PM reveals contract with Etihad

PM reveals contract with Etihad

BELGRADE -- Aleksandar Vučić has presented to the public the contract by which UAE national carrier Etihad Airways took over Serbia’s national airline Jat Airways.

The carrier is now known as Air Serbia.

Vučić said that only the “business plan” part of the contract cannot be disclosed, being a trade secret, and added that he hoped nobody would mind.

“This is an internal document that contains information about what we want to achieve on the market,” Vučić told a press conference at the Palace of Serbia.

As he said, Etihad is under obligation to invest "up to EUR 100 million, up to EUR 40 million in added capitalization, EUR 60 million is a loan of the founder that we have not used because we expect to have a profitable company by the end of the year."

Serbia will at the same time have to invest EUR 42 million in cash over the next three years, and take over all Jat Airways debts, 80 percent of which are toward the state.

He said he was thankful to the UAE partners for making it possible for him to present the contract with Etihad, adding that that contracts such as those would be available to the public on the website of the Serbian government.

Vučić said that the Serbian government had signed the agreement because since 2003, the national carrier had been generating yearly losses of EUR 35 million, although they had been even bigger, and also because only four of its seven Boeings 737-300 were still flying today.

“All governments knew what kind of problem it was. We were well aware about the risks we were taking in transporting passengers,” the prime minister said.

Jat Airways was used for years...