The terminal building of Slovenia’s second busiest airport - Portorož - will either be closed and overhauled or completely demolished and rebuilt as it is sinking, the operator said. “We have received the results of a geomechanical survey of the soil, which shows that the passenger terminal is gradually caving in, however, the owner has not yet decided whether it will overhaul the structure or have it demolished and built anew”, an airport spokesperson told the “Delo” daily. Hotel Palace Portorož, which belongs to the MK Group from Serbia, is the airport’s single-largest shareholder. Co-owners include the Municipality of Piran (just over 36%) and the CPK company (10%). The Municipality of Piran explained that at a depth of over ten metres beneath the terminal building there is a layer of weak load-bearing and compressible marine sediment making an overhaul of the terminal necessary but very difficult.
Portorož Airport has been striving to extend its runway in order to accommodate larger aircraft and begin handling scheduled flights. The MK Group has said it is willing to invest between 2.5 and three million euros into the extension, however, so far, it has been unable to obtain the necessary approvals for the project which is strongly opposed by environmentalists as the airport is surrounded by the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park, which is home to 270 bird species. Furthermore, the government has been unable to adopt a new spatial plan for the area for the better part of the past decade. The Slovenian Ministry for Infrastructure has reaffirmed its commitment to enabling the airport to expand and has said it is working on adopting a new spatial plan.
Built in 1962, Portorož Airport boasts a passenger terminal, duty free shop, as well as technical and fuel services. Last year it handled a record 30.743 passengers despite having no scheduled passenger flights. "Portorož has the potential to further develop and increase its number of foreign visitors. That is why we want to develop the airport. 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", the operator previously said.
What a surprise considering the terrain it is built on.
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't understand why the airport was built in that location in the first place.
DeleteCorruption. My tax dollars at work.
DeleteIt would take a lot of time to demolish the terminal and build a new one. Hopefully a better solution can be found.
ReplyDeleteNice airport. Pity about the terrain.
DeleteIs it geographically feasible to extend the runway at Portoroz?
ReplyDeleteNo. It can be extended, but the amount is so small that it wouldn't help. There's no solution really unless moving the entire airport across the road and building a new runway perpendicular to the border over the area currently used for agriculture. If that area is even the right amount of flat. I'm not a geo engineer so I can't say, but from looking at the terrain from google maps this is the only possible place.
DeleteExpand the runway so that JU can launch flights with the ATR. Like that a lot of Istra capacity can be handled through this Serbian owned airport.
ReplyDeleteBetter to have a new Adria serving It. JU can stick to serving Serbian Airports.
DeleteJU has the advantage of actually existing, though.
DeleteAnd successfully while we are at it. Adria 2.0 will be a new disaster like the original one. Slovenian market is just too small and Slovenes are cheap so they will go to another airport if they could save €10. That is why JP doesn't stand a chance, its clients are not loyal.
DeleteNew Adria could then operate profitable flights, just like they did on the MBX-SEN route. Ferry the aircraft to POW, and then back at the end of the day. Massive profits.
Delete@10:56, A typical Gorenjc would drive 3h away to other airport just to save 2Euro.
DeleteSlovene market is as large as those of Kosovo and N. Macedonia, but the purchasing power is 3x higher.
DeleteI'm surprised at how much traffic they have. Over 30,000 is a lot considering there are no commercial flights.
ReplyDeleteYupp, it's staggering 60% of what Paris-Le Bourget handles.
DeleteIs it just me or are these spatial plans an issue everywhere? Wasn't this why the Chinese left Maribor? The government never adopted a spatial plan
ReplyDeleteYes, spatial plan is an issue in Maribor too for the last 15 years.
DeleteSo two airports in Slovenia that want to develop are both waiting for the government to issue permits.
DeleteIf Slovenia had a new national carrier and they bought some ATR42, they could use them over summer season in Portoroz and in LJU in winter.
ReplyDeleteRoutes from Portoroz in summer on ATR42: Belgrade, Vienna, Munich, Bern, Zurich, Prague, Budapest, ... Routes from LJU on ATR42 in winter: Belgrade, Sarajevo, Vienna, Rome, Naples, Tirana, Pristina, ...
DeleteYeah…now we just need the party bot Bravo Hrvatska/OU/Slovenia to join the party. There is no way runway can be extended for more than 300 meters, as it is sitting on the edge of the salinas. Plus, it will NEVER get permition. To forcibly extend a runway, so ATR type of aircraft could land and take off fully loaded (with no prospect of any such line ever materialising) is total lunacy. Tourism in Portorož and surrounding area needs no tourist feedeng by ATR/DHC fleet, it makes no sense. Brač extended runway-and what happend there? Nothing!
DeleteATR42 STOL can takeoff and land fully loaded on the current runway without restrictions.
Delete@09:24 you are correct. the ATR42 is much more suitable for Yug regional flight and there are more routs than the ones you mentioned. for examples Nis and Kraljevo, banja luka, skopje, ohrid. The ATR72 and Dash 8 is too big to be filled all the time.
Deleteregional flight could be much more successful.
Did Adria Airways ever fly from POW?
DeleteYes, with DHC7
DeleteI'm reading here that ATR42 STOL can take off and land fully loaded. Why no start with ATR42 it would be great?!
DeleteWho in Balkans region has an ATR42, plus that it's a STOL variant?
DeleteAlso normal ATR42-600 without STOL option can takeoff MTOW and land on runways shorter than Portoroz's.
ReplyDeleteWith limited number of pax and cargo weight they can. I don't know more about the limitations.
DeleteSlovenia has the moeny to do it
ReplyDeleteMaybe it would be build a tunnel for the road and prolong the pist to Seca valley. Some direct flight from high budget destinations would be appreciated for 50-70 seater airplanes. make it possible.
ReplyDelete10mio investment for 3 weekly flights is something that shouldn't be viable, even if you are aviation enthusiast
Deleteits the way of economical interest. not from the airport it self but from the impact in tourism and other business fields.
DeleteLet's first get some more meaningful traffic at Ljubljana Airport please before we think about Portoroz.
ReplyDeleteexpanding LJPZ is pure craziness
ReplyDeleteMost beautiful airport on the Adriatic
ReplyDeleteI think it should be modernized, but there is nowhere to expand.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Portoroz for being the second busiest airport in Slovenia with no commercial flights. If the terrain was better and the runway long enough, I'm sure there would have been flights for many years.
ReplyDeleteI hope they get the permits and expand the airport.
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteThat commie terminal looks awful. Knock it down.
ReplyDeleteIt serves its purpose.
Deleteactualy it looks beautiful its a perfect example of brutalist architecture which was popular in yugoslavia in the 60s and 70s and is now high in demand and popular if possible keep it but renovate completly and expand
DeleteSorry mate, brutalism was short oeriod in Western architecture, what we had in Yugoslavia was modernism, married with love of concrete. Brutalist architecture in general lacked humanism, which can’t be said for yugoslav modernism.
DeletePOW has no potential. The government will never accept the spatial to extend the runway in the protected landscape.
ReplyDeleteCorrect. It has 0 potential because of the protected areas around and the border on the other side.
Delete"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..."
ReplyDeleteHigh-end and full capacity sounds like a contradiction in terms to me.
If they decide to demolish the terminal, will there be some makeshift one so traffic can operate normally during that time or would the airport be closed?
ReplyDeleteLet the POW try the Madeira (FNC) scenario. Extend the rwy on pillars into the see toward Piran.
ReplyDelete*see=sea :-(
ReplyDeleteIn the year 2010, for a short time JAT was flying from Belgrade to Portoroz with an ATR 72, not fully loaded. So many options are possible already...
ReplyDelete