Skip to main content
  • Home

Search This Site

EX-YU Aviation News

EX-YU Aviation News

  • About
  • Vintage
  • Trip Reports
  • Newsletter
  • Support

EX-YU VINTAGE


Loading a JAT DC-9
London, 1971

Labels

ACI Air Adria Airways Adria Airways Switzerland Adria Tehnika Air Croatia Air Montenegro Air Serbia Amelia International Archive files Banja Luka
Belgrade BH Airlines Bihać bosnia and herzegovina Bosnian Wand Airlines Brač Covid-19 croatia croatia airlines Dalmatian Dubrovnik ETF Airways European Coastal Airlines Feature Fleet Fly Air41 Airways FlyBosnia Focus Jat Airways Jat Tehnika jobs Kon Tiki Sky Kosovo Kraljevo Limitless Airways Livery Ljubljana Lošinj low cost airline macedonia Maribor Mat Airways MAT Macedonian Airlines montenegro montenegro airlines mostar MRO New route Newsflash Niš Ohrid Osijek Photo podgorica portorož Pragusa.One Priština Privatisation PROMO Pula Results 2008 Results 2009 Results 2010 Results 2011 Results 2012 Results 2013 Results 2014 Results 2015 Results 2016 Results 2017 Results 2018 Results 2019 Results 2020 Results 2021 Results 2022 Results 2023 Results 2024 Results 2025 Rijeka Ryanair safety sarajevo Sea Air serbia service Skopje Sky Srpska slovenia Smile Air Split Summer 2009 Summer 2010 Summer 2011 Summer 2012 Summer 2013 Summer 2014 Summer 2015 Summer 2016 Summer 2017 Summer 2018 Summer 2019 Summer 2020 Summer 2021 Summer 2022 Summer 2023 Summer 2024 Summer 2025 Summer 2026 tivat ToMontenegro Trade Air Trebinje Trip report Tuzla Užice VLM Airlines Winter 2008/09 Winter 2009/10 Winter 2010/11 Winter 2011/12 Winter 2012/13 Winter 2013/14 Winter 2014/15 Winter 2015/16 Winter 2016/17 Winter 2017/18 Winter 2018/19 Winter 2019/2020 Winter 2020/2021 Winter 2021/2022 Winter 2022/2023 Winter 2023/2024 Winter 2024/2025 Winter 2025/2026 Winter 2026/2027 Wizz Air Zadar zagreb
Show more Show less

Archive

  • January63
  • December89
  • November77
  • October84
  • September81
  • August80
  • July85
  • June80
  • May83
  • April80
  • March80
  • February73
  • January84
  • December81
  • November83
  • October83
  • September79
  • August80
  • July83
  • June76
  • May84
  • April81
  • March77
  • February78
  • January81
  • December83
  • November83
  • October84
  • September84
  • August87
  • July84
  • June80
  • May84
  • April79
  • March84
  • February75
  • January81
  • December79
  • November79
  • October80
  • September81
  • August81
  • July79
  • June79
  • May80
  • April75
  • March84
  • February76
  • January79
  • December83
  • November78
  • October78
  • September79
  • August86
  • July98
  • June99
  • May93
  • April93
  • March92
  • February83
  • January93
  • December94
  • November77
  • October80
  • September79
  • August79
  • July86
  • June84
  • May86
  • April82
  • March95
  • February74
  • January79
  • December82
  • November77
  • October84
  • September80
  • August82
  • July84
  • June75
  • May79
  • April76
  • March75
  • February73
  • January80
  • December80
  • November79
  • October77
  • September73
  • August70
  • July80
  • June75
  • May76
  • April72
  • March75
  • February71
  • January78
  • December74
  • November72
  • October75
  • September69
  • August65
  • July73
  • June73
  • May74
  • April67
  • March72
  • February64
  • January72
  • December73
  • November70
  • October70
  • September70
  • August56
  • July68
  • June72
  • May73
  • April56
  • March31
  • February29
  • January34
  • December31
  • November30
  • October31
  • September31
  • August31
  • July31
  • June30
  • May31
  • April30
  • March31
  • February28
  • January31
  • December31
  • November30
  • October31
  • September30
  • August31
  • July31
  • June30
  • May31
  • April30
  • March31
  • February28
  • January31
  • December31
  • November30
  • October30
  • September30
  • August31
  • July31
  • June30
  • May31
  • April30
  • March31
  • February28
  • January31
  • December32
  • November30
  • October31
  • September30
  • August31
  • July31
  • June30
  • May31
  • April30
  • March31
  • February29
  • January31
  • December31
  • November30
  • October31
  • September30
  • August31
  • July31
  • June30
  • May31
  • April30
  • March31
  • February28
  • January31
  • December32
  • November31
  • October31
  • September30
  • August31
  • July31
  • June30
  • May32
  • April31
  • March31
  • February28
  • January31
  • December31
  • November30
  • October31
  • September31
  • August31
  • July31
  • June30
  • May31
  • April30
  • March32
  • February29
  • January31
  • December30
  • November30
  • October31
  • September30
  • August30
  • July31
  • June31
Show more Show less


