July 18 (SeeNews) - Fraport Slovenia, a subsidiary of Germany’s Fraport Group, is launching the long-awaited 21 million euro ($23.5 million) expansion of Ljubljana Airport's passenger terminal, local media reported on Thursday.
Fraport Slovenia aims to complete the project, which has been delayed due to a re-run of the tender procedure, before Slovenia's presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2021, state news agency STA reported.
The expansion will add more than 10,000 square metres of new area, which will include a new departures zone and an area for carrying out security checks, as well as a new commercial zone.
In June, Fraport Slovenia signed a 17.273 million euro contract with a consortium comprising local companies GIC Gradnja and Elcom to carry out the construction works.
Once the construction works are completed, the airport operator plans to install new equipment worth some 4.0 million euro, STA said.
In August 2018, before the cancellation of the first tender, the airport operator said it expects to have its new passenger terminal completed and opened in 2020, increasing its processing capacity in departure to 1,250 passengers per hour from 500 at present.
Passenger traffic at Ljubljana's Joze Pucnik airport increased 3.4% year-on-year to 859,560 in the first half of 2019, while last year the airport handled a record 1.812 million passengers, up 7.7% compared to 2017.
The airport in the capital Ljubljana serves 97% of air passenger traffic in Slovenia. It has been operated by Fraport Slovenia since 2014.
($=0.891861 euro)