The Slovenian Minister for Economic Development and Technology, Matjaž Han, has said the country should not be afraid from establishing a new national airline and subsidising the flag carrier. In an interview to the “Večer” daily, Mr Han said, “If we subsidise rail and bus passenger transport, we shouldn't be afraid to start our own airline and subsidise it as well. Public transport is much more than economic logic”. He added, “A new national carrier is being considered, but before we get to that, we cannot stand idly by. That is why we are trying to improve Slovenia’s connectivity by subsidising routes". The newly appointed Minister for Infrastructure, Alenka Bratušek, said earlier this month the government would decide by mid-2023 whether a new national carrier could be established.
The Slovenian Parliament passed a bill yesterday aimed at boosting Slovenia's air connectivity. The scheme, under which 5.6 million euros in subsidies will be provided each year over the next three years to airlines, in order to cover 50% of their airport fees on new routes, is subject to approval by the European Commission. The aim is to improve air connectivity "with destinations that hold great importance for Slovenia, its citizens, tourism and the economy", the Ministry for Economic Development and Technology said. Jointly with the Ministry for Infrastructure it will select which routes should be subsidised. EU-registered airlines, as well as those from the European Common Aviation Area, will be eligible to take part in a public call, which will be organised once the scheme is approved by the EU. Funding will be provided only for routes that are not served by a high-speed rail service from Slovenia or another airport within a 100-kilometre radius from the destination.
Commenting on the subsidy scheme, Mr Han said, “Financial assistance for new routes will be available from all three international airports in Slovenia, meaning Portorož and Maribor, in addition to Ljubljana. Both Portorož and Maribor have potential. I don't know why we haven't been able to use these two airports in the last three decades". The Slovenian government recently launched tender procedures in a bid to find an interested concessionaire for Maribor Airport, which has become the former Yugoslavia’s least busy with under 4.000 passengers handled in 2022. Interested parties have until February 20 to submit their bids.
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My guy feeling say they will do it. Just because opposition didn't when they were in power and because they need to show they care for business in Slovenia. Let's hope that the CRJs don't make a return
ReplyDeleteNor Atr or Dash😂
Deletezakaj ne CRJ? kaj je bilo z 900tkami narobe?
DeleteVse, kar je s tem avionom narobe. Klaustrofobicen, neudoben, glasen, prenizek za hodit, ce si visji. Obup.
DeleteThey create new airline which then apples and wins these subsidies. Could work.
ReplyDeleteThese subsidies will be lunch in a few weeks, months before the decision regarding new airlines.
DeleteBojana Mursic from SD said that they will follow the effects of subsidies in order to give them answer regarding establishment of national carrier. Fortunatelly we already saw what subsidies brought us so I think government should immediatelly establish national carrier.
Delete5 million euros is a very small amount of money in Aviation. If they set up a new Airline it will cost Tens if not hundreds of millions of Euros to get going.
ReplyDeleteAdria at the time of selling needed 3mio yearly
Delete50 million at the height of the economic crisis and thousands unemployed. I will never forget that betrayal. Because that was what it was. A betrayal of the common man.
DeleteThe only "betrayal" was by corrupt politicians who sold, and crooks and thieves who bought Adria, and destroyed it. Before that, Adria, with double smaller market, much less tourism, and almost no diaspora was bigger and better than Croatia Airlines, and making much less losses, simultaneously contributing more to overall slovenian economy
DeleteFingers crossed!! This would be great news for Slovenia
ReplyDeleteExcellent news indeed! Routes funded by the same people that are most unlikely to ever utilise them. Such a privilege.
DeleteYou gave me a great idea anon 21:27! Everyone who wants new Adria should pay for it! Same should do people who want new highways to their towns! Or new trains and railways! Or new hospitals! Why should I pay for new hospital, lets say in Murska Sobota? This would be privilege for those people! You should run for prime minister in future, Slovenia would surely become the most developer nation in the world!
DeleteThere will be plenty of cheap Dash 8's available on the cheap shortly if they want to set up a new carrier, with Flybe going bankrupt, Lot getting rid of theirs and OU also. They would be a great Aircraft for a new Slovenian flag carrier to connect to Lufthansa group hubs.
ReplyDeleteFlybe just went bust for the 2nd time 30min ago
DeleteHope not. Twice. No dashes and no (only LHG hub) feeder.
DeleteIt seems like small airlines are easy to run and cheap, too. Let’s make one Slovenia! Forget that most people are barely getting by, let’s burn money for another useless project that will become a national problem as soon as it’s begun!
DeleteMy guy, slovenian goverment is paying 50mio to Metelkova, if we spend 10mio per year to get more tourist, business in it's well worth it....ffs some of you are so short sighted (and egoistical) it stinks
DeleteHope they don't pass up this opportunity
ReplyDeleteHigh speed rail service form Slovenia. Wow.
ReplyDeleteHaha I laughed when I saw that.
DeleteIts a standard from EC guidelines!
DeleteThis could be solved by establishing a base.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree with his comments about public transport and financing.
