Airline companies from the former Yugoslavia should be connected if they want to survive, as there are over 500 airline companies registered in the European Union, which is too many, the Secretary General of the Association of European Airlines (AEA), Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus, told the Ljubljana-based daily Dnevnik in an interview published on Monday.
It is a fact that the former common Yugoslav aviation market is now fragmented and that individual airliners are too small and inefficient. A regional solution would be necessary. The region needs a company that would operate globally, meeting all local needs and connecting the region with other foreign countries via international airline hubs, Schulte-Strathaus said.
He added that he had recently discussed this topic with the management of Slovenia's Adria Airways.
Despite strict EU regulations, the Slovenian flag carrier has recently received an injection of EUR 50 million in state aid, and has managed to agree with banks on the rescheduling of its debts. Nonetheless, the company is still operating with difficulty.
According to Schulte-Strathaus, other regional carriers are facing similar problems.
The region is in a serious crisis. Serbia is not managing to find an investor for its JAT, Croatia Airlines and Montenegro Airlines are faced with growing problems, and BH Airlines will go bankrupt if Turkish Airlines stops financing it, the AEA official said.
Much courage is needed to decide that a country does not need its flag carrier and that those services could be performed better by a foreign company, he added.
