The state of Serbia has paid 545 million euros, to the airline Air Serbia, from the moment it was created ten years ago, until the end of last year, according to the current exchange rate. That calculation, as stated, was made with the help of financial analysts, based on an insight into the financial report of Jat from 2012 and the financial reports of Air Serbia from 2013 to 2022.
The calculation shows that the inherited debts that the state undertook to cover, in order for the airline company from the United Arab Emirates Etihad Airways to accept to take part of the ownership in Air Serbia, were about EUR 187 million and the largest part of that debt entered the Serbian public the debt that has been repaid since 2014 to the creditors of the defunct Jat. In addition, Air Serbia has received subsidies, or rather budget money, on several occasions from the very beginning, that is, since its establishment, on different grounds.
In 2014, 2015 and 2016 alone, subsidies in the amount of EUR 123 million were paid out, while in 2017 this company received a subsidy of EUR 12 million from the Ministry of Tourism, which, frankly, it did not register as income, but as a reduction in costs. Since in neither of these two moments, the state’s partner in that company, Etihad, did not want to do the same, Serbia’s share increased due to recapitalization, and Etihad’s decreased, so until the complete exit from ownership, the Arab partner had a share of only 16 , 42 percent, it is stated in the text.
It is clear from the available financial reports that Air Serbia received both direct and indirect state aid, i.e. aid from various state entities, which, as they pointed out, is not money given directly from the budget, on the one hand but it is certainly an example of state aid to a company. Such an example, it was stated, is the write-off of the debt to the airport “Nikola Tesla” and the help that the airline received from other state-owned companies.
