We will not allow Air Serbia to fail, Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said today.
He pointed out that the state would help its national airline by covering the losses incurred during the Covid 19 pandemic.
In a statement to Tanjug, the Minister of Finance, Sinisa Mali, emphasized that the state will help its airline in the same way as all other European countries did.
“The EU said very precisely – you can help your airline as other EU countries help, but only to cover the losses caused by the corona virus or pandemic,” said Mali.
He explains that according to EU regulations, the state has no right to help Air Serbia and that it did not do so due to EU directives on EU state aid, but that it can now do so under certain conditions.
That is why the Government of Serbia passed a decree on assistance similar to the decrees passed by other EU countries, the Minister added.
“Then some find themselves smart and say that we will cover all the losses. Well, there are no losses from the previous period, but only from this period,” Mali emphasized.
He reminds that the aviation industry suffers the biggest losses due to the pandemic and the inability to travel, and states that, for example, the German government gave Lufthansa support of a total of nine billion euros, of which six billion for recapitalization and three billion euros for new loans, and the French government seven billion euros of aid for Air France.
He points out that everything in Serbia is under the very strict control of the regulators of the European Commission, who monitor every type of state aid, regardless of whether it is Air Serbia or formerly Zelezara or some other public company.
“So we are very precise here and we have a very well-defined regulation, identical to the one that exists in the EU. The state of Serbia is not doing anything different or anything more than what other European countries are doing according to the regulations they have,” said the Minister of Finance.
He reminds that when the pandemic started, it meant a lot that we had our own airline, because with it we managed to bring back our citizens who were around the world and delivered the necessary medical equipment and funds.
“If we had not had our national airline and depended on others, the question is whether we would have found that equipment, medicines and everything that was necessary,” Mali told Tanjug.
That is why we will not allow our national airline to fail, Mali said.
“I will remind the Fiscal Council and our citizens that Air Serbia has had positive results since the moment we entered into a joint partnership with the Etihad, and that you are not losing. Positive business was until the beginning of this year,” said the minister.
He emphasized that everything concerning Air Serbia is public and transparent
“And the answer to any criticism is: Yes, we will help Air Serbia. That company is also going through a restructuring process – reducing salaries and the number of employees with severance pay, abolishing certain unprofitable lines… So it’s not about we help them blankly, so now it doesn’t matter what and how. No, they are already doing their part of the job like other airlines in the world,” said Mali.
This means, the minister adds, that Air Serbia is adjusting its way of doing business and the number of employees to the current situation, and that the state is here to help its airline survive this crisis and then return to the path of success it had until the pandemic, B92 reports.
