Slovenia and Montenegro have closed separate public calls aimed at improving their air connectivity through state support, with authorities in both countries now expected to assess the submissions received. In Slovenia, the second and final application deadline under the country’s tenth public tender for enhanced air connectivity expired on August 31 at 23:59, while Montenegro’s tender for the operation of five Public Service Obligation (PSO) routes from Podgorica closed earlier the same day.
Slovenia’s latest tender was launched in February and featured two application deadlines, the first of which expired on March 6. Four applications were received during the initial round, although only airBaltic was successful, securing subsidies for the launch of flights between Ljubljana and Tenerife and the continuation of its winter service to Gran Canaria. The number of applications submitted during the second round has yet to be disclosed. Under the scheme, airlines can receive support equivalent to 50% of eligible airport charges for a maximum of three years. A total of 1.2 million euros per year has been earmarked for the programme in 2026 and 2027.
The Slovenian scheme gives priority to routes including Vienna, Copenhagen, Athens, Madrid, Amsterdam, Helsinki, Brussels Charleroi, Skopje, Prague and Berlin, followed by a supplementary list consisting of Rome, Stockholm, Oslo, Barcelona, Lisbon, Pristina and Paris Orly. Airlines can also apply for other destinations within the European Common Aviation Area if funds remain available. However, subsidies cannot be awarded for a route that is already operating or has been placed on sale at the time an application is submitted.
In Montenegro, the Ministry of Transport sought operators for five subsidised routes from Podgorica to Brussels, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, Zagreb and Bari. The contracts have a combined estimated value of 4.79 million euros. Each route was tendered separately, allowing airlines to apply for one or more of the services. The successful operators will be required to maintain at least three weekly flights throughout the year using aircraft with a minimum capacity of 110 seats. The government initially envisaged six PSO routes, including Amsterdam, although the Dutch capital was subsequently dropped from the final tender.
EX-YU Aviation News understands there has been interest in the Montenegrin tender from more than one party. However, it remains to be seen whether all of those that expressed interest ultimately submitted formal bids by the deadline. Air Montenegro is believed to be targeting two to three routes. The current process represents Montenegro’s first use of the PSO model for international air services. A further PSO procedure is expected to be launched in around a year.
Very interesting about Montenegro. I'm guessing the other airline interested could be Wizz Air.
ReplyDeleteOr OU for Zagreb-Podgorica.
DeleteI think Croatia Airlines is a real possibility, as well as codeshare between OU and 4O.
DeleteI'm interested to see if OU/4O can make Zagreb-Podgorica work considering Ryanair couldn't. Especially now that there are flights for 40 euro from Ljubljana. But I guess the pure profitability of the route is not important, since it is subsidised anyways.
DeleteI'm just wondering what is the public interest in such a route. Ryanair had a lot of passengers but A LOT of them were people from Podgorica going to Zagreb and then going onto another Ryanair flight.
Deleteand with Wizzair in Podgorica now, there is even less need to travel to ZAG to catch a cheap city break flight.
DeleteMontenegro’s PSO tender is much more interesting in my opinion. Three weekly year-round flights to Frankfurt, Paris and Brussels would make a real difference for Podgorica.
ReplyDeletehow so?? They are flying to FRA and CDG already
DeleteAnd now they will get paid for it. Also they are not year round.
Deletei dont see the "real difference" if you cannot transfer via those, also BVA is year round already
DeleteIt's just a way to pump money into Air Montenegro.
DeleteWizz could apply for subsidies and fly from Rome.
ReplyDeleteIt's rumoured they will start Pristina.
DeleteTirana to LJU with Wizz is almost certain, they are also thinking about Prishtina, no mention of Rome yet sadly. Unless someone from the inside knows something more.
DeleteRome is the one that makes most sense
DeleteRome is long overdue, can't believe we don't have any flights to Italy yet.
DeleteFlights to the US before Italy is wild.
DeleteRegarding the United flights, judging by the seat maps of the flights, there is quite a few seats already sold on some flights, which gives a lot of hope for the route's success.
Deletewell flights to Italy make sense only for the southern region. Everything north is too close. But did JP fly to Rome?
DeleteThey didn't. At least not in the last years
Deleteseasonal to Sicily sounds more promising
DeleteHow can you know how many tickets are sold ?
