Slovenia still in talks over new national carrier


The Slovenian Ministry for of Economic Development and Technology has said it is still seeking a solution which would lead to the establishment of a national airline after the state dropped plans to create a new carrier using European Union funds, following the block’s objections. The Ministry is in talks with private stakeholders which are interested in creating a new commercial airline. The government has also held talks with foreign carriers including LOT Polish Airlines and Air Serbia in order to improve the country’s connectivity. Slovenia has been one of the most affected European aviation markets by the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic with a number of carriers, including Brussels Airlines, Wizz Air, Swiss, easyJet and SunExprees postponing their service resumption or launch to the Slovenian capital this month.

Commenting on the matter, the Ministry for Economic Development and Technology, told the “Sierra5” portal, “Let us remember that Minister [for Economic Development and Technology] Počivalšek was the only minister from the previous government who, on behalf of the Slovenian economy, tourism and its employees, sought to resolve the situation, sought investors and held talks with the owner, in order to save Adria Airways. The entry of the state into its ownership structure did not prove to be a sustainable solution, but rather a poor one for both the state and taxpayers, which was clearly communicated in the autumn of 2019”.

Previously, Slovenian cargo carrier Solinair held talks with the Slovenian government over the possibility of launching scheduled flights or establishing a new national carrier. The airline has proposed two strategies for improving the country’s connectivity following the bankruptcy of Adria Airways and has asked for financial support from the government for the project. The company noted it would operate a five-member fleet consisting of either the Mitsubishi CRJ900, Dash 8 Q400 or the ATR72 turboprop, which it said would be ideal for the Slovenian market. The cargo operator said it would seek an agreement with the Lufthansa Group for the new airline to take over their routes to Ljubljana, including Lufthansa’s flights from Frankfurt and Munich, Swiss’ from Zurich and Brussels Airlines’ service from the Belgian capital.


Comments

  1. Anonymous09:02

    Montenegrin government managed to create new airline which will launch next month. In total 6 months. Meanwhile it's been 20 months since Adria went bankrupt and still nothing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:05

      When there is a will there is a way.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:07

      In a couple of years we will still be reading how the government is interested in creating a new airline.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:27

      The more time passes the less of a possibility there is to establish a flag carrier.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous00:28

      they are so slow. This airlines should already be operative!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:03

    “Let us remember that Minister [for Economic Development and Technology] Počivalšek was the only minister from the previous government who, on behalf of the Slovenian economy, tourism and its employees, sought to resolve the situation, sought investors and held talks with the owner, in order to save Adria Airways. "

    He was also the one that killed Adria.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:08

      Sarec forced him to kill it, so he could make (stupid) point that privatization of state companies is bad.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:14

      Why do you think so? Actually it was Alenka who sold JP to 4k...

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:25

      He is one of the people who buried Adria since he was the one who negotiated its sale to 4k Invest.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:30

      I agree with that, but after JP demise he was actually the only one who supported idea of Air Slovenia. And believe me, I don't like him at all..

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:56

      Adria died because everyone - from politicians to employees - used it as an unlimited cash machine. Simple as that.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:33

      So management did great job? I don't see why employees are guilty here, before 4k took over JP was in good shape, not profitable but still LJU had really good connectivity for less than 5 mio costs per year. Of course it could be better..

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:37

      "before 4k took over JP was in good shape"

      It would have gone bankrupt there and then, if it wasn't for the government bailout just before the sale, which was the condition under which 4K would even buy the company for €100k.

      Maybe they were in good shape operationally, but not financially.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous14:17

      @09:30:

      As a former employee, I am sick and tired of listening to the likes of you. I did not steal from the company, I was working hard and was payed less than my colleagues at LCCs. Also, I wasn't complaining since I was at least sleeping in my own bed 4 nights/week.

      And yes, it all started with Cmerar, the Black Mamba continued the demise and Mr. Serpentinsek finished it.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous14:41

      And yet you and other pilot & crew staff organised a party in front of Adria HQ on the same day that the company stopped its flight operations, while other staff tried everything to get it back in the air.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous16:49

      What party? Oh, you mean the other staff that couldn't be bothered to pick up the phone when fare paying passengers were calling to see if their flight has been canceled? Yeah, you were real professionals. Sitting on you as* all day long, smoking in front of Adria HQ (sometimes, you even used your colleagues card to register for a coffee break). No wonder the company went bust.

