Government confirms Turkish interest in Montenegro Airlines
The Government of Montenegro has confirmed that Turkish Airlines is interested in taking over the country’s national carrier as it heads towards a second privatisation attempt in two years. Officials in Podgorica are certain that, unlike last year, the airline will be sold this time around. According to the government, the strongest interest has been shown by Turkish Airlines. Officials from the airline have already visited Podgorica and discussed potential investment in the Montenegrin carrier. However, there is a catch. In return for buying Montenegro Airlines, Turkish expects to gain full control over Podgorica and Tivat airports. Earlier this year, the head of the Airports of Montenegro company said that selling hubs in Podgorica and Tivat would be a disastrous decision, adding that airports form an integral part of a country’s infrastructure system. The comments came back in January when the Turkish operator Limak announced its interest in taking over Montenegro’s airports.In 2010, 30% of Montenegro Airlines shares were offered to potential partners with the possibility to increase the ownership stake a year later. Although three airlines (El Al Israel, Arkia and Etihad Airways) purchased the tender documentation, none of them put in an offer.
Turkish Airlines operates flights to every capital city in the former Yugoslavia. It owns 49% of B&H Airlines. Although long rumoured to be interested in taking over Jat Airways such a scenario did not materialise. Furthermore, Limak is the operator of Priština Airport while the Turkish TAV Holdings runs both Skopje and Ohrid. Turkish operators have also applied for the tender to build the new terminal at Zagreb Airport.
This is the same story as it was with JAT..:/ THY is trying to overtake balkanian sky from ex you countries..:/
ReplyDeleteI actually cannot believe that anyone in Montenegrin Government will take this offer seriously. First of all, as well as I’m aware of, Airports of Montenegro recorded significant profit since their takeover from JAT in spite loan repayment to EBRD taken several years ago. If both companies are observed as one unit, MGX loss would be inexistent or negligible. Secondly, even if you exclude Turkish from the whole picture, what is the interest of a country to give a monopoly over its air space to only one company and at which point we could than anticipate arrival of low costers to the country? Ultimately, who can guarantee that tickets would be more affordable?
ReplyDeleteHonestly speaking, by taking into account recent acknowledgments by Montenegrin officials involved in the whole process, some sort of special arrangement with Airports will be offered in order to facilitate the deal. Perhaps source of this information its not that much reliable afterall?
and this is a good thing, anonymous.
ReplyDeleteMacedonia airport, bought and built by THY is fantastic - now the ONLY good airport in the region.
THY is one of the most successful airlines in Europe.
Successful companies should be the ones running the airports/airlines, not some stupid corrupt cadre of retarded politicians.
totally agree with doot.
ReplyDeleteI actually cannot believe that anyone in Montenegrin Government will take this offer seriously. First of all, as well as I’m aware of, Airports of Montenegro recorded significant profit since their takeover from JAT in spite loan repayment to EBRD taken several years ago. If both companies are observed as one unit, MGX loss would be inexistent or negligible. Secondly, even if you exclude Turkish from the whole picture, what is the interest of a country to give a monopoly over its air space to only one company and at which point we could than anticipate arrival of low costers to the country? Ultimately, who can guarantee that tickets would be more affordable?
ReplyDeleteHonestly speaking, by taking into account recent acknowledgments by Montenegrin officials involved in the whole process, some sort of special arrangement with Airports will be offered in order to facilitate the deal. Perhaps source of this information its not that much reliable afterall?
Doot,
ReplyDeleteDepends on what you mean by region, coz there is also Budapest and Bucharest with their great new terminals.
I have an idea for the new Turkish owners of Montenegro airways and airports:
ReplyDeleteGet rid of that overexpensive
cabin crew and airport staff..
and replace them with cheap personell
from Kosovo and Turkey !
Only if we are talking of cabin crew coming from Eastern Turkey, more specifically HATAY!
ReplyDeleteOT: flights bookable on flydubai from Belgrade:)))
ReplyDeleteWelcome flydubai :)
Hatay is Arabian land occupied by the Turks..
ReplyDeleteYeap, its official :D
ReplyDeleteTheres even a timetable :)
FZ741 0910DXB-1155BEG 1,4,6,7
FZ742 1240BEG-2045DXB 1,4,6,7
From 17/01/2012 operated days are 2,4,6,7.
Well if we look at it that way then Turkey is occupied Greek land ;)
ReplyDeleteBut when I mentioned Hatay I was referring to the kind of people that come from there.
PERFECT!!!! Return flight with taxes is €330!!
ReplyDeleteNow that's lowcost and not that thing that was offered with Air Arabia!
How are the people from Hatay ?
ReplyDeleteI heard people from Kayseri are not very popular in Turkey..
Let me just say that people from Hatay do not know what a toilet is when they see it :D
ReplyDeleteSo when i fly next time Montenegro Airways I will only order hot drinks like čaj or turška kava !
