Montenegro Airlines looking for new owner
Montenegro Airlines will be privatised this year, the country’s Privatisation and Capital Investment Council has announced. Shares in the Montenegrin carrier will be offered through a public tender. “We cannot specify at this point in time the pace in which the privatisation process will take place”, the Council said in a statement. It will be the government’s second attempt at selling its indebted national carrier after it failed to do so in 2010. Despite the government’s approval for a second privatisation effort in 2012, the process never took place.
In 2009, Israel’s national carrier El Al teamed up with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with the aim of purchasing a stake in Montenegro Airlines. El Al was interested in the Montenegrin carrier only if it gained control over Podgorica and Tivat airports as well, which the government deemed “unacceptable” at the time. In 2011, the Montenegrin government offered a 30% stake in its national airline. Arkia Israeli Airlines, El Al and Etihad Airways all purchased tender documentation but never made a takeover offer. Later that year the government announced that Turkish Airlines was close to making a takeover bid for both the airline and the country’s airports but added it would not sell its national carrier at any cost. In the end the possible takeover by Turkish Airlines did not materialise.
Montenegro Airlines’ debt has reached 68 million euros by the end of 2013. The Montenegrin carrier owes most to the airports in Podgorica and Tivat - up to 12.8 million euros, followed by 12.7 million to the Serbia and Montenegro Air Traffic Services Agency. The decision to privatise Montenegro Airlines comes at a time when both Croatia Airlines and Adria Airways are seeking a strategic partner as well. Late last year, Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić said, “There is an idea to acquire some airlines in the region after we bring in new planes. All airlines in the region have many problems. They are facing great challenges and will face them in the future”. Commenting on possible regional acquisitions, Air Serbia’s CEO Dane Kondić said, “I think any business is always going to look at opportunities for growth. At the moment we have our own goals, ambitions and plans, which is to bring into service ten of these new aircraft, build a route structure, get some sustainability and then we can look at other sorts of investments that may or may not involve acquisitions around the region”.
Comments
Unfortunately I see Montenegro Airlines going bankrupt first, especially since they have a fleet which is just too large for their needs, especially during winter time.
Whats the story with airports in Montenegro, btw, that were owned by JAT? How did that finish? Did Serbia get the pay out?
to sum up, YM has 6 flights today with 8 planes. for a whole week they have 32 flights out of TGD (of which 14 are to BEG) and 11 out of TIV (of which 9 are to BEG), which means 43 flight per week (23 are to BEG) with 8 planes, which makes 5,4 flights per week per plane. are they serious? why don't they retire F100, since they obviously don't need them. all 3 E95s are enough for YM's traffic. it's no wonder that they are bleeding money, because each of their planes is unutilized at least one day per week
Airports of Montenegro handled over 1,5 million passangers in 2013. For a small country like Montenegro that is a lot.
For years before their independence they have been milking the Serbian market so now when the shoe is on the other foot they want to talk. They deserve the same attitude Adria got. Serbia finally has a professional and well-run airline and the last thing we need are these relics of a past era.
We gave up on Jat Airways, it was a painful move for all of us here but you can't march on towards the future while being overburdened by the past.
Cheers from Belgrade
Well YM has like 4 flights per day so i suppose they don't need it. And scedule like this offers conections at BEG, but i always use JU flight at 15:45.
well, they don't. they could only use them for charters, if they get licence for BEG-AQJ like previous years. last year they had 85 fpw, 37 for BEG, 12 for DME, 7 for FRA and ZRH, 6 for CDG and 5 for VIE. other destinations were served less then 3 fpw. they are to receive new E90 in April, so if we take their schedule from last year, 85 fpw makes 12 fpd, whis is 3 fpd per plane (still great unutilization, taking into account that most flights are less the 3 hrs per direction). but, if they utilize one Embraer on TIV-BEG and TGD-BEG route, other planes could have good utilization (16 fpd, of which at least 2 are to DME). of course, it all depends on their daily schedule, but by my opinion, with 3 E90s they could have good utilization (eg. WZZ has 25 fpw with 2 planes out of BEG, and most of their routes are 2+ hrs)
-2-4-6-
JU 340/1 07.40-09.25 // 10.10-11.50
1-3-5-7
JU 344/5 18.25-20.10 // 21.05-22.45
Not only is this schedule good for connecting passengers but it's also convenient for O&D travellers from both Belgrade and beyond.
When talking of connections, do you mean from a Montenegro Airlines flight onto an Air Serbia one or..?
In the same time and slightly OT question for people that follow JU:
I was checking JU’s SSJ-TIV flights in the summer. Price €250 euro and up, only one flight BEG-TIV in the system currently. I presume there is going to be more BEG-TIV flights in summer and also SJJ-BEG portion I heard here at this forum might get a boost. Do you think it’s worth it to wait a little bit here.
