SLOVENIAN AIRPORT SEES RECOVERY IN PASSENGER TRAFFIC THIS YEAR

By Samantha Tan

KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 (Bernama) -- Aerodrom Ljubljana, the Slovenian airport operator, is projecting a five to 10 per cent increase in passenger traffic this year amid signs of a recovering global economy.

In 2008, 1.7 million passengers used the airport, which was 20 per cent more
than 2007.

However, last year passenger traffic declined to 1.5 million passengers due
to the economic crisis which impacted the aviation industry, its sales and
marketing director Janez Krasnja said.

For this year, the trend is set to change for the central European country,
he said, adding that Asian countries were expected to be one of the contributors
to the better traffic volume in the Ljubljana Airport.

"There is a growing interest from Asian people to visit Europe," he told
Bernama in a recent interview here.

Krasnja said Aerodrom Ljubljana was also hoping to attract Malaysia Airlines
(MAS) to be the first Asian carrier to land in the Ljubljana Airport.

Currently, MAS flies to Paris (France), Frankfurt (Germany), Amsterdam (the
Netherlands) and London (United Kingdom).

There is already great exchange of goods and services between Malaysia and
the European Union and Slovenia in central Europe has good connection and offers
good tourism potential as well, he added.

Currently, no Asian airline operates at the Ljubljana Airport as most of the
flights through here are intercontinental flights via Frankfurt, Munich,
Zurich, Vienna, London or Paris.

Ljubljana Airport is the major and central airport of Slovenia situated 23
kilometres northwest of the city. It is connected to all major European cities
and airports.

People from Asia are not always going to travel to only the well-known
destinations of Europe such as London and Paris, but may want to experience
"new" destinations like Slovenia, Krasnja said.

Currently, there are two to three chartered flights yearly from Japan
Airlines which have been a sort of springboard to lure more Asians to Slovenia
as an investment and tourism destination, he said.

He said most Asians travelling to Slovenia currently came via European hub
like Frankfurt, Vienna or Paris.

He also said last year one million tourists from China favoured central
Europe as their holiday destination.

On the airport's cargo business, Krasnja said while the majority of its
revenue came from the passenger segment, it also planned to expand its cargo
business.

As part of efforts to attract more cargo business, he said Aerodrom
Ljubljana was also offering special incentives for newly introduced cargo
routes, of up to 50 per cent discount for landing, cargo handling and
centralised infrastructure.

Krasnja said Aerodrom Ljubljana was keen to attract Asian cargo carriers to
its airport.

He said the present contribution from the cargo business to revenue was
below 10 per cent.

On expanding the cargo business, he said it would be done through
partnerships with Asian and Middle East airlines as well as through acquisition
of express mail logistics centre, and also investing in improving and growing
its airport's capacities.

--BERNAMA