ReplyDeleteThey could just have handed over the money to Fraport, as there is where the subsidies will ultimately go
ReplyDeleteAir Slovenia, 3x E290 ( or E190 if the E2 variant is too expensive) with flights to Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Vienna, Skopje, Prague, Paris CDG, Rome, Sarajevo, Tirana, Sofia, Bucarest, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester, Dublin maybe even Lisbon or Lyon...some of these routes or just a Ryanair base and fly to these routes and maybe add flights to Stansted and Dusseldorf....
ReplyDeleteHow funny, all these armchair CEOs thinking they know how to run an airline. Who's going to pay millions to get slots at LHR, where are slots at AMS coming from? All this just to pick up some low hanging fruit transferring through LJU. That ship has sailed, Wizz cover most airports in the east and provide nonstop options.
DeleteLol, I just can't stop laugh at people who think that LCC will base few aircrafts at LJU airport :)) They are just fighting who's gonna have more aircraft in country with almost no gastoz around EU and with very limited tourist capacity. Good luck with that!
DeleteI think you didn't heard about the 50% subsidies
DeleteWhy Air Slovenia?
DeleteIt seems that Han’s been reading my comments. :D
ReplyDeleteIf you want air connectivity, pay for it. Simple. Now let’s hear it from the concerned taxpayers brigade.
Somehow I doubt they will go for a new national airline after offering these subsidies.
ReplyDeleteYour doubts have no grounda in facts. Absolutely NONE.
DeleteHaven't you thought that these subsidies are implemented to finance national carrier...
DeleteWe will see, but the subsidies will be made available by this spring while a decision about the airline project will be announced in June or July.
DeleteAnd also I highly doubt 5 million euros will be enough for a new airline.
DeleteIt's all for PR.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly?
DeleteThe importance of Adria to the Slovenian market has been illustrated in the last two years, despite what people say.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWe need a new national airline.
ReplyDeleteSimple as that
DeleteAll JP did was fly locals to hub airports to connect onwards and pick up some small yielding transfer traffic through LJU. No wonder the business model was a bust.
DeleteAnother expert in aviation. Do you really think that every connecting passengers is also a low yield one? On contrary, if you know how to do your job you can reach a really good one even with connecting passengers. And don't forget that every legacy airline has connnecting passengers. JP did not went bust because of yield as it was quite high (with high LF), but unfortunatelly politicians did not see that for a less than 5 mio loss per year they had excellent connectivity at LJU.
DeleteI think the political opinion is changing too, even opposition went from no national airline to a national airline but set up by Slovenian experts (Solinair, Amelia). So I'm confident they'll set it up by the end of the year - maybe in time for winter season
ReplyDeleteIf Slovenia does it will be bad news for Zagreb airport.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Adria existed before and Zagreb Airport was developing just fine.
DeleteI would not say it was "just fine".
DeleteJust have a look what was a gap between ZAG and BEG in 2003 and that was in 2018 and you will see how "successful" ZAG was.
We have at this moment many Slovenians who take flights from ZAG as they do not have good alternatives from their own capital.
If Slovenia decides to go with their own air carrier many of these Slovenians from Ljubljana and surrounding cities will not have to travel anymore almost 2 hours to reach Zagreb airport.
ce ustanavljajo kak bi bilo s hibridnim letalom za pristajanje na vodi in na pisti? na hrvaskem tista eca al kako so se imenovali ni bila ravno uspesna.... nisni produkt v aviaciji tudi MBX bi se lahko tako povezal....
ReplyDeleteNew ATR42-600 STOL can fly to Portoroz without weight restrictions. Also ATR72 can, but with restrictions.
DeleteI'm just excited that something FINALLY seems to be happening on the Slovenian aviation market.
ReplyDeleteStarting a new airline from the very scratch will be very difficult. Isn't it better to partner up with one of the existing Slovenian airlines that don't offer passenger flights yet?.
ReplyDeleteSolinair already tried to do so but the ex government denied it. I think that if Amelia or Solinair try that now when the new government wants to make some moves, they would be successful.
DeleteThe opposition (NSi) already said that they will support national carrier if it was managed by Amelia or Solinair, so it's looking more and more likely for Adria 2.0 to happen
DeleteSo now it’s on Amelia and Solinar to make a move or what? As far as i know there is not any other Slo airline that could do that
DeleteIt's on goverment to say they will establish an airline, and then hire/outsource it to Amelia or Solinair....That's how i see it
DeleteOh okay but Solinair or Amelia needs to make an offer or something so the government can give it to them?
DeleteYes, judging by the precedent there will be a public call for it, but the public call can be made in a way that it suits only one company specifically (for example slovenian AOC is needed)
DeleteNot sure how this would be allowed under the EU rules. they can set up an airline and they can subsidize routes, but the subsidies must be approved and available to all interested EU airlines. I don't think they can directly subsidize an airline. Just don't see how they'll pull this off
ReplyDeleteI agree and I think this subsidies are actually made to attract foreign airlines to fly to Lju or either for a carrier to base an aircraft or two here and fly to a few destinations
Deletewell its easy. you make a rule that only airlines that base a plane at Ljubljana will be able to get those subsidizes ... and the only one willing to do so would be Adria vol2.
Delete