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| UAE companies head to Belgrade to discuss airport concession |
The Persian Gulf’s largest construction company, Arabtec Holding, will hold talks with the Serbian government next week to discuss a possible concession of Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. Arabtec has executed a number of high profile construction projects, including the Burj Khalifa (the world’s tallest building), Dubai Airport’s Terminal 1, the passenger terminal at Dubai World Central International Airport and is in the process of building Abu Dhabi Airport’s new Midfield Terminal and runway. According to local media, Arabtec could take part in Belgrade Airport’s concession by providing construction work, while another company from the United Arab Emirates would also be involved. Although the company is yet to be named, it too will be present at next week’s talks with the Serbian government.
The government will use a Private-Public Partnership (PPP) model to build a third terminal at Belgrade Airport to be used exclusively by Air Serbia, reconstruct Terminal 1 and build a second runway, a cargo center and a nearby hotel. The investment is estimated to be worth one billion dollars. According to earlier reports, the government will offer a twenty year concession of Belgrade Airport. On Wednesday the Serbian Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vučić said, “Belgrade Airport is Serbia’s big chance. We need a bigger and better airport”. Mr. Vučić added that Air Serbia will launch flights to the United States by the end of next year, which will require upgrades at Belgrade Airport. Shares in Serbia's busiest airport soared to record levels on the Belgrade Stock Exchange on Friday following the news.
Several parties have already expressed their interest to take part in the concession. They include the Greek based Copelouzos Group as well as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Simeon Comokos, head of the Serbian-Greek Business Council said recently, “The company which owns 5% in a Greek airport and also has a stake in Saint Petersburg Airport is interested in participating in the privatisation of Belgrade Airport, if the airport is privatised”. Furthermore, Suma Chakrabarti, the President of the EBRD has said the bank is considering to take part in the concession. Interest from Austria, France and Russia has also been shown. Serbia’s busiest airport is set to be put up for concession later this year.
I don't know why are this Greek and other European groups expressing their interest when the concession goes to this Arab group.
ReplyDeleteAdmin what is with you and the word "soared". I swear its in every other article...
ReplyDeleteYeah haha. Soar and "surge" :D
DeleteWhy do you constantly refer to BEG as serbia’s busiest airport?
ReplyDeleteIt is serbia’s ONLY airport. morava and nis don't have any flights so they can not be considered to be functioning airports.
Afortunatly we have to agree with consatation that AIRPORT MORAVA- KRALJEVO and NIS airport is not in civil aviation business at all. How ever no plitican or any body official give valeblu information. My personal wew is that local polititations is very incopentent for business about commercial aviation. Those people still obsessing about bus transport. With no activity on airports of Kraljevo, Nis, Uzice... No serios business in Serbia south of rivers Sava and Danube. That people in govermant of Serbia know vell. Development is solution to poor people in this part of Homeland. Airport is crucial parts of development. Mean for SERBIA too.
DeleteRod. Marinkovic AME. Sydney///Kraljevo
The government should have the guts to shut them both down, they are nothing but a drain on the economy and provide nothing in return. Either shut them down or sell them off (Question there is: Who would buy an airport with no flights?).
DeleteSerbia simply doesn't have the passenger numbers to justify more than one airport, unlike Croatia.
Pristina International Airport is Serbias second airport.
DeleteIts third busiest airport in EXYU.
Sure, one can see that every day. On custom in PRN there are Serbian police, they speak Serbian language on information desk, there are so many Serbian flags, so many Serbians are flying from there... so Serbian like Belgrade is Croatian airport.
Delete"Serbia simply doesn't have the passenger numbers to justify more than one airport, unlike Croatia."
Delete...unlike Hungary, Czech Republic and Austria pretty much.
They all have only one airport. I guess that makes Croatia so much better.
DeleteAnybody had similar experience? I was ashamed even from reading this article :/
ReplyDeletewww.koreni.rs/lazi-o-er-srbiji-i-etihadu/#.U4l88Ht0PDQ.facebook
He does not mind the "European business class" 3+3?
ReplyDeletehe is talking nonsense!
Regardless, he should have got his refund.
DeleteAnd he did ... but for his own reasons he is making idoit of himself ...
Deletehttp://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=114484974&postcount=4054
It is not common that I defent Air Serbia...But that is one angry, frustrated human being!
DeleteOf course no airline can guarantee equipment and indeed even a seat in certain class.
Maybe he should have a read on Skytrax about "big ones" who swap equipment last minute and bump people to coach...
