STA, 25 November 2020 - Eight airlines - Turkish Airlines, Swiss Air, Air Serbia, Montenegro Airlines, Lufthansa, Air France, Wizzair and LOT - will receive state subsidies to operate flights to Slovenia. The first instalment of the incentive is worth EUR 985,320, the Economy Ministry said on Wednesday.

Nine carriers had submitted applications, all of which have previously operated flights to Ljubljana. EasyJet is the only applicant to be left out.

Lufthansa will be the biggest beneficiary with EUR 371,040, followed by Air France (EUR 176,160) and Turkish Airlines (EUR 148,530). The remaining five will get under EUR 100,000 each, with Swiss Air eligible for the lowest amount, EUR 22,050.

The ministry said additional clarifications were needed from Swiss Air and Wizzair. They expect the issues will be resolved shortly, but if they are not, the two carriers will not be eligible.

Under the terms of the scheme, the recipients of the subsidies will have to operate scheduled flights to at least one airport in Slovenia twice a week in the 2021 summer season, between 28 March and 30 October.

This is the first of three calls for applications, designed to improve Slovenia's air links in the aftermath of the coronavirus epidemic. Applications for the next two calls will be opened on June and October 2021. A total of EUR 5 million is available for the whole scheme.

The subsidies are capped at EUR 30 per passenger.

STA, 3 September 2020 - Lot Polish Airlines will temporarily suspend its Ljubljana-Warsaw flights this month, with the last flight scheduled for 16 September. Further flights will be suspended until the start of the winter season. Meanwhile, low-cost carrier Wizz Air has cancelled its plans to fly between Ljubljana and Belgium's Charleroi over the coming winter.

According to the Ex-Yu Aviation portal, Lot could still make changes to its plans for the winter season, which have not been confirmed yet.

The winter season starts at the end of October.

Dutch low-cost carrier Transavia will suspend its connection to Ljubljana as of 13 September as Slovenia has put the Netherlands on its red list of Covid-19 risky countries, but is to return to Brnik airport at the end of October.

While Brussels Airlines is expected to restore its flights to Brussels in the winter season after several delays, Wizz Air is not expected to fly to Belgium from Ljubljana this winter.

The final service this year between Charleroi and Ljubljana is scheduled for 24 October, with two weekly flights to be reinstated on 30 March next year.

Apart from Lot and Transavia, who will temporarily suspend flights, Air Serbia is currently flying from Ljubljana to Belgrade, Montenegro Airlines to Podgorica, Lufthansa to Frankfurt, Wizzair to Charleroi, Air France to Paris, Turkish Airlines to Istanbul and Easyjet to Berlin and London.

Aeroflot, which was to connect Ljubljana to Moscow, has not made its plans public yet. Finnair is expected to return in the 2021 summer season.

Current forecasts suggest Easyjet will not be flying to London's Luton and Stansted this summer season.

Lufthansa is expected to start flying to Munich and Swiss to Zurich in the 2021 summer season.

This year's cancellations also include Iberia's flights to Madrid, British Airways's to Heathrow, Windrose's flights to Kiev and Israir's to Tel Aviv.

The budget carrier easyJet, which was planning on starting a new service between London Luton and Ljubljana on March 30 2020, has announced that that flights will not begin until May 6 2021.

Four trips a week are still planned, on Mondays and Sundays (leaving Luton 07:15, leaving Ljubljana 11:05), Thursdays (leaving Luton 07:00, leaving Ljubljana 10:50) and Fridays (leaving Luton 12:55, leaving Ljubljana 18:15).

STA, 29 May 2020 - After two months and a half of severe air traffic restrictions due to the Covid-19 epidemic, regular passenger transport services resumed at Ljubljana airport on Friday. The first flight was operated by Air Serbia with the airport expecting most airlines to return by early July.

The return will depend on efforts to lift border restrictions and promote the destinations, said airport operator Fraport Slovenija, adding that the airport had been forced to rationalise expenditure, including in investment projects, due to a major loss of revenue.

Following today's landing of an Air Serbia aircraft coming from Belgrade, Fraport Slovenija director Zmago Skobir said that other flights were to follow in the coming weeks.

