The Slovenian Minister for Economic Development and Technology, Matjaž Han, has said he fully supports the creation of the country’s new flag carrier after an expert commission presented its findings on the economic impacts of Adria Airways’ 2019 bankruptcy. The report concluded that Slovenia has lost hundreds of millions of euros due to its lack of air connectivity. Mr Han said the report’s findings will now be presented to the Prime Minister Robert Golob after which a final decision on the matter will be made. The findings are also expected to be presented to the public this week. All signs point towards the state being in favour of a new airline, with Mr Han saying the process will take around a year to finalise and will also require approval from the European Union.
Commenting on the matter, Minister Han told the daily “Delo”, "Air connectivity is a vital component for Slovenia's development. That's why we organised a tender to subsidise new routes, the results of which disappointed me”. Luxair and Air Montenegro were the only two carriers to apply for the state subsidies. Mr Han added, "I absolutely support it [new flag carrier]. The state will co-finance the project for seven years. However, we should not only look at it from an airline perspective but also consider the multiple advantages that air connectivity would bring".
Mr Han conceded there will be headwinds in gaining the necessary approvals from the European Union to fund a new national airline but remains confident the project would be endorsed. “Slovenia will have to bite into this sour apple and decide as soon as possible. It will take around a year until we get a new airline. Until then, it is necessary to engage much more in bilateral talks with carriers and attract them to start flying to Slovenia. This is also Fraport's job. However, this can either make things more complicated or simpler since Fraport is owned by Lufthansa. Therefore, one could interpret this in different ways”. Slovenia’s previous government administration planned to set up a new flag carrier using seventy million euros in funds from the European Union’s coronavirus Recovery and Resilience Plan, however, Brussels struck down the project.
Happy to hear this. Slovenia needs a national airline!
ReplyDeleteWhat for?
DeleteHence the word; Nationalism
DeleteAnon 1039, Let's turn the question around: what for does Slovenia not need a national airline?
DeleteFully support this idea.
ReplyDeleteSlovenia deserve to have its own airline and not Slovenian citizens to full airports in neighbouring countries.
I can't belive I'm saying this, but it's actually all making sense - the 1.11.2024 date is resonable, they 7 years of being in red is actually fairly reasonable and most importantly "This is also Fraport's job. However, this can either make things more complicated or simpler since Fraport is owned by Lufthansa. Therefore, one could interpret this in different ways" is a HUGE statement, that pretty much confirms that LJU is doing absolutely nothing to attract new carriers
ReplyDeleteAgree! And shows that they are very much aware of the situation.
DeleteThis means that not only Star Alliance is considerd but also Oneworld and SkyTeam
Delete@anon09:06 they got aware of this only recently! anon@10:09 i dont think so.
DeleteFingers crossed the EU doesn't block it.
ReplyDeleteYet they don't block billions invested into ITA Airways.
DeleteOr Croatia Airlines.
Delete@9:49 I bet it would be a different story if Lufthansa wasn't the one set to acquire it
DeleteIt will either Be southeast or KZ SS
DeleteAny idea what they will call the airline?
ReplyDeleteMost likely Air Slovenia
DeleteMy wish would be something in the line of Slovenia, but let's not call it Air, let's call it Wings etc.
DeleteToo bad that they sold the Adria name
DeleteToo bad that they sold the Adria name
DeleteAir Slovenia could be a possible name
DeleteCarinthia Air
DeleteI think Air Slovenia is too similar to Air Serbia, might create confusion among foreign travelers (yes, many people mix Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Siberia etc.)
DeleteIn theory they can buy the Adria brand name back from that UAE owner. But I doubt the EU would be too keen for the same name to be resurrected. The EU ordered the Italian to change Alitalia's name.
DeleteSloWings
DeleteI like the idea of "wings"! Carinthia Air sounds too austrian.
DeleteIn my opinion, wings sounds too LCC and kind of cheap. Why not SLOAVIA? 😃
DeleteI agree with Pozdrav. Wings sounds very LCC. Maybe Air Adria or Slovenia Airways
DeleteSloavia is nice! I agree!
DeleteSloavia brings back exyu days memories, doesn't it? A bit of socialist name imo :D
DeleteWings of Slovenia or Slovenian Airways sound better
Delete@XYZ
DeleteIn ex-yu days, Adria was successfull, innovative, efficient and modern airline. Croatia had 20 domestic aircraft based on its coast in the summer, Adria ones included, and ZAG was better connected to the World with direct and nonstop services than today. Generally, majority of people in that kind of socialism, lived better than today, enjoying benefits of ex-yu hybrid system which was combining the best from the East and the best from the West. And if you think I will be ashamed for being nostalgic for all of the mentioned, you are very much wrong.