Flew with that plane (YU-AOV) last month, and i have to say, other than some lack in comfort and LCC-like legroom theres not a problem with it. Its far the youngest B733 in JUs fleet and the main problem is that both JU and Jat Tehnika gave up on its cabin detailing as it will certainly leave the fleet later this month. No problem flying it in short haul less than 2 hrs.
DeleteNeznam koliko LH placa tog coveka da blati Air Srbiju i Etihad.
DeleteGluposti, pa slike sve govore! Ne treba komentara, dovoljno je brdo slika.
DeleteOmagawd.... OU cancelled its Split-Belgrade flight yesterday!!! How unprofessional of them. They had months to prepare for it and they still couldn't operate them.
ReplyDeleteprobably no passengers.
DeleteThere is no hope for them, they are too late.
Deleteis there any rumours on OU privatization interest?
DeleteThey are like the fat girl at the local dance - no takers ...
DeleteOU follows Adria's faith on the Split-Belgrade line...
DeleteCroatia Airlines Fail
DeleteWe all know why OU is failing because we have a stupid CEO Kucko who is too stupid to understand the flying business.
DeleteWe call him the Hvratski stakor!
OT: Ethiad will invest 500 million dollars in Alitalia. The deal is basically sealed.
ReplyDeleteThe end for Air Serbia
DeleteYou wish :-). At least we know who will get to the end first. :-*
Deletehm with Air Berlin and Alitalia , will there be room for Air Serbia ? dropped!
DeleteHahaha c'mon... of course Air Serbia will not be dropped. It will be years before Etihad puts Alitalia back on its feet.
DeleteDon't forget that both Milan and Rome are no easy markets, despite being huge.
Also, do you really think that with $500 million they will manage to bring back this mammoth back on its feet? This cash will merely keep it from going bankruprt.
They did a fairytale out of JAT...at least looks like that. ..so far
DeleteAgree. JAT was just about in the same situation before Etihad arrived. Do not forget that.
DeleteWell, in theory it was but in practice it wasn't. Jat Airways and Alitalia can not be compared, I think that's pretty obvious.
DeleteAlitalia is no Jat Airways for several reasons (other than the sheer difference in size). There are the unions, blood-thirsty competition,the European Union with its laws and institutions...
Then there is the important question of how will they expand, will they go for the split-hub system or will they be forced to neglect Milan for some time? Then again, if they go for the latter option then they will lose a large and lucrative market in one of Europe's richest regions.
If they decide to go for the split-hub system then it will cost them a lot of money and as we have seen until now, only a few airlines have managed to do it (the most successful case being Lufthansa with Munich and Frankfurt). We all remember Air France's epic failure when they tried to expand from cities other than Paris. The whole business model collapsed in just a few months.
When we look at it, it seems the only split-hub system that can work is when the airline expands at two airports in the same city. British Airways closed all of their UK bases but has been successfully expanding at both Heathrow and Gatwick. Turkish Airlines' adventure in Ankara failed miserably but they seem to be doing fine in Sabiha. Then again, both London and Istanbul can sustain this because they have so much passenger demand.
I do hope Etihad invests into Alitalia because it used to be a decent airline and it would be a shame for it to fail. I just hope 'Fort Brussels' doesn't interfere too much, as they did for the Aegean-Olympic merger, they only cause trouble and make life more difficult.
Although some individuals on this blog criticize Serbia's single airport model, it actually might be JU's greatest strength. This allows Air Serbia to focus on a single hub, unlike Alitalia, Montenegro Airlines, Croatia Airlines, etc.