      FYI, my last was supposed to start at 20:00, but we departed with a delay of some 4 hours due to lack of spare parts which had to be removed from another aircraft. Needless to say, we finished the day at 06:00.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous16:53

      What is the psychology behind blaming others to hide bad behaviors?

      Blaming is one of the ways people use to escape their reality.

      By pointing fingers of blame at others they themselves can feel free of any wrongdoing.

      There is a very interesting concept called Victim blaming - Wikipedia

      This is perhaps the mastery level of escaping reality through blame.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:04

    Good luck

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous09:06

    They really should have just kept Adria, kicked out 4K and found a partner.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:10

      Cityjet was already lined up to buy Adria, but the government didn't want to give adria a 4 million euro bridge loan that would have been paid back in a month.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:15

      There were to much debts in JP, only solution was bankruptcy but I agree that they should already prepare everything to open new company on day JP went bust.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:00

      "the government didn't want to give adria a 4 million euro bridge loan that would have been paid back in a month."

      Sure, with tens of millions of other debt that they had before bankruptcy, they would have returned just this specific "loan" in a month. Right.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:54

      The owners of cityjet had 200 million euros in cash that they were looking to invest in different opportunities around Europe; one of their targets was Adria in order to expand their ACMI business across Europe. Adria's debt was quite small for them. The process of the sale was to take a month long due to regulatory filings and other bureaucracy; this 4 million euro bridge loan was just to keep adria alive during this process and would have been been paid back first before any other outstanding debt.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:07

      And please enlighten me in which business did Cityjet invest money and how much? We are listening same stories for ages..

      Delete
    6. Anonymous13:46

      If they had 200m in cash, for a company of their size, they wouldn't be seeking bankruptcy protection just couple of months into Covid-19 pandemic.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:07

    Mitsubishi?? This plane has taken an extremely long time to be launched.
    ATR seems the best and wisest choice. This is a strong, reliable machine that has been operating for decades.
    I just don't know why it takes Slovenia so long to establish this. Bureaucracy? Socialist model? Lack of interest? Balkan car mentality? Still remains an intriguing riddle....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:10

      Mitsubishi CRJ900, not their SpaceJet.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:09

    What is the Slovenian public's opinion about new airline? Are most in favor of a new national carrier or they prefer the current status quo?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:36

      Probably opinion is the same as in CRO, SRB, MNE...We don't need it But we can understand that as most people are not travelling by plane and they don't understand what decent connectivity means for economy of the country

      Delete
    2. JATBEGMEL15:17

      People don't really use planes due to the prohibitive costs. Travelling between cities on the Balkans by plane is really expensive compared to going by road (car, bus, combi).

      From Belgrade most cities typically START at or over 8.500 din (~70€) one way. LJU, TIV and TGD can be found for slightly less (~7.500 din / 62€) one way. Demand is there for air travel, however not at these prices.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous22:13

      It is not cheaper if you are alone in your car.

      Delete
    4. JATBEGMEL22:55

      Actually, most of the time, if not always, it is cheaper to drive than fly, even when alone.

      When filling up petrol in Bosnia for example, fuel is around 50 RSD cheaper per litre than in Serbia, which for certain cities, further brings down the cost of travel by car.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:11

    Honestly, each morning I wait to read a new article on this page. Also, each time I see posts about Adria and Croatia I get disappointed. It's just endless stories about all the same stuff for years. Useless, corrupt management and zero progress and happening. When there's no new interesting stuff to write about, just recycle a story about these two. No research needed, it's all the same always.

    P.S. This isn't a critique on the author's work, but on above mentioned two.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous09:22

    Hope they set up the new company on some healthy foundations.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous09:22

    The market has already moved on, it's time the Slovenian government does the same.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:24

      Considering the Slovenian market is one of the most affected in Europe, I would not say it has moved on.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:51

      The market has definitely moved on. It passed by us and waved goodbye, I just saw it yesterday :D.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:25

    Do not waste taxpayers money.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:26

      Whatever they do it will be loss making, at least for the first couple of years.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:33

      If you check company as itself yes, but having good connectivity bring you a lot of other incomes, much higher then costs of national carrier.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:02

      Luckily it's quite difficult to quantify the effects of having a national airline, so the argument "but it brings a lot of other benefits" tends to win.

