The Slovenian government has launched tender procedures in a bid to find an interested concessionaire for Maribor Airport, which has become the former Yugoslavia’s least busy. The new operator would be required to maintain and supervise airport infrastructure, as well as develop operations. The concession will be granted for a period of up to ten years with a possibility for its extension. Interested parties have until February 20 to submit their bids, after which talks will begin. “The Ministry of Infrastructure continues its activities to create development opportunities for Maribor Airport, by establishing market niches that are yet to be covered by surrounding competitive airports in order to enable the accessibility of the entire Podravska region as well as the Carinthia, Savinja and Pomurska regions, as well as the development of the tourism sector and the economy”, the government said in a statement.
The new public call marks the second attempt by the Slovenian government to give Maribor Airport up for concession, with the first ending in lawsuits after the Chinese operator SHS Aviation unilaterally pulled out two years into its fifteen-year management agreement in 2019. SHS accused the government of failing to adopt a spatial plan for the area, preventing it from delivering on its ambitious infrastructure expansion plans, which were deemed unrealistic. However, the government is yet to adopt a spatial plan. Since the Chinese operator pulled out of its concession agreement, the airport has been managed by the state-owned consulting and engineering company DRI.
During recent talks with Ryanair, Wizz Air and easyJet, the Slovenian government suggested the budget carriers consider operations to the country’s second largest city as an alternative to Ljubljana, which the trio have accused of having high airport fees. However, neither of the three have shown interest in operating to Maribor under current commercial terms. Ryanair briefly flew to the city almost fifteen years ago. Maribor Airport handled just under 4.000 passengers last year. The majority of its traffic is generated through charters carrying sports teams. Slovenia’s two other commercial airports – Ljubljana and Portorož – have both been privatised.
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The only hope for MBX is to become a LCC hub.
ReplyDeleteYes, with Graz and Zagreb within spitting distance. Only if airport pays them millons per month
DeleteOr if some LCC airline takes it over and make it very cheap to run
DeleteHope they do better screening than they did of SHS Aviation and 4K Invest.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteGood luck
ReplyDeleteBut nothing has changed compared to a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt changed.
DeleteFR is in ZAG now.
Doubt anyone will apply but let's see
ReplyDeleteHow many applied for the last one? Just SHS?
DeleteThere wasn't a tender last time. The concession was negotiated outright after SHS expressed interest.
DeleteFraport is ready
ReplyDeleteNow that would be a nightmare
DeleteAnd still no spatial plan....
ReplyDeletethey dont need it.
DeleteThey've been talking about adopting a spatial plan for years.
Delete“The Ministry of Infrastructure continues its activities to create development opportunities for Maribor Airport, by establishing market niches that are yet to be covered by surrounding competitive airports"
ReplyDeletewhat?? How exactly? What are the "market niches" that the government has created?
It's a complete waste of a very decent facility. Aviation in Slovenia - Adria, LJU, MBX - is a collective embarrassment.
ReplyDeleteFully agree. For a developed country such as Slovenia, the aviation industry doesn't have much to show.
DeleteAt this point its just sad looking at aviation in Slovenia. Since the loss of Adria everything went extremly downhill for LJU which is now stuck with Fraport from which I simply don't see any bright future in the upcoming years. But its even worse when you look at MBX which is just dead airport for which I simpply don't see any good solutions. And last but not least there is POW. At least there are going things in the right way and it would be even better if there was any possibility of airport space and runway expansion.....
ReplyDeleteeven Fraport Academy is half dead, nothing is going on there. The only viable solution for MBX is a) training center (which has been on table already and with some realistic prospects, like moving simulators to MBX, contract with University to start aviation oriented program in Celje - aviation maintenance, ATC academy, pilot academy, ground and airborne crew academy...) b) close it down and turn it into industrial/business center.
DeleteThey have only one good airport in Slovenia. Cerklje on Krki. Why they doing all these monkey business with Fraport and Maribor who knows.
DeleteDoes anyone know how the Portoroz renovation is going?
ReplyDeleteMBX, first of all it has to build multimodal spot p+r, bus station, train station walking distance and search for 1 big low cost company to give it to manage it for almost no money and to give 2 mio EUR every year if the number of departures and destination is growing as support for new business and not those that is already satteled.
ReplyDeleteHow about shutting it down?
ReplyDeleteI agree. Along with LJU. I bet the concerned taxpayer brigade would be extremely happy. Although, in this case I would agree with them. Without a national carrier there's no point in having an airport, let alone two or more.
DeleteSuch a sad outcome for this airport. Hopefully they manage to find a partner
ReplyDeleteCurrently how much are the monthly expenses for this ghost airport?
ReplyDeleteRyanair saga, VLM saga, Chinese saga...this airport suffered a lot.
ReplyDeleteOnly solution is to subsidise routes just like Skopje and Nis did.
In the light of the recent developments at smaller airports in ex-Yu, I feel like Maribor could have gone the same way and attracted LCCs. Now it has nothing.
DeleteLondon, New York, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris, Dubai
DeleteWhich routes would have the most potential from MBX?
ReplyDeleteLondon
DeleteLH to MUC and Wizz or easyJet to LON
DeleteMaribor's main problem is that Graz is 60km away.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to VIE-BTS distance
DeleteExactly. Graz Airport does the job.
DeleteIt could easily compete with Graz airport.
