Flights to Tripoli suspended

Published: 6/2/2000

Having lost its flights to other Arab countries after its sale to the Israeli Zeevi Group, Balkan Airlines is reported to have requested the ministry responsible for aviation, transport and communication to intercede on its behalf with Libya over a telex from the director of Air Transportation and Air Navigation Department in Tripoli instructing Balkan to suspend flights to the Libyan capital. The grounds for the Libyan ban are unknown, but the Bulgarian government are insistent that there are no grounds for such a halt to the service under the current bilateral agreement between the two countries. According to the airline, Balkan Airlines is the country's national carrier and majority owned by Bulgarian entities as of last week when the Zeevi Group transferred part of their holding into a Bulgarian company controlled by their local representative. Balkan's are however, not having it easy at home with rumours of displeasure from the Privatisation Agency regarding Zeevi's fulfilment of the privatisation conditions. In a report in the Bulgarian media, Assen Diulgerov, chairman of the agency's supervisory board has been reported to be demanding $2m in penalties from the carrier with the threat of court action if the dispute is not settled by the airline. Diulgerov says that Zeevi has failed to comply with elements in the original privatisation agreement including the use of trust fund deposits of $6m against liabilities incurred before the airline was bought and the failure to pay interest payments to the various government agencies.

Article ID: 1837