Slovenia mulls airline subsidy overhaul, new national carrier

  • Get link
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Email
  • Whatsapp
  • Telegram
  • Reddit
  • Linkedin
  • Other Apps

The Slovenian government is considering revising its airline subsidy program in an effort to enhance the country’s air connectivity, while the possibility of launching a new national carrier remains on the table. The Ministry for Infrastructure has indicated that policy changes could follow the adoption of Slovenia’s new aviation law, expected later this year. This development comes after seven public tenders aimed at boosting connectivity received a mixed response from airlines. An eighth tender is currently in progress. So far, only 494.376 euros of the allocated 16.8 million euros has been spent, with Luxair, airBaltic, and Norwegian being the only carriers to benefit from the scheme.

Addressing the issue, the Ministry for Infrastructure said, "The Act on Aid for Ensuring Greater Air Connectivity, on the basis of which the current public tender is being implemented, will apply until October 5, 2025, i.e., until the new Aviation Act (ZLet-1) comes into force. After this date, it will be possible to notify the European Commission of a new financial aid scheme with a duration of up to three years and conduct a new public tender on the basis of ZLet-1, so the Ministry of Infrastructure is considering a possible continuation of the measure”. It added, “In addition to conducting the public tender, it is also intensively studying options that will improve Slovenia's air connectivity in the long term, as we are aware of the short-term effects of a time-limited public tender. We are open to various forms of cooperation with airlines that would help increase air connectivity in Slovenia in the long term and we are interested in discussing possibilities for cooperation. Discussions with carriers that present their proposals for improving Slovenia's connectivity are ongoing, but there are no concrete proposals for cooperation at this time ".

The Ministry emphasised that the creation of a new national airline remains a possibility, however, any decision on the matter will require a collective agreement by the Slovenian government. In July 2023, the Slovenian Parliament’s Public Finances Oversight Commission proposed for the state to enter into a strategic partnership with an established airline in the process of forming the country’s new national carrier. Acknowledging that the process of setting up a new airline could take several years, the government has previously said it would only do so through a Public Private Partnership (PPP).

Grant Thornton Advisory, which was commissioned by the Slovenian Ministry for Infrastructure to undertake a study on ways to improve the country’s air connectivity, concluded that launching a new flag carrier could be economically viable. According to the study, at least 300.000 passengers from Slovenia are using alternative airports outside of the country for their travels. The study found that in the case of a PPP, the national airline would break even in its seventh year of operations. The cumulative loss in such a case would reach 35 million euros in the sixth year, and after the tenth year it would amount to 28 million euros. The authors of the study estimated the private partner would have to make an initial capital injection of at least 35 million euros, or seventy million euros in the case of a more ambitious network.


