NEWS FLASH
The Slovenian government plans to continue offering subsidies to airlines to encourage the launch of new routes to the country. Speaking on the initiative, Andrej Rajh, State Secretary at the Ministry for Infrastructure, said, “Our goal is to develop the subsidies over the years, and we are committed to making it happen. This year alone, we have allocated over a million euros in funds for this purpose. The plan is to keep this going even into the next five to seven years, with similar amounts allocated”.
To date, nine public tenders have been held to enhance Slovenia’s air connectivity. Airlines including Luxair, airBaltic, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Iberia, Eurowings, Cyprus Airways and Air Albania have all submitted bids, though not all met the eligibility criteria for funding.
The Ministry has set aside 1.35 million euros for the most recent (ninth) public call, with an additional 1.2 million euros annually earmarked for 2026 and 2027. So far, the state has signed agreements with airlines totalling two million euros, of which 670.000 euros have already been disbursed. Five tenders have been successful to date.
These subsidies, which help cover part of an airline’s airport-related costs, are available to carriers from the European Common Aviation Area that are willing to operate flights to any of Slovenia’s three commercial airports: Ljubljana, Maribor or Portorož.