The Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) of Slovenia’s former national carrier Adria Airways has been terminated just under two years since the company declared bankruptcy. The AOC was purchased by Air Adriatic, a Slovenian company founded by businessman Izet Rastoder, in January 2020 for 45.000 euros, with plans to use the operating license to set up Slovenia’s new national carrier. Air Adriatic had until September of last year to resolve any discrepancies with the license in order to begin utilising it but the company requested an extension due to the coronavirus pandemic, which it was granted. However, the Slovenian air regulator refused to issue a second extension request, thus terminating the AOC.
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.
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.
The last remaining remnants of Adria Airways are now being sold off as part of its bankruptcy proceedings. In February, Muneef Tarmoom, a businessman and investor from the United Arab Emirates, acquired the Adria Airways brand name for 33.000 euros. His motive for the brand purchase in unknown. In addition to the name, the package also includes three different logos, as well as the web domains adria.si, flyadria.si, adria-airways.si, afs.si, adria-airways.com, adria.ba, adria.mk and adriaairways.me.
How to waste 45,000 euros.
ReplyDeleteSeriously. Crazy that they didn't do anything with the license.
DeleteIt is quite small amount for him...he had some fun, maybe dreamed about airline and that's it :) He will survive :)
Delete45k is peanuts in aviation.
DeleteDon't cry for Izet :D he will be ok.
DeleteWhat a shame. On the other side we see how quickly Montenegro set up a new airline.
ReplyDeleteUnlike in Montenegro, there was simply no political will for it in Slovenia.
DeleteEveryone has saved their companies or invested in them, expect our government.
DeleteIf Croatia Airlines was smart they would set up a base in LJU seeing as they will probably be chased out from their own base in ZAG by Ryanair.
DeleteFraport doesn't want a new national airline or an airline based in LJU and just wants foreigners to be subsidised.
DeleteI thought that maybe Air Dolomiti would open a base in LJU.
DeleteFor us in Slovenia the problem is the EU regulations as they are a HUGE hurdle to overcome. I sometimes think that had Slovenia not entered the EU we would have become the new Switzerland.
DeleteAnon 12:27
DeleteNew Switzerland lol
And the president of that new Switzerland would've been Janes Drsko i presume.
"I sometimes think that had Slovenia not entered the EU we would have become the new Switzerland."
DeleteJust have a look at how much net contributions Slovenia receives (and has received) from the EU, and you'll see that your scenario would be fairly unlikely one.
That's the end of that chapter.
ReplyDeleteGreat job to all involved...
ReplyDeleteYou didn't expect anything would actually develop out of this?
DeleteWill this ever end?
ReplyDeleteNot any time soon :D
DeleteThe saga continues.
DeleteThe importance of Adria to the Slovenian market has been illustrated in the last year, despite what people say. Shame it's gone.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just about Adria. Macedonia lost its national airline but it did fine because it found an alternative with Wizz. The issue with LJU is that it found absolutely no alternative.
DeleteAgree with anon 09.05. The situation is dire and no matter what you think of Adria it definitely would have been better with them.
DeleteIs there any prospect of some serious company setting up base in Ljubljana?
DeleteNo
DeleteIf there is a demand Slovenia should support Slovenian air company and not foreign.
Delete@09.15:
DeleteIf Ryanair really materialises their plans in ZAG, the best thing Fraport could do is get rid of LJU. But I'm not sure how would they achieve that. LJU is a dead airport with no prospect of recuperating.
I wonder if Adria haters will ever admit their mistake. No national carrier means no air connectivity in Slovenia. Those damn left wing politicians screwed up everything.
The government does not seem to care.
ReplyDeleteAt least there is still home that the Adria Airways name will still be used wince the UAE guy bought it :D
ReplyDeleteSad
ReplyDeleteNew national airline is required.
ReplyDeleteNo thanks
DeleteEx-Yu area is too small and too poor for all these micro national airlines.
Delete+1
DeleteI'm not from the aviation industry, just a fan but I feel so extremely sorry for those hardworking Adria employees. Some of them managed to find jobs in the industry after Adria collapsed only to loose their jobs because of corona. Maybe a new Slovenian airline could provide employment opportunities while at the same time improving Slovenia's connectivity to the world.
DeleteSlovenia played with transfer of Albanians which is done today by Wizz and their tourist agencies. You got only big debt. No need for new Slovenian airline for passengers. You have transfer to Frankfurt, it is enough.
DeleteThey should really let Adria rest in peace already.
ReplyDeleteAgree. I'm still reading about it all the time and it has been almost two years already.
DeleteCorona or no corona, situation on the Slovenian market is poor. When you loose your airline, you also loose innovation and education in this sphere. The market is too small to support LCCs which fly with A320s/B737s. So we are destined for Lufthansa Group,
ReplyDeleteOf course SSJ is the only serious option for Slovenia
DeleteIt's a shame this didn't work out. Air Adriatic would have been a fitting name as a successor to Adria Airways.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been great to have a local airline back in business
DeleteBetter name would be Air Alpine(a), or Alpine Airways etc. Slovenija has so many beautiful mountains, and very little coast.
DeleteBye bye baby
ReplyDeleteExpected
ReplyDeleteAnd nothing of value was lost.
ReplyDelete:(
ReplyDeleteWhat has happened with Solinair. They were very interested in setting up a new airline and then nothing. Did they not get the support they asked from the government?
ReplyDeleteI think they were asking for a part investment from the governmnet.
DeleteOr Solinair realized it's not worth it.
DeleteSolinair is a great company but has no capital nor know how to run scheduled airline pax.
