photograph courtesy of Alex Robertson Textor 

We were pleased to open our FT this morning to find a Special Report on Slovakia, written by Robert Anderson and Katka Krosnar. We love these four-page FT Special Reports. They’re pithy and they cast a broad net.

The FT’s Slovakia report notes the booming Bratislava property market and forecasts continued growth in the Slovak capital. Among the evidence marshalled to support this claim, the authors cite the expected completion of a direct motorway between Bratislava and Vienna later this year and the planned expansion of the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone to include Slovakia in 2008.

The report also outlines the tourist pressures on Slovakia’s Tatra Mountains, where environmentalists and developers are engaged in a pitched battle over the future of the region.

And of course, there’s an interesting corporate profile on SkyEurope. The FT profile observes that SkyEurope is looking to expand to airports in Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine—all of which would be welcome inclusions on the low-cost map.

We suppose this would be a good time to mention that SkyEurope’s €5 fight sale has been extended to February 25.

Popularity: 4% [?]