Slovenia Abandons Plans to Establish National Airline, Enters Negotiations with Air Serbia

The Slovenian government has abandoned plans to establish a new national airline carrier using EU funds. The Ministry of Economic Development and Technology of Slovenia has confirmed the Draft Plan of Recovery and Resilience, which no longer contains the proposition for the co-financing of a new airline company.

The plan needs to be approved by the European Commission in order to allocate EUR 1.6 million in non-repayable funds and EUR 3.6 million in repayable funds to the country in order to mitigate the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

European officials earlier expressed concern over the intention to set aside EUR 76 million for the establishment of a new national airline carrier, whereas the ministry noted that the plans for the financing of a new airline company were not in line with the green policy of the European Union.

– As the aviation sector has not yet switched to renewable energy sources and still predominantly uses fossil fuels, this principle could not be met. As a result, we have withdrawn the proposition and are currently trying to find a solution for getting an alternative source of finance – the ministry told the Delo daily.

Slovenia recorded the biggest decrease in commercial flights in Europe last year, after Georgia, which is a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic, but also of the downfall of the former national airline Adria Airways in late 2019.

In the meantime, Slovenian Economic Development and Technology Minister Zdravko Pocivalsek talked to the Air Serbia Commercial and Strategy General Manager, Jiri Marek.

– We discussed the possibilities of cooperation in increasing Slovenia’s connectivity with the world. Due to the confidentiality of the business information, we cannot comment on this issue – the ministry told the Ljubljana-based daily Delo.

The daily writes that Air Serbia has expressed an interest in establishing a base in Ljubljana.

Air Serbia was the third busiest airline in the capital of Slovenia in 2020, which marked an improvement over 2019, when it was eighth.

The Serbian transporter managed to increase its market share in transfers in Ljubljana from 4% in 2019 to 10% in 2020.

In 2020, around 51% of all passengers on the Ljubljana-Belgrade line of Air Serbia were transfers. In 2019, they comprised around 22.4% of the total number of passengers.

Last year, the incoming and outgoing passengers to and from Ljubljana on Air Serbia’s flights mostly transferred to Skopje, whereas, in 2019, the most popular transfer destination was Athens.

Air Serbia ad Beograd

Adria Airways Slovenija

Air Serbia

Adria Airways

Zdravko Počivalšek

Jiri Marek

Ljubljana