The Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Edin Forto, held a meeting yesterday with the management of all airports in BiH and the BiH Directorate of Civil Aviation (BHDCA), where it was agreed to propose to the Council of Ministers of BiH the declaration of a moratorium on the departure tax for one year.
After the meeting, Forto stated that all participants agreed that the interest of the state of BiH is traffic at our airports. According to him, everything else that lies between that essential interest, which is both economic and touristic in terms of quality of life, is a matter for the airport owner.
He stated that each airport has its own ownership structure and that the state of BiH does not own any airport.
“We do not manage airports, but what we recognized in the previous period is a global trend that has been transferred to BiH and the region, namely the new policies of airline companies and passenger carriers that approach airports in a new way and determine where they will allocate their routes and the way they will negotiate,” said Forto.
He added that certain airports in the region “started to impose themselves aggressively as competition and there were certain strikes, especially in the last period at the Tuzla International Airport, where a renowned low-budget company left and transferred its capacity elsewhere in the region”.
Airport certification
According to him, the task that all airports are asked to fulfill is the completion of the certification process according to European standards, which not all airports in BiH have.
“This is an incentive from the state level, from the Directorate, the Ministry, and the Council of Ministers. In return, the airports must be certified. During the next year, we will have regular meetings, and in the middle of the next year we will decide how to continue in that year,” said Forto.
He stated that, if the BiH Council of Ministers supports this decision, the airports can immediately deliver in their negotiations with the airlines the fact that this is another levy that is being abolished, and that can be an incentive for some companies to increase their presence at BiH airports.
Forto believes that this is a very simple measure, a transfer from the Directorate to the airports, and in return European certification. He emphasized that airports must do this, but they have not yet succeeded.
“This is what we can do at this moment. In accordance with what we agreed today, we are going with a proposal to the Council of Ministers of BiH, that this tax be abolished. This is the departure tax. In the next year, if the BiH Council of Ministers supports it, it will be canceled for one year, and during the year we will discuss what we will do for that year,” Forto explained yesterday, Fena reports.
photo: Fena
E.Dz.
