Bratislava airport plans to expand range of flights this summer

Many tourists returned to M.R. Stefanik airport in Bratislava following the coronavirus pandemic, with the airport handling three times as many passengers last summer as it did in the same period of 2021, the airport's general director Dusan Keketi said in an interview posted on the Transport Ministry's social network.
According to Keketi, Slovaks are mainly attracted by the sea, with Turkey's Antalya being the most popular destination among such destinations. During the upcoming summer, the airport plans to further expand the range of flights for holidaymakers. "We want a [new] route to Croatia. Half a million Slovaks travel there every year, and I believe that some of them would welcome an air connection to there as well. An opinion prevails that Slovaks drive there and camp, but I think this is an outdated approach. I would rather go for a one-hour flight than ten hours in a car. Last year we launched a route to Brac, and now we're working on another one," said Keketi.
In addition to charter flights, it is mainly low-cost airlines that fly from Bratislava airport, a fact that has long been criticised by a section of the public. The current management is striving to change this. In addition to new destinations, new airlines might appear at the airport next year.
"We've prepared Athens, Kaunas in Lithuania, and we're holding talks on other new destinations as well. We're also working on having more routes served by renowned airline companies, we're negotiating with Polish airlines and Turkish Airlines. We're trying to prove that Bratislava airport isn't only used by Slovaks, but is also attractive to Czechs, Hungarians and Austrians, and I was rather surprised that a certain percentage of Poles fly from Bratislava as well," added Keketi. (TASR)