Btw, does Transavia sounds socialist too?
Delete+1
DeleteQUICK AIRLINES. WE MAKE YOU COME QUICK
DeleteLol
DeleteAir Tina. Golob has the final word.
DeleteTriglav Airways
DeleteJanezhi Inter National Airlines
DeleteDid that "style" of socialism have 200% inflation in the 80s?
DeleteFinally!
ReplyDeleteWonder what fleet they will have
ReplyDeleteLet's hope for E-jets and not CRJs, my guess is that study will go through that
DeleteDepends on the routes I would say. Maybe a mix of Airbus 220 and ATR or Embraer
Deleteno money for a220! Lets hope for EMB!
DeleteYou should bring Jasmin for CEO. Both huge success and new A220 guaranteed! LOL! 😃
DeleteStill, better not than in 10 years :)
ReplyDeleteits Robert GolOb not GolUb.
ReplyDeleteIt's still not decided, first PM has to approve it and then also European Union. So still far way from actual airline, but at least they start to working on this matter.
ReplyDeleteGolob has no other option than to say yes to it, it's just a formality. With EU it's going to be longer for sure, but by then the company will be established and plans will be revealed
DeleteConsidering they already know the timeline of when the new airline will be created, for how long they will finance it etc it does seem to be a formality and that a decision has already been made made behind closed doors.
DeleteFor anyone looking to spend 15 min listening to Han and Bratušek about the carrier yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6ljdkowT7Q
ReplyDeleteIn times of regrouping, we create new niche small market local carrier and we think it will be success.
ReplyDeleteaverage taxpayer will not benefit from this airline.
ReplyDeleteAverage taxpayer benefits from the taxes collected from business and turism that the national carrier brings to the country, but you are not prepared to talk about that
Deletewow, thats a good one anon:09:34!
DeleteIt's an overestimated income from business and tourism just to push the narrative.
DeleteEven if its overestimated, but do you really think its 10 fold overestimated? For sure not. So even it the losses are "only" 50-60 mio per year, its still better to "cover" 10-20mio loss of the carrier.
DeleteOh god, not again with the story of the taxpayer... Anon 9:29 Let's put it in a simpler manner, since the public economics is not your strongpoint: these 4 years have been a disaster from the connectivity point of view and it seems to me, from the discussions I've been reading for all the time, that there is a demand.
DeleteThis connectivity has a cost - as do hospitals, roads, railways, exc...
U may not like it, but there's not such a thing as individual cost benefit analysis there. You may pay taxes for something hasn't value for you, in the same way we pay for something we are not interested in.
For how much sounds strange to you, we are all taxpayers somewhere.
I don’t know why they don’t look to replicate Air Baltic model for Slovenia and Croatia, both could compliment each other and gain economies of scale, as standalone you fear for them. Originally I was just get Wizz etc.. but after reading a bit about them recently and the article in the Times at the weekend, not sure they are a sustainable long term partner, so some sort of national airline maybe the way forward but working with Croatia as both would win.
ReplyDeleteWorking with Croatia in aviation is impossible, because :
Delete1. Croatia has absolutely ZERO strategy for its economy, aviation sector included
2. Croatian aviation is 100% under influence of politics, and persons on the highest positions are incompetent, ignorant and corrupt
3. Both government of Croatia and "management team" of Croatia Airlines are totally uninterested in development of aviation in Croatia itself and surroundings, because they are only looking how to fill their own pockets
4. Croatia Airlines must remain LH feeder and it's not allowed to become stronger because its former CEO handed over entire market to Lufthansa, in exchange for the position in Board of Directors of Star Alliance
5. Judiciary in Croatia is the slowest in Europe and under political influence on the highest levels, and it cannot be expected that situation described could be changed in near future
After the failed tender to subsidize new routes by foreign airlines, it was the only solution left.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be very costly with an uncertain return on investment.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete-1
Deleteyou know whats is really costly? Not having one and loosing millions of euros due to lack of air connectivity.
DeleteLack of connectivity? I don't think so, except for Skopje.
DeleteWhich new routes will they provide?
Can we expect competitive prices? No
Can we dream of an excellent customer service?
