Slovenia's second busiest airport, Portorož, in talks with airlines over the introduction of commercial charter flights next summer. "It is true that we are involved in serious talks concerning charter flights for next summer season, namely to nearby European cities. The outcome of these talks do not depend solely on us, but also the city as a whole", the airport's Deputy CEO and Sales Manager, Valnetina Kobal, said. Despite having no commercial flights, Portorož handled 10.213 passengers during the first half of the year and registered 5.734 flight operations. It represents a slight decline on last year which is the result of adverse weather conditions which affected its operations during the first quarter of the year.
Portorož Airport handled its last scheduled commercial flights back in 2016, when the Croatian-registered AWEX maintained summer services to Belgrade with its Saab 340B turboprop. This time around, Portorož is believed to be looking at links to Rome, Salerno and Catania in Italy. "Portorož has the potential to further develop and increase its number of foreign visitors. That is why we want to develop both the airport and marina. 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 airport's owner said.
Portorož Airport's single-largest shareholder, the MK Group, which also runs the nearby Kempinski Hotel, has outlined its planned investments. "It is terrible that larger aircraft cannot land at Portorož Airport. We have made it clear that we want to invest in order to enable airlines to fly there and boost tourism", Serbian millionaire and MK Group owner, Miodrag Kostić, said. He added, "We are ready to invest between 2.5 and three million euros to extend the runway, however, so far, we have been unable to obtain the necessary approvals for this project. We have been waiting for a year and a half to be issued with necessary permits to extend the runway. I have also talked to the [Slovenian] Minister for Economic Development and Technology, Zdravko Počivalšek, about the investments. He agreed the project is vital for the development of the Slovenian tourism industry, however, no progress has been made to date". Due to its displaced threshold, aircraft landing at Porotrož Airport are forced to do so midway down the runway. Despite its small size, Portorož Airport, which was built in 1962, boasts a passenger terminal, duty free shop, as well as technical and fuel services.
Congratulations 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.
ReplyDeleteHow did they manage to have so many passengers without flights?
DeleteTaxi/private flights.
DeleteImpressive.
DeleteWhen you think about it, they had more passengers last year then Brac, Banja Luka and Mali Losinj.
DeleteThey desperately need BEG flughts.
ReplyDeleteSo, the future of charters is extremely bright. Following the magnificent success in BEG, BNX, DEB it seems that Portoroz finally woke up.
ReplyDeleteThe best is to negotiate with Travel Service operating in the Visegrad countries and include Slovenia.
They had great success in DEB, KSC, POZ, etc.
TravelService, are you trolling? You do know that a 737 cannot land at Portoroz!?
DeleteNice airport. Pity about the runway limitations.
ReplyDeleteThis airport puts Maribor to shame.
ReplyDeleteCan Portorož handle A320, CRJs or Embraer E175?
ReplyDeleteNo, it handle planes up to 70 seats.
DeletePista 1200m, tako da Airbus može samo sletiti i to da se ona dvojica u cockpitu dobro oznoje
DeleteBut only pEmart of the runway is used.
Deletesorry that was supposed to say **part
DeleteYes because of the hill near the airport so it has a displaced threshold unfortunately. I would love to see their plans though because I don't understand where the runway would be extended to.
Delete15
DeleteRather up to 50 seats. An ATR72 has large weight limitations even in very short flights from/to Portoroz
DeleteWell done POW!
ReplyDeleteJP can now station one of its Saabs at POW :))))))
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThere is no excuse. I think actually they could make a few routes work out of POW.
Its just too expensive probably to base it there, but they could make a rotation lju-fra-pow-fra-lju or similar...
DeleteI think that if adria would base a saab2000 in portoroz and fly to big hubs like FRA,MUC,ZRH people could transfer trough those airports from all around the world and like that they would get a lot of passengers/tourists
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteNema lepseg i slikovitijeg gradica sa okolinom izmedju Trsta i Jonskog mora od Slovenackog Portoroza!. Ipak aerodromskoj pisti nedostaje minimum 800 metara. Da bi avioni do 160 sedista mogli da saobracaju. Ali je iznenadjenje da vlada ni posle godinu ipo dana ne dozvoljava produzenje piste?.
ReplyDeleteVerovao sam da su Slovenci poslovniji, ekspeditevniji od vlasti iz moje Otadzbine Srbije. Da potsetim na Kraljevacku Moravu i njen prazan nov terminal... Ocigledno da ljudi koji odobravaju dozvole za produzenje piste i u Sloveniji su specijaliziovali kod svojih kolega u Srbiji. Politika dozvoljava i zabranjuje gradnju i pista i terminala. Kada ce odobriti za aerodrome, javice sigurno. Do tada Portoroz i Kraljevo cekaju. Kostic ceka u Portorozu da leti. Pa i ja bih pozelo da letim sa aerodroma Morava, kada posecujem Otadzbinu.
Tople pozdrave iz prolecnog Sidneja. Rodney Marinkovic
Kings Park 2148 NSW
For your info, the runway extension at POW would destroy the protected zone of Sečovlje saltworks and a protected natural habitat. I am convinced that we need to keep this areas protected for future generations.
DeleteDespite non developed POW. Whgo says, that every village must have a large airport ?
Additionally, there is also simply no capacity to cater for package groups in Portorož .... Across the border in Umaga and Istria for sure is enough capacity, but why should we destroy our nature for other's to capitalize ???
