Nine airlines have applied for a first round of subsidies to be issued by the Slovenian Ministry for Economic Development and Technology for maintaining flights to Ljubljana between March 30, 2020 and September 30, 2020. They include Lufthansa, Air Serbia, Montenegro Airlines, Air France, Turkish Airlines, Swiss, easyJet, Wizz Air and LOT Polish Airlines. In order to be eligible for the financial grant, the carriers in question must have operated at least two weekly flights for a period of at least two months within the set timeframe. This would disqualify Swiss which has not operated any flights to Slovenia since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in early March.
An expert commission formed by the Ministry will now review each application. The total amount of funds to be shared between airlines for flying during the aforementioned period is 1.5 million euros. The commission will decide the amount each airline gets depending on a range of criteria including the number of flights the company maintained to Slovenia and the number of passengers it carried to the country. However, limits will be set on the maximum amount of funds the beneficiary can receive. Airlines which are maintaining services between October 1, 2020 and May 31, 2021 must apply for the aid by June 10, 2021, while carriers that will serve Slovenia between June 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021 must submit their applications by October 11, 2021. Another 3.5 million euros in funds has been set aside for those flying from October onwards.
The Ministry previously noted, “The purpose of the tender is to maintain the existing schedule operated by international airlines, to encourage the resumption of suspended flights due to the consequences of the pandemic, and to encourage new airlines to fly to Slovenia. Lacking a national carrier, Slovenia is currently experiencing a very slow recovery and kick-start of air passenger transport”. Ljubljana Airport is currently served by just three airlines. In October, it handled 10.775 passengers, down 89.1% on the same month last year. The number of aircraft movements fell 47.2% to 935. Overall, since January, Ljubljana Airport welcomed 278.555 travellers through its doors, down 82%.
Love Swiss' optimism :D
ReplyDeleteConsidering they are owned by Lufthansa, I wouldn't be surprised if they give it to them anyway.
DeleteIt is very rare to incentivise somebody now for flights IN THE PAST, so probably they did not understand the brilliant idea.
Deletewasnt there subsidies for launching new flights as well? maybe thats Swiss' plan
DeleteNo. Read the article. " for maintaining flights to Ljubljana between March 30, 2020 and September 30, 2020".
Delete@9.30: No subsidies are for maintaining flights. There are ones for this winter and next summer, which could lead to someone launching flights but these first subsides are for airlines that operated during the summer of 2020. Swiss didn't at all.
DeleteInteresting Transavia didn't apply even though they flew to LJU.
ReplyDeleteSounds like someone in Transavia wasn't doing their job. An expensive mistake!
DeleteMaybe they didn't see or have the time. The deadline to apply for the first round of subsidies was very short. Something like 9 days.
DeleteI'm sure it wasn't that difficult to send in the documentation.
DeleteI think for LJU it's very important to have more flights to BEG because JU offres the fastest connections to the Balkans, a market left unserved since JP died.
ReplyDeleteTK: Hold my beer.
DeleteNot to be rude or anything, but IST is further from BEG and hence it takes more time to get to your destination.
DeleteNot to mention that IST is massive and you shouldn't have a connection less than 2 hours. In BEG you can easily connect in 40 minutes.
DeleteJU is quite competitive for Balkan destinations from LJU. Typically, you can get anywhere in the Balkans within 4-5 hours of departing LJU, including the transit time. With TK, its typically 4 hours flying time without calculating the transit. Not to mention that with JU its usually on slower ATR's compared to TK with faster A320/B737.
DeleteIST-LJU is around 02.30 while LJU-BEG on the ATR is not more than 55 minutes. Like someone wrote, in BEG you can have a 40 minute connection while in IST you need 40 minutes to reach your gate from the runway. Sure TK and IST are great for Asia but for the Balkans, BEG beats anyone in terms of total travel times. There is a reason why JU always did so well in (L)JU.
DeleteIST is not best located for airtravel from the Balkans, unless to the south-east Asia/Australia. Its advantage is price and connectivity with the world.
DeleteWhen it comes to airports with relatively smaller connectivity (as is the case with airports in the Balkans), in the times of corona the problem is more with long transfer times than time spend in the air on each of the legs of the travel.
TK is not after travel from one Balkan airport to another Balkan airport. These short-hauls are loss-making. TK is after long-haul to/from Balkan airports via IST. The rest is an addition.
