There has been a strong response to the Slovenian government’s public call to airlines for the provision of financial assistance for the introduction of new routes from the country to select destinations. The tender will close this Thursday, after which a special Aid Granting Commission will select the winners based on a number of criteria, including frequencies, flight times and onward connections, among others. The opening of the received applications will not be public and will be carried out within fifteen days from May 4. Although the Ministry for Infrastructure could not disclose the number of airlines that have applied so far, both low cost and legacy carriers are believed to have shown interest in the public call.
The Slovenian government is prioritising the introduction of flights from the country to Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Madrid, Prague, Vienna and Skopje. If any additional funds are left over, the government will launch a second tender over the summer to subsidise a second set of routes, including Barcelona, Lisbon, Oslo, Paris Orly, Pristina, Rome Fiumicino and Stockholm Arlanda. A total of 16.8 million euros have been set aside in subsidies over a three-year period. The state will cover 50% of the value of airport charges related to an individual route. Out of the listed priority destinations, Amsterdam and Helsinki are served from Ljubljana, with the latter maintained on a seasonal basis, while summer flights from Athens will launch next month. Furthermore, Wizz Air plans to introduce services from Skopje to the Slovenian capital this November after winning a separate tender in Macedonia to introduce subsidised flights from the country.
The Slovenian government has held direct talks with a number of airlines since 2021 in a bid to improve the country’s air connectivity, among which are the Lufthansa Group, Air Serbia, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, easyJet, Wizz Air and Ryanair. Several meetings have taken place with both Wizz and Ryanair, most recently in late January of this year. Both airlines outlined destinations they would be willing to launch out of Slovenia but also emphasised that existing fees at Ljubljana Airport were too high. During the first quarter of this year, Slovenia was the second slowest recovering aviation market in terms of passenger growth when compared to the pre-pandemic 2019, behind only Slovakia (and excluding Ukraine). Passenger numbers at Slovenian airports are still down over 40% on four years ago.
Really hoping for a positive outcome.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't they make the opening of the bids public like they do in Macedonia?
ReplyDeleteyou are right
DeleteDitto..typical corrupt approach of Slovenian government..look after my buddies..they'll drop a few dinars into my pocket
DeleteDinars???
DeleteI don't see Ryanair or Wizz Air launching any of the primary routes they listed.
ReplyDeleteAll LCCs have seriously reduced their presence in LJU in the last year.
DeleteWonder why, as there is an obvious interest/potential for LCCs. They fly to small airports such as Banja Luka and Nis, but are reducing Ljubljana... don't get it
Delete^ Why?
DeleteI guess it is just too expensive while operating in a very competitive market where you have so many airport close by.
DeleteThey can apply for any destination already at this call and I think at least Wizzair will do it, most likely CRL, PRN and they can try even SKP, if they could resolve double state support issue…
DeleteNational airline would resolve all problems.
ReplyDeleteAnd how much would it cost?
DeleteNot more than max subsidies per year.
Deleteapprox. 17 million Euros for 3 years for subsidies = approx 6 million euros per year.
DeleteI wonder what national airline can function with that amount of money.
This is much cheaper and more effective than setting up a new airline.
DeleteEffective? Are you serious?
Delete6 mio per year should be enough to cover the loss of a small airline (3 planes).
DeleteI presume those 3 planes will cost 0 euros, as well as the maintenance, and of course the employees would do volunteer work.
DeleteAnd you presume that this airliner will fly its residents for free and not charge for the tickets? :-)
DeleteAnd you presume it's residents will pay for expensive tickets for it's national airline and not fly with Ryanair from neighbouring airports? (as they already do)
DeleteThey should have struck a deal with one of the LCCs.
ReplyDeleteIs there any chance that any other airport in Slovenia except Ljubljana will get flights?
ReplyDeleteNo.
DeleteHighly unlikely.
DeleteWhat route could actually work out of Maribor?
DeleteLikes of London Stansted, Munich, and Belgrade maybe but even those must be subsided enough so the prices would be extremely low and people would actually consider flying from Maribor.
DeleteI think the routes that are not operated from either Graz or Zagreb could work so that Mbx would be some kind of second airport for both those cities as well as for Maribor. The routes that come to my mind are Prague, Tirana, Bucarest, and maybe someone else. And I still think that a 2 or 3 weekly to Belgrade and London Luton/Gatwick/Stansted would work.
