Maribor Edvard Rusjan Airport is an international airport in Maribor, Slovenia. The second biggest and second most important Slovenian airport was opened in May 1976. It is located in Hoče–Slivnica which is about 10km south from Maribor. In 2008 airport was renamed after the Slovene pioneer aviator Edvard Rusjan. In recent years this airport has become a pilot flight training centre for many European airlines. The Slovenian savings bank Delavska hranilnica plc is the owner of the airport, which is operated by Aerodrom Maribor llc.HistoryThe airport was opened in May 1976. Since then this airport has been the second biggest and the second most important in Slovenia.When Slovenia was a part of Yugoslavia, the airport was regularly served by state airline Jat Airways, mainly connecting Belgrade and the Croatian Adriatic coast.In the early 1990s passengers and cargo traffic reached record highs. Around 85,000 passengers and 700 tonnes of cargo were carried per year. In 1999 its runway was renovated, as was the airport's apron in 2000.In 2002 Aerodrome Maribor llc was sold to Prevent Global plc from Slovenj Gradec, as a majority owner. In 2005 the instrument landing system ILS CAT I and the distribution transformer station were renovated. Airport was later served with scheduled flights by Slovenian Spirit, an arm of Styrian Spirit, which offered scheduled flights to Paris and Salzburg until March 2006. Styrian Spirit ended operations due to insolvency.