ReplyDeleteI'm not from the aviation industry, just a fan but I feel so extremely sorry for those hardworking Adria employees. Some of them managed to find jobs in the industry after Adria collapsed only to loose their jobs now because of corona. Maybe a new Slovenian airline could provide employment opportunities while at the same time improving Slovenia's connectivity to the world.
ReplyDeleteAnd improving Slovenian economy as well.
DeleteThe government should not be an unemployment office. Who on earth believes that a national - government owned micro airline with politically appointed "managers" would ever be able to be profitable. That logic is really beyond me and reality.
DeleteI agree, managers should not be politically appointed and airlines as itself should do everything to be profitable.
DeleteSolinair is a great company but has no capital nor know how to run scheduled airline pax. JP was part of a well established infrastructure but the politics dropped it. Now the same people who didnt get the point out of it, tries to fix it. With subventions? Best way for Slovenia is to suport Croatia to open a base LJU. Second best is to please LHG with insets.
ReplyDeleteCapital can provide government and knowledge have ex JP employees. Slovenia as itself need national carrier and experience in last few months only proved that.
DeleteDoesn't matter, as the politicians would again install some aparatchicks in the management. Like Maks Tajnikar once said: Adria is not to make profit but to carry passengers (i.e. him to Sarajevo, as he once said).
Delete@Anon 12:08: Solinair only has 25k in capital, so if government invests 1m, the Turkish company loses 98% of their ownership share. Why would they want that?
DeleteI thought that maybe Air Dolomiti will open a base in LJU as they get some Embraer 190 from Lufthansa Cityline (100seats). Then they could at least offer flights the LHG hubs to BRU, ZRH, MUC, FRA, VIE and as well some P2P destinations.
ReplyDeleteI think that's the idea with this new airline. A feeder for Lufthansa.
DeleteIt is a good new for Slovenia because it will create jobs and restore the country’s image on the first hand, but on the others, I don’t see where they could fly to knowing that LJU is connected to a lot of big European airports such as CDG, AMS, LHR, MUC, ZRH, FRA, HEL, SVO, BRU, WAW, IST, why not BEG ( it is not as big as the others, but though ). So the only possibility for them is flying to MXP, FCO, PRG, BUD, SKP, TIA and why not BCN ? It makes no sense unless they codeshare flights with AF, LH... so we have the possibility to create a kind of hub.
ReplyDeleteAnd finally regarding the fleet, two or three E190/A318 is enough.
HAHAHA how does an airline with 5-20 planes can "restore" the country's image?? oh my. In what parallel universe do you live?
DeleteWhat was the point of closing Adria then? Better to have given money and let the company stay afloat. Now you have to secure new leases, staff, IATA desingation etc.
ReplyDeletethe point is not to throw somewhere between 60-90 mio at once like in adria
DeleteThe point of closing Adria was that its debt was close to 100 million euros which would need to paid back if the airline was kept alive.
DeleteThe point was that JP was insolvent at the time of sale to 4K and thereafter ever since and could not even get gas at some aiports.
DeleteNo need for it. We hve LH AF JU TK SU LO YM LX IB BA AY LY OU EASY WIZZ HV SN
ReplyDeleteThats more than enough. I like the idea with OU basing 2 Dash in LJU. But i am against a SLO Carrier and wasting unnecessary loads of taxpayers money. Some stimulation yes but not in numbers of a complete own carrier
no need for it? Just look at passengers figures and you will get your answer. Even without Covid-19 drop would me more than 30%, while other airports were getting 10-20 % more passenger every year.
DeleteThis is true. I remember reading here just as Covid was starting that even with all the new routes that were announced, LJU would still have 40% less capacity this summer compared to 2019.
DeleteThe 40% were the transfer passengers JP flew for peanuts fm Western Europe to Balkans and obviously since JP did make huge debts, you dont want the same kind of passengers and numbers of flights back JP had. LJU potential is limited mainly for geographic reasons
Deleteas Ju520 said: out of 1.2 million passengers of JP, only 400k passengers were O&D LJU. The rest were transfers. It't in the reports and said multiple times by JP's CEOs.
Deleteanon 12:58; I doubt that JP's CEO gave such kind of reports as simply they are not existing. If you mean Fraport's CEO, he made a statement similar to that but he also stated that Fraport will recover from JP demise in few months and we see where they are now. JP in total had 30% of connection passengers.
Delete"LJU potential is limited mainly for geographic reasons". Still LJU has the best geografical location for a transfer hub in region. It is perfect for southeast Europe to western Europe transfers.
Delete@anon 14:35:
DeleteCEO Howarsch from 27.6.2019 via Večer newspaper.
