Adria Airways confirmed the decision for the STA on Thursday after lengthy talks with representatives of the Maribor airport.

The company said keeping up the route would entail excessive risk because of the high cost of the aircraft's overflight from its Ljubljana hub, and because it sells tickets as a budget carrier.

Tourism workers have so far been unable to attract substantive numbers of foreign passengers to the region, which was the main purpose of the route launched in June.

While Adria hopes to relaunch the flights in spring, the Maribor airport operator is optimistic about keeping up passenger traffic during the winter as well.

Večer newspaper has reported that talks are under way to establish two regular routes - one into western and the other into southern Europe, twice a week. More should be known in the coming days.

Slovenia's second biggest airport after Ljubljana, Maribor has so far been best known for charter flights, though there have been several short-lived attempts in recent years involving budget carriers.

Last year it boasted 18,000 charter passengers, this year the figure is expected to reach 35,000.