The relaunch of regular services will take place in three parts: by 15 June, the airport expects to see the return of Lufthansa, Montenegro Airlines and a Polish carrier; by the end of June, Swiss Air, Air Brussels, Transavio and British Airways; and after 1 July, the return of other airlines.

Meanwhile, Iberia and Finnair have decided not to fly to Slovenia in this year's summer season.

Charter flights are also scheduled with key Slovenian tour operators announcing the first flights for the second half of July and in August.

Since Slovenia's border with Croatia has been reopened, flight services between Ljubljana and Dubrovnik are in the pipeline. Providing a connection with Greece is slated to be next.

Air Serbia Director General Duncan Naysmith said today that flights to Ljubljana meant resuming regional air traffic. Between 29 May and 21 June, the carrier plans to carry out eleven return flights. Air Serbia hopes that the demand will be big enough to warrant an increase in the number of weekly flights to Ljubljana.

Services will still be restricted this year given that carriers have been reducing their fleets. Skobir has pointed out that securing passengers' trust in the safety of air travel will be one of the key factors in resuming services.

Since international air passenger transport was banned on 17 March, Fraport Slovenija has recorded only 15% of normal revenue.

The operator has urged the relevant ministries to provide aid, however, according to Skobir, air transport has not seen any special stimulus measures designed to help mitigate the economic fallout so far.

What exactly cost-cutting efforts mean for employees Skobir could not yet tell. "The number of redundancies will depend on the forecasts of air carriers," he said, adding that the situation was uncertain.

The airport's major investment in expanding the passenger terminal is currently still planned to go ahead, however the project could be postponed due to the extreme circumstances.

All the anti-Covid-19 restrictions and guidelines, proposed by the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ), have been introduced at the airport to ensure the safety of passengers and staff.

Only passengers and staff can enter the terminal, mask-wearing is mandatory as well as using hand-sanitisers and maintaining physical distance.

Protective glass panels have also been set up to reduce contact between staff and passengers.

Temperature screenings have not been introduced so far since the institute has not deemed this measure obligatory or necessary.

Skobir added that in case the EU authorities proclaimed the measure mandatory, the airport would implement it.

The institute has also coordinated with the airport response protocols regarding potential cases indicating suspicion of infection with coronavirus.

In terms of passenger arrivals, all the measures in place for crossing Slovenia's land border apply.

The passengers arriving from Serbia, a non-EU country, today will thus have to be quarantined, except for Slovenian citizens, those owning a property in Slovenia or those with diplomatic passports, said Skobir.

Some 24 passengers, flying from Belgrade, landed at Ljubljana airport today, whereas about 40 flew back to Serbia on a return flight.

Among the first group was also a Slovenian who lives in Belgrade and tried to return to Slovenia multiple times during the epidemic but failed to do so until now due to lockdown measures.

The passenger reported that the flight had been without complications and that all the passengers had worn face masks with some even going as far as wearing gloves.

Government spokesman on coronavirus Jelko Kacin told the press at today's briefing that a total of twelve passengers arriving from Belgrade had to go into quarantine, whereas some preferred to return to their starting points after finding out about the measure.

Kacin pointed out that all the persons arriving from a third country had to undergo a mandatory quarantine period upon entering Slovenia regardless of their citizenship and residence.

As things begin to open up again, and international travel becomes a possibility once more, a number of airline have announced their plans to restart services connecting Ljubljana with other European cities. As reported on Ex-Yu Aviation, your best choice for regional news from the skies, the latest details are as follows.

Air Serbia will be the first to resume services, on 29 May, followed by Wizz Air, connecting Charleroi (Belgium) and Ljubljana three times a week from 16 June. Next is Air France, restarting operations on 24 June with two flights a week, while Brussels Airlines will offer its services on a three times a week basis from 29 June on.

EasyJet, Ljubljana’s busiest carrier, is planning to restart flights from London Gatwick and Stansted on July 1, although its service to and from Berlin is unlikely to begin before 25 October. British Airways’ flights from London Heathrow are scheduled to restart on 1 July.

Lufthansa will announce more details today or tomorrow, although no flights are expected until 15 June at the earliest.

Meanwhile, travellers to and from Finland will have to wait until 28 March 2021 for direct flights connecting Helsinki and Ljubljana from Finnair.

