Jat’s “saviour” arrested

Head of Baltic Aviation Systems arrested
One of the five owners of Baltic Aviation Systems, the only company to buy the tender documentation for the creation of a new Serbian national carrier to replace Jat, has been arrested. Vladimir Antonov was arrested in London on Thursday after Lithuanian authorities issued extradition warrants. Prosecutors in the country want to question Antonov as part of an investigation into claims involving Snoras Bank. Snoras went into temporary administration last week. Antonov is also the owner of Portsmouth Football Club which became the first Premier League club to be placed into administration. In 2010 he unsuccessfully attempted to buy Swedish car maker Saab.

“In the public’s interest and in order to protect Jat’s reputation we are closely following and analysing all information regarding persons associated with Baltic Aviation Systems”, a statement from the Ministry of Infrastructure of Serbia said yesterday. However, the ministry seems less than phased that it will go ahead and hold talks with Baltic Aviation Systems whose owner is under suspicion of fraud and money laundering as it announced that it is anticipating the company’s offer by December 12. Baltic Aviation Systems owns 47% of airBaltic which several months ago filed for protection and announced it was cutting half of its workforce and 700 flights.

Meanwhile, Jat Airways’ pilots are demanding for the airline’s acting CEO, Vladimir Ognjenović, to resign and have launched a judicial process against the company’s Head of Training following a scandal earlier in the month for which no one has still faced any consequences.

Comments

  1. Anonymous13:43

    I hope they don’t sell it to Air Baltic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Crew14:52

    I hope JAT will finally be able to rest in peace as that is the best solution for everyone. Nothing lasts forever and the free ride will end soon...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous18:05

    Was Uzbekistan Airways codesharing with Air Baltic ?
    Were UA stopovers in Riga for New York flights part of any sort of partnership between those two airlines ?
    As this partnership maybe ends ,could we see UA making stopovers in Belgrade again ?
    It wouldnt be the first time...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Purger18:44

    Air Baltic and Uzbekistan did have code-share. But company is not closed, they just change CEO which was 47,2% owner of shares. In same time Government (52,8% owner) invest 100 million lats in company (40 million more than necessary). That shows Government want company to survive.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Purger18:45

    ...so that means Air Baltic and Uzbekistan will have code-share in future.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous19:03

    So that means Air Baltic is not dead but definitely saved by the government ?!

    Well ,if you consider that AB is very popular among customers and that a tough reorganization is introduced then ABs future is not as bleak as it seemed before !

    And considering that flights to BEG were succesful and profitable we can hope for a comeback of them in future ...even next summer !

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous23:24

    Dear Nemjee,
    if you read this...could you please give some info about LF on routes from BEG ?!
    Especially of the Newies...FlyDubai and Skyworks !
    Thanks in advance .

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous22:02

    talking about...

    AirBaltic = BT

    UA = United Airlines

    Uzbekistan Airways = HY

    AB = AirBerlin

    ReplyDelete

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