March 27, 2025
Feature Ljubljana slovenia
  • Get link
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Email
  • Whatsapp
  • Telegram
  • Reddit
  • Linkedin
  • Other Apps

Comments

Anonymous said…
No strategy whatsoever. Stunning.
09:04
Anonymous said…
It took just 8 attempts for them to realize these subsidies are not working.
09:04
Anonymous said…
Slovenia definitely does NOT need a national carrier. Unless they want an unprofitable cash-burner!
09:06
Anonymous said…
Guess this tender is a bust as well
09:07
Anonymous said…
The elections are getting closer :D
09:07
Anonymous said…
3x ATR, 2x E195, and in summer wet lease one A320
09:07
Anonymous said…
We only need FRA-LJU :)
09:07
Anonymous said…
There will probably be more until they axe it :D
09:08
Anonymous said…
Didn't Bratusek vow she would set up a new national airlines if she was part of this government?
09:08
Anonymous said…
And so much for the Wizz Air talks :(

"Discussions with carriers that present their proposals for improving Slovenia's connectivity are ongoing, but there are no concrete proposals for cooperation at this time ".
09:09
Anonymous said…
Has she followed up on a single promise in any campaign?
09:09
Anonymous said…
A single-type fleet is generally more profitable. E175s instead of ATRs, for example
09:13
Anonymous said…
😂😂😂😂
09:14
Anonymous said…
Yes it was reported that Wizz is asking for conditions nothing else
09:14
Anonymous said…
Last chance that existed of an airline setting up base was Cyprus Airways. Now that is gone too.
09:14
Anonymous said…
You're really not very funny. Ljubljana has way more destinations than just Frankfurt. But you know that already.
09:18
Anonymous said…
She tried but was blocked by her own colleague(s) from the government.
09:19
Anonymous said…
Well basically the ministry told them this subsidy scheme lasts till October and after that who knows. Not a real vote of confidence for anyone interested.
09:19
Anonymous said…
Since I'm an outsider, when are the next elections in Slovenia?
09:19
Anonymous said…
What is the airport doing? Where is its incentive model? Why isn't it talking to airlines?
09:24
Anonymous said…
So smart. The GOV has no strategy, but damn Fraport only one, right? To canalise everyone via LHG hubs. To make slovenians pay 900€ for rt ticket LJU-FRA-LJU.
09:25
Anonymous said…
This has been dragging out for way too long. Either find a solution or cut the crap,
09:25
Anonymous said…
+100
09:27
Anonymous said…
Didn't they say years ago how they were in talks with 20 airlines?
09:27
Anonymous said…
I didn't say Fraport had a strategy either. LJU definitely does not seem to be very important to them in their portfolio. The airport could have teamed up with the tourist organization, did more to promote the airport, create demand, try to implement policies that would stop bleeding passengers to other nearby airports...
09:29
Anonymous said…
Still hoping for a positive outcome
09:37
Anonymous said…
What happened to the various Air Slovenia and Slovenia Air start ups that were planned?
09:37
Anonymous said…
The only solution is to create a new airline.
09:38
Anonymous said…
So much talk, so little action.
09:38
Anonymous said…
Nothing, obviously.
09:38
Anonymous said…
The more time passes the less of a possibility to find a solution.
09:39
Anonymous said…
This, along with Adria 2.0 is without doubt one of the longest sagas in the regional aviation.
09:40
Anonymous said…
Need to be held no later than late April 2026
09:41
Anonymous said…
None of those proposals were serious.
09:41
Anonymous said…
Slovenia's entire aviation sector is in complete shambles and all aviation professionals have found jobs elsewhere. Maribor Airport is falling apart. Main airport sold to German airport group which has shown it has no interest to develop air traffic and no local passenger airline.
09:43
Anonymous said…
Slovenia would be best expanding the subsidies to cover UK carriers - easyJet serve London at the moment and could consider Manchester with support, Jet2 and TUI do mountain and lakes programmes which could be attracted to Ljubljana with support
09:44
Anonymous said…
After eight tenders and such low uptake, it’s clear the current subsidy model isn’t attractive enough.
09:50
Anonymous said…
The issue is that EU needs to approve all of these subsidy schemes if EU funds are being used and of course EU only wants to approve for subsidies if it involves other EU members.
09:52
Anonymous said…