/
Will it be economically viable? No way.
Why no one is doing it already if Ljubljana has such good perspectives?
Lack of connectivity? So, Ljubljana has no problem with airconnectivity? My lord, you have absolutely NO CLUE about anything. Just check some regular reports of ACI, IATA or EUROCONTROL. Why airconnectivity of LJU dropped for 57% if you compare june 2022 vs june 2019? And june 2023 wont be ANY better than june 2022. Get real.
DeleteWell, let's hope it will be more successful than Adria.
ReplyDeleteIf they plan to co-finance it, it means that they plan to have a private investor as well.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion they probably expect a private Slovenian airline to be involved in the project.
DeleteHan said yesterday that if going with a joint venture would be easier to convince EU
DeleteGoing to be very difficult now to find planes, pilots, get into IATA, find slots....
ReplyDeleteIt will be an uphill battle as they say but I'm hoping they succeed.
DeleteAir Montenegro is still not in IATA.
DeleteIt will be extremely easy to find pilots - a lot of Slovenians would gladly work for peanuts, as long as they can be based at home.
DeleteNot so sure about that. I for one will definitely look at T&Cs before deciding to work for a new airline with an uncertain future. And also the type of aircraft it will operate (with an exotic type rating you are pretty much unemployable should something go wrong, again).
DeleteWonder what the network will look like.
ReplyDeleteVIE, MUC, FRA, CDG, MAD, BCN, LONDON (probably not LHR because of slot restrictions), CPH, AMS (if slots available), ARN, BER, FCO (?), ATH (if no A3), PRG, SAW (?), OTP, SOF, SKP.
DeleteYeah i also think that they will lanuch SKP and directly compete with Wizz. The route which was ignored for 4 years will now be operated by two carriers, it is common these days.
DeleteAdria struggled serving the Slovenian market and had to operate from other markets too. I don't see a new national airline being any more successful.
ReplyDeleteIt will most likely be a much leaner and smaller carrier than Adria with the right aircraft and network.
DeleteYes, it will be a model of good business, much like most of Slovenian government's projects are!
DeleteYou mean Petrol? Krka?
DeleteBring Aegean on board and let them show how you do things right
DeleteBravo Slovenia, another few hundred million down the drain. Meanwhile, the country is falling apart. Well done. Good thing young people are leaving.
ReplyDeleteRight 😂😂😂
DeleteYoung people leaving slovenia? And what falling apart of a country you are talking about?
DeleteLife here is too nice and we dont have any actual big issues as a country so have to complain on something else eh?
Except our health care system everything else is very decent
DeleteWhat are you yapping about
DeleteLooks like this is really happening.
ReplyDeleteHow big will that 7 year investment be?
ReplyDelete100-200 mio was said a few weeks ago
DeleteThat's a lot of money. Hope it works out.
DeleteWell it is less than what the country has lost by not having a national airline. That's the whole point.
DeleteThis is absolute BS. There is no way they could come up seriously with those numbers. There were Covid restrictions, so u can not compare anything in a serious way. And 2019 was the last year of JP.
DeleteThe airline will not be launched, these are just the regular political non sense fog petards, to keep the public busy with some BS.
If something is BS here, its your statemtn JU520BEGLAX. Ministers are very serious about it.
Deletewow thats a lot @9.59
Deleteok, lets do the maths here. You need 200 mio in 7 years for what? To connect MAD, BCN or NAP, FCO, VLC?
DeleteAs Zurich, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich, Belgrade, Istanbul, Warsaw, Dubai, Helsinki hubs are well connected. In addition you have or soon will have flights to Nis, Podogrica, Tivat, Tel Aviv, Pristina, Skopje, Athens, Monastir.
Through the hubs you have are linked to hundreds of cities worldwide. We are just planning a Balkans tour this fall. My cousin is flying LJU-SKP and TIA-LJU. It takes him via BEG less than 5 hours for 200 EUR return ticket and we are absolutely happy.
SLO government should keep working with an incentive program and additionally subsidize buses from LJU to VCE and ZAG each twice a day to have good connections for touris arriving from North America or EK in VCE, IB ex MAD or than to ZAG where you have access to Ryanairs and other airlines network.
The problem of LJU airport is the location. It is not well located, at least not for people south of Ljubljana. Those people already now use ZAG, TRS, VCE, VRN, Treviso or Bergamo for their holidays. Even my cousin and her and family in LJU, use Italy airports for their trips to Spain. And my friends son in LJU, flies from LIM each year via VCE to visit his parents in LJU.