ReplyDeleteNo water which is not cooked or not boilt ! ; )
Will JAT still be flying BEG - DXB in and after November? I wish JAT and Montenegro Airlines could merge!
ReplyDeleteShould FlyDubais service to Belgrade prove profitable ... Emirates should consider flights to Chicago or Toronto via Belgrade !
ReplyDeleteDBX-BEG-OHR-BEG DBX...
Or DBX-BEG-YYZ-BEG-DBX !
Hmmm...also interesting would be
ReplyDeleteSIN-BEG-OHR-BEG-SIN with Singapore Airlines !
@ last anonymous
ReplyDeleteThat is a good idea, could be profitable as well as real! We can only hope for now! I dont know how much flying time would be though from Dubai to Chicago, JFK, or Toronto via BEG but shouldnt it be much shorter than if they chose to go the other way around the world, through the whole United States?
Well Jat and Emirates did have an agreement to feed Emirates' flight from Hamburg.
ReplyDeleteWhich means that this idea was already thought about.
Jat will still sell Belgrade-Dubai for about a month in December, around the holidays.
ReplyDelete@alexnikolic.
ReplyDeletelol. here we go again.
why the hell would any airline want to fly USA-Belgrade-Dubai?
First, very important part of EKs business model is cheap fuel, avaiable only in DXB. Landing in Belgrade along the way does not help.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, profit actually comes from high yield tickets, such as F, J or Y fares, usually picked up by the wealthy and business people, and they both share expectation for fast, good and reliable service which saves them time. I don't think that we would see much high yield tickets boarding the plane in BEG - but I do see F, J and Y passanger grunting about having their DXB-JFK flight interrupted for a landing in a European backwater city, whatever that city might be.
So, no, DXB-BEG-ANYWHERE is not going to happen, and it shouldn't. But, hopefully, proper EK flight DXB-BEG will, and that really depends on load factor of FZs service.
Singapore Airlines abolished flights to Chicago.
ReplyDeleteReason was that stopover was in
an western European city-Amsterdam.
From every western European city you can fly to chicago nonstop with one or even more airlines.So those flights had too much concurrence...
but from Belgrade to Chicago ?! No concurrence at all ! A monopoly !
Twice a week with 777-200 in summer season would be worth a try !
Maybe Singapore should try CY configuration .
Look at AUS-SIN-BEG-OHR-BEG-SIN-AUS!
Australia to Belgrade via Singapore
the same model as Emirates or Qatar Airways should try !
Belgrade is backwater ok...but then Chennai ,Dhaka or Guangzhou are also ...most of people in Europe even dont know that those are even cities !!! But look their connections ..so what backwater !?
Those are backwaters that people travel to/from.
ReplyDeleteFirst those airlines would have to get permission from the US for those kind of flights (taking passengers from a third country to the US). This is rarely given.
ReplyDeleteFlyDubai is not cheap at all. Cheapest ticket is 330 EUR return. This does not include check in luggage, a transit fee if you need to go the Emirates terminal and you have to pay for everything onboard (food, entertainment)… It actually turns out cheaper on Jat.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is pure crap about EK or any other established airline wanting to fly via Belgrade to anywhere else.
I remember Frankfurt -Chennai
ReplyDeletewith Lufthansa 5times the week with 744,
British Airways 4times the week
with 744...
Singapore -Chennai,daily with 744.
Today they use smaller planes
(if you can call B777 or A330 small)
but even added much more
frequencies .
What for the one is a backwater ...
for the others is centre of their world.
I bet the people calling Belgrade backwater are the same ignorants
who would say "Chennai ...what the f--k is that ? A place ? Where..
in India ?
Who wants to go to this backwater
nobody ever heard of ?"
Look, as someone who was born, raised and lives in Belgrade, there was no pun intended in calling BEG backwater. It was simply to make it perfecty clear whether high powered lawyers or businessmen who hold high yields tickets and fly F on DXB-JFK have any kind of desire to land anywhere on the way - be it Belgrade, Prague, Budapest, Berlin, Rome... In that sense, each and every city along the way is backwater. And those people would be 99% of F, J and Y on any DXB-BEG-JFX flight. Soon they would migrate to other airlines, and EK won't have any of that. Just unrealistic.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I don't know much about Chennai or Dhaka, but Guangzhou is also dubbed "factory of the world", international airport there serves 40 mil. passangers per year, and the city itself has 12+ million people. Hardly something to compare Belgrade with.
Dear person above me ..I never mentioned flights to New York
ReplyDeletebut Chicago and Toronto .
Also you can add flights with stopovers in Belgrade to
already existing nonstop flights.
Look Singapore Airlines ...
they fly SIN -Tokio nonstop
plus SIN-Bangkok-Tokio !!
How do you explain that ?!
What you say about Guangzhou is correct...but most people outside China dont know about that facts .
So most people even in the rest of Europe dont know that Belgrade and Serbia are in Europe !
So should we make our decisions
dependent on those ignorants ?!