With ongoing fleet issues it's unlikely they'd try to launch anything for this summer regardless. Maybe next one, depending on how the tender situation develops. Maybe they're modifying it for Wizz
09:52
Anonymous said…
But from what I notice, it does not really seem that general public cares so much. Which is sad considering the aviation legacy Slovenia actually has.
09:52
Anonymous said…
You would think that but the government does not seem so sure yet. I can guarantee you they will just approve the same subsidy scheme for another 3 years.
09:53
Anonymous said…
Mostly just shell companies to try and get a few subsidies before mysteriously going bankrupt with its owners fleeing to the Virgin Isles or Bermuda
09:57
Anonymous said…
With so many Slovenians using airports in Trieste, Zagreb and Vienna, the demand is clearly there. The question is whether Slovenia can create a competitive offering or just continue losing passengers to neighbors.
09:57
Anonymous said…
Be realistic. No tender ever will succeed. Slovenia has been economically devastated by politicians through at least 30 years of constant arguing and nagging. So, SLO becomes an unimportant player compared to other countries in the neighborhood, and consequently, it is not interesting to anyone. For serious tourism, is Slovenia too small to have the advantage of air connectivity? And also easily reachable by car. The airports from the vicinity of every part of the country cover all air connectivity demands well. It is an ugly truth that dreaming about the airlines that would be happy to fly to Slovenia should stop immediately. Wake up before more money will be spent on such endeavors. The national carrier for less than 2 Mio people is just another stupidity from the politicians.
09:59
Anonymous said…
Subsidies should be tweaked to allow UK-based airlines to bid. Not everyone wants to holiday on the Luton riviera, so more choice of airports within the UK would be very welcome.
10:07
Anonymous said…
Creating a national airline sounds romantic, but in today’s market it’s a very risky move unless it’s part of a broader tourism and economic strategy.
10:09
Anonymous said…
Why do so many comments express negativity toward Fraport. It does its job and employs people who pay taxes and spare money. Meanwhile, a totally incompetent state does nothing or only prepares useless tenders. The perfect example of state incompetency is MBX. Without Fraport, LJU will share the same fate as MBX.
10:10
Anonymous said…
Aviation business is consolidating in the European continent (has been in America before) and some still try to go against the tide, instead of understanding and developing strategies accordingly.
10:14
Anonymous said…
It is not. Let the market regulate itself and a new airlines is definitely not needed. There hasn't been a single remarkable new national carrier in the past years and current ones are also struggling (Croatia Airlines, e.g.).
10:15
Anonymous said…
Then just drop it.
10:15
Anonymous said…
Fulfilling its job.
10:16
Anonymous said…
At this point, just cut it.
10:16
Anonymous said…
Thankfully. Would've only wasted our (tax payers) money.
10:17
Anonymous said…
Where the hell did you pay 900€ rt LJU-FRA? I fly this route twice a month for work and last time paid 147€. The average price I pay should be around 180€ rt though. Which is fully fine in the current european aviation landscape.
10:19
Anonymous said…
Yeah, we're back to "new national carrier". That's going to take over Zurich and Frankfurt and the amount of passengers will stay the same, if not lower. While we're going to continue using foreign airports. Excellent.
10:33
Anonymous said…
People still think you can get aircraft like they are sold in a supermarket?
11:22
Anonymous said…
Ljubljana could have been one of Etihad’s first 10 new destinations with A321LR, but unfortunately Fraport didnt care to respond. They were invited to their fair, but did not care to attend.
11:23
Anonymous said…
Airport (and the subsidy scheme) brought many new airlines in the last couple of years but you know, some people will only be happy if the airport would have more passengers than x (insert random Ex-Yu airport here).
11:24
Anonymous said…
Yes, the demand to Trieste, Zagreb, Vienna etc. is there, as well as the demand for Ljubljana. Are we again proposing this ridiculous idea that Slovenian should only fly from Ljubljana airport?
11:27
Anonymous said…
@Anon 09:43: There are plenty of people who would come running home in a split second, especially if a government-backed airline with unlimited funds like Adria is established again.
11:31
Anonymous said…
+1.

