Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport was forced to empty its entire terminal yesterday afternoon after passengers on an arriving Air Serbia flight from Skopje were bussed from a remote stand to the wrong gate and mixed with departing passengers. In line with rules and regulations, all passengers inside the terminal that had passed through security were forced to do so again, causing significant queues, both at passport control on arrivals, as well as the centralised security check area for departures. As a result, seventeen flights were severely delayed yesterday evening, while eight were cancelled, which had a knock-on affect on departures this morning. All operations were brought to a standstill for over three hours.
In a statement on its social media channels yesterday evening, Belgrade Airport, said, “Due to an error in the mandatory passenger movement at the airport terminal, the Ministry of the Interior is carrying out an emergency security check of the building which will lead to potential delays on a certain number of flights in the evening and morning waves”. Air Serbia, in its own statement, was more critical, noting, “Due to an error in monitoring the regular flows of incoming passengers by the competent services at Belgrade Airport, the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia ordered an extraordinary inspection of the departure terminal”. It added, “Air Serbia regrets any inconvenience and thanks passengers for their understanding. For those on flights whose departure time has been delayed by more than two hours, the Serbian national airline will provide refreshments, and all those who have lost their connections will be rerouted by the company onto alternative flights”.
Commenting on the matter, the Assistant to the Serbian Minister for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Verica Ječmenica, said, “Passengers who arrived at 16.16 from Skopje were bussed to the wrong gate, entered the transfer zone, and mixed with passengers that had passed through security. Upon the request of the operator [VINCI], at 17.22, the Ministry of the Interior halted passport control operations for departing passengers”. She added, “The Ministry for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure has ordered a full investigation to take place, after which it will initiate proceedings against the operator and those responsible in line with the Air Traffic Act. The public will be informed of the outcome. Airlines that have suffered damages will have to resolve their claims with the airport operator which is responsible in this matter”.
The blunder caused by staff and poor coordination comes just over a week after the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate undertook an investigation into delays and flight disruptions at Belgrade Airport that occurred earlier this January following several days of mild snowfall and subzero temperatures. The regulator blamed the airport operator, VINCI, for failures to take appropriate measures, primarily regarding de-icing services. VINCI has frequently been on the receiving end of criticism for its ground handling activities in Belgrade, including frequent delays over the previous summer when it was ill-prepared for the record volume of traffic. In addition, notable delays were previously caused when the airport’s baggage belt malfunctioned, and when a construction worker accidently cut power supply lines at the airport.
Despite the opening of new facilities over the past two years, passengers have been increasingly voicing their dissatisfaction with the airport operator over rude ground staff, the quality of the construction work, cleanliness, lack of food and beverage options, limited opening hours of lounges, retail and F&B outlets at the 24-hour operational airport and unlicensed taxi drivers roaming its arrivals hall.







Comments
Ground staff is rude and incompetent and this is the result of their action. Vinci is underpaying their staff and that is why the lowest of the lowest levels of the society ends up working for the airport. I mean who wants to work at the check in desk for 60.000 a month.
If the security of the airport relies on one bus driver (and their error), than the airport is in serious mess.
There should be systems in place which prevent this from happening. And that is the fault of Vinci for not having set in place the right processes and procedures.
This entity is paying MILLIONS of euros in salaries to these people to oversee the concession and make sure these things don't happen. The CEO of this company is Saša Vlaisavljević.
Why is this company, not saying anything?!?! Why are we letting people in this company be paid millions of euros not to do their work?
https://www.antb.rs/page/pslovni_kontakti
You pay peanuts, you buy monkeys.
It's time for the government to fine Vinci and take away the concession from them. Since EU approval is an all time low it's time to reconsider giving the airport to Incheon which wanted it in the first place. Global future is in the east.
You can't just isolate those 50 people because North Macedonia is not on the list of safe countries (as per airport statement) so additional checks in BEG are required.
You don't know if someone from SKP brought something illegal to BEG and left it in the transit area without first clearing security in Belgrade. You don't know what these people did, who they are and what they brought with them on the fully booked ATR from SKP.
Real question is why didn't the Turks invest in better security in SKP so that they can be considered a safe destination.
Furthermore, if a judge sees clear negligence and incompetence then he has the power to terminate the contract.
Endless chaos, endless complaints, fines by the government, contamination of the transit zone... are all grounds for termination.
Blaming SKP for this mess is really hilarious.
We can't ignore obvious shortfalls by SKP in this story, it's the 21st century after all.
Also every contract has clauses that define obligations of both sides. I am sure half of them were breached in the last year.
So you are saying you don't act as if you know but then you make definitive statements about Vinci protecting itself.
