Maribor-registered KZ SS airline is set to start operating from the country’s second-largest city, and some familiar faces are also collaborating on the project. The startup is run by Harjinder Singh Sidhu and Kandra Bhupinder. They were the managers of the short-lived Golden Air, which maintained flights from Maribor for a week before being grounded in 2011. KZ SS Airlines recently held talks with Slovenia’s Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, and Maribor Airport’s state operator DRI. They announced plans to start flights from Edvard Lujan Airport and make it a hub. The company inquired about assistance options from the state.
Their previous venture, Golden Air, began operating from Maribor in October 2011. The airline originally planned to operate flights to London Stansted via Vienna with its Boeing 737-300 aircraft, but in 2012 it planned to expand by introducing services to Birmingham, Bergamo and London. . Also in Amritsar in northern India. The carrier was launched as scheduled, but was operated by Cessna aircraft for the first week before her service was discontinued. In 2006, Harjinder Singh Sidhu bought Air Slovakia, a small private airline based in the capital Bratislava, with plans to transform the airline into a “Punjabi experience.” The airline launched flights from the UK to Amritsar, Goa and New Delhi, but ultimately went bankrupt in 2010.
Maribor Airport has attracted considerable interest from start-up ventures over the years. SHS Aviation, which acquired the operating rights to Maribor Airport in 2017, acquired the Belgian VLM airline brand and established an airline that began operating flights from Maribor to Munich and Antwerp. It operated for several months before going into liquidation. SHS Aviation ultimately terminated its 15-year airport concession because the state failed to adopt a spatial plan that would allow for expansion. This spatial plan has not been adopted to date. Another Slovenian-registered airline, Express Airways, also had plans to open a base in Maribor. The airline maintained one ATR72 operating between Germany and the Croatian coast, but plans for commercial flights from Slovenia never materialized and its license to operate was revoked in 2016. Maribor Airport last had commercial flights in 2015, when Adria Airways operated flights to London Southend. Nowadays, it is mainly used by airlines for training purposes. Last year, it carried a total of 4,055 passengers.