DeleteLufthansa Group subsidiary Eurowings will establish a base in Graz (GRZ), Austria´s second largest city. From summer 2023, the carrier will operate to 12 destinations and base one Airbus A320 aircraft at GRZ.
DeleteFlights will be operated by Eurowings subsidiary Eurowings Europe, which received its Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) and Air Operator License (AOL) from the Malta Civil Aviation Directorate in October. The operation had previously been located in Vienna.
Eurowings Europe will operate around 25 weekly frequencies from Graz to the German cities of Berlin (BER), Dusseldorf (DUS), Hamburg (HAM) and Stuttgart (STR).
Also to be served from GRZ are leisure destinations Chania (CHQ), Corfu (CFU), Karpathos (AOK), Kos (KGS) and Rhodes (RHO) in Greece; Larnaca (LCA) in Cyprus; Palma de Mallorca (PMI) in Spain; and Hurghada (HRG) in Egypt. (source: https://www.routesonline.com/news/29/breaking-news/299070/eurowings-to-establish-graz-base/)
Will there be a direct flight to the UK from Graz?
DeleteMBX would have a better chance of success if LJU was booming. LJU is struggling. But MBX is dead in the water. Only chance for survival is to go the low cost carrier way. Similar to Tuzla, Niš, Banja Luka. Which means MBX together with state have to subsidie airlines to start flights. Not likely to happen because of low demand. But you could say potential is there to steal some passengers from nearby airports. But the last thing you want is for MBX and LJU to be competing against each other.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, but it don't look too good for MBX.
Maribor airport is doomed.
DeleteGood luck to Maribor. An airport with such a nice terminal deserves some action.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping for a start of a new era for MBX.
ReplyDeleteI hope too but I doubt it.
DeleteGreat catchment area:
ReplyDelete1hr to Graz.
1hr 15min to Ljubljana
1hr 18min to Zagreb
It can be really a troublesome position, since those cities respective airports are already running.
DeleteMBX can compete with ZAG and GRZ only with an LCC carrier and cheap summer charter flights. Currently, many Slovenians fly on vacation from GRZ and VIE, which offer significantly cheaper flights than LJU.
DeleteI hope that this brings some flights to Maribor though I think its unlikely. Maybe it could be used as an alternate ski season airport?
ReplyDeleteUnlike most I still believe this airport has potential and think it can work out with smart management and planning.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed it gets both.
DeleteDoes anyone know why MBX struggles to find airlines to fly there? Its a cute airport but totally unused most days
ReplyDeleteFinally some good news about Maribor airport! Wish them all the best!
ReplyDeleteLet's hope this is Maribor's year :)
ReplyDeleteI would not get my hope up
Delete"Ryanair briefly flew to the city almost fifteen years ago. Maribor Airport handled just over 4.000 passengers last year. The majority of its traffic is generated through charters carrying sports teams."
ReplyDeleteIt makes more sense to begin restoring flights from STN and adding more UK connections such as BHX, MAN and LPL. Not to mention the good potential of flights from DUB.
MXB must work with the REGIONAL municipalities and try creating funds together and work closely to materialise those flights. There are so many examples like this. MBX is a typical Ryanair airport and may bring much more regardless of the banal statements about geography and how there are many airports in the region.
Yes, but there are also more people. BTS is 60km away from VIE but we see it still has flights and new routes.
TLL is also close to HEL but still gets new flights. It is literally just round the corner.
Plovdiv is also quite close to IST but recently secured Istanbul flights begin 1h30m from SOF and 4h from IST.
Tirana will soon have 3 airports and not only one.
And look at the Zadar improvements....just saying.
Didn't know that Tirana is getting two more airports. That's big news. Demand must be very huge.
DeleteOfcource MXB can try to get more flights but it's not that easy. Your comparisons are also wrong. First of all BTS is a bigger city than LJU and still almost has the same passenger amount as LJU so they are struggeling. BTS has a lot charter flights to summer destanations and only 19 year around destanations. It had last year 480k passengers with is not very good for the capital city of a country with 5,5 million people. From TLL to HEL it's atleast 3 hour traveling which is quite long besides the ferry is not cheap. In the region of Plovdiv live over 40 k Turks and it's metropol area has more inhabitants than LJU so not strange that they have flights to IST. So imagine how difficult it is for MXB, most important ski pistes are in the west of the country and Slovenia has no diaspora where all other balkan countries benefit from except Montenegro.
DeleteThis is what I was saying. MBX can collaborate with the local municipalities and try working together also with local tour operators to make the flights happen. It may begin with London. Biggest destination in Europe in terms of market and airport numbers. Brits adore the region as a whole. Remember that STN-MBX was one of the very first routes in ex-Yu back in 2007:
Deletehttps://www.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk/news/1260385.ryanair-announces-new-route/
It was expected that this route would generate 40,000 pax only. Slovenes do not need a visa for UK and UK makes most sense.
They dont need visa for whole europe too. Sell airport to nato.
DeleteThey have Cerklje on Krki airport dedicated for NATO. You come here and comment without any knowledge about country.
DeleteSo what. This is not geography quiz show
DeleteIf Baltic Air would be interested that would be a win-win situation I think. Baltic Air has connection not only with Baltic countries, but also Finland (Tampere), which has no connection with Slovenia whatsoever now when Finnair left. We'll see if they would be interested. 🤔
ReplyDelete