Slovenia has one of the worst air connections in Europe

27.07.2024. / 15:22

LJUBLJANA – Slovenia has one of the worst air connections in Europe, according to the latest research by the international port association ACI Europe.

He performed worst in direct relationships. On average, the connectivity of European airports has not yet returned to the level before the covid-19 pandemic, but most countries are still recording a better recovery than Slovenia.

Airport connectivity in the extended EU area, which includes Iceland, Great Britain, Norway, Switzerland and Monaco in June of this year, was 14 percent lower than in June 2019. This includes both direct and indirect connections, the association announced this week on its pages.

In Slovenia, it was 29 percent lower. Only Sweden (-31 percent), Finland (-37 percent) and Monaco (-44 percent) achieved a worse result. Only Greece (by 22 percent), Iceland (by seven percent) and Portugal (by four percent) exceeded the pre-coronavirus level.

In June, Slovenia was in 30th place among the countries of the extended EU area in terms of comprehensive air connectivity. Slovakia and Monaco fared worse. It ranked last in terms of direct connections, and comparing it in that area to 2019 – Slovenia suffered a 42 percent drop – only Monaco is worse.

As ACI Europe states, the result can also be attributed to geopolitical tensions and structural changes in the airline sector. Among the latter is the growth of the market share of low-cost carriers that focus on medium and large airports, but not on smaller and larger ones. This also affects the Ljubljana airport, which is one of the smaller ones.

The chief director of the association, Olivier Jankovec, pointed out that air connectivity should not be taken for granted.

“Four years have passed since the outbreak of the pandemic, but air connectivity levels have not yet fully recovered,” he said. He pointed to a widening gap between “winners and losers” in the area.

The problem of poor connectivity has been addressed by the Slovenian government with calls for subsidies to carriers that would connect airports with foreign countries.

After three calls, the Ministry of Infrastructure has allocated funds for new connections to Luxembourg, Riga, Madrid and Copenhagen. The last two destinations were on the Government’s list of priorities.

Luxembourg’s Luxair started flying to Luxembourg last September. Lithuanian airBaltic has been flying to Riga since the introduction of the summer schedule in March this year, Spanish Iberia will fly to Madrid from the end of July, and Scandinavian Norwegian established a connection with Copenhagen at the end of April.

In January, the Ministry announced the fourth invitation. According to the Forbes Slovenia portal, the Cypriot carrier Cyprus Airways applied for it, but the ministry asked it to complete the application.