The Directorate for Civil Aviation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHDCA) received the initiative of three airports in relation to the resolution of the fee charged based on the Decision on the amount of fee paid by the aircraft operator per transported passenger and ton of transported cargo departing from the airport in BiH.
The initiative was sent by three BiH airports – Tuzla, Banja Luka and Mostar, with the request that the decision to charge a fee of three BAM per departing passenger and 40 BAM per ton of transported luggage be invalidated.
“BHDCA is ready for talks and is ready to listen to all initiatives, and they are always welcome. However, it is not acceptable for BHDCA to completely abolish this fee. A few days ago, a meeting was held with the representatives of the Banja Luka Airport, where it was agreed to hold a joint comprehensive meeting of all interested institutions and organizations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, where a solution to this issue should be found,” the expert associate for relations with public BHDCA Aleksandar Lalović.
As he added, this fee is, through various documents, a recommendation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and as such is available to all countries in the region and the EU, and is prescribed by the Law on Aviation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Lalović noted that Bosnia and Herzegovina is the last country in the region that introduced this compensation, in 2017 with the consent of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and respecting all regulations, procedures and opinion during its adoption.
“Please note that when making that decision, BHDCA also consulted with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and that there are no problems with airlines when issuing invoices. We emphasize that all airlines operating from Sarajevo Airport regularly fulfill their obligations according to the BHDCA, and even the so-called low-cost. For this reason, we suspect that only the mentioned fee is the reason why certain ‘low-cost’ airlines have decided to reduce the number of flights from certain airports in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As is known, the policy or strategy of such companies is to constantly ‘relocate’ and establish new ones, while closing existing bases or constantly changing routes, which was confirmed by one company, announcing the reduction of traffic from the Tuzla airport,” Lalović added.
He stated that when determining the amount of compensation in BiH, the BHDCA was guided by and compared the amount of compensation with the compensations of neighboring countries, as well as traffic in those countries, and the compensation prescribed in BiH moves within these frameworks.
The decision that was made this year and that entered into force in July, as stated by Lalović, went through the same procedure and with compliance with all regulations, opinions and with the consent of the Council of Ministers of BiH, and the differences compared to the Decision from 2017 are technical nature and refer, first of all, to the obligation of airport operators in connection with the submission of reports to the Directorate, the actions of the Directorate and other institutions in case of non-submission of reports, and the purpose and ratio of expenditure of collected funds.
“There are various options and solutions that can be used to overcome this issue, and we would not prejudge the final solution. For example, local communities, tourist organizations, tourism service providers in many countries, as a certain type of subsidy, have taken upon themselves the payment of this fee. One of the solutions can be the model of Croatia, which solved the mentioned fee by categorizing airports, their traffic and volume of traffic and charges the fee accordingly,” said Lalović.
The funds collected from this fee are intended for, in accordance with ICAO recommendations, the adequate fulfillment of BHDCA’s responsibilities in the field of civil aviation, both for the development and improvement of civil aviation through the engagement of qualified and experienced aviation experts, and specialist and technical training, as well and for improving flight safety in general aviation and raising the level of aviation safety at international airports in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