DeleteRome-PRN is already scheduled by Wizz.
Delete^ how is that related to this article?
DeleteBecause someone said “It's rumoured they will start Pristina.”
DeleteLjubljana-Pristina and Ljubljana-Rome, not Pristina-Rome.
DeleteI hope they both get a few new routes although we have learnt that zhe Slovenian ones usually don’t bring a lot of success.
ReplyDeleteSlovenian GOV tenders brought more routes than Fraport did.
Delete€4.79 million for five routes actually doesn’t sound excessive if all five are successfully launched and maintained year-round.
ReplyDeletewhat does mean "successfully launched"
DeleteLately it seems every new routes from ex-Yu region is subdized. Sarajevo will probably launch its subsidies in the next few days
ReplyDeleteTrue
DeleteHow is Skopje stil on that list? for another carrier?
ReplyDeleteIt says
Delete"However, subsidies cannot be awarded for a route that is already operating or has been placed on sale at the time an application is submitted."
but that leaves out Pristina as well, it is on sale (GP)
DeleteYes
DeleteYes, it also leaves out Helsinki, Copenhagen, Athens, Madrid, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Paris Orly. The list was made before the first tender, when those routes weren't flying yet. I guess they never updated the list, but airlines of course aren't able to get subsidies for those routes anymore.
DeleteThey really could have bothered to update the list after 3 years.
DeleteIt's so funny how only Copenhagen and Madrid were subsidised out of all those routes, and even they are not eligible for subsidies anymore. All of the other routes were launched without the subsidies. Tells you a lot how airlines don't even bother to try to apply.
DeleteBecause the subsidies are negligable but come with too many strings attached. Also they don't get paid until after a year
DeleteWell that's just shitty.
DeleteVienna being on the priority list still seems strange considering how close it is and the alternatives available by road.
DeleteWell to be fair, in the last years, Vienna was the ONLY profitable Adria’s route. Slovenes really liked to connect there.
DeleteHave a feeling no one applied for the Slovenia tender as per usual
ReplyDeleteFor sure, but at least we are getting a minimum of three new routes (and likely five) in the next months, so another failed tender is not such a big deal.
DeleteYes, this is probably the case and then we will see, after the tender closes two or three new routes announced unrelated to the tender. Thats how bad those conditions for Slovenian subsidies are.
DeleteWhat could be the third route announced after BER and TIA?
DeleteShortly they will announce 3 routes: Berlin, Stockholm and Dusseldorf. #EDI
DeleteWho will fly those routes?
Delete#EDI, Dusseldorf again? What is the sense in this? It didn't work out the first time. Also is Stockholm with Norwegian?
Deleteas far as i know dusseldorf had terrible timetable yet still managed around 62% LF? maybe they think with better timing they can make it profitable... or maybe info we got is simply wrong
DeleteYeah, the timetable was quite horrible. Hopefully they can make it work, I flew the route once and liked their product, you even get a chocolate!
DeleteCould that mean that Norwegian is moving their operations from Copenhagen to Stockholm? Their CPH operations aren't really performing amazingly.
DeleteI hope that SAS enters slovenia...its long overdue
Deleteim not from SLO ... its a long stretch but ARN is also a base for Eurowings, just saying
Delete@14.23 Damn, didn’t know that, it all makes sense now.
DeleteWill there be an eleventh tender in Slovenia under the same terms or will they finally overhaul the program (or ditch it all togeather?
ReplyDeleteWe will have to wait and see what the new government does. But considering all the (justified) negativity, Ljubljana is getting covered quite well. The next logical step is not necessarily to open an LCC base, but to get Wizz/easyjet to launch 6-7 city break and summer routes for slovene holidaymakers and then to increase frequencies on some routes and make them year round (Madrid, Helsinki, increased Barcelona, Paris Orly, increased CDG, increased AMS) and that's about it until let's say 2030.
