Adria Airways

If you spotted at Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna or Zurich between the late 1990s and 2019, you know them: slender Bombardier regional jets with Slovenian S5 registrations shuttling to Ljubljana several times a day. Adria Airways was the national airline of one of Europe’s smallest countries, a Star Alliance member and, for decades, a regular guest at German airports. In fall 2019, after 58 years, it was over. Here you will learn where the airline came from, which aircraft it flew and how to recognize it on old photos.

Adria Airways at a glance

Adria Airways was Slovenia’s national airline, headquartered and hubbed at Ljubljana Airport in Zgornji Brnik. It was founded on March 14, 1961 – then still in socialist Yugoslavia and under the name Adria Aviopromet. Its history is therefore also a history of the region: a leisure airline in Yugoslav times, a national airline after Slovenia’s independence in 1991, a Star Alliance partner in the network of the Lufthansa Group and, in the end, a victim of debt and a failed privatization.

Typical for Adria was its role as a feeder. Flights from Ljubljana went to Europe’s big hubs, where passengers connected to the partners’ networks. There were also connections to the Western Balkans, such as Pristina and Tirana, as well as charter and wet lease jobs for other airlines. In 2017, according to the English-language Wikipedia, Adria carried around 1.2 million passengers.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code JP: appeared before flight numbers, on tickets and on departure boards.
• ICAO code ADR: identifier in the air traffic control flight plan and on flight trackers.
• Callsign ADRIA: this is how the crews identified themselves on the radio.

One peculiarity for your logbook: in recent years, many Adria flights did not operate under JP at all. When Adria jets flew on wet lease for Lufthansa, Austrian or Swiss, the flights carried the customer’s flight number, while the aircraft and crew came from Adria. On photos from that time, it is therefore worth noting the flight number and the operating airline separately. How IATA and ICAO codes relate is explained in the article on IATA and ICAO codes.

History: from Adria Aviopromet to Adria Airways

The beginnings as a charter airline (1961–1968)

Adria Aviopromet began in 1961 as a charter airline. Its first aircraft were four-engine Douglas DC-6Bs from the Dutch airline KLM. Even in the first few years, the young company flew charters to the Middle East and North Africa, along with its first scheduled connections from Belgrade. When the new airport near Ljubljana opened in 1964, Adria moved its base there. Financially, however, the small company stood on shaky ground.

Inex-Adria and the leisure flying boom (1968–1986)

Rescue came in December 1968 through the merger with the Belgrade trading group InterExport. Adria became Inex-Adria Aviopromet, internationally mostly Inex-Adria Airways. In 1969, a Douglas DC-9 Series 30 brought the first jet. In the 1970s, the fleet grew with more DC-9s; at times, leased aircraft such as a DC-8, occasionally the Caravelle and, in the mid-1980s, the BAC One-Eleven supplemented the fleet. The core business was leisure traffic: vacationers from Western Europe, above all from Germany, flew with Inex-Adria to the Yugoslav Adriatic coast.

In 1981, Inex-Adria took over three aircraft of the new MD-80 family, including the MD-81 and the MD-82. For shorter routes, four-engine de Havilland Canada Dash 7 turboprops were added later. In 1985, Munich-Riem was added as a scheduled destination.

This era also includes serious accidents. In 1975, a DC-9 crashed in fog on approach to Prague, and in 1976 an Inex-Adria DC-9 collided over Croatia with a British Airways Trident. On December 1, 1981, an MD-82 on approach to Ajaccio on Corsica hit a mountain, killing all 180 people on board.

Independent under a new name (1986–1996)

In 1986, the airline separated from the Inex group and was from then on called Adria Airways. The new brand identity with the linden leaf, a national symbol of Slovenia, also dates from this time. Adria had already ordered the Airbus A320 in 1984, and the first factory-new example arrived in 1989 – making Adria one of the early operators of the type.

