Neighbouring airports try to draw as many passengers from Slovenia as they’ll because the nation continues providing subsidies to airways for the launch of latest routes as a way of bettering its connectivity. Graz Airport in Austria, situated some seventy kilometres north of Maribor, mentioned round 10% of its complete variety of passengers are from Slovenia. It noticed a rise in Slovenian travellers final yr after Eurowings opened its base within the metropolis. Moreover, the airport reported {that a} sizeable variety of Slovenian travellers utilise its in depth summer season constitution programme every year.
Croatia’s entry into the Schengen Space final yr has resulted in a rise in travellers from Slovenia utilizing Zagreb Airport. Final yr, an estimated 200.000 Slovenian travellers handed by means of the airport or round 5% of all passengers. “We don’t maintain knowledge on the nationality of passengers. This estimate relies on statistics of parked vehicles on the airport and the origin of offered air tickets”, Zagreb Airport mentioned. Roughly some 550 Slovenian passengers are at present passing by means of Zagreb Airport every day.
Austria’s Klagenfurt Airport dealt with a complete of 153.536 passengers in 2023 with a notable variety of travellers from Slovenia. Located about seventy kilometres north of Ljubljana Airport, Klagenfurt Airport reported that 18% of its passengers final yr originated from Slovenia, totalling over 27.300 travellers. Klagenfurt is served by Austrian Airways, which maintains operations to Vienna and Hamburg, whereas Ryanair runs year-round flights to London Stansted and seasonal operations to Alicante and Palma de Mallorca.
Trieste Airport in Italy can be competing for Slovenian travellers. The airport’s Basic Supervisor, Marco Consalvo, mentioned the upcoming opening of Ryanair’s base within the Italian metropolis introduced a possibility to draw extra passengers from Slovenia. “We definitely have site visitors from regional neighbours, who’re progressively now not going to Venice with the rise in our flight provide. Ryanair’s development will allow us to retain our catchment space, which immediately makes use of Venice in massive volumes. We positively see a possibility in attracting extra passengers from Slovenia”.