STA, 20 May 2020 - A week after international air passenger transport with Slovenia was allowed to resume, the timetable of flights to and from Ljubljana airport is still up in the air, with some airlines postponing the relaunch of their flights. Much remains dependent on the opening of borders and conditions for travelling across borders.

While some airlines communicated their plans to the airport operator Fraport Slovenija regarding relaunching flights after the ban, initiated on 17 March, was lifted, a lot remains uncertain.

The Serbian air carrier Air Serbia has announced it will start flying from Jože Pučnik Ljubljana Airport twice a week again on 29 May.

Lufthansa is expected to relaunch daily flights to and from Frankfurt in mid-June, while Air France plans to start operating flights to and from Ljubljana twice a week at the end of June.

On the other hand, the Dutch low-cost airline Transavia has cancelled all flights until the end of June, and the Finnish flag carrier Finnair has suspended their plans for flights to and from Helsinki for the entire summer, which effectively means until the end of the year.

The remaining airlines which had operated flights to Ljubljana before the suspension have not yet responded to queries from Fraport Slovenija about whether they would relaunch their flights.

The Ljubljana airport operator had expected a clearer picture about the relaunch of international air passenger transport this week, but this is not likely as Croatia is the only country so far whose nationals may enter Slovenia without limitations.

Much will also depend on how the coronavirus pandemic will be managed in Europe, to what extent European economies and tourism will recover and in what shape airlines will be after everything is said and done.

This year's summer schedule for Ljubljana airport, which was to enter into force on 29 March, included 17 carriers flying to 22 destinations in 15 countries.

Fraport Slovenija recently said that it would take a while before the airport reached the figures from last year, when it had served 1.72 million passengers. This was a drop of 5% compared to 2018 due to the troubles of the since bankrupt Adria Airways.

STA, 12 May 2020 - Although the ban on international air passenger transport with Slovenia was lifted today, passenger flights from Slovenia's airports are not expected before June as most air carriers have cancelled their flights until the end of May. However, Lufthansa, Swiss and Brussels Airlines have already opened bookings on June flights.

Currently, it is possible to book flights connecting Ljubljana with Frankfurt, Munich, Brussels and Zurich by the three carriers, all part of the Lufthansa group, which plans to restart at 20% of capacity as of 1 June, according to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.

The business newspaper Finance says that the three airlines will probably offer one flight per day.

Serbian flag carrier Air Serbia, which will restore flights on 18 May, is also expected to start flying to Ljubljana in June, but in a limited scope at first, writes the web portal Ex-Yu Aviation.

Easyjet is also expected to gradually start flying again in June but its plan to launch a new route between Ljubljana and the Luton airport this summer has been abandoned.

Turkish Airlines, which was one of the most active foreign carriers at Ljubljana airport, will also start flying again in June and then gradually increase operations until October.

Finish Finnair and British Airways have suspended their plans for summer flights to Helsinki and Heathrow for the time being.

Ljubljana airport expects more action in July, but everything will depend on the epidemic-related developments in Europe and the economic recovery.

The airport stresses that it will take a long time before it returns to last year's passenger numbers.

The government decided last night not to extend restrictions for air travel again, allowing resumption of passenger flights from the EU and third countries to Slovenia's international airports.

In a press release, the Government Communication Office said the ban, which was imposed on 17 March, was no longer necessary or sensible because following strict safety measures in individual countries air carriers were not providing flights anyway due to a lack of demand.

Slovenia does not have an air carrier since Adria Airways went into receivership last year.

Fraport Slovenija, which operates Ljubljana airport, welcomed the decision, saying that the lifting of the ban would help airlines plan flights.

Before the epidemic, 17 carriers were expected to operate 22 routes to 15 countries in the summer.

STA, 10 March 2020 - Fraport Slovenija, the operator of the Ljubljana airport, is already facing cancellation of flights to and from the airport due to the spreading of the new coronavirus, and more cancellations are expected in the future.

The company said on Tuesday that Wednesday's flights to Belgrade, to and from Frankfurt, to and from Brussels, and to and from the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica had been cancelled.

Several flights scheduled for next week have also been cancelled - including the connections with Berlin, Brussels and London.

