Four applications have been submitted under the latest deadline of Slovenia’s tenth public tender aimed at improving the country’s air connectivity, the Ministry of Infrastructure has told EX-YU Aviation News. The identities of the applicants and the routes they are seeking subsidies for have not yet been disclosed. “We received four applications within the statutory deadline. The commission for the opening of applications will meet this week. The applications and carriers will become known only after they are opened”, the Ministry told EX-YU Aviation News. It is not yet known whether the four applications were submitted by four separate airlines or whether individual carriers applied for support on more than one route.
The latest deadline under the tenth tender expired on August 31. The public call itself was launched on February 6 and included two application deadlines, the first of which expired on March 6. Under the tender rules, the opening of applications is not public and is to be carried out by the aid granting commission within eight days of receipt. Airlines can receive subsidies covering up to 50% of eligible airport charges associated with a new route for a period of up to three years.
The scheme gives preference to a number of routes identified by the Slovenian government as being of particular importance for the country’s connectivity. The first deadline of the tenth tender also attracted four applications. airBaltic sought support for Tenerife, Gran Canaria and the continuation of its Riga service, while Norwegian applied for an extension of its Copenhagen operations. Funding was ultimately approved for airBaltic’s Tenerife and Gran Canaria services, while the Riga and Copenhagen applications were unsuccessful.
Eurowings is understood to be among the carriers seeking financial support under the latest round, with the Lufthansa Group budget airline tipped to revive plans for flights between Berlin and Ljubljana. The German capital is one of the government’s priority destinations under the subsidy programme. However, Eurowings’ participation has not yet been officially confirmed and will become clear once the four applications are opened.
The airline previously applied for subsidies for both Berlin - Ljubljana and Dusseldorf - Ljubljana services in late 2024. It subsequently abandoned plans for the Berlin route before tickets went on sale, while launching flights from Dusseldorf in April 2025. The latter was discontinued after a single summer season, with Eurowings ending its Ljubljana operations in October 2025. At the time, the carrier had indicated that Berlin could be reconsidered at a later stage.
So Tirana, Berlin, Dus, and? Lux extending maybe?
ReplyDeleteDUS was a failure BER always fails and LUX is an existing route.
Delete"Always fails" lol
DeleteBerlin, Stockholm, Dusseldorf and Tirana :) #EDI
Deletenot opened yet
Deletethe last one will fail as SOF-TIA
Delete#EDI is becoming too confident - not all of that is correct. :-)
DeleteWizzair have never been interested in Slovenian tenders, just saying
DeleteOf course they are interested, they take all the money they can. They only claimed that due to high airport costs the state subsidy as such (without airport incentives) is not enough.
Deletewell thats what im saying
DeleteI wonder if Stockholm is really gonna be operated by Eurowings as someone pointed out previously.
Deletei only mentioned that they have a base there.
Deleteothers said that Eurowing is gonna apply for 3 routes
BER was performing great before covid, easyjet just never restored it. They wanted to increase it to 4 weekly but than corona happened…
DeleteShhh... don't tell him, he doesn't want to listen, BER-LJU is a failure!
DeleteYes it is it would have returned by now without subsidies
DeleteGosh the world of Slovene aviation is thrillllllling.
DeleteUnderwhelming
ReplyDeleteWhy? Four bids is quite good
DeleteFour applications is actually a pretty decent result. Hopefully at least one of them is for Berlin.
DeleteIf there was no gov aid, fraport would still be stucked with their beloved LHG. Disgrace of the operator.
DeleteAngry Ryanair pilot spotted.
DeleteBerlin makes a lot of sense for Ljubljana. It is surprising there is still no direct link between the two capitals.
ReplyDeleteBerlin is one of those routes Ljubljana simply should have without subsidies.
DeleteAlways fails.
DeleteOnly in a Balkan aviation forum will people actively shun any positive news for aviation
DeleteBerlin never failed, it was discontinued during covid due to travel restrictions and hasn't been reinstated since. The loads
I think were above 80% year round at 3 weekly
Deleteall around the Balkans, BER flights were restored.
DeleteApart from LJU
DeleteThis isn't really relevant, LJU has never been balkan
Delete@21:44 oh calm down dear.
DeleteTrue Slovenia is certainly not Balkan
DeleteThe real question is whether this means four airlines or one airline applying for several routes.
ReplyDeleteIt's more than one for sure.
DeleteI suspect one of the applications will be for an existing route extension rather than something completely new.
DeleteHopefully we get some surprises when the names are revealed.
ReplyDeleteThe subsidy scheme finally seems to be generating some interest from airlines.
ReplyDeleteWonder if it will continue for an 11th time or will they finally lay it to rest.
DeleteThe government should focus on destinations with strong economic links to Slovenia. Subsidising routes purely for tourism is much harder to justify.
DeleteSubsidising routes purely for (inbound) tourism are actually the most positive business case.
DeleteI would not be surprised if airBaltic has applied again for another route. They seem to be one of the few carriers genuinely interested in expanding at LJU.
ReplyDeleteThey are interested only in money considering their finances.
DeleteBREAKING NEWS: Business is interesting in making a profit. More at 11
DeleteOne applicant is Eurowings probably for Berlin flights. The other are Easyjet with Porto flights, Wizz with Tirana and Norwegian to Copenhagen (once again).
ReplyDeleteThis is not completely true...
DeleteU2 to PMI
Deletewe have seen before that applications do not necessarily translate into flights.