Then Yugoslavia broke apart. During the Ten-Day War in 1991, Adria moved its aircraft to safety in Klagenfurt, Austria, and resumed operations only after Slovenia’s independence. The leisure market on the Adriatic largely collapsed during the war years, and the airline switched to scheduled flights. In February 1996, the Slovenian state took over all shares.

Lufthansa, CRJ and Star Alliance (1996–2010)

From 1996, Adria sought closeness to Lufthansa. In 1997, it ordered two Bombardier CRJ200s, delivered in 1998 – the beginning of the regional jet era that shaped Adria until the end. After the Kosovo War, Adria was the first airline to offer scheduled flights to Pristina again and gradually developed Ljubljana into a small connecting point between the Western Balkans and Western Europe.

On November 18, 2004, Adria joined Star Alliance, initially as a regional member and from January 2010 as a full member. The first CRJ900 arrived in May 2007. At times, Adria also flew leased Boeing 737-400s and 737-500s. Financially it remained shaky: several years ended in losses, and from 2010 they became so large that the state had to inject fresh capital again in 2011 as part of a restructuring.

Privatization and attempts at expansion (2016–2018)

In 2016, the state sold the large majority of the shares to the restructuring fund 4K Invest. The new owner focused on cost cutting and new markets. In 2017, the group also took over the Swiss Darwin Airline, which operated as Adria Airways Switzerland and ceased operations as early as December 2017. For spotters, the new strategy became visible mainly through wet leasing: Adria CRJs flew for Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa and Luxair, Saab 2000s for Swiss. An order for Sukhoi Superjet 100s announced at the end of 2018 never materialized.

The end in September 2019

In 2019, things went downhill fast. From mid-September, lessors took back aircraft – including the three A319s. On September 23, 2019, the last regular flight with its own aircraft and its own crew landed, from Copenhagen to Ljubljana. In the following week, more than 400 flights were canceled, according to EX-YU Aviation News. The government refused new state aid, and on September 30, 2019, management filed the bankruptcy petition with the district court in Kranj. Proceedings were opened in early October 2019; 558 employees lost their jobs.

In January 2020, the airline’s assets were auctioned off; the Montenegrin entrepreneur Izet Rastoder won the bid for 45,000 euros. Slovenia has not had a new national airline since. Adria was not alone in 2019: in the same year, Germania, Aigle Azur, XL Airways France and Thomas Cook Airlines also disappeared. The article Major airline collapses in Europe puts it in context.

The route network

Adria’s network was small but clearly structured: from Ljubljana, flights went to Europe’s big cities and hubs, along with connections to the Western Balkans. According to the English-language Wikipedia, Adria served around two dozen scheduled destinations and numerous charter destinations in summer 2017. The table shows a selection from different years:

Region	Destinations (selection)	Note
Germany	Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Berlin Tegel	Most important foreign market
Austria and Switzerland	Vienna, Zurich	Feeder to Austrian and Swiss
Western Balkans	Pristina, Tirana	First airline back to Pristina from 1999
Special case Paderborn	Paderborn/Lippstadt – Zurich, Vienna, London Southend	Based aircraft from October 2018, abandoned again in 2019
Wet lease	Saarbrücken–Berlin Tegel (for Luxair), Lugano–Zurich (for Swiss)	Until September 2019

The wet lease routes in particular make Adria exciting for archive collectors: a CRJ700 with an S5 registration in Saarbrücken or a Saab 2000 in Lugano looks like an exotic at first glance, but was everyday business. You will find tips on the small airports in the guide Regional airports in Germany.

The fleet

In summer 2019, shortly before the end, 18 to 20 aircraft flew for Adria, depending on the source and reference date. The variation is explained by the fact that lessors were already taking aircraft back in September:

Type	Number in 2019	Seats	Use	Spotter hint
Airbus A319-100	3	142–144	Longer routes, charter	Only Airbus type at the end
Bombardier CRJ700	2	70–72	Scheduled, wet lease for Luxair	Shorter than the CRJ900
Bombardier CRJ900	7–9	86–90	Backbone, wet lease for Lufthansa and Austrian	One aircraft in Star Alliance livery
Saab 2000	4–6	50	Wet lease for Swiss, regional routes	Fast turboprop with six-blade propellers
Airbus A320	formerly	–	Scheduled and charter	In the fleet from 1989
CRJ100/CRJ200	formerly	–	Scheduled	Start of the CRJ era in 1998
DC-9, MD-81/82	formerly	–	Leisure flying	Defined the Inex-Adria era

The manufacturers of the late fleet were Bombardier, Airbus and Saab. Former types also included the Fokker 100 and Saab 340.