"It is hard to speak about additional cancellations at the moment, but it is expected that new [cancellations] will follow," Fraport said.

Slovenia imposed a ban on arrivals of aircraft from the high-risk areas until the end of month today. Fraport noted that there were no direct links between Ljubljana and these areas any way.

State aircraft, mail or cargo aircraft and aircraft without passengers returning to a base or maintenance are exempt from the ban, which relates to the Italian regions of Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and Marche, as well as China, South Korea and Iran.

As regards temperature screenings at the airport, a measure announced by the government to curb the spreading of the virus, Fraport said that it could be implemented in the coming days.

The national railway operator Slovenske Železnice meanwhile said that traffic was running on schedule, including by the train connecting Ljubljana and Italy's Trieste twice a day.

All our stories on coronavirus and Slovenia are here

Ex-Yu Aviation, the best site for regional air travel website for people in the industry and those who rely on them, reports that easyJet, the budget carrier for people who don’t mind bringing their own sandwiches, is introducing a third route from around London to Ljubljana. The new flights will be from Luton, and come in addition to those to and from Gatwick and Stanstead. This replaces the Luton-Ljubljana service that was run by Wizz Air until October 2019.

The new service is set to run year round, and will begin on 30 March (2020) with four flights a week, on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. On Mondays and Sundays the flights leave Luton at 07:15, and on Thursdays and Fridays at 07:00. Going the other way, the planes take off from Ljubljana Airport at 11:05 on Mondays and Sundays, and 11:50 on Thursdays and Fridays.

STA, 25 February 2020 - A company in Chinese ownership that used to lease the Maribor Airport plans to file a damage suit against the state after it terminated the lease in early 2019, whereupon the airport management was turned over to a state-owned consulting and engineering company.

The company, Aerodrom Maribor, said in a press release Tuesday it will demand EUR 2.1 million in damages, the equivalent of the lease payments for the duration of the agreement, plus costs and lost profits.

The lawsuit will claim that the state dragged its feet on the adoption of a zoning plan that would have allowed the Edvard Rusjan Maribor airport to extend the runway.

Aerodrom Maribor will claim that after the company terminated the lease, the state engaged in violations of the law by continuing to use real estate at the airport that remains in the ownership of Aerodrom Maribor.

Consequently, they will demand the erasure from the land register of an easement on the property that they say the state entered into the records based on a contract that never took effect.

Aerodrom Maribor also accuses the state of continuing to deceive potential investors by stating in a recent call for public-private partnership that a zoning law was in the making.

"It appears the state continues with its contentious conduct - by misleadingly attracting new investors willing to invest in the Maribor Airport in the conviction that the state will fulfil its promises," the company said.

After the lease was terminated, the management of the airport was entrusted to the state-owned firm DRI, which also hired all workers.

The move was designed as a stop-gap measure to keep the airport open until a new operator is found so as to prevent a scenario under which it would have to return EU funds: in accordance with the commitments accompanying a EUR 6 million injection of EU funds, the airport must stay open at least until mid-November 2021.

The termination of the lease ended a testy relationship between the state and a lessee that promised investments in excess of EUR 600 million and passenger numbers reaching two million by 2028, figures widely seen as unrealistic considering the location of the airport and nearby rivals Graz and Zagreb.

The company however maintains that its plans had been viable, assuming the state would keep its promises.

Outgoing Infrastructure Minister Alenka Bratušek responded to the development today by arguing the first assessments indicated the plaintiff had absolutely no chance of success.

She stressed that Aerodrom Maribor stopped paying rent almost immediately after she became minister and that it was Aerodrom Maribor that cancelled the lease.

"The ministry had honoured all the terms set down in the contract," Bratušek added, while saying that a kind of promise that the zoning plan would be changed by March 2018, issued in writing by the then Infrastructure Ministry State Secretary Jure Leben, was not binding on the state.

"The relevant institutions will be the ones to judge if this letter entails any commitments for the state," the minister said, while arguing that the Infrastructure Ministry was in fact not authorised for making such zoning changes.

Maribor airport remains virtually abandoned: without a single scheduled flight, it is confined to occasional charter flights and small sports aircraft.

It recorded only 2,700 passengers in 2018, the latest year for which figures are available.