Serbia urges Vinci to resolve flight delays at Belgrade airport.

June 23 (SeeNews) - Serbian Infrastructure Minister Goran Vesic has asked French airport operator and concessionaire Vinci to address recent flight delays at Belgrade Airport, the ministry said Friday.

Local media reported that national carrier Air Serbia has been forced to cancel dozens of flights daily in recent days due to staff shortages and equipment failures at Belgrade airport.

"What is happening at the airport was not an unforeseen situation for them [Vinci]. [...] They knew that Air Serbia was launching 22 new routes this year, up from 15 last year. They knew there would be more passengers," Vesic said, as quoted in the press release.

In April, Vini announced that Belgrade Airport served a record 1.313 million passengers in the first quarter of 2023, up 77% from a year earlier.

In early June, Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport launched a new 3,500-meter runway.

Vinci should commit to hiring additional staff and launching more luggage lanes, Vesic added.

On Thursday, Air Serbia warned passengers of significant flight diversions due to the failure of the airport's luggage X-ray screening system. Air Serbia canceled twelve flights the day before, news outlet Politika reported and had to cancel eleven flights on Sunday, according to regional aviation portal Zamaaero.

In March 2018, French company Vinci Airports signed a 25-year concession agreement with Serbia to run Belgrade Airport, which was owned by Nikola Tesla Aerodrom.

In addition to operations, the contract includes financing, maintenance, expansion and modernization of the airport. Under the terms of the deal, Vinci Airports paid 417 million euros ($454 million) to the Serbian government and 84 million euros to the shareholders of retailer Nikola Tesla Aerodroma for the concession plus an annual concession fee ranging from 4.4 million euros to 15.1 million euros. ($ = 0.9186 euros)