Air Montenegro has emerged as the sole bidder in Montenegro’s tender for the operation of five subsidised Public Service Obligation (PSO) routes from Podgorica, submitting offers for each of the destinations included in the call. However, the carrier has not yet formally been awarded the contracts, with the Ministry of Transport currently evaluating the submitted bids.
The tender, which closed on August 31, sought operators for services from Podgorica to Brussels, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, Zagreb and Bari. The five contracts have a combined estimated value of 4.79 million euros excluding VAT. Brussels carries the highest estimated contract value at 1.49 million euros, followed by Paris at 1.05 million, Frankfurt at 912.660 euros, Bari at 680.742 euros and Zagreb at 661.790 euros. Each route was tendered separately, meaning airlines were able to submit offers for one or more destinations.
Despite indications of interest from more than one party prior to the tender’s closure, Air Montenegro was ultimately the only carrier to submit bids. The national airline confirmed it had applied for all five routes. The Ministry of Transport has said the procurement procedure remains in the evaluation stage and that further details will be announced following the adoption of a formal decision and the signing of contracts with the selected operator. The absence of competing bids does not automatically result in Air Montenegro being awarded the routes, as its offers must still comply with all tender requirements and be deemed acceptable.
Under the tender conditions, each of the five routes must be maintained throughout the year with at least three weekly frequencies using aircraft with a minimum capacity of 110 seats. The selection criteria place a 90% weighting on the proposed cost per return flight and 10% on the seating capacity offered. The successful operator will also be required to provide a performance guarantee equivalent to 10% of the contract value. A penalty of 2.000 euros per cancelled flight can be imposed unless the cancellation has received prior approval from the Ministry’s designated working group.
Air Montenegro CEO Vukadin Stojanović has rejected suggestions that participation in the scheme amounts to direct financial support for the state-owned carrier. “PSO is not aid to Air Montenegro, but payment for a specifically defined public-interest service to the carrier that wins an open procedure”, Mr Stojanović said. He noted that the purpose of the scheme is to secure stable year-round connectivity on routes which may be commercially viable during the peak summer months or at lower frequencies, but not necessarily at the minimum three weekly rotations required throughout the year.
Will these begin this winter or it's realistic for next summer?
ReplyDeleteWhat a surprise...
ReplyDeleteNo OU for TGD-ZAG. Shame
ReplyDeleteToo early
Delete@9.23 -1
Delete09.23
Delete+ ~ (plus indefinite, no presentable number) ; explanation in brackets is for 10.05;.doubt he is able to interprete the symbol
sure but i got tired of the same comment, im sure there could be more creative comments
DeleteWill this save Air Montenegro? I dont think so. Would have been better if they actually cared about their national carrier and bring more routes and more planes as well as better customer service with actual business class not scaming people. Now that Wizz has two heavy neos in TGD i dont see Air Montenegro being in any better position than it is now.
ReplyDeleteNational carrier of a country of half a million is not sustainable and will be even less so in future. Even Malta with a comparable population size and double the number of tourists struggles, let alone Montenegro.
Deleteah the dezurni negativac
DeleteActually, he’s got a fair point. He’s not being negative just realistic IMHO.
DeleteDelusions of grandeur continue in TGD of being able to have an airline with multiple EU destinations. When it joins the EU these delusions will quickly come to an end due to regulations and oversight from Brussels.
DeleteI am shocked /s
ReplyDelete🤣
DeleteAlmost 5 million for 5 routes. Isn't this a little bit excessive?
ReplyDeletethere are more expensive PSOs
DeleteOnly 5 routes is a really low number. There are many more tourists wishing to visit beautiful Montenegro if only routes would exist from their areas. Ten or twenty PSO routes for 10-20 million would bring more tourists to the country and give W6 a run for their money. Investing in PSO is investing in domestic carrier, employing local people, creating jobs and giving passengers a choice.