DeleteMBX could have connections with London, Paris, Milano, Belgrade,Nis, Antalya,Barcelona, Frankfurt. For a season: Roterdam, Göteborg, Palma de Mallorca... It is important if the county of Styria and the state would like to support a bit more....
DeleteSo by the middle of the month we will know who has won right?
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily. They will just open the bids by mid May (and won't make it public)
Delete"The opening of the received applications will not be public and will be carried out within fifteen days from May 4."
Amazing... There will always be a wiggle room in the end for some good old corruption, nepotism and personal preferences with any of the Slovenian public tenders.
DeleteYes, sure. A lot of corruption. So people here are not just stupid but also paranoic as well.
DeleteI'm not an airline expert, bit I wish I was so I could start my own 5 plane airline at LJU. I have a pretty neat idea/nieche that would probably make it popular to fly the producy. #lifegoal anyway, good luck to the people at LJU.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the idea? : )
DeleteHow is HEL eligible when AY operates this route and are very successful.
ReplyDeleteI think because it is not year round.
DeleteWhat about AMS then?
Deleteif anything will happen out of Ams routebthen KLM will take it most probably. Back in the Adria days there were 2 daily Adria flights + 4 weekly Transavia so there is enough room
DeleteReally want Austrian to launch Vienna.
ReplyDeleteThey most probably will
DeleteThey are interested
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/04/austrian-airlines-assessing-ljubljana.html
Fingers crossed.
DeleteNowhere in that article did they mention they are interested- they say they are assesing. Furthermore, they refer to Klagenfurt:
Delete"Currently, we offer our Ljubljana passengers an alternative to Vienna through Klagenfurt”
If you read between the lines: they would not jeopardize their own airport/working places so they could do LJU a favor.
What is a KLM plane doing on that photo in Ljubljana? Would love to see them start AMS-LJU.
ReplyDeleteTransavia used KLM B737-700 once a week during last summer.
DeleteThe only reason they could have put Amsterdam on the list for subsidies was for KLM.
Delete@9.21 thanks
DeleteDuring Yugo times, KLM flew year-round to ZAG and BEG and seasonally to LJU and DBV as well, normally with DC-9, but for one summer it was even DC-8 deployed to LJU and DBV
Deleteit seems no Ryan in Ljubljana
ReplyDeleteAnd Slovenia remains the only EU country where the largest European airline doesn't fly to.
Deletewhy? they could fly half of the routes and add some additional - such as London, Manchester and Bucharest/Sofia.
DeleteExactly
Deletethey could also add Marrakesh and Canary Islands since both are really popular among slovenians
DeleteBecause the rules are too harsh for an airline like Ryanair. They usually dont commit to flying the route after subs ended (for the same ammount of time) which the SLO and MK tenders are about...
DeleteI am still hoping that Air Dolomiti applied since they unsuccesfully held talks with slo gov last year. They would be a perfect airline for Lju.
ReplyDeleteI agree and it would probably be the least costly for Slovenia while getting the most value out of it.
DeleteThe proposal at that time arrived with the price tag… in it was HUGE.
DeleteHow much was it?
DeleteIn the range of around 100mio of state support.
Deletewow
DeleteOnly 100mio? Wasn't it like 2 billion?
DeleteAir Dolomiti would only fly to LH hubs which means Vienna and Brussels (but not CRL)
DeleteAir Dolomiti negotiated with the gov in spring 2020. Their proposal was at the level of state aid which would have covered 100% of all seats on every single ops. So, every single ticket sold, would be their 100% profit. Stop with this stupid Air Dolomiti story, it will never happen. NEVER. Their idea was RIDICOLOUS.
DeleteAt least it's good to see someone is interested in Ljubljana.
ReplyDeleteI think we will see Lauda plane based in Ljubljana - flying to: Madrid, Rome, Berlin, Stockholm, Paris, Prague, Lisbon and Barcelona. They would probably add also London. Vienna will be taken over by Austrian, Skopje and Brussels by Wizz, Helsinki by Finnair, Athens by Aegean, Amsterdam by KLM and Pristina by Eurowings? (and now i stop dreaming).
