Slovenia offers PPP for struggling Maribor Airport


The Slovenian Ministry for Infrastructure has invited interested parties to submit an expression of interest in the execution of a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for the long-term operation of Maribor Edvard Rusjan Airport. Last year, a fifteen-year concession of the airport, awarded to Chinese investors, was terminated after they failed to meet obligations set out in their contract with the state, with each side blaming the other. Since then, the airport has been run by the state-owned DRI consulting and engineering company. Maribor has no scheduled commercial flights and has slipped behind Ljubljana and Portorož as the country’s third busiest international airport.

The Ministry noted, “The long-term operation of the airport is planned within the framework of a Public-Private Partnership, encompassing the development of infrastructure and an accompanying commercial program. A national spatial plan is being drafted for Maribor Airport. It will provide the basis for its modernisation in line with contemporary commercial passenger and cargo transport, as well as the overhaul of airport and non-airport infrastructure in accordance with national transport and security requirements under international (ICAO) and European (EASA) standards”. The airport’s former Chinese operator accused the state of failing to adopt a new spatial plan, preventing it from launching a planned 660-million-euro redevelopment project.

The Slovenian Minister for Infrastructure, Alenka Bratušek, previously said, “The long-term options for Maribor Airport involve either finding a new operator or selling the airport. I believe the first option is more likely. I do wonder how such a bad partner had been chosen to run the airport in the first place". Parties interested in the PPP have until March 16 to submit their non-binding expressions of interest. “The final form of the Public-Private Partnership, the scope and content of the project, and the obligations of the partners shall be defined in a tender call to select the private partner”, the Ministry concluded.




Comments

  1. Anonymous09:02

    How about shutting it down?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:09

      If the airport is shut down before November 2021, all money the EU gave for its reconstruction will have to be paid back. It's part of the contract.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous22:41

      Quick Question..

      If an airline comes back to Maribor, would it be a LCC and what other airline would start a route their?

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:06

    Such a sad outcome for this airport. Hopefully they manage to find a partner

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:07

      It's sad that such a nice terminal is sitting empty.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:12

      It also has very good and new equipment.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:07

    They've been talking about adopting a spatial plan for years.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:07

      Yes, and still nothing.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:08

    " I do wonder how such a bad partner had been chosen to run the airport in the first place"

    She asked exactly the same thing about Adria

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:16

      Not a good time for Slovenian aviation..

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:10

    Wonder if anyone will be interested.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous09:22

    Ryanair saga, VLM saga, Chinese saga...this airport suffered a lot.
    Only solution is to subsidise routes just like Skopje and Nis did.
    Another possible solution is to negotiate with W6, just like TSR or KIV did.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:17

      INI doesn't provide subsidies to carriers, it gives massive discounts, something MXB would do as well.
      That said, the Serbian government gave JU money to fly routes no one else wanted to fly.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:23

    In the light of the recent developments at smaller airports in ex-Yu, I feel like Maribor could have gone the same way and attracted LCCs. Now it has nothing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:24

      Didn't Ryanair fly there at some point?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:28

      They flew there for a few months but local tourist authorities that were funding the flights didn't have enough money and the flights stopped.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:29

      Too bad. FR would be great choice for Maribor taking in consideration it would be perfect alternative for Ljubljana, Graz and Zagreb.

      Delete
    4. there are not just ryanair, wizzair, easyjet and arabia... what about volotea/vueling/transavia/....? the industry and tourism market has to come to a realistic development plan and every year 1 new flight destination

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:32

      Maribor needs nobody. Graz Airport does the job. U don't need an airport in every town.

      Delete
    6. Brits are mad about ski. It maybe worth trying resuming FR flights from STN and local tour operators can promote Pohorje Ski Resort. It is a less than 2h flight.
      The flights launched in June 2007 ended in March 2008 but they should've launched them in winter first and not summer.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous11:33

      Pohorje ski resort? That just had the ski races cancelled due to lack of snow?

      Maribor is in for another shock, that is - you can't run a ski slopes below 1000m in this warming climate.

      Delete
  8. Slovenia lost JP and they are still brain storming to start Adria2 or not. Maybe they could do airport and airline together but not with LJU ... MBX and Adria2fly can start for all those connections that are important but the market is not interested! it is a part of important infrustructure and of course of public service in form of connectivity and transport!

    ReplyDelete
  9. why not give it for 1 EUR with condition if they dont follow the business plan the rent convert for not succeeded goal in the plan for a market value of rent!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:02

      1 EUR is not that far from market value...

      Delete
  10. Anonymous10:06

    Which route would have the most potential from MBX?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:34

      Hopefully Wizz decides to fly from MBX. I think that opportunity is great for both, Wizz and MBX. Better for them also to change their services from LJU to Maribor. It will be cheaper for them and LF will be really good.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:34

      You don't happen to be from Maribor, do you?

