Slovenian Adrian Airlines given a week to submit viable restructuring plan

The Slovenian Civil Aviation Agency will give Adria Airways until Wednesday, October 2 at 23.59 CEST to submit a viable restructuring plan, supported by certified aircraft lease agreements, otherwise it will revoke the carrier’s Air Operator’s Certificate and begin bankruptcy proceedings.

The regulator noted the carrier now has just ten aircraft at its disposal (six Bombardiers and four Saabs), with three Airbus A319 jets being repossessed today and five CRJs over the last few days. No extension will be given to the set deadline. The regulator noted that Adria is insolvent by two criteria.

“I don’t want to divulge the numbers, but it’s a pretty large sum of money”, the head of the Agency, Rok Marlot, said. Adria will extend the cancellation of all of its flights, with exception to the Ljubljana – Frankfurt service, through Thursday and Friday.

Foreign airlines have begun responding to developments taking place at Adria Airways with Air Serbia scheduling double daily flights between Belgrade and Ljubljana from the start of the 2019/2020 winter season, up from eleven weekly last winter, and Montenegro Airlines adding an additional weekly flight from Podgorica for a total of five weekly.

The Serbian carrier has also launched rescue fares for passengers booked to fly with Adria and will add extra capacity on routes that were operated by the Slovenian airline. Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport has said it is ready for the demise of Slovenia’s national carrier and its biggest customer.