Adria Airways has said its flight operations will return to normal from July as its passengers continue to experience numerous delays, cancellations and the merging of flights. The Slovenian carrier noted that the ongoing wide-spread disruptions to its network come as a result of technical and operational reasons. “We apologise to all passengers for the inconvenience caused and we assure them that we are doing everything in order to find the most optimal solutions for their journeys”, the carrier said in a statement. The airline’s evening flights are most affected, particularly those to Skopje and Pristina. Over the past few days the carrier has also merged some of its services to Podgorica and Sarajevo, Munich and Zurich, as well as Skopje and Tirana.

Currently, some of Adria’s aircraft are out of service. These include two Bombardier CRJ900 jets, registered S5-AFA and S5-AAL, which are grounded in Ljubljana and missing their engines, while an Airbus A319, registered S5-AAX, returned to service yesterday after more than a month. Adria is also currently wet-leasing several aircraft, including a Nordica ATR72 turboprop, as well as a Trade Air Fokker 100 which is being used on its operations out of Pristina. These short-term wet-leases, which previously also involved a Carpatair F100 jet, were scheduled to run until the end of May, however, their usage has since been extended.

The ongoing issues taking place at Adria are in sharp contrast to the management’s promise it would stabilise the company’s operations for the 2019 summer season in order to avoid a repeat of last year, which resulted in the cancellation of some 100 flights. “Our priority is to stabilise our operations and restore the trust of our passengers”, the airline’s CEO, Holger Kowarsch, said late last year. The European Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, who is Slovenian herself, said on Friday, “Thanks to the EU, passengers whose flights have been cancelled have numerous rights: a refund, rerouting, and in certain cases compensation. We expect for Adria Airways to fully respect these rights”. However, many passengers have complained they still haven't been compensated by the airline for delays and cancellations experienced last summer season.