ReplyDeleteDusseldorf failed after only one season, so I am not sure why Eurowings would suddenly have better luck with Berlin.
ReplyDeleteBerlin and Dusseldorf are completely different markets. Berlin has far more tourism demand and is a capital to capital route.
DeleteMaybe because LJU-BER is a proven route with demand?
Deleteoh it is proven??
DeleteFor you 40.000 passengers a year is "no demand", so no point in discussing further.
Deletewe see airlines really queueing up for this route all the years
DeleteHow many times has Berlin failed?
Delete11 tenders and zero
Deleteliterally every single time
DeleteOnce operated by Adria which says nothing, and once with EasyJet that operated for three years and ended it during covid. You make it sound like it was tried 10 timss already, which is in line with your agenda about "no demand".
DeleteIf BER was a success it would have bounced back without subsidies by now
DeleteBecause 40.000 passengers a year is not a success :)
Deleteim not him but pax numbers is not always equal to success
DeleteIf the yields were bad, they wouldn't fly for multiple years.
Deleteif yields were great they would have restored it immediately
DeleteGreat thinking, so BER-LJU will never be restored (just like ATH, LGW, MAN, BCN, MAD and many others).
DeleteYes BER is a low yield market
Deleteor maybe Ljubljana is?
DeleteAnd SJJ, SKP, TZL... are all high yield markets :)
DeleteWho on earth things any of you in the former Yugoslav space are?
DeleteFour applications at least shows that airlines are paying attention to the Slovenian market.
ReplyDeleteI hope they publish the applicants soon.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest problem is still the lack of connectivity to some major European capitals.
ReplyDeletelol
DeleteOne better be Tirana with Wizz
ReplyDeleteHopefully there is at least one legacy carrier among the applicants. Another hub connection would be much more valuable than an additional seasonal leisure route.
ReplyDeleteWell done. Ljubljana has had a very good year for new routes
ReplyDeleteI hope SAS applied
ReplyDeletemakes more sense than Norwegian
DeleteSAS from Arlanda would be great.
DeleteSAS are essentially allergic to Arlanda nowadays.
DeleteSAS never applied for any EX-YU subsidies tender. Even their CPH-SJJ flights weren't subsidised, because they didn't apply for subsidies despite being eligible.
DeleteTenerife and Gran Canaria getting subsidies while Riga and Copenhagen were rejected was a strange outcome in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteDo you understand there are rules behind this tender?
DeleteClearly the airlines also don't understand as barely anyone applys. Also if they understood they probably wouldn't apply again as AirBaltic and Norwegian did.
Deleteyou cant blame them.
Deleteeverytime the reaction to these slovenian subsidies are: "Math lady" gif
Whatever the routes are, they need reasonable frequencies. Two weekly flights are not particularly useful for business travellers.
ReplyDeletewhat business travellers are you on about? You have enough daily to double daily options with the top european legacy airlines
DeleteWhat are these magic business travellers about which we speak from a city of under half a million. So much business is done online that dedicated business flying nowadays is not what it was, nor will it ever be again.
DeleteCould Eurowings perhaps be for Stockholm rather than Germany? They have a base in ARN as well.
ReplyDeleteAny chance Wizz will bring back LJU-CRL?
ReplyDeleteCan Tirana work from LJU, with Ryanair and Wizz both flying from TRS? The majority of SLO is so close to TRS airport, so there’s no second thought of driving there if the price is better. People still fly to BCN from TRS (the ones I know at least) despite there being flights from LJU.
ReplyDeleteWithout some help I'm sure it wouldn't make Wizzair much money. But yeah, cheap tickets (and this will defiantly be one of those routes [if they launch it] with rock bottom fares) isn't a bad thing right?
DeleteVueling flights to BCN are constantly full thus the prices to go and back are rarely less than 200 euros. Extra frequencies should bring the prices down.
DeleteAs for TIA, the tickets will probably be quite cheap so it will be a good option, especially for people from the east since LJU is closer.
with fares that go as low as 13€ (for the most of Sept, Oct and Nov) from TRS I dont see chances nor the necessity to start something in LJU, with zero diaspora.
Deletealso in the case of BCN, its different airlines. Vueling is not present at TRS
Delete@16:16 with the greatest of respect thats for Wizz to decide if its worth it.
Deletepeople are stil allowed to say what they think
DeleteOh totally! And given no announcement has been made they might not even launch it. I actually agree that it can't see any massive demand for such a route.
DeleteWell you need to leave your car in TRS when to LJU is much easier to find someone to drive you there. And also you spend way more time going to TRS than LJU apart from certain parts of slovenia. Both TRS and KLU have stansted flights with ryr for far less money, yet easyjet has most of their flights full out of LJU, so stop with BS
DeleteDid you just compare demand to LONDON with demand to ... ??? Seriously?
DeleteExcept for that one fanboy that is commenting under every single LJU article I also see very limitrd demand and surely not during winter season
For you every route from LJU has limited demand.
DeleteI mean how Wizzair will fill an A321 (if they launch Tirana) remains to be seen..
DeleteThe high density guy again :)
DeleteThe anti-high density guy again :)
DeleteLet the market decides ;) and we’ll see. It seems LJU is growing gradually in postcovid time, so TIA would be a one of the logical next choices.
Deletethere is no market and there are way more "logical" routes currently missing from LJU
Deleteits literally only you cheerleading for this route for two years now
For instance, which destinations? Thank you
Delete