YM doesn't have many charters. Baku,Yarevan,Naples and Bari are their only ones and they ar once per week. Baku and Yarevan are on wednesday and thursdays i think and Naples,Bari on sundays.(they use F100 on these charters)
"nije teško tudjim k***em po koprivama mlatiti"
Cheers from Ljubljana
As for SJJ-TIV yes you should wait. BEG-TIV flights in summer are approx. 6-7 daily.
When Jat was weak and down on its knees neither Adria nor Montenegro Airlines wanted to cooperate. All they wanted was to maximize their gains at the expense of JU. Today, when JU is dominating and posing as a threat these same airlines, their foes until yesterday, are calling on to cooperate. No thank you. I am glad that JU ignored JP and that it's doing to it what it has done to JU for years now when it pushed it out of LJU.
Also, if the Arabs really wanted to invest into YM wouldn't it have happened by now?
Ok, they did invest into Jat Airways but its home base is incomparably bigger and there is a much larger market to be served, not to mention that BEG has a better geographical location.
1. Sell those F100 immediately.
2. Put those old 737-300 for charters in Montenegro, they are good for charters (even that old, but they are not so used) and they are much better than F100 which plane is really not good for charters.
3. Leave all Embraer fleet in TGD but use them in BEG for some flights like TGD-BEG-MUC-BEG-TGD. In waves BEG has now that can be done easily TGD-BEG-MUC-BEG-TGD-BEG-MUC-BEG-TGD + TIV-BEG-FRA-BEG-TIV-BEG-FRA-BEG-TIV. They will have 3 E-195 and 1 E-190 in fleet and basically they need just one of them for direct flights from TGD and TIV that are not BEG and charters (737-300). So one Embraer should be based in BEG and every second day you change them in BEG rotation to go to homebase for maintenance.
4. Montenegro is most logical market for Air Serbia to develop, and if the really plan to buy any companies Montenegro should be their first choice.
Maybe he should have waited before posting similar information, at least until the airline confirms them.
Btw., I wish good luck to Montenegro Airlines but agree with Purger, if Air Serbia wants to buy another company, YM should be their first choice!
As to Montenegrin airlines @AnonymousJanuary 28, 2014 at 10:04 AM
Why would Montenegro Airlines be too large, its the perfect size it has to be, problem its not in a size of the airline but offers and destinations, keeping schedules and maintaining good quality of service.
Problem why montenegro airlines has loads of issues as it lacks the commitment and management that can run an airline.
BTW I think MA plans to retire 5 Fokker 100s,
If OU performs really well in 2014, this should be a good indicator to any investor that OU is a great investment. 49% steak is on offer of 75% if US based investors (State will maintain 25% or 51% share depending on investors).
First there was no attempt to sale OU the fist time, what government did was to indicate to any potential investors that OU is for sale and that offers would be considered, no offers came in.
A proper sale will be attempted in late 2014 or most likely in mid 2015, depending on how OU performs.
thank you for the advice, I'll wait until they summer schedule is complete and in the system
@ anon 2:58
Who knows, I think they did invest in some hotels but who knows. Maybe except tourism they didn't find much to invest in.
I think Vucic stated this in one of the interviews before Milo's visit to Belgrade.
Air Serbia should stay away from any involvement in MGX, no investment, no codesharing, nothing. JU should fly to TGD and TIV with frequency that suits JU`s needs and not a single flight more. The fate of MGX should not be connected to anyone in Belgrade in any way. MGX is to pay all dues to BEG and similarly JU should pay all dues to TGD and TIV, pure business interest, nothing more.
Similarily, Air Serbia should stay away from purchasing in the region. The national pride in Balkan countries is stil way too powerful, burdening relations between nations as it is.
Eventhough Purgers idea makes sense, I dont think Air Serbia should have an additional brand to worry about, additional aircraft type, additional everything. JU management should remained focused on JU operations.
Should something go wrong with YM while JU is in charge, everyone would instantly forget these years of „YM prosperous business operations“ and immediately point fingers to Belgrade, again. Why should anyone go down that road? Tax-payers of Montenegro should hold their own political/economic leaders accountable and no one else.
However, should JU decide to step in and I am afraid they might... they could have several new ATRs painted in YM and JA colours and to fly them from TGD, TIV and SJJ to regional destination, something a la Etihad Regional, ATRs are economical enough for those hops... but I doubt something like this will ever happen. There is no political support for moves like these and the hostility in PG and SA towards Belgrade remains high.
Air Serbia should avoid involvement withYM under all circumstances.
Also:
Air Serbia is a nonEU-member and thus can buy no more than 49% of YM.
Adria and OU as EU-members could even buy 100%.
Isnt that a weird and tragicomical situation?!
Impossible, Croatian Airlines owns rights to Air Croatia, Croatian Airways, Croatian Air, and few other versions,
State has registered all these as a trademark of Croatian Airlines.
How is that even possible?
they registerd it as a trademark of Croatia and Croatian Airlines, if Croatian airlines goes bust at some point they can just start a fresh with a new name alredy registered and trademarked. What I suspect this is a charter airline that is using Air Croatia as a marketing ploy, with Croatian Government and Croatian Airlines approval.