The tender call to find an interested partner to create a successor national carrier to Jat Airways ended in failure today. The tender began on August 1 and was extended on September 30 for another month. Not a single company purchased the tender documentation.
The Minister for Infrastructure, Milutin Mrkonjić, said yesterday that a solution for Jat’s problems will be found by the end of 2011 and that 1.300 of the airline’s employees shouldn’t worry about their livelihoods. According to the minister, two large companies are interested in taking over Jat Airways, one of which is from the European Union. However, none have participated in the tender and they are not interested in setting up a new airline. Over the past two months, it has been rumoured that Latvia’s airBaltic and AZAL Airlines from Azerbaijan considered participating in the tender. However, the former filed for bankruptcy last month while the latter might be interested only through direct negotiations with the government.
Source balkans.com