ReplyDeleteThis would be good
DeleteIt would be good, but I hope that Finnair and Aegean could apply as they already scheduled Lju flights before that because I know there were some complications about that. And same with SKP as it is already scheduled from Macedonian subsidies. The arrival of Klm would be fantastic and I really hope that they applied and will be approved. And last but not least I doubt that anything will happen with Pristina route as it is already being operated by Gp aviation twice a week and I don't know if there really is enough room for Eurowing or any airline there.
DeleteEspcially since PRN isn't a EW base anymore.
DeleteHow so?
DeleteNot happening. FR is NOT interested.
DeleteWhile LJU is busy focusing on SKP, Graz is quietly expanding with more and more Eurowings flights. Latest addition is to the Canary Islands (11 new routes). No wonder why Slovenes will have more options from nearby airports as them tenders take ages to be materialised
ReplyDeleteAll of this could have been avoided had they just helped Adria at the time.
Deletethere is a reason why they focus on SKP. Dont get this arrogance really
Delete12:00 Nothing ignorant. Slovenia is a fairly developed country and should be seeking developed and mature markets such as Spain, Portugal, UK. Look what Air Serbia achieved with BCN, MAD and now AGP is selling one-way tickets starting at 380€ in less than 2 years. But yeah, lets pay for a gasto airport with 20 passengers instead. Why should Graz have more destinations when Ljubljana is a capital at first place?
Delete"But yeah, lets pay for a gasto airport with 20 passengers instead" says it all, no need to discuss further with such a world view
DeleteIf this is successful - it will put an extra pressure on Croatian airlines cuz im sure they benefit the most from low LJ connectivity.
ReplyDeleteHahaha extra pressure on Croatia Airlines. Are you for real? Trade Air operate charters to destinations not on the list, so nothing to affect them. And Croatia Airlines, they couldn't care less, they don't give a s.it, they are totally not interested in Croatia, let alone Slovenia
DeleteYes i am for real. Don't really understand what has trade air to do with my comment. But since u are so fast with making fun out of opinions that don't align with your own, let me explain why i think so. I live in Ljubljana and if i wanna fly to Amsterdam/Vienna (as P2P but mostly as a connecting option), Barcelona and Copenhagen Zagreb airport and Croatian Airlines are the best option at the moment. If Ljubljana airport gets those flights, most of Slovenians using those routes will start flying from Ljubljana and Croatia Airlines will loose those passengers. I'm not saying this is 30% nor 15% ... but if you have average LF 70% today and you loose even 5% of passengers that's an extra pressure on those routs.
DeleteYou wrote "Croatian airlines" The name of croatian flag carrier is Croatia Airlines, not Croatian airlines. Croatian airlines means plural, two or more airlines from Croatia. If we add to it significant charter operations Trade Air has in Ljubljana, you shouldn't be so much surprised about it. About making fun : It was absolutely not my intention to make fun with your opinion. If you understood it that way, I apologize. However, it was my intention to make fun out of Croatia Airlines, and that's why I wrote my comment. Maybe you are not aware of it, but "management" of Croatia Airlines cares as much about slovenian, croatian, or any other passengers as about the last year's snow. That was the point of my post.
Deleteyes, my mistake. i was talking only about Croatia Airlines that benefits the most in this case. I think mostly on Amsterdam route ... i used to fly via Amsterdam from Ljubljana but now its more or less useless. so i always fly KLM from Zagreb.
DeleteHope this means there is more than one airline applying. From what I've noticed with these subsidy tenders in the region, usually just one airline applies.
ReplyDeleteAnd more often than not it is Wizz Air :D
DeleteLook the article said that there were a lot of airlines that applied both LCC and normal ones and Sierra5 said the same so there must be quite a few.
DeleteNobody applied so far.
Delete@10:00 article does not say there have been a lot of airlines that applied, it says that there have been lot of airlines that have shown interest. Showing interest could be just airlines requesting additional info from government.
DeleteWhat are you talking about
DeleteGreat so there were quite a lot of airlines that applied. So the interest is big. Now dear Slovenian government can you please not mess things around for once when it comes to Slovenian aviation and make those subsidies work and get as much as possible out of them.
ReplyDeleteLike I said above, the article just says there have been a lot of interested airlines. Not that they actually applied. So not sure about the outcome of this one.