      Look at Alitalia - does 3rd largest airline in Italy really bring that much to Italian economy, that it's worth throwing 1bn EUR in it more or less every year?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:37

      3rd largest airline in Italy? They have most flights in Italy so they are the biggest. So Ryan will be the biggest airline in Croatia from September with 2 base aircraft there? I don't think so.

      And calculating effect of that it's not rocket science, many before already did that. Even effect for JP bankruptcy was calculated at Oxford University.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:44

      2018 statistics for Italy:

      1. Ryanair 26.7m pax
      2. EasyJet 15.2m pax
      3. Alitalia 9.8m pax

      Also, the IATA study was done my Oxford Economics, not University of Oxford. Big difference, kind of like between Cambridge Analytica and University of Cambridge.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous09:25

    Počivalšek just doesn't give up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:28

      Perhaps he feels guilty for the role he played in selecting 4K Invest and destroying Adria Airways.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:32

      other should support him with that! Slovenia needs its own national carrier!

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:27

    Supporting government efforts. Hope some sort of a solution can be found.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous09:28

    Time is over.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:53

      Actually time is perfect for that!

      Delete
  14. Anonymous09:29

    I hope the government realizes this is a waste of money and a pointless idea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:30

      Yeah, really pointless. Sure lol

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:54

      Your comment is pointless anon 09:29 and it's really waste of keyboard to type such a nonsense!

      Delete
  15. Anonymous09:29

    Why doesn't Slovenia just do what Macedonia did. Invest 2 million per year into Wizz Air to open a base and launch routes. It would be much more beneficial for the public.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:56

      Because Macedonia (+Kosovo) has millions of residents living around EU, Slovenia has few thousands. There is not even a small chance to fulfill A320 3x per day.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:07

      And Slovenia has millions of tourists unlike both of these countries, plus whole south Austria and Zagreb are close to LJU, and 2 million Slovenians which are way richer than Macedonians and can afford vacations. And with all these included you are saying easyjet could not fill 3x weekly a320 LJU-BCN for example? Lol sure

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:21

      Are those millions of tourists who spend on average 2 nights in Slovenia, usually as a part of a longer trip through neighbouring countries?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:29

      Oh i didnt know 1,4 million of those who came to Slovenia with plane stayed for only 2 days.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:35

      1.4m tourists? Are you sure? Not a single Slovenian, people on business trips - or imagine that - a government official flying to BRU?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:41

      @anon 10:07

      do you really think that Wizz has a base because of residents in Macedonia? No, they are earning money from Macedonians working in EU, and those has money, more than average Slovenian has!

      And don't mix everything, just check average stay per night in Slovenia and compare it to Croatia/Montenegro/Albania/Greece. Slovenia is only intermediate stop for tourist going further to other countries.

      Hah Slovenia tourist Mecca..what a joke.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous11:15

      Oh i did check, and found some interesting facts. While in 2018 average stay per night was 2,5 in Slovenia, while 4,3 was in Albania. But still Albania had only around 690k tourists who came by plane, while Slovenia had around 1,2 million tourists who came by plane. What a joke, really..

      Delete
    8. Anonymous11:34

      Airport TIA 2018 2.9 mio pax, airport LJU 2018 1.8 mio pax. So actually you are saying that LJU airport had almost 70% share of tourist, while TIA had less than 25% ?
      It seems you are joke!

      Delete
    9. Anonymous00:29

      @9.29
      You are comparing two totally different markets and even now Macedonia has very poor connections to main EU hubs. They have few p2p routes where Macedonia diaspora lives (for instance Slovenia does not have a lot of diaspora around the word so our market is not interesting for LCC) but that's basically everything. So forget about LCC opening a base in LJU..

      Delete
  16. Anonymous09:54

    Too little too late. The government or employees should have thought of this a month before Adria went bankrupt

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous09:54

    Hope it happens.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous09:55

    Adria's bankruptcy didn't catch anyone by surprise and everyone knew they would go bust. Why didn't the government act in time to secure Slovenia's connectivity?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:56

      Yeah, the government letting this happen with no back up plan is ... a massive blunder and that is an understatement. They were less than unprepared.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous09:57

    Here we go again

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous00:30

      The never ending story

      Delete
  20. Anonymous09:58

    Does anyone has any idea what is the business background of the individual who bouth the rights on Adria logo?