      Most people visiting Slovenia want to go to Ljubljana, Bled and the seaside.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:57

      what about flight to Belgrade as it used to have many flights to BEG and flights were always full( i was the witness of it)

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:57

      a low cost player that would take over some traffic from ZAG/GRZ/RJK? To Spain, Portugal, Israel.... and of course LON and PAR could work.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous17:51

      When was the last flight MBX-BEG? 30 years ago?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous20:47

      lol exactly what last anon said. Travel patterns have changed in the last 3 decades.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous20:47

      Well interestingly that Chinese SHS airline planned to launch Maribor - Belgrade

      Delete
    8. Anonymous20:49

      yes they were planned 5x per week
      https://www.exyuaviation.com/2017/09/vlm-slovenia-to-launch-belgrade-service.html

      Delete
  11. Anonymous10:13

    Had Maribor started growing it could have finally forced LJU and ZAG to lower their charges.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous10:14

    Maribor's main problem is that Graz is 60km away.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:23

      Exactly. Graz Airport does the job.

      Delete
    2. I disagree that GRZ "does the job". It still remains an expensive destination to reach out from the rest of the continent. Most destinations are leisure and from/to Germany.
      There are no flights to Paris, London nor major cities like Prague or Warsaw. Let alone KLU.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:17

      It totally does the job. From GRZ you can fly to Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Amsterdam and Istanbul (and Vienna) which are all major hubs - and it's not like Styria is a major center for whatever, so you have to have direct flights from the entire continent

      Delete
    4. well GRZ is 60 km from MBX, but it is also BTS 60 km from VIE....

      Delete
    5. Anonymous20:50

      Yes but BTS is a capital city of a European country and VIE is a very expensive airport.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous10:16

    The same EU state aid rules that apply to propping up airlines should also apply here. Maribor is clearly unviable and the money wasted is better off spent improving infrastructure elsewhere in Slovenia. As already mentioned, this airport just lurches from one fiasco to the next - the China virus is going to significantly impact aviation too, pushing any chance of Maribor gaining traffic well into the long grass. Just lock the doors give it back to nature.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous10:25

    How many passengers did Maribor handle last year?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous10:30

    Good luck to Maribor. An airport with such a nice terminal deserves some action.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous10:35

    I'm hoping for a start of a new era for MBX.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:55

      I hope too but I doubt.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous11:54

    Great catchment area:

    1hr to Graz.
    1hr 15min to Ljubljana
    1hr 18min to Zagreb

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:03

      It can be really a troublesome position, since those cities respective airports are already running.. Graz airport lacks a lot of year long flights though. Good luck to them.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:48

      MBX is located on the crossroad LJU-ZAG-GRZ-VIE-BUD, perfect location!, There is no Ryanair flights more than 200 km away, nearest is Trieste 250km away. There is also no low cost flights from KLU and GRZ. As an aside there is a lot of Italian tourist in summer in Maribor, so flights e.g. BGY or FCO could be profitable, also flights to MAD or BCN since there is no flights to this region.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous11:54

    Would there be any hope of getting someone like Volotea interested in this airport, and connect it to Western or Southern France, Southern Italy, or anywhere in Spain that's not MAD or BCN? No airports close by have direct connections to any of these locations...

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous12:02

    Both their airports are struggling.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous12:49

    I hope that this brings some flights to Maribor though I think its unlikely. Maybe it could be used as an alternate ski season airport?

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous12:52

    In my opinion Maribor could have
    - LH to MUC
    - Wizz or easyJet to LON
    - few charter for ski resorts and few charters for summer tourist to Turkey, Egypt and Greece
    - few business planes (they should have much lower prices than Graz to atract planes to come not just for Maribor aria)
    - sport planes

    ...and, well, it can be cute little airport.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:04

      It could easily compete with Graz airport.

      Delete
  22. Anonymous14:03

    This airport had some chance back in Yugoslav era being linked to BEG to offer some connections. Now it is just the money pit. Just my oppinion but I do wish them the best.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually during Yugoslav era (which was soooo bad according to some people here) JAT had, in addition to daily or the least 5 weekly to BEG, also twice weekly MBX to FRA on DC-9 as well, PanAdria /Transadria, while existed, had flights to Rijeka, Split and Sarajevo, and Adria had decent number of summer season charters to different destinations

      Delete
  23. Anonymous14:04

    players that might have success in Maribor: volotea (spain, portugal & france), wizzair (eastern markets), someone from russia (moscow and st. peterburg) and of course low cost to london it is a must!

    keep the fingers cross!

    build up direct connection regional train airport maribor terminal - maribor - graz airport - graz we all could have something from such kind of the logistics offer....

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous20:48

    Unlike most I still believe this airport has potential and think it can work out with smart management and planning.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous21:03

      +1

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23:51

      Of course it has! Slovenia is one of the wealthiest countries of the former bloc and Balkans. Yes, diaspora is minuscule compared to the rest but it can easily have 2 airports having year-round flights. Even Serbia today has 3 airports so it's worth trying.

      Delete
  25. Anonymous20:52

    Will there be any charters to Maribor this summer?

    ReplyDelete

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