DeleteWell said
DeleteOK, I can understand AMD, FRA and CDG, but ZAG and BRI??! How's those routes important for state connectivity and economy? They better take that money and buy again ferryboat for Bar-Bari marine route. That would really reconnect Montenegro with western Europe
DeleteMožda uvedu i biznis klasu
ReplyDelete🤭
You're so funny
DeleteSamo ako će bit ketering kao u OU - kamen tvrdi krekeri u kartonskoj kutiji 🙂
DeleteI am really surprised that they need to subsidiary CDG
ReplyDeleteI am not at all. A country of 600k with little to no diaspora, with not much going on during the winter.
DeleteThey have a huge diaspora...."na Vračaru" 😄
DeleteIt is easy to have a good LF 4-5 months a year but off season it is strugle; small base of pax, huge competition (primary Air Serbia with 3 daily and relatively good connections, wizz base etc)…
ReplyDeleteIs that BEG in the photo?
ReplyDeleteYes
DeleteSince when China Southern flies to Montenegro?
ReplyDeleteThe photo is not taken in Montenegro.
Deletewho were the other "parties" that were interested?
ReplyDeleteI guess it was OU, but they didnt bother to apply
DeleteEh, dok je Jasmin ispio kahvu...
DeleteThose routes (except Bari) need codeshare or interline agreements to be useful. Why fly to FRA without any cooperation with LH, Condor or any airline whatsoever? Why fly to ZAG without cooperation with OU?
ReplyDeleteWhere would OU take someone from TGD that Belgrade or Vienna does not take them? And for a many of intraeurope routes, they can drive to TIA. CDG and/or FRA for long haul transfers tho makes sense.
Delete11:46 OU can take people to the same places where they take people from SPU, DBV, SJJ, SKP etc. via ZAG.
Deleteyeah but not for the same price
Delete13.53
DeleteVrankvurt and Minken, more preciseley
I’m surprised nobody else bid, especially for Zagreb
ReplyDeleteKad su tražili avion od najmanje 110sjedala!
DeleteDa nema tog uvjeta možda bi CTN letjela s ATR76 iz Zagreba i radila si dodatne gubitke.
Ovako će linija brzo propasti jer nema tolike potražnje za njom, kao ni za ostalim ex-yu linijama za Zagreb koje su sve u minusu!
Kaj se ti javljaš, veliki analitičaru? Znaš li išta o letovima sa ZAG aerodroma?
DeleteThe fact that each route was tendered separately and still nobody else applied says a lot about how commercially unattractive some of these services are
ReplyDeleteThis is basically the government paying its own airline to operate routes. Call it PSO or whatever you want.
ReplyDeletehappens in most european countries, nothing new
DeleteI am yet to find a government subsidizing flights from their capital city to airports such as Paris Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt and Brussels National.
DeleteSubsidizing or covering losses, result is the same. Actually it may even cost less with subsidies. And the answer is: government of
DeleteCroatia
What's Croatia got to do with this?
Delete1. It has civil aviation. This us aviation blog
Delete2. It was part of ex-yu. The name of this blog contains ex-yu
3. It has PSO, which is the topic of this article
4. One of the destinations from this article is ZAG, which is in Croatia, as far as I know
5. Croatia and its citizens heavily finance its carrier, which is the parallel wirh what this article is all about
6. Is it enough or you want more (rethorical question)?
Well said.
Deletehaha well said indeed!
Deleteto the one guy :
Delete"Slovenia subsidized Adria Airways with €4.5 million in late 2018 to maintain regular flights between Ljubljana and Brussels for state employees"
^ and it went bankrupt a year later. Similar fate will happen to this airline too.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/11/adria-granted-subsidies-for-brussels.html?m=1
Deleteso the answer is MNE, CRO and SLO (in the past)
DeleteAnd MNE is a lot smaller so makes perfect sense. The truth is it needs these important connections and we know no one else is willing to serve them.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe next EU member "28"
ReplyDelete