DeleteI think the ideal for the airport would be Skyalps operating thin routes like Prague, Rome, maybe even some Greek islands, convert half of the TradeAir charters to sesional routes, and try to get scheduled Egypt flights. Looks like we are getting Berlin and Tirana + Pristina flights, so diaspora is covered. Wizz to Bucharest and to Malta and Cyprus would be viable in short term too. Long term, Easyjet to Switzerland is a possibility and then what Ann 10:24 added (although AMS is covered pretty well these days with KLM), Madrid will probably go full summer next year and Finnair with 98% LF needs to get those E2 asap, as they will be great for winter flights. Barcelona should realistically be daily in summer and 3x weekly in winter, Orly should be 2x weekly the whole winter while I can't see CDG being more than 7x weekly due to United now flying to US. Maybe airport should be thinking about trying to get LH group to base 2 E195s from AirDolomiti in Lju in the summer, but that's all I can see happening from LH group. British airways on the other hand should be 2x daily next summer with 3x weekly in the winter. That's about it methinks.
DeleteYeah, agree with all of those. I added AMS because KLM flights are full practically the whole year, they really could at least increase the capacity if not the frequencies. In may, their LF was 95 %.
DeleteHow realistic is any of 10:36 in the near future?
Deletekid had some time
DeleteIs there any possibility that any of these flights would ever be profitable without that subsidies??
ReplyDeleteThe ones for Podgorica with AirMontenegro I am not so sure about, the ones on the list for Ljubljana yes, a lot of them are already operating and profitable without the subsidies.
DeleteThe only one from Ljubljana that I can't say for certain it would be is Luxembourg.
DeleteYeah, LUX and CPH are the only ones that I feel uncertain about.
DeleteSo why subsidize the ones that should work without them?
DeleteI dont get it.
Eurowings surely applied if the Berlin route news by Edi guy is true. I can see Wizz applying for Tirana/Pristina routes too since they met with both the ministry and the airport.
ReplyDeleteNote that ministry registered a lobbying meeting "Predstavnike podjetja Wizz Air Hungary Ltd. je na AVK sestanku dne 28. 5. 2026 zanimal zaključek roka 10. javnega razpisa za letalsko povezljivost, ki se zaključi 31. 8. 2026. prav tako je na sestanku potekala izmenjava informacij o stanju letalske povezljivosti v Republiki Sloveniji."
^
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2026/06/wizz-air-explores-expansion.html?m=1
Yes, all I'm saying is that both routes Wizz flies now aren't via Slovenian tender, eventhough they could be
DeleteIt's a pitty that LJU is not connected to PRN. So much wasted potential.
ReplyDeleteGP Aviation flies to PRN-LJU.
DeleteThat's hardly a regular service. They operate once per week on and off. Can't wait for Wizz to jump in.
DeleteGP are not stupid if they saw better results there would have been more flights
DeleteComparing Wizz with GP lol.
Delete@11:20
DeleteGP Aviation is opportunistic, expensive and unrealible. And its 1x weekly to LJU is in no way an indicator of the real demand between the two capitals.
Anybody who has been following ex YU aviation dynamics in the past years, knows that there is high demand between LJU and PRN. Much like SKP - if not more.
uff suddenly GP becomes opportunistic, unreliable and expensive if one route doesnt work as expected. lmao
Deletehigh demand in the same way as ZAG-PRN flights ended gloriously
Deletewhat does aviation dynamics even mean ?
DeleteThe problem with these schemes is that governments often focus on the number of new routes rather than whether the routes are commercially sustainable.
ReplyDeleteCould we see Ljubljana reach 2.000.000 pax next year?
ReplyDeleteMore than 1,9 million is almost certain.
DeleteFingers crossed foe good outcome
ReplyDelete*for
DeleteCould Lufthansa theoretically apply for Frankfurt or would this be more likely to attract Air Montenegro?
ReplyDeleteHighly doubt it at a time when they rationalising their timetable
DeleteThe last time they launched a subsidized route in the region, it didn't work out.
DeleteWhich one?
DeleteSkopje
DeleteA better question is - can Lufthansa CityLine apply for slovenian tender on Munich-Ljubljana route?
Deletewhy not
DeleteMaybe Wizz Air is launching LJU-SJJ. They could have applied for the Slovenian tender to get subsidies, now they will apply for the soon-to-be-launched Sarajevo tender and get subsidies from both that way. It wouldn't have been possible for them to get Slovenian subsidies if the Bosnian tender came earlier, but who says they can't this way.
ReplyDeleteopet ovaj s trikovima...
Delete