Ljubljana Airport in Slovenia has so far been unable to recover from the bankruptcy of Adria Airways or from the effects of the corona pandemic. In 2022 there were only 970.156 passengers and thus ranks far behind in a direct comparison with other capitals.

Despite the fact that the Slovenian government has distributed subsidies on some routes, the airport managed by Fraport has not been able to grow so far. You are far behind the value you had before the corona pandemic. To make matters worse, the loss of the former home base carrier Adria Airways is at the expense of connectivity and service. Logically, fewer options also attract fewer travelers.

This is illustrated by the fact that many conference participants at the “New Air Gateway to Europe” event held in Ljubljana were unable to travel by air due to a lack of flight connections. Long train, bus or car journeys had to be made to get to the Slovenian capital.

Although Fraport assumes that around 1,2 million passengers will be at the Ljubljana location this year, it is questionable whether this will succeed. The pre-crisis level is not expected to be reached before 2026. Additional Finnair and Aegean Airlines routes and some frequency increases have been announced for 2023, but this is not enough for the Slovenian government either.

A new subsidy package should result in additional routes being included. They want to spend around 5,6 million euros a year on this. The project has been submitted to the EU Commission for approval, although formal approval has not yet been granted. At the same time, Slovenia intends to examine by the middle of this year whether to launch a new state-owned airline.