Connection to hubs, plus a few LCC routes, and summer charters is realistically all LJU needs.
11:32
Anonymous said…
@0906 and we have to pay for slovenske železnice? They make even less profit than adria did so I guess we can stop financing them? And not to mention all the other companys, maybe just maybe we don’t need 190k people on ministries and we will soon have money not for just one adria but for 10 of them
12:33
Anonymous said…
Why the need to spread lies? Both SŽ potniški promet and SŽ tovorni promet are handsomely profitable.
12:45
Anonymous said…
Well you know all the angry ex-Adria pilots come here to shake off their frustration as now they fly for a low cost airline and sleep 21days per month abroad. You know the same kind of pilots that were saying they won't accept an overnight abroad while they were flying for Adria.
12:49
Anonymous said…
The only public that needs a new national carrier are politicians and their friends so they can, for a few years at least, enjoy another outlet for chanelling public money into their private pockets. They have obviously failed to notice that EU aviation has been consolidating for some time and there is no place left for cost-ineffective state-owned carriers. No decent strategic partner would bite that bait either.
12:51
Anonymous said…
Sure 1,2 million passengers per year that Adria carried were only politicians and their friends. BS you read here is unreal.
13:13
Anonymous said…
Nothing will come out of this. They will just keep going on with the same sort of subsidies.
14:09
Anonymous said…
I don't get this notion that the proposed new airline would " take over" LH routes. Why wouldn't LH keep them?
14:56
Anonymous said…
True
14:56
Anonymous said…
It would be nice but I highly doubt it.
14:57
Anonymous said…
It time to cut this nonsense. Ljubljana airport offers pretty much everything what Slovenians need and use. Sure maybe there could be direct flights to Rome, Barcelona, Berlin and Prague but that is all that is missing in my opinion. Any other routes wouldn’t really make sense. A lot of ex Adria routes are well covered by other carriers which by the way offer much lower prices than Adria did (most of them).
14:59
Anonymous said…
So why do over 300,000 passengers from Slovenia travel via airports outside of Slovenia if LJU has everything we need?
15:07
Anonymous said…
Do you not remember where did Adria mostly fly to and which were the only profitable routes?
15:11
Anonymous said…
Because it's better, closer, more convenient? Are you trying to imply that someone from Novo Mesto needs to fly from LJU just because they have a Slovenian passport?
15:13
Anonymous said…
LHR is being sold out in summer months...in MARCH, so if someone says there is no demand, just see Fra, Lhr, Rix, Mad, Ams flights prices...it's insane
15:14
Anonymous said…
No but, someone from Ljubljana shouldn fly from Venice if he watns to go to spain under 100 eur. ffs Im starting to belive that fraport has an employes to fighht back at this portal lol
16:28
Anonymous said…
They are in talks with 14 airlines, not 20.
16:37
Anonymous said…
The idea was that the new airline would make some deal with LH group and take over these routes freeing up capacity for the LH airlines.
17:21
Anonymous said…
Then make your own airline and fly from Ljubljana to Spain and sell tickets for 100€. See how far you get.
17:22
Anonymous said…
So they didn't give money and subsidies to Adria yet it's ok to give funds to foreign airlines?
17:22
Anonymous said…
Adria didn't receive any subsidies? Really?
18:10
Anonymous said…
Shouldn't the airport operator provide incentives for airlines?
18:11
Anonymous said…
Good luck
18:11
Anonymous said…
Weren't some people claiming how the market would sort itself out? Obviously it hasn't. If it did, we wouldn't need these subsidies in the first place.
18:12
Anonymous said…
True I'd rather spend the 10 million on Golob's laptop corruption schemes instead
18:13
Anonymous said…
They do provide incentives. If I remember correctly, the airport charges are free for the first 6 months of opening a new route.
18:25
Anonymous said…
The market solved itself. It proved that Adria's business model was unsustainable and that Ljubljana is actually a pretty small and unimportant city.
18:26
Anonymous said…
They also introduced incentive where they cover 50% of the airport fees for the 3 years after the government incentive runs out.
20:43
Anonymous said…
Not when it was collapsing.
20:43
Anonymous said…
Good luck with that
03:03
Anonymous said…
Oh so there is still time to hear more about new national airline :D
03:04
Anonymous said…
creating a whole new airline sounds like a long shot when even subsidies aren’t attracting carriers.
03:07
Anonymous said…
Only 494k out of 16.8 million euros spent? That’s a huge mismatch.
03:08
Anonymous said…
A PPP model could work if there’s a strong partner involved.
03:08
Anonymous said…
Bring back a national airline! Slovenia deserves a flag carrier. It’s about more than profit, it’s about visibility and independence. Just partner with someone like Lufthansa or LOT to do it smart.
03:09
Anonymous said…
Also, this isn’t just about flights. It’s about access to jobs, business, and tourism. Slovenia needs better air links and if the market isn’t stepping up then the state has to intervene somehow.
03:11
Anonymous said…
Still miss Adria Airways. At least we had some decent regional connections back then. Would support a new airline if it avoids the mistakes of the past.
03:11
Anonymous said…
Sure they are
03:12
Anonymous said…
If Slovenia wants to grow its tourism sector, especially outside Ljubljana better air connectivity is essential.
03:13
Anonymous said…
+1
03:13
Anonymous said…
"It's about independence! Just partner with Lufthansa!"

