The entire renovation of the airport infrastructure, which the EU has helped to fund, has been somewhat delayed by the collapse of the main contractor, construction company SCT, but since April the Maribor-based company Komunalproject has been in charge of the works.

The plans also include the construction of a logistics centre and the launch of new passenger and cargo flights from the airport. Some EUR 11.1m is expected to come from EU, which set the deadline for completion of works at July 2013.

The head of the airport operator Aerodrom Maribor, Marko Gros, told the STA today that the new passenger terminal was an "extremely important acquisition", which would provide an important boost to what was now a "more or less dead airport".

Aerodrom Maribor is owned by bankrupt car-seat covers maker Prevent and the latter was looking to auction off the company.

The opening of the terminal was marked today by the departure of the Maribor football team to a European League match in Athens.

"This is a good basis for the start of negotiations on the setting up a regular route in 2013," Gros said. Unofficially, Maribor airport is in talks with national flag-carrier Adria Airways.

The investment in the new terminal will create new jobs, as the current 27 employees are to be joined by around ten more people upon the completion of works in the spring next year.

"We are trying hard to revive the airport. A spatial plan is under way to be completed in three or four years that will provide the basis for expansion and possibly extension of the runway. We are trying very hard to attract new carriers both in the transport of passengers and cargo," Transport Ministry Sate Secretary Sašo Murtič said.