January 30 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's parliament approved legislation providing air carriers with 5.6 million euro ($6.1 million) in financial aid per year, aiming to improve the country's connectivity, the government said.
The aid will be provided as a subsidy covering up to 50% of airport fees for airlines establishing new routes or increasing the frequency of existing flights, the government said in a statement on Friday.
"Aid will be granted for routes that would otherwise not have been established in the absence of state aid, which means that new air routes will be able to start operating only after submitting an application for aid," the government said.
Slovenia's infrastructure ministry will launch a tender for the delivery of aid to air carriers, the government noted.
"The bill has already been forwarded to the European Commission, but we are in a hurry because we want to catch the summer season, which starts at the end of March. The tender announcement must be published by then. We will have to obtain the consent of the European Commission before allocating any euro," state secretary of transport at the infrastructure ministry, Alenka Bratusek, said earlier this month.
A total of 19 flights on scheduled routes operated at Joze Pucnik Airport Ljubljana in the summer season of 2022, versus 29 in 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
($ = 0.9188 euro)