Adria denies Air India takeover

Adria to stay in Slovenian hands

The CEO of Adria Airways, Klemen Boštjančič, has denied media reports that Air India is interested in taking over the Slovenian national carrier. Boštjančič said that although he did meet up with Air India's management recently there was no talk of a potential takeover. “We discussed cooperation on cargo routes and the possibility of introducing passenger flights between the two countries”, he said. However, insiders from the airline say that the management wants to see Adria in the hands of the German national carrier Lufthansa. On the other hand, nobody wants to take over an airline burdened with debt. Adria offers the greatest number of flights to Germany from Ljubljana and Priština out of all of its other markets. It is a Star Alliance member, like Lufthansa, and feeds the German carrier with generous amounts of transit passengers.

Klemen Boštjančič said that in order for Adria to survive it needs to open new routes, cut costs and get more business. In the first 4 months of the year Adria carried 306.993 passengers. As the airline celebrates its 50 years of existence with debt amounting to 100 million Euros it is not alone. Every single EX-YU national carrier is expected to finish 2011 with losses.

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