Serbia seeks Qatar Airways ownership stake in Air Serbia
The Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has asked the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, for Qatar Airways to study the possibility of acquiring a stake in Air Serbia and becoming its strategic partner. During a visit to Doha, Mr Vučić said, “Today, Air Serbia is completely in Serbia’s hands. It has a clean balance sheet, but we want to avoid future risks because developments on the market are not dependant solely on us. I have asked the Emir of Qatar to help us in the future and to see whether they have interest in becoming our strategic partner. This would be an extremely important investment for us. We will discuss it in further detail during the Emir’s future visit to Serbia”.
The President added, “Air Serbia belongs to Serbia. Today it is a profitable company, but we are looking towards the future. It is doing good business at the moment, but whether that will always be the case does not depend on us but on market conditions. We can see that a number of carriers are failing. Air Serbia is the only airline in the region that is developing”. Air Serbia and Qatar Airways recently concluded a wide-ranging codeshare partnership that has seen the two carriers exchange their designator code and flight numbers on each others’ services as of this February. Qatar Airways has been maintaining flights between Doha and Belgrade since 2012.
The national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, Etihad Airways, still officially holds a 16.42% stake in the Serbian airline, down from 49% it acquired through a shareholder’s loan on January 1, 2014. At the time, the Emirati carrier signed a five plus five-year contract which ends next January. Etihad has had little influence over the airline since 2019 and has withdrawn from all its other equity partnerships including Air Berlin, Alitalia, Virgin Australia, and Air Seychelles. Air Serbia recently said, “Etihad Airways is a minority shareholder but has no involvement in the company’s management”.
0 Response to "Serbia seeks Qatar Airways ownership stake in Air Serbia"
Post a Comment