@ Cika Rade
DeleteNe znam kada ste zadnji put bili na Severnom Jadranu. Mozda je nekada davno bio i lep i slikovit, kako kazete, ali to se zadnjih dvadesetak godina mnogo promenilo i danasnji iskomercijalizovani prenapunjeni i izbetonirani Portoroz daleko je od idilicne slike koju o njemu imate. Sve ima svoju cenu, da kazem u Vasem stilu .A na samoj slovenackoj obali, koliko god da je kratka i mala, ima lepsih i piktoresknijih mesta , Piran i Izola naprimer, o Hrvatskoj i Crnoj Gori da i ne govorimo, o Rovinju, Hvaru ili Kotoru. Srdacan pozdrav!
Dear Anon 16:25. My last visit to Portoroz and Kopar was in summer 1966 year. Best regards from Rodney, Sydney.
DeleteWhy are they looking into flights to Italy when it's so close? Is this where there is demand?
ReplyDeleteRead up a bit of history and you will see why Portoroz is popular with Italians :)
DeleteI hope they get the permits and expand the airport.
ReplyDeleteAwex also used to fly Portoroz - Zurich. I wonder what happened with this airline.
ReplyDeleteToo expensive for hotel operator to keep the flights running.
DeleteSo two airports in Slovenia that want to develop are both waiting for the government to issue permits.
ReplyDeleteSolinair could finally move into passenger flights and start flights from Portoroz. Their head office is there anyway.
ReplyDeleteThey've moved to LJU years ago.
DeleteI hope they manage to get some flights. Would be nice to have an active airport now tat Maribor doesn't seem to have much of a future.
ReplyDeleteThey really need to renovate that commie terminal.
ReplyDeleteAgree!
DeleteSretno
ReplyDeletePOW 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.
DeleteRightly so !!!
DeleteCould Adria's Saab fly from and to Portoroz?
ReplyDeleteIt could.
DeleteSAAB 2000 performance for today's conditions in Portoroz Airport.
DeleteTake-off distance required 1110 m,Maximum take-off weight 23000 kg . Test flight today(new registration S5-AFE starting from today)
Interesting. Is this the first time they are testing in Portoroz?
DeleteI think so.
DeleteWait so Adria tested Saabs in Portoroz if I get you right?
Deleteyes
DeletePa Adria ima sada Saab turboprop avione odlicna prilika za turisticke charter letove iz Njemacke i Austrije do Portoroza i veoma dobar Slovenski dio jadranskog mora i obalu,ima i dosta hotela i za dobar odmor turista.
ReplyDeleteI am sure JP studied POW and would've considered it. Again, we reach the same conclusion, Slovenia is a country that has a surface area of 20,273 km² and has a terminal with a traffic of almost 2 million and TRS is barely 80km away serving 780,776 pax in 2017, which is what SJJ roughly achieved in 2017.
ReplyDeleteLeave alone VCE which is 191km - still a very small distance.
So is it necessary to really have it? I don't think so. The Slovenian Government can simply focus entirely on LJU - although it is expected to have a new terminal by 2020.
Spend the money of this airport elsewhere.
+1
DeleteThe runway sadly can't be extended for more than 200 meters and even this extension doesn't provide any more space for larger aircraft. Gov will never allow for it to be extended into the salt flatlands that are a protected nature reserve.
ReplyDeleteHowever if people were serious and if they would really want this airport to succeed, which I think it might with a bigger runway, they could just abandon this terminal/airstrip and build a new one across the road.
See picture: https://i.imgur.com/KGYHQNt.jpg
It wouldn't be a small or cheap project, I'm well aware. But this airport has potential so something like this might be worth it.
They'd have to buy out the farmers for the land, build a new airstrip that could easily reach 2km. A new terminal would also have to be built.
This would be a very big project, but in the end it might just be worth it. Slovenian coast despite it's smallness does have a potential to attract turists who would want direct flights to it and not have to drive 1-2h from a nearby airport to reach it.
Does already crowded seasonal area without suitable infrastructure needs another commercial airport? What for? High-end tourism? People get serious, afford yourself a trip to high end places in order to stop dreaming. Unfortunatelly there is no future for this airport. RWY not to be only extended but its direction is false. With 3mio's you cannot even trace the foundation for the RWY. Finnaly. JP could be happy if they airborn half of that planes. On hot summer peaks someone should first calculate the IRT's. If a bit wet, you'll spend more time in PUY than POW. However, all this mass bullshit tourism from the region, should be actually kept away and distant.
ReplyDeleteObična glupost. Portorož Ljubljana 110km, Portorož Trst 33km, Portorož Pula 88km.
ReplyDeleteA ovi bi uništavali prirodu zbog 2-3 chartera u sezoni tjedno! Ministar koji podpiše ovakvu dozvolu trebao bi biti kazneno gonjen!
Potpisujem. I dopunjujem : A i Rijeka je na nekih 70 km, i ima u sezoni zanimljivih kompanija i destinacija :Arkia TelAviv, Air Baltic Riga, Nordica Tallin, Ryanair Skavsta, Stanstead, Charleroi, Frankfurt, Transavia Eindhoven, Trade Air Split, Dubrovnik, Osijek, Croatia Munchen, Condor Frankfurt, Laudamotion Tegel, Eurowings Tegel, Hanover, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Koln, Stuttgart, Norwegian Oslo
DeleteAir Valee used to fly to Portoroz.
ReplyDeleteReally? To where and when?
DeleteNaples, Salermo and Rome. Several charter flights arounf New Year 2013-14.
DeleteWith Fokker 50.
DeleteInteresting didn't know that. Thanks.
DeleteSo basically VLM would have been perfect for Portoroz.
ReplyDeleteYes, especially with China flights :)
Delete