The Slovenian airport Portorož is in negotiations with Air Serbia about a possible inclusion of a hub connection. Due to the local conditions, only the machine type ATR72 would come into question.

Portorož is the second largest airport in Slovenia, but the only runway is just over 1.200 meters long. As a result, this airport is used almost exclusively by general aviation. You are also very well represented in this segment, because after Ljubljana you have the most take-offs and landings.

There have been no regular scheduled flights from Portorož for a long time. According to Ex-Yu-Aviation, negotiations are said to be “in the final stages” with Air Serbia to open an ATR72 connection to Belgrade. This would connect you to the hub of the Serbian carrier. In particular, more tourists are expected in Slovenia.

The Serbian carrier currently flies from Belgrade and Nis to the capital of Slovenia. At the same time, Air Serbia has repeatedly stated that the regional network will also be greatly expanded. Portorož Airport also wants to benefit from this. You know each other, because the predecessor airline Jat Airways headed for the Slovenian airport until 2013. At that time, you even had the special permit as a non-EU carrier to operate flights between Rome and Portorož, but this route was so badly booked that it was not even included.

Van Air Europe is scheduled to start flights from Budapest, Brno and Prague

The Slovenian airport also wants to improve connectivity in cooperation with another airline. A memorandum of understanding has been signed with Van Air Europe, which should lead to the start of non-stop flights to Budapest, Brno and Prague.

Advertising campaigns will be launched in the catchment areas of the three airports mentioned in order to be able to evaluate the interest of the market. In the past there have been comparable charter flights, but they have operated with very few passengers on board. It is therefore still completely open whether the flights hoped for by Portorož from Prague, Brno and Budapest will ever take place.

Should it come to that, Van Air Europe would use Let L-410 Turbolet aircraft. These can carry a maximum of 19 passengers. The Czech carrier currently has five copies. In Croatia, until the provisional suspension of the subsidized domestic flights for Trade Air, the company was operating under wet lease.