PHOTOS: Belgrade Airport nighttime race

GLOBAL AVIATION NEWS

Italy to sell ITA in June

Italy's government aims to sell state-owned ITA Airways, the successor to Alitalia, by the end of June after setting a deadline for binding offers of May 23, Economy Minister Daniele Franco said. Three prospective bidders for ITA Airways have had access to its finance data room, Franco said addressing parliament over the issue. They are shipping group MSC alongside Germany's Lufthansa, the U.S. Certares fund in cooperation with Delta and Air France, and investor Indigo Partners, Franco added. Under a government decree, Rome plans to privatise ITA through a direct sale while retaining a minority, non-controlling stake in a first stage. MSC in January requested an exclusivity period of 90 days to iron out details of an acquisition, but Rome opted for a market-based procedure aimed at keeping the door open to other potential suitors. "The outcome of the negotiations is not a foregone conclusion. We will examine the three offers in a transparent way, there is no decision on our part at present", Franco said adding a key factor is that the buyer is at least 51% owned by a European player. Lufthansa is interested in taking a minority stake in ITA, leaving the majority to MSC, the airline said in remarks during its shareholders meeting. It added, however, that the review of ITA's financial data would be important to confirm this preliminary intention. If the deal does go through, Lufthansa aims to build a close commercial cooperation with ITA and expects synergies to make the investment profitable in the long term, the carrier said. Under an agreement with the European Union, Rome can inject up to 1.35 billion euros into the ITA by 2023. A privatisation deal would potentially reduce the financial support granted by the state, limiting the costs for Italian taxpayers.

PHOTOS: Belgrade Airport nighttime race

NEWS FLASH

Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport played host to its second annual night-time runway race early on Sunday morning, with 1.000 participants taking part. The BEGRunwayRun event began at 01.30 local time, following the departure of the last aircraft of the evening - an Aeroflot jet bound for Moscow. The race began near the de-icing platform at the airport, with participants then entering the runway. The track included three laps down part of the runway and the parallel taxiway. A Notice to Airmen was issued, indicating that the airport would be closed for some three hours overnight as the race and subsequent security checks took place. The first to cross the finish line was defending champion Nemanja Cerovac in seventeen minutes and 34 second, while the first female to pass the finishing mark was Teodora Simović. Belgrade Airport's General Manager, Nicolas Brousse, said, "Our team has worked tirelessly over the past few days, in cooperation with Belgrade Marathon. We started the race following the last departure and completed it just a few hours before the first arrival. I think this is a great event. Like we say at VINCI, this is an event which is popular across the entire community". The race was finished in time for the first departure of the day, an Aviolet-operated charter to Antalya, which took off at 04.00.

Comments

Anonymous10:35
This is great idea.
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Anonymous11:41
First pic is so cool :D
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JU520 BEGLAX11:43
I hope next year they will announce the date earlier and at least reply to email requests. They announced the date just about more than two months ago
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Anonymous14:43
Very nice. At least some info from the Belgrade airport.
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mayercharter04:37
sdaasd
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