Those two don't really go together..
09:14
Anonymous said…
The problem with the tender is that LJU lacks LCCs, whereas the tender is about as anti-LCC as possible
10:22
Anonymous said…
One thing I definitely miss is catching the morning flight for Frankfurt, attend to a single meeting or matter and then going back on the evening rotation. Did it only twice but it was unlike anything else I've had at LJU. And Lufthansa actually had a good service back then as well
10:23
Anonymous said…
Don't forget the court building where 5 million bucks vanished

Or party members' parents buying luxury apartments in cash
10:24
Anonymous said…
15% annual growth is decent. Only hope next winter will be better than this one
10:36
Anonymous said…
Nah government is doing nothing but they need to keep up appearances
10:37
Anonymous said…
Back in the day people from Italy and Croatia were bleeding into Ljubljana to fly to Berlin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, etc.

Right now the opposite is happening. It's clear that the competency used to be there, but has disappeared since Zmago left
10:40
Anonymous said…
Even if the airline is losing money, the net benefit for the local economy is bigger. That's why they are subsidised
10:41
Anonymous said…
"Yes, we have corruption, so we can have even more corruption."
11:33
Anonymous said…
Well, Slovenia had that subsidized system and people were still flying from VCE/ZAG/VIE/BUD etc. since subsidized Adria tickets were too expensive for the common man.
11:35
Anonymous said…
@1245 yes well if you put 100million in a company that has 80million loss you can show that as 20million profit. That’s exactly what SŽ is doing, okay the cargo part is profitable I give you that but the passanger part is deffinetly not. Adria would also be profitable if you would do as I described early, but you forgot the most important part, adria did 10million loss per year, yes, but they also did ober 140million indirect profit to our country… and we as country don’t have that much money to just decline this amount…
12:47
Anonymous said…
Well, if there is so much profit to be made, feel free to invest your own money into it.
18:35
Anonymous said…
Why should anyone give subsidies to a collapsing company?
02:34
Post a Comment

VINTAGE EX-YU


Loading a JAT DC-9
London, 1971

POPULAR THIS WEEK

Image

Air Serbia prepares for “very dynamic” 2027, plans specialised charters

Image

Former Yugoslav airports handle 39 million passengers in 2025

Image

Podgorica aims to regain Tirana’s Montenegro passengers

Image

Belgrade Airport registers busiest year on record

Image

All EX-YU capital airports set for February growth as Wizz dominates

Powered by Blogger
© EX-YU Aviation News 2008 - 2026