BEG is TK's most successful route in ex-YU and that's probably because there are a lot of O&D passengers where yields are the best.
DeleteOctober results are terrible.
ReplyDeleteThey are really bad. Above the industry average.
DeleteWait for November....
DeleteHopefully we see some better numbers in December, as per this article https://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/11/ljubljana-airport-to-see-mild-recovery.html
DeleteSo pretty much everyone applied.
ReplyDeleteExcept for Transavia which is a surprise.
DeleteI am not surprised about LH, they are really not doing well these days. Just yesterday they issued bonds worth €660 million.
ReplyDeleteOuch.
Why shouldn't LH apply, if they fulfill the criteria? Even in good times, nobody has too much money.
DeleteHave you ever heard of credit? Businesses typically use also external financing, like bonds, credit facilities, leasing... Why is it supposed to show they are not doing well? You are not doing well if you cannot get financing.
Yes but they just got €9 billion which was supposed to be enough until spring. Seems like the situation got much worse than expected. :(
DeleteIssuing bonds is completely normal in the business world, especially in aviation.
Delete9:12 wasnt saying that LH shouldn't apply; where did you get that from?
DeleteStrange. So you fly and only then learn if and what you will get in a form of subsidy.
ReplyDeleteFor me the normal course would be that the money is aproportioned upfront, so everybody knows what they get if they fly, and money is paid once a given season is finished and the airlines actually flew what was agreed.
Agree
DeleteAgree. Especially since it isn't guaranteed you will get them or the amount you will get if you do.
Deletebut you keep forgetting this is Slovenia and Jansa is in power....since he took office, there has not been a single public procurement sans criminal investigation.....
DeleteI still don't think this will encourage new airlines to launch flights.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice support for airlines that fly to Ljubljana but I also don't think it will attract new ones.
DeleteWhat it can do is get airlines flying multiple routes restart them. So Lufthansa to resume Munich, Air Serbia to restart Nis and easyJet to restart Berlin.
DeleteIt is not intended for airlines to fly happily to LJU with zero pax on board and still make profit. It is intended to meet PART of the cost and help those airlines that are on the fence, ie close to a decision to start/increase offering, but hesitating because the figures are not yet quite there for them. Whether they fly multiple routes has no meaning.
Delete+1 last anon
DeleteThis is a really low amount. 1.5 million divided by eight airlines (under the premise Swiss is disqualified)
ReplyDeleteIt really depends on the operating costs each airline has. For some, it may cover part of the cost of flying to LJU.
DeleteExactly. I assume it would cover a nice amount for JU which is flying with ATR which isn't very costly.
DeleteHope it helps with LJU's recovery.
ReplyDeleteWe won't know until summer. It didn't help for the start of winter.
DeleteMore money will be needed.
ReplyDeleteMore is prepared for national carrier
DeleteSure it is.
DeleteYes, it is. 76 million if the EU approves
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/11/new-slovenian-carrier-hangs-on-eu.html
It's the only thing that can save LJU. These subsidies to foreign airlines will do little.
DeleteActually these subsidies are joke, it's only an excuse for government to say "We have tried with subsidies, situation did not get better and now we have to improve connectivity by ourself" - in other words to establish national carrier. Which is quite good move by this government (one of the rare one).
DeleteSupporters of national airline say reason for a new national airline is that other airlines abandoned LJU. This shows they are not leaving LJU if you give them small subsidy. This is so much cheaper than creating a new company.
DeleteThey also said LJU is not good for LCCs. We can see both Easy and Wizz are ready to stay in LJU for a small fee.
We will only know if they will stay next summer. These subsidies are for March 30, 2020 - September 30, 2020.
DeleteExtend subsidies and they should stay. Still much cheaper than starting a new airline.
Delete@anon 14:35
Deleteare you aware that we don't have flights at all in LJU? So what are you talking about that foreign airlines did not leave LJU!? Actually we need both, subsidies for foreign airlines and national airline
JU and YM never miss a chance to get subsidies :D
ReplyDeleteNeither does it seem Wizz Air.
DeleteI swear that I was checking for a comment on this. JU like really loves sweet subsidies to death. Remember INI, KRR, TIA and now LJU? Really unbelievable :D
DeleteAt the time when JU was offering special, low prices for JP passengers just to bring them to their final destinations you were not "swearing".