DeleteAs already said somewhere above, nobody applied so far. The final outcome will be wizz and maybe, if we are lucky, transavia and aegean for the next winter or summer period.
DeleteWhich route do you think Wizz will operate if they get the subsidies? And at least I hope that KLM replaces Transavia.
DeleteCharleroi and Skopje
DeleteIts gonna be W6 only, if we get A3 in the winter its gonna be a big success.
DeleteHad they not sold the airport, state would have all the control over the development, but now, they have to throw public money into private company in order to function in a way it was ment to many years ago, in dark times as some like to say. Selling the airport and giving up Adria are the darkest moments in slovenian aviation history….
ReplyDeleteLet’s hope Aegean and Finnair get those subsidies in order for ATH and HEL to be scheduled year-round flights.
ReplyDeleteNo way. AY not interested for all year round flights. Even in better times10 years ago...
DeleteAegean is tho they are expanding really fast and they introduce new destinations frequently.
DeleteI know it's not related but once again today AirSerbia deployed A319 to the LJU morning flight so demand must be getting bigger and bigger as pretty much half of the morning flights in the past two weeks were operated by A319.
ReplyDeleteThere were 84 passengers this morning to LJU
Delete+1
DeleteHow many passengers does AirSerbia Atr76 could accept?
DeleteIt has capacity for 72 passengers. Tomorrow morning flight to LJU is almost sold out (on ATR)
DeleteOk thank you very much.
DeleteWhy is Bratislava doing so badly?
ReplyDeleteThere are guest workers, tourists, many Slovaks travel, just as many foreigners travel to Slovakia? The demand is on the face, why there is an outflow of passengers?
What has Bratislava to do with Slovenia and its subsidies?
DeleteProbably because it is mentioned in the article
Delete" During the first quarter of this year, Slovenia was the second slowest recovering aviation market in terms of passenger growth when compared to the pre-pandemic 2019, behind only Slovakia"
Slovakia is doing badly because Kosice lost almost all of their flights, Propad i think has only Wizz flying and Bratislava lost a few flights (namely Austrian hop from Vienna, which boosted pax number 2/3x daily)
Delete12:03
Deleteex-yu gives LJU and BTS as examples. I wonder why the airport there is losing passengers even though they have Ryanair, Smartwings.
At LJU we have the collapse of Adria and subsequent Covid, while Ryanair had a base there before.
Poprad***
DeleteThanks 12:08.
Delete"Problem" with BTS is similar to LJU - geography. When you are located barely 60km away from a super important airport such as Vienna, connected to almost the entire part of Europe and not only makes it the airport of both Austria and Slovakia.
DeleteBTS is also mainly a leisure airport. It will, however, be interesting to see how Aegean will perform this year when they launch ATH.
On EU level, Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary have quite poor aviation figures.
Vienna is an airport of Bratislava. Most travelers use Vienna.
DeleteI know Slovaks who mostly travel through Vienna because there are more options for destinations.
On the surface looks that it is geographic problem or that is political problem because EU is not a country so passengers from one country are using Airports and Airlines from other countries that are in close proximity. But these are just symptoms of the problem.
DeleteProblem is the limit of capital expansion of capitalism.
So what we have is fierce race to the bottom of the market participants.
Many smaller market Airports in North America are left with very few flights after the Covid.
The capital is withdrawing from the periphery to the center. Ljubljana and Bratislava are fine cities but capital is pulling back like a sea tide.
Bratislava has actually never surpassed its 2,3 million annual record. There are various airports in ex-Yu who easily achieve this number and them being smaller cities. It is quite logic to use Vienna if you have very easy access via car, train, shuttle, ferry boat, etc, etc.
DeleteBUT, Vienna is now more accessible when it finally allowed Wizzair and Ryanair to agressively expand. 10 years ago it was a very expensive airport and destination while Austrian was sucking blood of the victims and ripping off on many routes taking advantage of their monopoly. One can easily see the boom in 2019 when it went from 27 million to 31 million in just 1 year! Austrian will also finally get new Dreamliners and will allow it to further grow.
Good thing is that Smartwings are kinda active in BTS but having only 2 Wizzair routes is so little. Will see how Air Nostrum (part of Iberia) will perform this summer and Air MNE to TGD. And if all goes well with Aegean they might upgrade the service next summer. Hoping that this will also persuade Turkish Airlines. I think BTS is maybe one of the very few European capitals with no direct line to Istanbul.
