Easy comes – easy goes
Serbia’s Jat Airways which yesterday resumed services to the Croatian town of Dubrovnik after 18 years has been forced to end all ticket sales after the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency decided to revoke Jat’s license to Dubrovnik. The Croatian aviation authority will allow the Serbian carrier to operate one more flight (on Tuesday) after which it will no longer have right to operate to the seaside town. The CEO of Dubrovnik Airport says that Croatia and Serbia have no bilateral air agreement and therefore the service will be blocked. Jat’s management announced that the ministries that are in charge of aviation in both countries will meet on July 7, when the airline hopes that this problem will be resolved. Jat has already sold 800 tickets to Dubrovnik and if the service is not resumed in time for next Thursdays flight the airline will transport passengers to Tivat in Montenegro where a bus shuttle will transfer them to their final destination. Dubrovnik was first connected to Belgrade by air in 1936 when Aeroput, Jat’s predecessor, operated the line via Sarajevo. After World War Two services to Dubrovnik were resumed on the service Belgrade – Sarajevo – Dubrovnik – Herceg Novi. On June 6, 1956 the first international service was operated from Dubrovnik while in 1983 Jat began operating the first intercontinental flights from Dubrovnik, connecting the city to Toronto.Meanwhile, Srđan Radovanović has finally been officially named as Jat’s new CEO. He has not worked in Jat before however, with a law degree, has worked in some of Serbia’s largest state owned companies.
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Why didn't Dubrovnik Airport say this before, instead of making it hard for Jat passengers, who now have to fly to Montenegro and get a bus connection to Dubrovnik? Today, especially in the western Balkans, everything is politics.
ReplyDeleteAppalling :(
@ Bosnian: It doesn't sound like the decision was made by Dubrovnik Airport, they are just the ones delivering the bad news. We don't shoot the messenger because the news is bad...
ReplyDeleteJust who are these people at the Croatian CAA? If we can find this out, it may go some of the way to explain why there are so few flights with neighbouring countries.
Disturbingly, their comments (if serious rather than playing mind games) also mean the BEG-PUY flights are at risk. Will this saga develop further?
@ frequentflyer
ReplyDeleteSorry for mistake, yehhh....eheheh. The Croatian CAA are just mucking around probably! They are the ones destroying the image of the country and the whole tourism industry.
According to a Yugotours Canada brochure, JAT's B-707s operated charter flights between Dubrovnik and Toronto in 1977 but Transport Canada's Air Charter Statistics lists Dubrovnik-Toronto during the early-1970s (but the airline isn;t listed). The last Dubrovnik-Toronto flights were operarted in 1982.
ReplyDeleteJAT707 - Canada
Sorry to say this but serves Serbs right for being all to happy to leave their tourist euros in Dubrovnik.
ReplyDelete@ anonymous
ReplyDeleteOf course they do and I also heard that because the Croatian tourist economy is plundering down due to the crisis, the Croats are now relying on their former enemy, Serbia for hard currency.