Slovenia is looking for a solution for the least used commercial airport in the former Yugoslavia
The Slovenian government is looking for a solution for the least congested airport of the former Yugoslavia – Maribor. In the period January – October, it received only 3,540 passengers. While Maribor does not have commercial flights, nor does Portorož on the national coast, it managed to receive almost 30,000 passengers in the same period despite its smaller contribution area. The majority of passenger traffic at the Maribor airport is generated by charters with sports teams. Despite plans to put the airport under concession by the end of this year, the process is being delayed. The state has only now started preparing tender documents for the search for a long-term partner.
Aerodrom Maribor has been managed by the state-owned consulting and engineering company DRI since 2019, after Chinese investors canceled a fifteen-year lease agreement signed in 2017. A major disincentive for investors is the lack of a spatial plan that would allow the airport to expand. A former Chinese concessionaire has accused the government of failing to deliver on the plan it is required to adopt. The Slovenian Ministry of Infrastructure says that the spatial plan is currently being prepared. In recent talks with Ryanair, Wizz Air and easyJet, the Slovenian government has suggested low-cost carriers consider flights to the country’s second-largest city as an alternative to Ljubljana, which the trio blames for high airport fees. None of the three showed interest in doing business in Maribor under the current commercial conditions. Ryanair flew to the city briefly almost fifteen years ago.
The Ministry of Infrastructure recently held talks with the SIdrone company, which presented a plan to establish an aircraft maintenance center at the Maribor airport and an aviation school for the training of aircraft mechanics. The company inquired about the possibility of building a hangar that could accommodate larger aircraft such as the Airbus A340 and said more aircraft parking spaces needed to be built. SIDrone is interested in a long-term partnership of at least ten years with Aerodrom Maribor. During the talks, the Ministry of Infrastructure wrote that they “support all additional activities that would contribute to the revival of the airport”.