Following last year's takeover, Aerodrom Ljubljana passed fully into the ownership of German Fraport at the beginning of this year and delisted from the Ljubljana Stock Exchange on the last day of March.

Passenger numbers have been up throughout the year with company data showing the airport had welcomed 1,420,826 passengers by 24 December, or 10.3% more than in the same period last year.

Aircraft movements for the same period were up by 3.9% to 22,875 and the volume of cargo handled rose by 2.5% to 9,939 tonnes.

One millionth passenger was registered on 2 September or about three weeks earlier than the previous year, the company has reported in a press release.

The growth is attributed to new air links, more flights and more competitive offerings. The structure of aircraft changed in favour of larger and heavier planes and the occupancy rates increased.

Slovenian flag carrier Adria Airways has seen a 5% increase in passenger numbers, while foreign airlines carried 22.2% more passengers via Ljubljana airport this year, data by 24 December shows.

Available figures also show that the Jože Pučnik Ljubljana Airport saw stronger passenger growth than rival airports in the region.

By September it recorded 10.8% growth, compared to 6.7% in Croatia's Zagreb, 5.7% in Austria's Graz, 1.7% in Italy's Venice and 1.5% in Austria's Klegenfurt, while Trieste in Italy saw a decline of 0.5%.

A moderate growth is also expected for 2016. Two new carriers will launch scheduled flights; Poland's LOT will fly to Warsaw five times a week as of March and Greek Aegean Airlines will operate two weekly flights to Athens as of June.

The long-awaited renovation of the passenger terminal will start next year, scheduled to be completed in several phases by 2018.

Work will also start next year to move the road passing the airport in a bid to improve access to the airport and enable the development of a commercial and logistic complex to the north.