Slovenia has issued a seventh tender call for airlines to introduce new routes to the country as it attempts to improve its air connectivity. The Ministry for Infrastructure previously allocated a total of 16.8 million euros in funds for airlines between 2023, when the first public call was made, and 2026, when the last call is expected, although it can be extended if funds are left over. So far, just over one million euros have been used up. The funds equate to covering 50% of the carrier’s fees on the new route.
The previous public calls garnered mixed results. Luxair, airBaltic, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Iberia, Eurowings and Cyprus Airways have applied over the six previous tenders, although the latter did not submit complete documentation. Luxair (Luxembourg) has been granted 257.960 euros for operations between September 14, 2023, and May 31, 2025. airBaltic (Riga) will receive 284.408 euros for operations between May 2, 2024, and October 31, 2025. Norwegian Air Shuttle (Copenhagen) has been granted 557.518 euros between April 29, 2024 and October 31, 2025, while Iberia (Madrid) was the recipient of 18.774 euros between July 29, 2024, and September 5, 2024. The value of Eurowings’ subsidies has not been made public. So far, all the newly launched routes have been seasonal, with exception to airBaltic, which maintains year-round services, and Luxair, which operated throughout the 2023/24 winter and the 2024 summer, but has only a handful of flights this winter season.
Only airlines registered and based in the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) are eligible for the subsidies. The ECAA is made up of states that are part of the European Union, as well as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Iceland, Macedonia, Norway, Kosovo, and Montenegro. The Slovenian government is primarily targeting the introduction of flights from Vienna, Copenhagen, Madrid, Prague, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Oslo, Barcelona, and Lisbon, although all destinations within the ECAA are eligible. Interested carriers have until February 24, just before midnight, to submit their applications. Their opening will not be public and will be carried out by the Aid Granting Commission within fifteen days of the tender deadline.
Slovenia’s three commercial airports handled a total of 1.463.825 passengers in 2024. Of those, Ljubljana Airport accounted for 1.438.713, Portorož welcomed 22.782 customers and Maribor had 2.330 travellers. According to the 2024 Airport Industry Connectivity Report by Airports Council International Europe, Slovenia experienced a significant decline in air connectivity, ranking among the lowest in Europe. The report indicates that Slovenia's total air connectivity in 2024 was 29% below 2019 pre-pandemic levels
Austrian and ITA please
ReplyDeleteIt would be good if UK and Israeli airlines could participate also.
ReplyDeleteIt would be great if all could. Maybe it would give the push to QR or someone like that.
DeleteSo true.
DeleteEu regulation ..
DeleteNever ending
ReplyDeleteThey can keep trying, but there's just not enough demand.
DeleteAnonimno11:16
DeleteLahko se še naprej trudijo, a preprosto ni dovolj povpraševanja.
Čudno, le pri LJU ni povpraševanja. Stalni izgovor v Sloveniji. Včasih je potrebno za povpraševanje tudi kaj investirati.
To je vedno tako, jamrajo tisti, ki se vozijo na sosednja letališča in letijo na linijah ki so tudi doma, ter vedno negodujejo koliko je LJU draga a ne preverijo cen.
DeleteAgree to a point, too many dont even check Lju
DeleteU think thats why wizzair removed one weekly from skopje? So that they could apply ?
ReplyDeleteCan't, routes must be new and unserved for the past year or so
DeleteWizz will return that flight during the peak summer months ...
DeleteI thought they can apply also for extra frequency
DeleteWhat I think we could see:
ReplyDelete-Play Airlines (instead of charters)
-Austrian (hopefully)
-ITA (Rome, they are under LH now, so they will enter Ljubljana at some point)
-WizzAir (BBU)
-Aegan for winter ATH flights
We desperately need Barcelona, Madrid, Berlin, Stockholm flights, but they won't be happening
Let's just hope someone applies...
Upajmo samo, da se bo kdo prijavil...
DeleteTo upanje traja že več kot 5 let. Izgleda, da je vernikov še vedno dovolj.
For the sake of clipping - Binter this could work well 4 u 🙂
DeleteA random question. Could Qatar apply for the Ljubljana-Skopje leg?