"Investicijski sklad 4K Invest dolgoročno ostaja v Adrii Airways, kot je bilo načrtovano že ob nakupu družbe. Ker je slovenski bazen letalskih potnikov premajhen, pa Adria za nadaljnjo rast potrebuje strateškega partnerja iz letalske industrije," je danes povedal Holger Kowarsch, direktor Adrie Airways, in se večkrat opravičil potnikom za nevšečnosti zavoljo zamud, odpovedi in združevanja letov v zadnjem obdobju, čeprav so, kot je dejal, v pol leta odpovedali le slabe tri odstotke vseh letov. Od lani prepeljanih 1,2 milijona potnikov se jih je v Ljubljani vkrcalo v letala le 400 tisoč. Na vprašanje, kdo bi lahko bil tak strateški partner, kdaj bo padla odločitev in od kod prihaja, Kowarsch ni odgovoril, saj da se pogovarjajo z več interesenti.
Anon 15:33:
Deleteyes, right and VCE, ZAG, VIE, GRZ and to some extent TRS don't exist. You can fight one competitor, but not that many at once.
"Still LJU has the best geografical location for a transfer hub in region. It is perfect for southeast Europe to western Europe transfers."
DeleteBest location in the region doesn't mean you make money from it.
@anon 16:12
DeleteIn that statement he said that out of 1.2 mio passengers, 400k of them had departures from LJU. That is not LJU O&D but only departures out of LJU. You have to count those who had arrival to LJU as well and you would get 800-900k with LJU O&D.
Slovenia as a small market needs a national airline that will operate with small profit or even small loss. If they want to have good connectivity and not only most profitable routes they need to set a national airline.
ReplyDeleteYes, we all all for this. Just that's not how reality work. In the airline industry you cannot be a micro airline with 4 planes and be profitable in regular scheduled service. Not even in monopoly conditions.
DeleteAnd JU and OU are profitable with 20+ aircrafts? If you are not from Qatar or UAE then airline will most probably make a loss.
DeleteStop dreaming about "small profit or small loss". Any kind of micro national airline will operate with continuous large loss in free market environment.
DeleteAnd how come that tradeair is operating in a profit then?
DeleteAren't most (if not all) of Trade Air's scheduled routes PSO?
Deletetrade air is not a scheduled airline, but does ACMI, charters and PSO. ANd of those the PSO lines are with turbolet. totally different cost base.
DeleteSo you already know of potential airlines vision mission and market positioning ?
DeleteThere is very limited PSO potential in Slovenia, there are plenty of charter operators in Europe and I have no idea why any country would invest into an ACMI operator.
DeleteIt seems that you really know this stuff. As you are able to project the outcome of potential route, why it would not work. But are you also able to find a way how it would work?
DeleteSo, what would you recommend to newly formed airline?
What it should do? (mission)
How is should position itself on the market (where to you see unserved space)?
And what assets should it use to be able to do that?
if you have 30 million seed capital at your disposal, for investment and salaries in first 5 years.
The only way to minimise loses would be to focus on feeding LH hubs only with sharecodes for onwards travel. Get a cheap aircraft aircraft around 70-75 seats, Q400 would probably be the best option, given it's quite fast for longer flights like BRU.
DeleteForget about Balkan, forget about charters. Fly 3 times a day to MUC, FRA, BRU, ZRH and maybe CDG. And that's about it. If you get government funds, focus on serving Slovenian people, not on Balkan connecting flights, flying wetlease for Lufthansa, bases in PRN or any other crazy projects.
Or, if you want a run-as-a-business airline, get more money, grow rapidly to 40-50 aircraft, where you can start competing with the big boys, and fly all over Europe wherever you can make the most money. But I think not many routes will even touch Slovenia in this case.
Can you do it with numbers, as I do not know the rates
Deletecosts-----
Lease price
No. aircraft
Operating cost
Revenue ----
Per line pax capacity
airline share of ticket price
Next thing we read - Solinair buying Sukhois :D
ReplyDeleteAnd scraping them two months after they get them.
DeleteOf course Sukhoi is the only solution now
DeleteI am curious to see what the owner would to with JP AOC... So far it was the only legal entity that did anything real and put money towards "something". What "something" is, well it yet to be seen.
ReplyDeleteRgds, 8
OU is far the best option for LJU; huge benefits of being part of Star Alliance for a destination such as Vienna. And ultimately they could combine destinations with Zagreb (eg Zag - Lju - Copenhagen) to make what would not be sustainable from either Zagreb or Ljubljana on a standalone basis viable. Both JP and JU did that in Yugoslav days
DeleteWhat happens when aviation priorities for governments of Slo and Cro start to drift apart? They start to quarrel, Slo might decide to stop subventions and the deal is off. Same with OU and JU, they would make one decent combined airline, but can anyone guarantee two governments would cooperate and stop interfering with airline business?
Delete