Slovenia's latest public service obligation (PSO) aviation tender has drawn proposals for new routes, according to a report by EX-YU Aviation News. The tender forms part of the country's recurring effort to shore up air connectivity that the commercial market has not sustained on its own.

The report indicates that carriers and prospective operators have put forward route proposals under the framework, with the tender process designed to allocate subsidized capacity on routes deemed strategically necessary. Details on the specific carriers, destinations and subsidy levels were not disclosed in the available reporting.

Slovenia has relied on tendered PSO arrangements before. The mechanism allows the state to guarantee minimum connectivity — typically linking Ljubljana or regional airports with hub or key business destinations — by compensating an operator for flying routes that would otherwise be commercially unviable. Such tenders normally set requirements on frequency, aircraft type, schedule reliability and fare structures, with the winning operator bound to those conditions for the contract term.

For Slovenia, the stakes are straightforward. The country's air connectivity remains thin relative to its size and economic profile, a gap that widened after Adria Airways ceased operations in September 2019. Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport has since rebuilt part of its network through foreign carriers, but point-to-point links beyond major hubs remain limited, and regional airports have struggled to retain scheduled service.

A successful tender allocation would add capacity and route options without requiring the state to fund a national carrier. The alternative — direct equity in an airline — carries far higher fiscal exposure, as several European governments have learned since 2020.

The proposals now under consideration will be evaluated against the tender criteria before any award is made. An announcement on the winning operator or operators, and the routes they commit to flying, would mark the next milestone in the process.