CRJ700 and CRJ900: the Adria fleet par excellence

Hardly any European national airline relied as heavily on regional jets as Adria. The CRJ900 was the workhorse on the routes to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, supplemented by the shorter CRJ700. You can tell the two apart mainly by the fuselage length and the number of windows ahead of the wing; how to go about it is shown in Recognizing regional jets. Because many Adria CRJs moved to other operators after 2019, their serial numbers now turn up in completely different liveries.

A319 and A320: the Airbus line

Adria flew the A320 from 1989. At the end, three A319s remained, used mainly on longer routes and in charter. All of Adria’s Airbuses belonged to the first generation; the airline never operated a neo. How to tell the A319 and A320 apart is explained in Telling the A318, A319, A320 and A321 apart reliably.

Saab 2000: the late turboprop

The Saab 2000 joined the fleet only in the final years and was intended mainly for wet lease jobs, such as for Swiss between Lugano and Zurich. With its long fuselage and large propellers, it is a rewarding subject – and a rarity, because only a few airlines operated the fast turboprop at all.

How to recognize Adria Airways

The most reliable feature is the registration. Since Slovenia’s independence, Adria aircraft carried the prefix S5-, most recently for example the CRJ900 S5-AAV. Photos from before that show Yugoslav registrations with YU-. The fuselage carried the name “Adria”, and since the late 1980s the tail carried a stylized linden leaf as its emblem. The linden is regarded as a national symbol of Slovenia – a detail that places Adria photos immediately.

Two special liveries are particularly interesting for collectors. The CRJ900 S5-AAV flew in the colors of Star Alliance; how such alliance liveries are built is shown in the article Star Alliance, oneworld and SkyTeam liveries. And in 2011, the A320 S5-AAT received a retro livery in the style of the 1960s – you will find more on such throwbacks under Retro liveries.

Adria in its regional context

Adria was part of a whole group of airlines that emerged from the former Yugoslavia or were connected to it. The former state airline JAT Yugoslav Airlines later became Air Serbia, Croatia Airlines still flies as Croatia’s national airline in Star Alliance today, and Montenegro Airlines ceased operations in 2020. Estonian Air has a similar story to Adria: a small national airline that disappeared after years of state aid. How Europe’s regional airlines are set up overall is covered under Regional airlines in Europe.

Common mix-ups

• Mistaking Adria Airways for a Croatian airline – despite the name, it came from Slovenia; Croatia Airlines is a separate company.
• Seeing Inex-Adria and Adria Airways as two airlines – it is the same company under different names.
• Attributing wet lease flights to Lufthansa or Austrian – aircraft and crew came from Adria, only the flight number from the partner.
• Thinking Adria Airways Switzerland was an Adria subsidiary with its own fleet – the Swiss Darwin Airline flew under this name, which ended in 2017.
• Confusing the CRJ700 and CRJ900 – both flew at Adria at the same time; fuselage length and number of windows decide.

Conclusion

Adria Airways was more than just a small national airline. It started in 1961 as a charter airline in Yugoslavia, brought many vacationers to the Adriatic as Inex-Adria, survived the breakup of the country and, with its closeness to Lufthansa, Star Alliance and a CRJ fleet, became Slovenia’s feeder to the world. Failed restructurings, an unlucky privatization and lessors taking back their aircraft ended this story in 2019. For spotters, what remains is an airline that is easy to place on photos thanks to the S5 registration, the Adria titles and the regional jet fleet.