DeleteAt the time when JU, before LH started flying to LJU, had the most frequncies you were not "swearing".
At the time when JU remains one of rare airlines that still flies to JU, you are "swearing" that JU likes subsidies.
They certainly have much more right to do it than W6, LO, YM, LX etc.
JU did not get subsidies for KRR, what are you going on about?
DeleteRealistically speaking, what other airlines could we see come to LJU with some incentives?
ReplyDeleteI don't think we will see any new airline coming as a result of these.
DeleteLH will get the most money without doubt.
ReplyDeleteWell they are LJU's biggest airline
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/11/ljubljana-airport-to-see-mild-recovery.html
Well to be honest they deserve the most. They offer the most frequencies and most capacity.
DeleteDid LOT fly during the summer?
ReplyDeleteYes they did.
DeleteThey flew between July and September.
DeleteAnd they were supposed to restart in October but now it won't be before mid December.
DeleteWhy didn't Trade Air apply? They flew charters all summer.
ReplyDeleteIt was written here in the previous article about subsidies that charter flights/airlines are not included.
DeleteOk thanks. That makes sense.
DeleteLCCs are not interested in small LJU market, some say. Then Easyjet and Wizzair apply for subsidies.
ReplyDeleteSame would happen in ZAG.
But why wouldn't anyone apply for these subsidies when it's easy money.
DeleteAsk Transavia. They are obviously swimming in cash.
DeleteReal question is why wouldn't other airport offer not evan a small subsidy to LCCs?
DeleteWhich other airport? Maribor?
DeleteI have to ask what does having an intercontinental network have to do with flying to Ljubljana?
ReplyDeleteBecause it means the airline offers greater connectivity for passengers from/to Slovenia.
DeleteI think everyone meets that criteria. I mean even Wizz has intercontinental flights (Dubai).
DeleteGood. Almost everyone applied which means that the tender has worked.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I don't like is that the tender is only for airlines with European AOC. And they could have attracted airlines from mid-east for summer 2021 with these subsidies.
DeleteTrue
DeleteThey probably had to do it this way so the EU would approve it.
DeleteMost likely. Typical EU move.
DeleteWho knows if all these airlines would stay if they haven't made these subsidies available.
ReplyDeleteThis concerns summer 2020. Very few of these airlines did stay in fact. Just 3 of them did!
DeleteIf almost everyone applied, shows how important these subsidies are.
ReplyDeleteLike I said above, who doesn't want free money???
DeleteExactly
Deletecurrently apron in Ljubljana is packed with planes on storage. It is their main business these days
ReplyDeletethis incentive smells like paying a prostitute to do what prostitutes do. Didn't they all say, market will take care? Which market then? Its always like this...first they scream that we are no longer in socialism, and then they use exact measures....understand that if you can.
DeleteEven with the parked planes I don't think Ljubljana Airport gets any money. It's actually Linetech (Adria Airways Tehnika)
Deletethey do because they rent their space to the adria tehnika ...
DeleteIs it too early some neighbours to apply?
ReplyDeleteIs it too early for you to read the article so you can understand the tender requirments?
DeleteMaybe subsidies for bus transport to neighbouring countries?
DeleteLOL at Swiss' application. Might be worth reading what you're applying for.
ReplyDeleteWatch the tender commission give them money anyway.
DeleteI don't see why they would give it to them when they don't meet the most basic of criteria.
DeleteIs this sharing for everyone who meets the criteria or just for the let's say top 3?
ReplyDeleteEveryone that meets the criteria.
DeleteWe will know soon enough who gets how much.
DeleteLet me get this straight..1.5 Million...and possibly Lufthansa will get it who recently
ReplyDeletereceived over 9 Billion funding from the German government!! I am curious to know
the salaries and fees paid to people from the 9 airlines, Ljubljana airport management,
EU and Slovenian officials to finally decide who gets this amount. Probably an amount
equal to a few hundred thousand will be involved to pay all the airline, airport, city,
and country heavyweights!! My suggestion let*s ask every Slovenian man, woman, and child
to give the airport 10 Euros each, hey that*s 20 Million right there...then subsidize
10 airline routes with 2 Million Euros each, new jobs, new visitors, new business potential,
all bringing in much more than the 20 Million investment, but what do I know !!!
We had better product for much less money. it was called JP..
Deletesome people still deny this. And they were exactly against "throwing money into a black hole".
Delete