People in the Gorenjska region now even have access to ALC and PMI from KLU on Ryan or can use OS ex KLU. There are plenty of options.
Not to forget the regular charters ex LJU. I see Air Malta coming regularly to LJU and there are flights to Hurghada weekly 2-3 times, Spain destinations, in Summer greek destinations.
Slovenia would rather invest the cash into a new railway station (the existing is a joke) and invest into higher speed rail infrastructure, like Serbia has done and is still doing.
From LJU you need to be in 1 hour or even less than one hour in Zagreb, Villach, Maribor, Trieste, Koper and in 2 hours in Venice.
apologizes to slo avio: it should have read @slo avio. Above comment is JU520 comment to slo avio
DeleteWow subsidizing buses to other airports. I guess we should also subsidize ambulance to other cities. Great idea!
Delete11:46 comment from whoever was is beyond stupid - next up just subsidize bikes so people can ride from the balkans to vienna?
DeleteAbsolutely nothing wrong with subsidising buses, ev even with EK AC UA DL AA IB flight numbers. In Europa where proper rail infrastructure exists, this is very common. For example LUGZRH or within Germany etc
DeleteI see the wish lists are always long and expectations high, the question is rather setting priorities or who is even paying this wishes? Best to answer this is selfreflexion? How much do I pay taxes per year to the government to enable them my big wishes?
Investments into infrastructure btw are the most sustainable, they last up for centuries. Look at SLO rail unfrastructure: It was built by Danubemonarchy. Since than no fundamental investments were done, to significantly improve railways network/time gain in SLO
Next is Divaća-Koper, which is a first step but not enough
11:46 wasnt me.
DeleteI just hope they put professionals in charge of the airline.
ReplyDeleteThere's talk of Solinair or Amelia being private partners - both of them would be great
DeleteJasmineeeeeee!!! Dje si? Jes'cuo, traze te!!!! Hahahahahahahaha
DeleteI see a lot of people on here complaining about the carrier not being profitable.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, they are open in communicating about that, and it's totally fine - if the carrier will bring business and tourism to the country (which Adria did well in the past).
So yes airline by itself will probably lose money, but it will make X amount of money back, bringing tourism and business to the country.
If anyone disagrees with this I'm quite happy to debate, as i really don't see how this logic isn't soundproof from the overall picture and not just the carrier itself
Slovenia would be better off with Slovenian airline in the long term.
DeleteThe problem is in the short term that taxes are paid on the individual businesses income. So all business will have to finance Airline for some time.
Its like personal taxes that are paid for the schools system by the individuals that don’t have children but live in the same tax jurisdiction.
Please don't tie it up to Lufthansa again.
ReplyDeleteIt would be great not to be tied up to LH but they are surrounded with German carrier...
DeleteOS belongs to LH
OU controlled by LH
ITA will be controlled by LH
Fraport has close ties with LH.
No choice actually here. Slovenia is in the middle of LH interest zone.
"The report concluded that Slovenia has lost hundreds of millions of euros due to its lack of air connectivity"... and now plans to lose hundreds of millions of euros with next flag airline's bankruptcy. Great plan. Maybe the solution is just to start developing air connectivity?
ReplyDeleteI am sorry, but Lufthansa owns approx 8.4% of Fraport. Nonsense to claim "Lufthansa owns Fraport" and this makes it a problem to attract other airlines.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.fraport.com/en/investors/the-fraport-share.html
Enough to care about LH interest. More than any other carrier is involved into Fraport. Letting Fraport to operate the airport is a bigger mistake than selling JP.
DeleteFraport are allowing themselves to publicly claim they belong to Lufthansa because they own 100% of LJU airport and this also shows how the new carrier will (again) be possibly linked to Deutschland and Nordrhein-Westfalen. Just like they will possibly gooble up ITA Airways, they will largely dominate the Slovenian aviation. In a few years, you will have maximum 5-7 major airlines in Europe. The rest will be thrumbs or insignificant carriers especially regional ones such as Baboo, FlyBe, České aerolinie, etc, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe skies will be dominated by LH Group, Ryanair, Wizzair, IAG and AF/KL and maybe TK. That's it.
Deutschland will most likely seek other markets to gobble up or maybe Fraport even extending its presence in Europe.
As for the new Slovene carrier, we might expect it to be a MUC and FRA feeder as well.
