The Ministry of Infrastructure is looking for a serious partner for the management of the Maribor airport. For the second time, the tender for the award of a concession for the provision of services for the operation of Edvard Rusjan Airport Maribor has been extended.
The tender was published at the end of last year. This time too, as they explained, they did it at the request of interested parties, who now have until March 25 to apply.
The ministry wants a serious partner who would manage the Maribor airport for ten years with the possibility of extension. If it is successful in attracting air carriers, they will also be able to compete for subsidizing air connections.
The Maribor airport has been managed by the state company DRI Investment Management for three and a half years, since the departure of the Chinese company SHS Aviation.
As the infrastructure minister said on Friday Alenka Bratušekthis is not a long-term solution: “We still hope and believe that we will get a correct partner who will know what to do with this airport in the future.”
The ministry does not yet want to talk about how many people are interested in managing the airport. Due to additional questions, they decided to extend the call for a second time. However, according to the data on lobbying contacts, it is a company SIDrones presented the idea of the possibility of establishment to the ministry in autumn center for aircraft maintenance, and later also aviation schools for the training of aircraft mechanics and aircraft maintainers. But the concession, which would be granted by the ministry, foresees above all the revival of the airport with new flights, which would also be subsidized within the framework of the announced program.
Minister Bratušek does not see the fact that the national spatial plan for the Maribor airport has been under adoption for several years as an obstacle to the airport’s revival: “Already today, Maribor Airport has the possibility of landing and departing all comparable planes that land at Ljubljana Airport and they take off from him.”
However, legal disputes between the state and the former Chinese tenants of the airport are still taking place in court, who, among other things, dispute the state’s right of easement on the land they own.
Source: Rtvslo
