"This is one of the most advanced centres of this kind," Fraport Slovenija director Zmago Skobir told the press, describing the academy as an answer to the challenge of how to be better and more advanced than the competition.

The academy's director Thomas Uihlein hailed Ljubljana airport as the perfect location, since it allows connecting everyone active in the industry.

This was echoed by Infrastructure Ministry Alenka Bratušek, who said Slovenia had top aviation experts, who would now be able to develop further in an international setup.

Joining forces with partners such as the Slovenian Air Navigation Services, the Adria Airways Flight School, various faculties, airport operators from the Fraport group, and firefighting equipment and vehicles producer Rosenbauer Slovenija, the academy is providing more than 36 types of training programmes.

These were executed at various locations so far, while they will be concentrated now on a surface area of around 500 square metres, which include five classrooms, a crisis command centre, an aircraft firefighting and rescue simulator and various virtual environments.

An outside platform covering 12,200 square metres will serve for firefighting training with the help of aircraft and helicopter simulators and the latest model of Rosenbauer's firefighting vehicle.