I don't understand - I did exactly this when transferring at BEG on my flight to LJU. You do this at many airports. You go from being an arrival, to a departure, without going through security again. Can someone help me understand where the problem was? Thank you.
Do you think there are many people with above average IQ working as bus drivers at an airport?
Anywhere in the world?
Anyway the Vucic/Macron bromance is over so the French can leave now.
Don't be naive.
So an average annual salary of almost 39.000 Euros. For working in Serbia!
It really pays to be a party apparatchik.
Like I said, we must also wonder why SKP as a supposedly modern airport isn't on the safe list of countries.
dont comment things that are not true. and read comments carefully. No one blames macedonians. the original comment was the management of SKP airport which was identified as Turkish.
Interestingly TAV which is a turkish airport operator is majority owned by Groupe ADP which again are french.
and it is completely fine to blame the french company for this problem. they were given a corrupt agreement and contract for the airport operation, and they are not getting the basic things done right. anyone who has been through a decent airport in the world will agree that the security booths for check in do not provide enough space for lines of people.
and the only thing that serbians can be blamed for is the criminal agreement to give the concession to VINCI. thats it. it should have been given to the Korean's
arriving passenger were selected on first floor, who connects went directly to the gates who come to Belgrade went to passport control.
And since they are not doing the job they are being paid for even 3.000 dinars would be too much.
Sticao sam utisak provincijalnog ponasanja... I sam sam proveo cetvrt veka radeci na aerodromu. Leteci do sada na 179 aerodroma po svetu, naucio sam da pravim razlike u pogledu opsluzivanja putnika i odnosa prema njima.
Aerodrom Beograd je uvek za mene bio na Prvom mestu.
Jer sam ga voleo. I sda ga volim. I to je sa emotivne strane i zbog mojeg entuzijazma prema civilnom vazduhoplovstvu.
Jedino do sada pored neprofesionalnosti i neodgovornosti pojedinaca koji upravljaju, rukovode i kontrolisu zaposljene ne zasluzuju da su na aerodromu. I pojedinaca koji ne obavljaju svoje poslove po proceduri. Sta ce oni u operativi i front line? Svakako i cistoca toaleta, kontrola odgovornih jeste problem. Bar svremena na vreme. Nebih dalje ebolirao. Dovoljno rekoh. Sa iskrenom namerom.
Vise puta sam pisajuci Aerodrom Beograd, hvaleci njegovu dogradnju i preporod, naglasavao o posvecivanju posebne paznje u treniranju pojedinaca, proceduri i odgovornosti...
Smatrajuci da oni znaju vise kada spavaju o radu aerodroma. Nego sto ja znam kada sam budan.
Ocigledno da sam pristrasan. Eto i sada se pokazalo.
Moram verovati da se neodgovornosti ovakve i slicne vise nece ponavljati na Srpskim aerodromima.
Vas Rodney.
Kraljevo ✈ Sydney
Проблем је што се понашају као просечан страни инвеститор а не схватају да су се времена променила. Незапосленост је на историјском минимуму а добро плаћеног посла има колико год желиш.
Мисле да ће се народ поломити да ради за њихову цркавицу и да могу преживети са 60.000 месечно у граду где је просечна плата близу 120.000. Дакле дупло мања плата од престоничког просека.
И ко им онда остаје? Па запошљавају оне који не могу ни да раде као касири у Максију или Идеји.
Типичан неоколонијални приступ који је одвојен од стварности у којој живимо. Сами су криви што сносе овакве последице.
People got disappointed and started to leave. Etihad did not bring good management, they were horrible.
BEG gate agents are busiest when passengers are around. It saves them from having to interract with their customers.
How much clear do I need to be. If you are sent to be a CEO anywhere in the world. If you see there are incompetent people in your team you then replace them, you don't keep and then promote them.
The only reason why the French kept them is because they were the only ones willing to stay and work for those pathetic little salaries.
Thanks a lot! All clear now.
Serbia has a good level of alignment with the EU acquis on aviation. During the reporting period, Serbia adopted several regulations on aerodrome certificates, rules of the air and provision of air traffic control, alerting and flight information services, conditions for performing air operations, and common basic standards on civil aviation security. Regarding aviation regulations, Serbia is close to fulfilling all obligations stipulated in the first transitional period of the European Common Aviation Area Agreement.
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/11/eu-reports-on-ex-yu-air-transport.html
Bro forgot to take meds this morning. Because he writing foolishness.
That means you have been to ALL airports in Europe. Have you? If you haven't, is there a list from respectable industry source claiming BEG as the worst airport in Europe? Oh no there isn't? Speaks volume about your ignorance.
This has been the worst [concession] deal in the history of [concession] deals maybe ever.
The only good thing about Lisbon Airport is the. Hoice of food is better than that in Spanish Airports but as for the rest it is a C minus and that is on a good day