Kosovo regulator blocks Air Mediterranean
NEWS FLASH
Charter carrier Air Mediterranean, which was to start introducing new services from Pristina as of last week in order to gradually replace Orange2Fly,has been denied a permit by the Kosovo Civil Aviation Authority. The airline planned to commence flights on behalf of tour operators to Basel, Munich and Stuttgart from February 6 to 8, and later on to Friedrichshafen, Paderborn, Sharm el Sheikh, Malmo and Lyon, but its Boeing 737-400 was denied landing rights mid-air over Macedonia prior to entering Kosovo’s airspace during a positioning flight from Athens. It was forced to divert to Thessaloniki instead. As a result, some passengers who had tickets booked for the abovementioned routes were left stranded at Pristina Airport late last week.
The regulator initially issued the permit yesterday but revoked it just hours later. It has given no official reason for its decision. In a statement, Air Mediterranean said, “With great surprise and disappointment we accepted the revocation of the operating permit in Pristina that we had received only a few hours earlier. We are a European air carrier that seeks to develop passenger air transport to and from Pristina. This operation benefits Kosovo, as well as passengers. Under the agreements in force, we had every right to fly to Pristina and conduct our operations as required. We hope that the Civil Aviation Authority and the Ministry of Infrastructure are aware of the obligations under the European Common Aviation Area Agreement (ECAA) which Kosovo is a signatory to”. It added that if authorities in Kosovo continued to refuse to issue the airline a permit, it would complain to European authorities.
The regulator initially issued the permit yesterday but revoked it just hours later. It has given no official reason for its decision. In a statement, Air Mediterranean said, “With great surprise and disappointment we accepted the revocation of the operating permit in Pristina that we had received only a few hours earlier. We are a European air carrier that seeks to develop passenger air transport to and from Pristina. This operation benefits Kosovo, as well as passengers. Under the agreements in force, we had every right to fly to Pristina and conduct our operations as required. We hope that the Civil Aviation Authority and the Ministry of Infrastructure are aware of the obligations under the European Common Aviation Area Agreement (ECAA) which Kosovo is a signatory to”. It added that if authorities in Kosovo continued to refuse to issue the airline a permit, it would complain to European authorities.
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| Air Medditeranian diversion during positioning flights |
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