ReplyDeleteAlways obsession with Middle East carries in LJU while they don't even have most of European connections
DeleteNope, they're not part of the ECAA
DeleteJust set up a New Adria Airways and subsidise it! Problem solved!
ReplyDeleteThat would be the worst possible solution for the Slovenian public.
DeleteAs slovenske železnice are doing so great with our money, do not talk about things you don t know anything about @09:19
Delete^^^
DeleteYou are not getting a relaxing, high paying government job in aviation.
JP is dead and is not coming back as a zombie. Get over it.
Sure then just close everything!
DeleteAnonimno09:19
DeleteTo bi bila najslabša možna rešitev za slovensko javnost.
Ta del slovenske javnosti je prispeval k uničenju nacionalnega prevoznika in bo še dolga leta
vplival, da bo LJU letalsko najbolj bedno povezana med prestolnicami v EX-YU regiji.
Agree, nothing national but a z.o.o. with a good business plan and crowd funding could work well, just a thought x Adria ppl 🙂
DeleteIf A220s were more reliable and more airlines had them I could definitely see all airlines mentioned beforehand going for year round service to LJU.
ReplyDeleteBut as things stand the A320 is too much capacity for half the year.
Okay, this clearly isn't working. But how do other countries within EU union deal with problems like the one Slovenia has? You can't establish a carrier from national budget, you can't pay airline directly to operate the routes...what's the actual solution?
ReplyDeleteMaybe paying Ljubljana city and then Ljubljana paying an airline to base aircraft there?
Actually most are not obsessed with routes that there is little actual demand to fly them.
DeleteThat's why we have Osijek-Zagreb flights :D
DeleteGraz is even closer to Vienna than Osijek is to Zagreb, and there are flights.
DeleteUnsubsized flights you wanted to write. It's a domestic feeder for OS, same as Osijek for OU.
DeleteYou can't be serious 13.18. Comparing VIE and ZAG on one side and OSI and GRZ on the other is impossible. Just take a look at number of passengers, destinations and operators in VIE compared to ZAG, and ecomomic strenght of Steiermark compared to Slavonia. It's simply incomparable
DeleteGood options of targeting routes , I hope our government in Macedonia would learn from this and not only looking for W6 villages and second airports.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to see Barcelona happen
ReplyDeleteI think Vueling would be a good fit for that.
DeleteRinse and repeat. Wishful thinking, but MAN-LJU would be good!
ReplyDelete@Admin is there a specific reason why POW had less passengers than previous years. Is it because croatia entered shengen?
ReplyDeleteI hope Iberia extend its Madrid flights to year round eventually.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting how KLM didn't even bother with the subsidies and they decided to launch flights anyway.
ReplyDeleteYes, during covid Transavia also didn't apply for the subsidies that were given to all airlines already operating to LJU. Weird.
DeleteYou know how they say “sevenths the charm”!!! :))
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed 😀
DeleteWell comeone, these subsidies did attract a number of airlines we otherwise probably wouldn't have seen.
DeleteBravo Fraport!
ReplyDeleteLipican Aer with two of their Saabs incoming
ReplyDeleteIf Maribor was smart, they would've offered no fee landings to Wizzair, so they could battle FR in Zagreb...but hey
ReplyDeleteWhen Wizz takes some 19-seater in its fleet, then MBX might get flights with them.
DeleteIf the Slovenian Government wanted to secure long term routes - they should have included the UK. That could have attracted TUI or Jet2 to launch a lakes break (look at TUI at Ohrid, Jet2 at Bergen etc.) as well as securing a career on LJU-MAN, a previously served route by Adria - with easyJet already serving UK-Slovenia
ReplyDeleteThey can't include UK. That's because they needed to get EU approval as these subsidies are characterised as state aid. So that why only EU companies are included.
DeleteTUI operate out of the UK but aren't UK-owned. Problem solved?
DeleteAegean should apply and upgrade ATH-LJU flights to year round, with good connections to Middle East. ATH-ZAG already upgraded to year round with increased frequency at 3 weekly so next up is LJU!
ReplyDelete