Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport and the Slovenian Ministry for Infrastructure and Spatial Planning signed a contract yesterday for the construction of a state of the art new terminal building. All funds have been secured for the 89.6 million euro project. The European Regional Development Fund of the European Union will cover 15 million euros of the construction costs. Building work is scheduled to begin later this year. Furthermore, the government plans to build a rail link to the airport and connect it with the city.

The terminal building currently in use was built in 1973 but has been expanded several times. The most extensive upgrades were carried out in 2007. The Slovenian government says a new terminal is necessary as the current one was originally built to handle some 500.000 passengers. In 2012 Ljubljana welcomed almost 1.2 million passengers through its doors. The new terminal, which will be built next to the existing passenger building, will cover an area of 31.200 square metres. The new terminal will separate Schengen and non-Schengen passengers in accordance to EU rules and regulations as well as arriving and departing travellers. Furthermore, the airport will have the capacity to handle 1.800 passengers per hour compared to the current 700 passengers. Following the completion of the new terminal in the spring of 2015, the old one will be refurbished.


The EX-YU region has recently seen a boom in airport development, especially amongst capital city airports. Skopje opened its brand new terminal in 2011 while Priština anticipates opening its new terminal building later this year. In addition, Belgrade Airport is continuing its three year expansion and refurbishment project while Zagreb is looking ahead to the construction of its much anticipated new terminal this year. In late 2012 Maribor Airport opened the doors to its new terminal. The majority of the airports in use across the former Yugoslavia were built in the early 1960s.