Croatia Airlines faces loss of aircraft
Zagreb Airport has said it will ground and take possession of one of Croatia Airlines’ Airbus jets if it does not pay off it outstanding debt to the airport for the year 2009 immediately. The move would be lawful as the two agreed that such action could be taken if no payments were made by the end of 2010. In 2009, Croatia Airlines did not pay its hub any handling fees nor did it divide the passenger tax. As a result, the Croatian national airline owes Zagreb Airport 9.2 million Euros. The airline says that it has been paying its fees to the airport for the years 2010 and 2011 on time.Despite an agreement for the debt to be paid off by the end of December 2010, Croatia Airlines has not done so and the airport is not amused. It says it will exercise its right to take possession of one of Croatia Airlines Airbus jets. In the first 3 months of 2011, Croatia Airlines recorded a loss of 13.1 million Euros. The two are also feuding over food catering prices. Croatia Airlines has refused to pay for catering under new prices set in 2006 and still continues to pay in accordance to prices set in 1999. As a result, Zagreb Airport has sued its main customer.
Bad relations between national carriers in the former Yugoslavia and their hubs is not uncommon. Last week, the operator of Podgorica and Tivat airports said that Montenegro Airlines owes 6.5 million Euros to the Airports of Montenegro company and urged the government to pressure the national carrier into paying off its debt. Earlier in the year, Ljubljana Airport wrote off 2.4 million Euros in debt owed by the Slovenian carrier. Last week, Adria Airways accused Ljubljana Airport of favouritism towards other airlines.
This has got to be one of the worst years for EX-YU airlines. Croatia airlines has record PAX numbers but can’t capitalise on it and has huge losses. B&H is on the verge of disappearing, JU still can’t get new aircraft, Adria is borrowing 100 million EUR to survive and MGX is also in debt trouble and I’m sure that soon we will read that one of their planes has been grounded in Frankfurt or Vienna because of unpaid debt.
ReplyDeleteThese airlines need to wake up, and fast. The days of communistic 'bratsvo' between formerly-aligned companies are over, and in the real world, you have to pay your dues by the deadline or your company goes under.
ReplyDeleteWhilst it is never good to see, i'd love for ZAG to take the plane, just to see the fallout from the situation. Now that'd be news to discuss!!
OU is just the best of a bad lot of airlines in the exYU, but it's not saying terribly much is it?
@ Stefan
No, that's just normal operations for these particular misfit organisations... Wasn't it sitcom 'Yes Minister' that said the hospitals would be more efficient if there were no patients? Same principle applies, replace hospitals with airlines and patients with pax!
@EXYU:
ReplyDelete"Ljubljana Airport wrote off 2.4 million Euros in debt owed by the Slovenian carrier. Last week, Adria Airways accused Ljubljana Airport of favouritism towards other airlines. "
Lju Apt did not write off the debt but it converted it into the ownership of Adria Tehnika which Adria SOLD to Lju Apt. Pleas correct this.
I agree with SKY!!
ReplyDelete- 13 already + 6.5 = at the end of 2011 +- 25 milion in the red.
ReplyDeleteThey can better sell it all and start a company that owns some boats..
haha i am so happy that zagreb accepted easyjet i wish they done this much earlier.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aviokarta.net/vesti/646-cimber-ne-odlazi-iz-beograda/
ReplyDeletetoday the BEG flights from Cologne and Riga are both VIA Budapest, why?
ReplyDeletemaybe because of the bad weather...
ReplyDeleteTodays blog is about OU and ZAG, stop trying tho change it into a Serbian thread again, enough is enough.
ReplyDelete@ last anonymous
ReplyDeleteit was just a question, this is an open blog. how come when something happens w OA and skoplje people are curious bout, they can post it on belgrade blogs? nobody bitches, so chill the fuck out. thanks:)
I agree, todays blog is OU related, why do Serbs hijack everything
ReplyDeleteThose evil Serbs .
ReplyDeleteOn Everything they put their hands
on .Now they even want to drink our Water and to breathe our Air.
If we dont stop them ,
they also will take our Women.
I recently started to read this blog and comparing with the other similar websites, I was impressed by the quality and the professionalism of the comments. Today it started to look like others. Please come back to those decent days where reading comments was about learning about regional aviation and not about witnessing regional fights.
ReplyDeleteAnd for those who do, please do not change the subject.
" I was impressed by the Quality
ReplyDeleteand the professionalism "
" Learning about regional Aviation
...wittnessing Regional Fights "
man you sound like a fucking professor...