prijava
TUZLA, May 18 (FENA) - The airport in Tuzla, as well as their main partner, the Hungarian airline Wizz Air, are ready for new flights, Director of the Tuzla International Airport, Esed Mujačić, confirmed for FENA.
He points out that the decision of the Council of Ministers of BiH on opening the borders is crucial in this sense.
“As soon as the borders open, we are ready to work. Also, the company Wizz Air is ready to start flying again,” said Director Mujačić.
He points out that June 1 is the official deadline until when the borders are closed, and from June 2, Wizz Air already has scheduled flights to certain destinations.
The problem, explains Mujačić, is that Tuzla Airport has suffered huge consequences due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our basic income was from the sale of tickets to passengers. Of course there are other secondary incomes such as restaurants, space rentals, car rental, car parks, but we are always tied to passenger transport. At the moment, we are one of the 100 percent damaged companies. We will see how long we will manage to endure like this,” he emphasized.
He said that the Federation of BiH and Tuzla Canton Governments promised to help Tuzla International Airport, although they left them out of a law guaranteeing subsidies to private companies.
“We as budget users were singled out from that group. However, I hope that we will start working soon, because that is our best help,” underlines Mujačić.
If there is no adequate assistance to the Tuzla Airport, the consequences, he warns, could be huge.
“The first consequence is dismissal of workers and reduction of salaries. The question then is how to further employ people, because here every worker must be trained and get a license to work. These are not economic consequences only for the Airport, but for the entire country,” said Mujačić.
He added that Tuzla Airport was not the only one that felt the consequences of the pandemic but also Wizz Air.
“They still hope that they will be able to overcome all this, but they point out that nothing will be the same after the coronavirus. There will probably no longer be the same destinations, the same flights. There will be a painstaking recovery for all this and it will take us all certainly a few months to establish normal traffic. Again, everything will depend on whether the passengers on the plane will have to keep a social distance, because in that case the number of passengers will have to be halved,” says Mujačić.
(FENA) A. B.
