Tivat Airport mulls night-time flights

GLOBAL AVIATION NEWS

SAA sold

South Africa agreed to sell a majority stake in the country’s grounded national carrier to a local jet-leasing company and private-equity firm, ridding the government of an entity that has long been a drain on state finances. A consortium comprised of Johannesburg-based Global Airways, which owns recently launched domestic airline Lift, and private-equity firm Harith General Partners will take a 51% shareholding in South African Airways (SAA), Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said. The government will retain a minority stake. The grouping named Takatso will invest as much as 3.5 billion rand ($258 million) over the next three years, Lift co-founder, Gidon Novick, and Harith Chief Executive Officer, Tshepo Mahloele, said in an interview. “Government will have no further financial obligations to the company, outside of the existing liabilities that they will settle”, Novick said. He added, “Route networks we are still working on, and it will be a phased roll-out based on demand re-emerging post Covid”. The sale of SAA comes about six weeks after the airline emerged from lengthy bankruptcy proceedings, having reduced its workforce by almost 80% and cut liabilities to about 2.6 billion rand. The next challenge is to resume international flights, though South Africa remains cut off from much of the world due to pandemic travel restrictions. A longer-term goal is to list the carrier on a stock exchange, Gordhan said. In the meantime, the government will retain special voting rights to ensure the airline remains in the country, among other national priorities. The deal represents a triumph of sorts for Gordhan, who has argued for the revival of SAA with the help of private investors while others were calling for it to be liquidated. While SAA is now “solvent and liquid,” business-rescue practitioners said when handing over the aircraft, subsidiaries including low cost arm Mango and maintenance firm SAA Technical remain under financial strain and are in the process of being recapitalized. The Department of Public Enterprises and the new consortium will together assess the future of the divisions as part of the due diliegence process, Gordhan said.
Source: Bloomberg

Tivat Airport mulls night-time flights

NEWS FLASH

The Board of Directors of Airports of Montenegro, the company which manages the country's two international airports - Podgorica and Tivat - will conduct a feasibility study into extending Tivat Airport's operating hours past sunset. Since its opening over sixty years ago, Tivat Airport has only worked during daylight and does not have the necessary runway lighting equipment to remain open past sundown. "There is no justification in the 21st century for an airport located in a world-renowned tourist destination not to posses new and modern technology. The inability to handle traffic between sunset and sunrise burdens Tivat Airport during the daytime and leads to congestion over the summer when it caters for up to sixty aircraft and 10.000 passengers in a single day", the Board said in a statement. The Montenegrin government recently announced it was putting Podgorica and Tivat airports up for concession with the future operator also required to develop the derelict Berane Airport. Tivat Airport recently began the construction of a temporary makeshift terminal in order to deal with strong passenger growth and capacity constraints.

Comments

Anonymous10:39
Oh wow! I didn't know that the airport cannot serve night flights. Does this mean that YM will start new destinations during the night?
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Anonymous12:11
Welcome to 1935.
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Anonymous00:09
a lot of jokes here about how it was all down to lights, but wasnt one reason for tivat not having night operations concerns over dangerous approach through a valley with not a lot of lights along the way? In other words safety concerns were the reason why Tivat was a day only airport.
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