Ljubljana solicits, rejects offers for new Slovene carrier

Slovenia’s Ministry of Economic Development and Technology received proposals from six airlines to establish a new flag carrier – or a base for an existing airline catering to the local market – based out of Ljubljana but rejected all of them, vowing to continue looking for a better offer.

“All meetings were informative and proposed solutions that would not have financial consequences for the ministry or the state of Slovenia… We examined all the received proposals at the ministry and also responded to them. The proposals varied widely in terms of the destinations to be covered by the carriers, the number of frequencies to each destination, and the types of aircraft to be operated by the new airline. So far, Slovenia has not accepted any offer,” the ministry told Sierra5, a Slovenian aviation news website.

The ministry underlined that it is still soliciting bids, hoping for an offer that would be more favourable to the state and compliant with European Union competition laws.

While it did not name the airlines involved in the bids, they were reportedly Croatia Airlines, Wizz Air, Air Dolomiti, VallJet, and Solinair, as well as an unnamed Middle Eastern carrier that submitted its bid more recently.

Croatia Airlines proposed basing some of its DHC-8-Q400s out of Ljubljana in 2020. In turn, cargo specialist Solinair considered launching a passenger subsidiary, Air Slovenia, also with a fleet of DHC-8-Q400s. Ultimately, neither of the two carriers progressed.

Lacking a flag carrier since the bankruptcy of Adria Airways (JP, Ljubljana) in September 2019 and thus suffering from reduced connectivity, the Slovenian government earmarked EUR5 million euros (USD5.9 million at that time) to subsidise carriers serving Ljubljana in 2020 and 2021. There are no active scheduled passenger airlines registered in the country. Besides Solinair, Amelia International and SiAvia have crew bases at Ljubljana airport, the ch-aviation PRO airports module shows.