New Slovenian start-up eyes Maribor launch

KZ SS Airlines, registered in Maribor, plans to commence operations from the country’s second largest city, with some familiar faces behind the project. The start-up is run by Harjinder Singh Sidhu and Kandra Bhupinder, who were behind the short-lived Golden Air, which maintained services out of Maribor for a week in 2011 before it was grounded. KZ SS Airlines recently held talks with the Slovenian Ministry for Infrastructure, the Ministry for Economic Development and Technology, as well as DRI, the state-run operator of Maribor Airport. They presented their plans to launch flights from Edvard Rusjan Airport and turn it into a hub. The company inquired about support options from the state.

The duo’s former venture, Golden Air, commenced operations from Maribor in October 2011. The carrier was initially to operate flights to London Stansted via Vienna with a Boeing 737-300 aircraft, with plans to expand in 2012 by introducing services to Birmingham, Bergamo and even Amritsar in northern India. Although the carrier did launch as scheduled, it operated during its first week with a Cessna plane before discontinuing flights. In 2006, Harjinder Singh Sidhu bought Air Slovakia, which was a small privately owned airline based in the capital, Bratislava, with plans to transform the carrier into a "Punjabi experience". The airline launched flights from the UK to Amritsar, Goa and New Delhi but eventually went bankrupt in 2010.

Maribor Airport has seen a fair share of interest from start-up ventures over the years. In 2017, SHS Aviation, which won a concession to operate Maribor Airport, established a carrier after purchasing the Belgian VLM Airlines brand and launched services from Maribor to Munich and Antwerp. It operated for several months before going into liquidation. SHS Aviation eventually terminated its fifteen-year airport concession on the grounds the state had failed to adopt a spatial plan, which would enable it to expand. The spatial plan has not been adopted to this day. Another Slovenian-registered carrier, Express Airways, had also planned to open a base in Maribor. Although the company maintained operations between Germany and the Croatian coast with a single ATR72, its commercial flight plans from Slovenia never materialised and its operating license was revoked in 2016. Maribor Airport last had commercial flights in 2015, operated by Adria Airways to London Southend. Today, it's primarily used by airlines for training purposes. Last year it handled a total of 4.055 passengers.