On Friday, 28 February, at 10 o’clock, the fourth BTC hot air balloon Ajda 4 will be christened at BTC City. An event to accompany the christening of the new hot air balloon in BTC City, Ljubljana, is being prepared. It will be held in front of Water Park Atlantis and will feature members of Brass Orchestra Bežigrad, a group of majorettes from Ljubljana and a cheerleading group Vičke. In addition, there will be a prize competition for the visitors – with a little luck they will win a ride in the new hot air balloon.
Hot air balloon Ajda 4 will be the biggest hot air balloon owned by BTC d.d., it is 32 metres high and has an air volume of 8,000 cubic metres. The hot air balloon will be able to carry 12 passengers at a time, and the basket is designed to provide more space and comfort for the passengers than other similar hot air balloons.
BTC d.d. had already owned three hot air balloons – Ajda 1, Ajda 2 and Ajda 3 – before Ajda 4. Hot air balloon Ajda 1 was christened in 1996 by the then Mayor of Ljubljana during the opening of the International Hot Air Balloon Festival. Considering the conditions of hot air ballooning in Slovenia at the time, Ajda 1 was something special. Its greatest special feature was the triangular basket for passengers, which could carry 9 people into the sky. The pilot of Ajda 1, Gregor Trček, and his passenger flew over Slovenia from the valley of the river Dragonja to the “Hen’s Beacon”, south of Lendava, in “one go”. To fly over 248 kilometres in a beeline they needed five hours and 25 minutes.
Hot air balloon Ajda 2 had a very exciting life. It was bigger than Ajda 1, measuring 25 metres in height and its envelope contained 5,100 cubic metres of air. Gregor Trček climbed to 8400 metres with Ajda 2 and dropped two paragliders from the hot air balloon; Miha Repovž (tandem pilot) and Primož Lajevec (tandem co-pilot) consequently set a world record for the altitude tandem jump with a paraglider from a hot air balloon.
Hot air balloon Ajda 3 was christened in Bovec, and numerous domestic and foreign tourists enjoyed rides over Bled, Ljubljana, the Julian Alps and other places in Slovenia from its basket.
The purpose of the new hot air balloon purchase is mainly promotion of the business, shopping, sports and entertainment centre BTC City, and with the hot air balloon BTC d.d. also promotes more ecologically acceptable flights over Ljubljana and the Ljubljana Moor, as well as over other places in Slovenia and abroad.
For further information contact: BTC, Maja Oven, Director of Market Communications and Public Relations, tel.: 01 585 13 15, email: maja.oven@btc.si