DeleteCapital can provide government and knowledge have ex JP employees.
DeleteAFAIK, Solinair wanted the government to cover the losses. And they came up with the same numbers as were Adria's (yearly loss of roughly 10 million euros).
DeleteThe airline business seems so interesting for people. A bit further in time they realize what it is all about- losing money.
DeleteIs Izet the banana man?
ReplyDeleteYes it is.
DeleteI really wonder what his original plans were and why he bought the license in the first place.
DeleteHe wanted to set up an LCC. He gave up shortly after when he was told what that would entail and how expensive it would be.
DeleteIf it had materialized it would have been another VLM Slovenia.
DeleteAnd he was planning to buy Montenegro Airlines too!
DeleteObviously the Slovenian government saw no interest in keeping Adria around.
ReplyDeleteNot before, not now.
DeleteI realized the banana king would do nothing since he didn't by the brand. Brand+aoc would have made sense.
ReplyDelete* buy
DeleteIs it that difficult to obtain your own AOC that they had to buy it for so much money?
ReplyDeleteThe process of obtaining an AOC is probably more expensive than 45.000.
DeleteThe whole aftermath of Adria going bankrupt was handled extremely badly. This is just another example of it.
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteAviation industry is very expensive. Not surprise they gave up.
ReplyDeleteWould be nice to have a passenger airline based in Slovenia.
ReplyDeleteWe can only dream now.
DeleteSlovenia 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.
ReplyDeleteSmall market with a small airline operating with a small loss.
DeleteUnicorns, anyone?
It could bring benefits to the local economy, even though it has a small loss.
DeleteShame we missed out on Banana air.
ReplyDelete:D
Deletehttps://i.ibb.co/LPYx83k/82625214-10218302426666204-3187506035946422272-n.jpg
DeleteWe missed out on their first aircraft
Deletehttps://i.ibb.co/6wsVMdM/83954291-2600011220234807-6989002587731132416-n.jpg
What will happen to the current IATA JP code? Was it sold?
ReplyDeleteYou can't sell an IATA code. It just becomes inactive for a few years and I believe it is then offered again.
DeletePredicted this would be the outcome unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteSurprise Surprise.
ReplyDeleteWhat an epic waste of money.
ReplyDeleteLoose means popustiti, olabaviti. Lose, single o, izgubiti. However I am sorry about Adria, during ex-yu times, and the first decade after, it was an excellent company.
ReplyDeleteGood, do not burn taxpayers money again
ReplyDeleteI'd rather spend it on a new carrier than on covid bonuses that all the doctors get and yet, they give nothing in return.
DeleteAre you serious> Yeah I'm sure those doctors did nothing to save lives...
DeleteWasn't Air Adriatic some Croatian airline?
ReplyDeleteIt was but it went bankrupt in 2007. Rastoder was able to register an airline with the same name in 2019.
DeleteIt wasn't "some" croatian company - it existed and successfully operated from 2001-2007. Initial investors were from Iceland. On their peak they had 6 units MD82/83. Initial plan was to have 3 units F50 in RJK, were HQ were, for regional traffic, missing big time from RJK at that time and today, existing 6 units MD 'S for charters in PUY, SPU and DBV, plus domestic feed to ZAG, and 2 units A310 in ZAG for North America, East coast, scheduled and charter. And they did not got bankrupt, their AOC was revoked in order to protect OU, two months after they announced scheduled services from ZAG and renewal of MD fleet with B737-700
DeleteAir Adriatic je propao zbog lošeg poslovanja, a ne zbog pokretanja letova u Zagrebu. Oni su imali dugove oko 8 mil. € prema raznim dobavljačima, pa je došao kazahstanski investitor ali zatim je tvrtka završila u stečaju zbog lošeg poslovanja prijašinjeg vlasnika.
DeleteMa naravno. I Dubrovnik je propao zbog loseg poslovanja kad je objavio redovne iz ZAG. I Anic Airways je propao zbog loseg poslovanja a ne jer su im duplirali linije. I Loncar sa prvom Air Croatiom nije krenuo zbog loseg poslovanja a ne jer mu je otvoreno receno da se moze postavit na trepavice da papire nece dobit. I druga Air Croatia nije krenula zbog loseg poslovanja a ne jer su i njima duplirali najavljene linije. I Romic nije krenuo sa Dalmatianom nakon 5 godina priprema zbog neozbiljnosti i loseg poslovanja a ne zbog prijetnji smrcu, i svi low costovi koji desetljecima zele u ZAG nisu bili tu doslovno do jucer takodjer zbog loseg poslovanja, naime oni su redom poznati po losem poslovanju, jedino predraga i premila i najsposobnija Croatia Airlines uspjesno posluje, ne pravi gubitke, povezuje Hrvatsku sa svih 6 kontinenata i to sve zato jer je nikada nitko nije ni od koga i ni od cega stitio
DeleteWhy 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.
ReplyDeleteIt's too small of a market for Wizz Air to base an A320 there.
DeleteIf an airline was to be set up at Ljubljana. What fleet would be optimal and how many aircraft?
DeleteAnon 11:42 you should also add that LCCs create market. LJU had its chance with ryanair, but they said LJU is too expensive for them and went to ZAG.
Delete@11.44
DeleteCouple of CRJs for most important routes. Certainly nowhere near the size of Adria.
Slovenia needs a small airline with 4-5 planes to cover major European hubs and regional network. If the Government was serious, they could make it happen with controlled expenses they could make a small profit.
ReplyDeleteSmall airline, public sector, controlled expenses, small profit. Impossible combination.
DeleteSo what now for Slovenia and its connectivity?
ReplyDelete