Scheduled flights on the route are expected to connect the Slovenian and Greek capitals twice a week, every Wednesday and Saturday, until the end of September.

"It is a great success for us to be able to welcome a new regular airline," Janez Krašnja of airport operator Aerodrom Ljubljana told the press on the occasion.

He expects that the largest Greek airline will bring around 7,000 passengers on the 34 flights that have been agreed for the summer.

Krašnja also promised that charter flights for the Greek islands of Corfu and Rhodes would be organised over the summer.

Given that Greece is a very popular destination for Slovenians, the Aerodrom Ljubljana commercial sector director believes that the route will be successful.

Krašnja also expects that the affordable prices will contribute to this as one-way tickets including fees start at EUR 64.

By introducing new routes, the German-owned Aerodrom Ljubljana is compensating for the loss of turnover generated by Slovenian flag carrier Adria Airways, which has also been recently privatised.

Adria Airways has abandoned the Stockholm connection and, according to information available to the airport operator, it intends to do the same with the Berlin route.

"Adria will obviously first consolidate the existing network and later think about new routes from our airport," Krašnja said, expressing hope that Adria Airways will manage to increase its turnover.

In the first five months of the year, Adria Airways saw a 9% drop in passenger numbers on its flights from the Ljubljana airport.

The airport meanwhile saw its total number of passengers drop by 3.7% in the same period to 460,000. The number of passengers brought by foreign airlines was up by 7.2%.

Krašnja added that the airport operator was looking for connections with Qatar or the United Arab Emirates in order to compete with the airports of Zagreb, Croatia and Venice, Italy.

An intercontinental connection would also be very welcome, he said endorsing the efforts of the Chinese Embassy in Ljubljana to introduce a direct connection between Slovenia and China.