    BR, Eight

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous00:24

      https://ae.linkedin.com/in/muneef-o-tarmoom-7a0548146

      Delete
  21. Anonymous10:02

    Slovenia as a small market needs a national airline that will operate with small profit or even small loss. If they want to have good connectivity and not only most profitable routes they need to set a national airline.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:06

      PSO is a much more economical way of having necessary, but unprofitable routes.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:09

      The thing is, Slovenia had a national airline and it never operated with small profit or even net zero. Not even close.

      There is no such thing as having a profitable small airline that is required to fly certain routes at certain times to ensure desired levels of connectivity.

      PSO is the only solution, and it is also compatible with ethos of free market in European aviation.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:44

      PSO cheaper then using you own knowledge. I'm interested why 95% countries does not see that and use it then?

      You will never find solution for 5 mio per year (that's the loss JP had before 4k came in) to base 10 aircrafts at LJU and flying 3x per day (what JP used to do).

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:00

      There's no need to have 10 aircraft, as there is zero benefit to use taxpayers money to subsidiese omebody flying from SJJ, TGD, PRN or TIA to FRA via LJU.

      Slovenia needs good connections to the hubs, and that's about it.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:11

      You are living in a fairy tale if you think that Slovenia is not connected to Balkan anymore. We have thousands of people from ex-yu countries living here who used to fly to SJJ/PRN/TIA/TGD, and then you have many Slovenian companies in all ex-yu area so there were many business passengers as well. The fact that transfers was around 50% on this flight can tell you that all were not travelling via LJU to EU hubs. So maybe now we don't need 10 aircrafts base in LJU, but 4-5 at current situation would be more than enough.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous00:22

      There was an article here about the top unserved destinations from Ljubljana and Skopje is in the top 10 as far as I can remember.

      Delete
  22. Anonymous10:07

    All Balkan airlines have to be government owned, since their markets are too small for them to ever be profitable, so tax payers will either subsidize a loosing strategic airline or LCC flights. But each country needs a national airline.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:20

      No, each country does not need a national airline

      Delete
    2. We all need JAT/SAS/LOT/Air Baltic. Actually we had, the first and the best one, JAT, but then it had to become history, the same as the country it represented, because of very well known reasons, which is why we are never gonna have it again

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:45

      Yes it needs! Slovenia is perfect case to show that!

      Delete
  23. Anonymous12:14

    Slovenians work on an assumption that Slovenia can be self-sufficient and provide current standard of living without extensive focus on international trade.
    IF YOU WANT TO DO THIS YOU NEED A WAY TO TRANSFER PEOPLE TO ECONOMIC HUBS.

    Slovenians are used to the fact that somebody always takes care of their problems in a sense they do not really know what being independent means.
    YOU HAVE TO SOLVE YOUR OWN PROBLEMS.

    Slovenians work under assumption, that foreigner will come in and develop a market.
    FOREIGNERS COME IN WHEN MARKET IS GROWING. THEY WANT TO CAPITALIZE ON THIS FACT. THEY WILL NOT COME IF THERE IS NO MARKET.

    So, who benefits the most if air transport again becomes available in Slovenia?
    THE ONE WHO ALWAYS SCREAMS NOT WITH MY TAX PAYER MONEY.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:31

      Majority of Slovenians have been avoided the pains generated by international market closedowns.
      This is because government is directly financing their salaries by subsidies. Because of this decreasing foreign orders did not have an effect on the company’s liquidity status.

      Next month this will end and all firms that are dependent on international trade will feel the consequences.

      Delete
  24. Anonymous14:35

    What percentage of Slovenians fly at least once per year?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:07

      This is wrong metric, market potential is looked as a total of inflow and outflow pax.

      You can find this on

      https://pxweb.stat.si/SiStatData/pxweb/sl/Data/-/2221902S.px

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:13

      Thank you. Is this a wrong metric just for Slovenia or for any market?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:27

      Slovenia is eazy in this aspect as it has only one international airport.

      For diffrent markets you have to project airport capture aeras, where pax decides to select specific airport instead of different one.