Looks like a new Slovenian carrier may be ready just in time for the demise of Croatia Airlines if current management keeps doing business like it has for the last few years - cutting routes, making losses. When CA didn't seize the opportunity presented to it by Adria fading away, maybe the opposite can happen. Personally, I would be sad to see CA going under, they had so much opportunities, especially given the fact that Croatia is visited by more and more tourists every year, but...
ReplyDeleteSo we shall have the totally opposite situation people from Croatia to fly from LJU.
DeleteClearly demonstrates that the people in power have no idea, wouldnt if have been easier to keep Adria as a going concern, or if it had to go bust, kept all the infrastructure rather than sell it for peanuts and now pay more to get the same stuff. Unfortunatley the citizens of Slovenia are being taken for a ride by politicians who dont look after the interests of them rather themselves or their puppet masters.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you recall that we recently had a pandemic that brought all airlines to their knees. Paying for Adria through Covid would have cost a fortune while bringing no or next to no benefit for a looong period of time.
DeleteUnfortunately, Slovenia is not immune to making some very bad decisions in the name of "capitalism", i.e. sell out of whole industrial branches. Aviation was just the last in line (Adria, airports, Adria Tehnika....). There is not a trace of state-wide strategy what Slovenia should look like in near future. Just sell out, which is in some circles considered as a good thing, and there was this neo-liberal mantra, that state is bad owner. All strategic assets are under watchful eye of the state, even though direct ownership (Lufthansa, Lufthansa Tehchnik, Turkish, BA...).
ReplyDeleteThere was a hand written slogan on doors at the main entrance of where Adria used to be stationed - loosely translated - You didn't know what you had and what you lost.
There are so many open questions - starting with HQ (sold out), fleet, staff...
Adria was once whole package - flight school, airliner, supporter of aviation. All of that is gone. To bring the new airline up to what Adria used to be, will cost a lot of money, time and effort. I'm all in for new airliner, but I'm afraid that the overall cost will be so great, that they will drop the idea (I have yet to read the study by dr. Damjan, if it becomes public). Why do we have to repeat the same mistake over and over again - destroying something in god knows what and whose name, just to re-build everything from the scratch.
Good point. Look at Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and compare it with non EU member Serbia
DeleteEU politicians serve today multi nationals and large EU members have different rights than small members. If LH group takes over TP and AZ, than u basically have majority of EU Europe under control of 3 large airline groups plus Easy, Ryan and Wizz. The rest is peanuts. The US is no difference: DL AA/AS UA, Jetblue and Southwest
They should put a Zlatorog logo on their aircraft tail like TAAG Angola Airlines did .
ReplyDeleteYou should look that up - it really looks cool !
The only problem...Laško was sold a few years ago :D
DeleteProbably sold to Germans as everything in Slowenland ..
DeleteIt was sold to Dutch (Heineken), not to Germans, but now back to topic: my sugestion for name Bankruptcyin4years airlines ;)
DeleteDutch sounds like Deutsch and that was German enough for the Slovenian sellouts .
Deleteits really interesting what perspectives comes out in different discussions regarding owing a national carrier. First of all I would place it on MBX as home base and not LJU cause of the ownership and costs. I would not start with 7-10 airplanes but step by step. It is very important not to handle airplane traffic as luxus but put it at the same priority level es international train and bus connections! it belongs to a public servis - is what a state offers on services/connections for her inhabitants and economy... If LH is owing Fraport and Fraport is owing LJU, then the opposite offer should be connected from MBX to get good connections to France/Iberian cities/Italy for intercontinental flights.... The goal is not profiit of the company, the goal is to make profit of the society!
ReplyDeleteNot wrong but an airline needs also a big home market .
DeleteThat can also be a big city .
Slovenia unfortunately doesnt have both .
Well, Slovenia is not Nord Korea to have a fence around the country but needs to develop attractive products to support the economy (pharma industry, car industriy suppliers, energetic sector, maybe it come to financial services grow etc.. and tourism, bigger and better congresses....charters that are not listed in sourrounding airports)... Airline is not luxus! Its a part of public service that the goverment is supporting it for its inhabitants, companies and national interests! Its equal important to the second bus that is connecting Logar Valley with Celje/Ljubljana or Kranjska gora and Bovec. Public service! MBX would allow to run business with less restrictions coming from LH Group that did NOTHING FOR SLOVENIA AND SLOVENIANS. Nothing.
Delete