Jat Airways privatisationNo bids at tender
00:41
By
Eko Marwanto
Jat Airways Union representatives say that no company has bought the tender documentation for the sale of the national carrier. The Privatisation Agency and the Ministry of Economy officials would neither confirm nor deny these claims. The deadline to buy the tender documentation expired on Friday, September 26 at midnight. The ministry did however say that "technically, it is possible that an offer sent by mail on Friday afternoon could still arrive", as was the case with B&H Air. Aeroflot, Air Berlin, Iceland Air and Air India were all mentioned earlier in the summer as the possible buyers. The Ministry of Economy said in June that the starting price for Jat would be EUR 150 million for 100% of its shares. However, by July 31, when the tender was at last called, the minimal price for a 51 percent stake was set at EUR 51 million. This price was determined on the basis of the data submitted by the company itself, with no independent auditing. The union now blames the world economic crisis and the state's irresponsible behaviour for the drop in the value of Jat Airways. It states that the airline should have be put on sale as planned late last year and early last year when there were strong contenders for the purchase.
The Ministry of Economy promised that if the tender was unsuccessful it would give Jat a financial injection to purchase new aircraft and would wait at least a year until putting the airline on sale again. Meanwhile it is expected that in a few weeks a new CEO will be named by the government ending Vlaisavljević’s one year as head of Serbia’s national airline, having had many critics. Meanwhile the sale for Jat Tehnika looks much better with 4 companies buying tender documentation. Three of these are known the the public while the fourth, still unknown, is now widely speculated to be Boeing following the meeting between the company and Serbia’s heads of state in New York a few days ago. Read more
As the slogan of the Serbian national airline, Jat Airways, says “The best fly with Jat” On August 19 (2 days ago) this was confirmed when the Serbian silver medal Olympian, Milorad Čavić returned from Beijing via Vienna on flight JU313 (as pictured above). Čavić won the medal in Beijing being beaten in the 100m butterfly style by Michael Phelps by only 100 millisecond . Since Čavić is the first Serbian Olympian (as the country competed under the name only in 1912) he was flown on Jat’s evening ATR72 operated flight with the crew applauding the Olympian as he entered the aircraft with the rest of the passengers. The pilot of the flight presented a gift from the airline to the Olympian, the book “Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint Exupéry (a French aviator). In front of a screaming crowd of 50.000 people Čavić was welcomed in front of Belgrade’s city hall which is a city old tradition as any major international succusses by a Serb is celebrated in front of the building (in the last few years these included Serbian tennis players, Serbian women’s volleyball team and Marija Šerifović – winner of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest).