      This can be done by regression analysis where you study minisipality distance to airpot.

      Delete
  25. Anonymous20:34

    Ryanair will open a big base in Zagreb which will be situated on the frontstep of Slovenia, with a maximum distance of one hour driving .
    There you have your new national airline !
    You will be able to fly to virtually everywhere in Europe .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous21:11

      Yes because all of Slovenia wants to fly to 12 cities, mostly secondary European airports.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous21:54

      That would require me to drive with an average speed of 170km/h and cross 1 border.

      Can you tell me how many times did you book a flight to different country than your intended destination lies ?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous00:21

      I agree. It's not practical.

      Delete
  26. It is very important to change the mindset and create a vision! 90% of posts are telling and yelling that its not worth, we are to small, no demand. but LJU had a gr8 traffic before pandemic! tourism economy is not huge but its per profit per person listed high as a butique destination. If Iberia is starting to fly from Madrid to Ljubljana, our state and main tourist players should negotiate the flight to extend it like MAD-LJU-BCN-LJU-MAD and to get 2 destinations in Spain to fly to Ljubljana. All marketing activities can get even more out of the investement. The same story with flights to AMS-LJU-Rotterdam-LJU-AMS for developing new stories and new demand. What happened with Oslo/Stockholm/Göteborg/Malmö and Helsinki? Ok. Finnair is flying from HEL! Gr8 Before pandemic we had great connections with SVO, but why not with LED? Business and Leisure, some of the new destinations also for transfer airport.... And at the end we are not trying to develop LJU as a hub for airplanes landing on the water. Bigger players deliver passangers to LJU and then with small planes to islands and coastal small destinations, even a good service to POW... The country should say together with the chamber of commerce which routes has to be maintened from LJU with a plane like a part of public service LJU will have flights to FRA,MUC,PAR,BEG,BER,AMS,BRU and LON. For this routes the country will give some public money and invest in the service. Flying is not luxus is a need and as such has to be a part of definition what is a public servis in terms of public transport. Thanks god the step of shorthaul flights is to be cutted and the demand will switch on high speed trains. Freccia Rossa is arriving to Ljubljana but due the situation of the railline no high speed will be provided.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:23

      "MAD-LJU-BCN-LJU-MAD" "AMS-LJU-Rotterdam-LJU-AMS"

      You realise this would require two daily flights to MAD/AMS from these airlines, unless they would nightstop the aircraft and the crew somewhere?

      "even a good service to POW"

      OK, you must be joking now. It's 90 minutes to drive from LJU to POW, and there's no way anybody would fly there P2P with all the security checks (never mind the price).

      "For this routes the country will give some public money and invest in the service."

      Sure, it's called PSO. I don't know why Slovenia is still pushing for national carrier, when they could have started PSO...

      Delete
  27. Anonymous00:24

    So much talk, so little action.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous00:26

      The saga continues.

      Delete
  28. Anonymous00:25

    Sad to see many airlines still postponing resumption of flights to LJU.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous00:27

      That's why we need our own carrier and not depends on foreign ones where they only see their own interest.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous00:32

      There is just no demand at the moment.

      Delete
  29. Anonymous00:31

    this process is taking so long

    ReplyDelete
  30. notLufthansa10:26

    there is not eveno one well made study on what kind of national airline we would need in Slovenia. And we need one. I fully agree with Pozdrav iz Rijeke, we need Air Baltic/SAS kind of regional co-operation, but with nationalistic govts from Slo to North Macedonia, this is utopia at the moment. I also agree with anon describing how Slovenes just wait for somebody to solve their problems - this govt is perfect example of that. Lufthansa will save us. Easy will save us...but they don't give a flying flamingo about Slo. It is abusrd, that ones who are defending capitalism with all their souls, always think, that Slovenia is so special, that others will do business with it out of pure love.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous11:18

    In some aspect government is doing a really strategic thing. If Slovenia would create an airline at the start, or in the middle of the pandemic this airline would not serve any purpose. It would only load up the balance sheet with debt.

    But if you time your market entry to the point of market recovery newly formed company would be riding on the wave of market recovery and will introduce aircraft when demand starts to grow.

    This would be best chance for Slovenia, to build a national airline that would be functional for years to come.

    ReplyDelete

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