DeleteI just hope that Air Serbia will have one day at lest 30% of flights Turkish have from Ankara feilier:
DeleteTurkish from Ankara:
Amsterdam,
Baghdad,
Berlin-Tegel,
Brussels,
Dubai,
Düsseldorf,
Frankfurt,
Hamburg,
Kuwait,
London-Gatwick,
Milan-Malpensa,
Moscow-Vnukovo,
Munich,
Stockholm-Arlanda,
Vienna,
Cologne/Bonn,
Stuttgart,
Istanbul-Atatürk,
Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen,
Adana,
Adıyaman,
Ağrı,
Alanya,
Antalya,
Batman,
Batumi,
Bodrum,
Bursa,
Çanakkale,
Dalaman,
Denizli,
Diyarbakır,
Edremit,
Elazığ,
Ercan,
Erzincan,
Erzurum,
Gaziantep,
Hatay,
Iğdır,
Isparta,
Izmir,
Kars,
Kocaeli,
Kütahya,
Malatya,
Mardin,
Merzifon,
Muş,
Nevşehir,
Samsun,
Şanlıurfa,
Şırnak,
Tbilisi,
Tekirdağ,
Trabzon,
Van,
Izmir,
Kayseri,
Or Air France out of Paris:
Air France from Marseilles:
Algiers,
Marrakesh,
Moscow-Sheremetyevo,
Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion,
Tunis,
Beirut,
Istanbul-Atatürk,
Amsterdam,
Athens,
Berlin-Tegel,
Prague,
Rome-Fiumicino,
Venice-Marco Polo,
Bordeaux,
Biarritz,
Lille,
Nantes,
Paris-Charles de Gaulle,
Paris-Orly,
Rennes,
Brest,
Ajaccio,
Bastia,
Calvi,
Lyon,
Strasbourg,
Toulouse,
Figari,
Milan-Malpensa
Air France from Nice:
Lille,
Lyon,
Nantes,
Paris-Charles de Gaulle,
Paris-Orly,
Strasbourg,
Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion,
Athens,
Naples,
Tunis,
Venice
Air France from Lyon:
Nice,
Paris–Charles de Gaulle,
Toulouse,
Ajaccio,
Bastia,
Calvi,
Figari,
Bologna,
Florence,
Milan–Malpensa,
Paris–Orly,
Rome–Fiumicino,
Venice–Marco Polo
Air France from Toulouse:
Casablanca,
Hamburg,
Lyon,
Malaga,
Malta,
Marrakech,
Paris–Charles de Gaulle,
Paris–Orly,
Rome–Fiumicino,
Seville,
Strasbourg,
Venice–Marco Polo,
Athens,
Corfu,
Prague
None of those cities are hubs. They are focus cities at best. Turkish doesn't even operate most of those flights from Ankara, Andolujet operates for them. The point of those flights is P2P traffic, not transfer traffic.
DeleteOh... ok. Let's take a closer look at what you posted.
DeleteFirst of all, let's start with Lyon. Only two destinations are operated by Air France, those are Nice and Marseilles. The rest are operated by its regional brand, HOP!.
We move onto Marseilles where only a handful of destinations are operated with daily frequencies and these are Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Lille, Nantes and Rome. All other routes are operated a few times per week- and mind you, we are talking about the second most populous city in France.
Nice is quite interesting because you have failed to point out that routes such as Athens or Tel Aviv are seasonal and even when in season they are not operated daily. Also, Naples is no longer available from Lyon.
When we come to Toulouse the situation is even worst! Athens, Casablanca, Prague, Malaga, Malta and Naples are all seasonal routes which, in season, are operated with two or three weekly frequencies.
Thank you for sharing this with us, you have just proven my point that Air France had failed miserably in serving its secondary cities. If you do not believe me, feel free to look up on the internet the original plan they presented. While you are at it, take some time to read some analysis of why their plan failed. ;)
As for Ankara, most of those routes are no longer served. Currently the airport has around ten international destinations. Several years ago, Turkish Airlines created Anadolujet with the purpose of expanding in Ankara. After a year they gave up on this plan blaming seasonality and generally low demand with the exception of a few destinations. Today, this brand is primarily used to fill the gaps here and there and to transport tourists to the Turkish seaside towns. Not only has Turkish Airlines completely given up on expanding in the Turkish capital, they have also use their political connections to ban any competition from flying between Ataturk airport and Istanbul- as was the case with Atlasjet some years ago.
I will give you an advice, in the future when you are trying to prove a point, don't just copy-paste from Wikipedia. That source is highly unreliable as you have just proven to all of us.
'...between Ataturk airport and Istanbul...'
DeleteI meant Ankara, not Istanbul.
No one wants the end of AS...but I am sure that this will have quite an effect on it. Some plans and strategies will be changed as Alitalia will become a much more bigger interest and focus for Etihad. At the end of the day Etihad will spend a half of a billion..
ReplyDeletemany very interesting things is going to happen.
Anyone have the loads for Air Serbia's inaugural Beirut flight tonight?
ReplyDeleteBEG-BEY 102 PAX. Plently connecting, as far as I know most of the connecting pax were from CPH.
ReplyDelete*plenty of ... sorry for the typo.
DeleteHow many pax are on the way back?
DeleteArabtec is a huge company, very experienced and certainly best option for BEG. The other serbian airports are not to be written off completely. Look at Tuzla before WIZZ landed there..
ReplyDeleteEtihad want to take pax from the region with air serbia to transfer via BEG and AUH. Same from Italy with Alitalia. The USA they fly direct from UAE. Emirates legal issues with the DXB-Milan-New York flight will be showcase for operating EU-USA flights.
Aviation has many different strategies and we might not understand all of them. Like Darwin/etihad flight GVA-BEG. Etihad also launched direct GVA-AUH...