+1
DeleteBut VIE have IST hahah.
And yes will be perfect to have direct flights BTS-IST.
Re. "XYZ12:08 Slovakia is doing badly because Kosice lost almost all of their flights" this claim is completely wrong. Kosice just had their best quarter in history, and is already above the prepandemic levels. It's BTS and TAT, both of which are approximately 45% down re 2019 that are dragging down the whole Slovakia. See https://www.facebook.com/LietameZKosic
DeleteSteady climb in pax number is similar to the post 1991 era. So we'll see how it goes - if I dare to predict some things:
ReplyDelete- the tender will be a success, but not in full as summer schedule is already established
- goverment will move with the plan of national carrier (Bratušek had 2 promises pre elections: retirement wellbeing AND national carrier, so it's a mini goal of hers)
-new airline will start flying in Q2/Q3 2024 via AOC from another already established airline (so either Solinair or Amelia (or even Lipicanaer))
- Back to tender: Pristina is already flying 2x weekly so idk if anyone else will apply, apart from that, Prague will be the one to struggle to get flights, simply bcs LLC aircraft is too big for P2P ops - especially mandatory 3x weekly, AirAlps would be a decent option, especially if they submit the LJU-FCO too.
- Watch out for vueling airlines - they could take over Barcelona and Madrid routes
- KLM should start AMS flights, and once they do, they'll move morning flight to Ljubljana for next summer (remember, adria had 2x daily flights with a319, so e95 shouldn't be a problem)
-Paris Orly is absolutely stupid, but will be taken by Transavia just because they have the capacity available in winter (with a321 comming by christmas!!)
-overall not a bad situation - just a year or two late
Really hope it turns out this way
DeleteIf I am not mistaken, there are more than 10 airlines in Slovenia, it is a shame that there is not one that operates from our market (I exclude Lipican Aer).
DeleteAmelia (+ subsidiaries Equaflight, Regourd)
Elit Avia (+ O Jet subsidiary)
Solin Air
Alpavia
Thal air Slovenia
Lippican Aer
Camex Adria Airlines
I think there was also a company that owned the An-26.
My information is from people working at CAA.
Yes you are right!
DeleteThe an-26 operator (they have 3!) is currently based in Maribor (constanta airlines), but they are Ukrainian cargo operator. It's a shame they didn't bid for the concessions.
Alpavia isn't doing as great as many of us expected, both of their e145s are parked most of the time - they would be perfect for small yield routes from Ljubljana (Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, Sarajevo) and for Maribor (Muc,Fra,Beg) ofc if they would be paid to do it (as otherwise you are nearing net zero on those flights- if you have luck)
I really hope it turns out similary to your predictions and Lju recovers with subsidies. I just can’t see a new national carrier coming next year especially
Deletefrom already slovenia based airline but I really hope I am wrong
Both Amelia and Solinair held talks and presented plans, so I think it's completely realistic - the only issue is EU and their decision on it. I'm in no way supporting goverment that we have right now (or the previous one), but their decision to go ahead with it surely helps slovenia grow economically.
DeleteLet's hope it happens
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/07/solinair-outlines-air-slovenia-plans.html
DeleteJust a quick recap of Solinairs plan
Lets all pras for it
DeleteIs it achievable in 2024 to achieve the results of 2019?
ReplyDeleteI think so. They are on the way to around 1.3 million this year without these subsidised routes. If they add a few more in winter then 1.4 million could be achieved in 2023.
DeleteI think that those numbers will be easly achieved next year even this year it won’t be too far from that numbers
DeleteIf LJU grown up 60 % per month like 1Q was, then we can expect 1,5 million passengers this year.
Delete16.8m - wow thats 5 times the macedonian subsidies (some 3.3m €) if im not wrong
ReplyDeleteYes it is. And I really hope that it will be 5 times more succesfull but I doubt it
DeleteVery strong interest. Two applications... ??!!!
ReplyDeleteOnly Luxair and To Montenegro applied.
DeleteIts bizzare isn't it? We were all hyped around LLCs coming, Vienna being there etc. and now we are getting what? AirMontenegro and Luxair, which won't really help with connections
Delete