The Federal POSKOK imposed measures prohibiting the director of Sarajevo Airport from performing his duties, as well as three of the five members of the Supervisory Board of this public company. Although this should be a red alarm for the FBiH Government regarding the management of this company, there is no advertising regarding these events. Aviation expert Alen Šćuric tells N1 that he has information that the Government of FBiH will make a statement about this today, and that it is questionable business that can have unforeseeable consequences.
The judiciary made a decision, the director and members of the Supervisory Board of JP “Aerodrom Sarajevo” are prohibited from performing the aforementioned duties.
– “Suspect Mešak Benjamin – prohibition of undertaking certain business activities or official duties, from Article 140a. paragraph 1 point a) CPC FBiH, namely prohibition of undertaking business activities or official duties as a member of the Supervisory Board of JP International Airport Sarajevo doo Sarajevo;
– Suspect Mahmutović Adnan – ban on undertaking certain business activities or official duties, from Article 140a. paragraph 1 point a) CPC FBiH, namely the ban on undertaking business activities or official duties as a member of the Supervisory Board of JP International Airport Sarajevo doo Sarajevo;
– Suspect Žan Matić – ban on undertaking certain business activities or official duties, from Article 140a. paragraph 1 point a) CPC FBiH, namely the ban on undertaking business activities or official duties as a member of the Supervisory Board of JP International Airport Sarajevo doo Sarajevo;
– Suspect Ramezić Sanin – ban on undertaking certain business activities or official duties, from Article 140a. paragraph 1 point a) CPC FBiH, namely the ban on undertaking business activities or official duties of the acting director of JP International Airport Sarajevo doo Sarajevo”, the decision stated.
Questionable business
Namely, now the FBiH Government must first appoint new members of the Supervisory Board, so they will only appoint the acting director of Sarajevo Airport, which will take a day or two.
“The problem is actually huge now. People don’t know how big it is. Namely, at the airport there are a lot of functions that cannot be performed without a responsible person, i.e. the person of the general director. At some airports, according to the decision, according to the airport’s statute and operating acts, the director can transfer his powers to another person who would then be the responsible person who manages the airport and makes decisions that are crucial for the functioning of the airport. If that doesn’t happen, and I don’t know if that happened in Sarajevo, then you simply it happens that the airport cannot carry out its operations, that it has to be closed. Here the Government could react by appointing another acting director, but we also have the problem that three of the five members of the Supervisory Board have also received a ban, so we cannot even have a quorum in the Supervisory Board that must confirm the decision of the Government, which means that the Government should actually appoint at least one member of the Supervisory Board, that is, three new ones, who could then, in a few days, make a decision on the appointment of a new acting director. The government must do something urgently. According to my sources, the government will have a meeting today to decide on this, because otherwise the work of the Sarajevo airport could be blocked, and that would really be the end of the world. If you stop operations, the companies will simply have huge problems after that, the question is whether they will return. Passengers, of course, have problems with where they will travel, that is unforeseeable consequences. I sincerely hope that something like that will not happen,” Šćuric explained to N1.
How did it all begin?
At the end of November 2024, at the session in Mostar, the Government of FBiH appointed the new management of the Sarajevo airport, namely:
– Sanin Remezić (People and Justice) for the new general director.
-Amadeo Mandić (HDZ BiH) for executive director for traffic and services in airspace.
-Slobodan Kadijević (Naša stranka) for executive director for airport development.
Investigations at the Sarajevo airport began when the FBiH Government, led by Nermin Nikšić, approved the Decision on Amendments to the Sarajevo Airport Statute. The media stated that these changes made it possible, among other things, that the director of the company no longer has to have experience in aviation, nor a completed mechanical engineering degree, nor does he have to have five years of experience in aviation.
For Šćuric, political appointments are disastrous, but when they are already happening, as he states, experienced managers should be appointed, as is the case with the Banja Luka airport.
“Party appointments are a tragedy and that should not happen, because the people who come to the airport in that way have absolutely no experience and things can really happen to you that are extremely serious. I emphasize again, the airport is not a child’s play, it is not some kind of ‘harsh’ company in which there will be no major consequences if it is run by an unprofessional person or a person who does not have enough experience or a person who has no experience at all. Unfortunately, this is a very common phenomenon, especially in the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina, I must be honest and say that it is not immune either We have had such cases in Croatia. The director of the airport does not necessarily have to be an expert in the field of aviation, and he does not necessarily have to be a professional. Here, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, you have the best example of that the director of Banja Luka Airport, who is by far the best director, who has done an enormous job in the last year – Valentina Kecman. Also, those airports that managed to move away from exclusively delegating political people are super successful and super profitable today,” Šćuric said.
According to Šćuric, expertise and competence also happened in Montenegro, where the local government appointed an expert from Dubrovnik to a leading position.
“I’ll give you an example, let’s say Montenegro Airport, which for years had political people at the head of those airports, more or less successful, and now the prime minister has appointed a completely non-partisan person, Roko Tolić, who was previously the general director of Dubrovnik Airport and who, in my opinion, is by far the greatest expert in the entire region, and you can see the results: the airport increased the number of passengers, the airport solved the infrastructure, solved interpersonal relations, in the end the airport got the base of Wizz Air”, pointed out Šćuric.
Croatia Airlines inspection
Šćuric stated that everything is not so bad at the Sarajevo airport, certain improvements have taken place, as well as the case with Croatia Airlines. Namely, this Croatian company carried out certain inspection activities in the spring. For N1, they confirm that they carried out controls, but do not provide details.
“Croatia Airlines, in accordance with European legislation, is obliged to carry out periodic checks of the quality of air traffic safety in all airports to which its aircraft fly in regular traffic. Accordingly, the company periodically conducts air traffic safety monitoring at the Sarajevo airport as well (every two years), considering that it operates regular international flights on the Zagreb – Sarajevo route. The last security check at Sarajevo Airport, which, like the previous check, was planned in advance, was carried out is in May of this year, and the data from such security checks are defined by law as classified (confidential)”, this company explained to N1.
Namely, as some media wrote, after the control of Croatia Airlines, the Civil Aviation Directorate of BiH allegedly determined that Sarajevo International Airport did not harmonize its acts and its organization with as many as twenty provisions of domestic and international acts related to security.
Croatia Airlines’ move for Šćuric is surprising.
“What happened with Croatia Airlines surprised us because they are not a company that does such things and it has never conducted an audit somewhere and then presented such things. It surprised us all so much and again there is the question of the reasons why it happened, but it happened and it was very rational and it was a big problem. And yes, we can attribute the same to this whole story,” he said.
We wanted to get details about everything from Sarajevo Airport, but we did not receive detailed information.
“We kindly ask for your patience as we are currently unable to respond”, is the short answer from this company.
We requested information about controls and procedures as well as events at Sarajevo Airport from the State Directorate for Civil Aviation, but we did not receive an answer.
Will Sarajevo Airport be under concession?
Some, such as the State Minister of Transport and Communications Edin Forte, do not hide that they would give the Sarajevo airport under a concession, which is unnecessary for expert Šćuric.
“Why doesn’t anyone give Tuzla Airport, which is a bottomless pit, which wastes a lot of money? Nobody gives Mostar, which barely has 70,000 passengers, a concession, but Sarajevo, which is super successful and profitable, we have to give it a concession. It’s really nonsense, isn’t it?” Šćuric asks.
Affairs in the FBiH Government are catching up with each other, from “Spangles” until now at the Sarajevo airport, which is ultimately the collateral damage of political trade and can have incalculable consequences for this company.
(TYPE/Source: N1/Author: Faruk Durmišević/Photo: N1)
