MILJKOVIĆ: Strategic partner will take over Jat's debts

The State Secretary for Air Traffic of Serbia, Miodrag Miljković, said yesterday (March 2nd, 2010) that the new strategic partner would have to take over Jat Airways with all its debts.

- Everything that makes up the operations of Jat Airways will be transferred to that new company - he said to the press at the Belgrade airport Nikola Tesla and added that the privatization of Serbian airliner was in the pipeline for the second half of year 2010.

Miljković said that the Government of Serbia was unable to cover Jat's debts due to the obligations from the Open Sky Agreement, but he did not specify how big the debts of the national airliner are.

- The state can not invest in Jat, but only help the company operate better - said he.

Miljković, who is also the Head of the Task Force of the Government of Serbia for the negotiations on changes in the contract worth 580m USD on procurement of airplanes for Jat from company Airbus, said that the Serbian airliner owed the most to Airport Nikola Tesla and the Flight Control Agency.

The State Secretary also said that the Ministry of Infrastructure of Serbia had not received any concrete and official request for strategic partnership with Jat Airways.

The media in Belgrade announced last week that former owners of company Marbo, Andrej Jovanović and Bojan Milovanović, were interested in investing in Jat Airways.