Neighbouring airports are attempting to attract as many passengers from Slovenia as they can as the country begins offering subsidies to airlines for the launch of new routes and mulls the possibility of setting up a new national carrier. In Maribor, Graz Airport recently promoted the upcoming opening of a Eurowings base in the southern Austrian city. With 10% of Graz Airport’s travellers being from Slovenia, Eurowings called on the Slovenian tourist board to attract as many tourists as possible from the northern part of Germany to Slovenia via Graz Airport with the help of the budget airline. The carrier also said it is counting on Slovenian passengers to fill up its new Graz flights.
Croatia’s entry into the Schengen Area has resulted in an increase in travellers from Slovenia using Zagreb Airport. “We already see a lot of passengers from Slovenia on our Zagreb flights. Even if you go to Zagreb Airport, either in departures or arrivals, you will see that there are lot of Slovenians. At the airport’s parking one will notice many cars with Slovenian car plates. We know and we are sure that we are covering the Slovenian market well from Zagreb Airport”, Ryanair said, adding that there are also a number of Slovenian staff working for the company in Croatia, especially among pilots.
Croatia Airlines is also benefiting from the Slovenian market and expects to see more feed from its northern neighbour. “We have had some gain on the Slovenian market since Adria Airways’ bankruptcy where we offered certain solutions in order to react to the demand that was there. However, we had not added any flights to Slovenia because our hubs are nearby and we were more focused on our sales and marketing activities in Ljubljana at the time, which helped us significantly increase our market share in Slovenia”, the Croatian national carrier said.
Trieste Airport in Italy is also competing for Slovenian travellers. The airport’s General Manager, Marco Consalvo, said the recent increase in Ryanair flights presented an opportunity to attract more passengers from Slovenia. “We certainly have traffic from regional neighbours, who are progressively no longer going to Venice with the increase in our flight offer. Ryanair’s growth will enable us to retain our catchment area, which today uses Venice in large volumes. We definitely see an opportunity in attracting more passengers from Slovenia”.
Source: EX-YU
