Aviogenex (Belgrade Nikola Tesla) is to be liquidated after it failed to garner any concrete bids during Belgrade's recent fire-sale of 188 moribund state enterprises. The sell-off of state-assets is part of the terms of the terms of a EUR1billion (USD1.16billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to EX-YU Aviation News, despite attracting Letters of Intent from four separate firms - local outfit JetVision Balkan, the UAE's GLT Overseas (Middle East), Switzerland's Euroswiss Investment Holding, and Russia's Arctica Airlines - none of the entities committed to a firm purchase agreement for the charter specialist.
However, GLT Overseas (Middle East) has dismissed the government's version of events claiming that its investment proposal involving USD60million in capital and two widebody aircraft was ignored.
“Our investment and development team visited Belgrade in December 2013 and held talks with Aviogenex’s management. In the summer of 2014 we held talks with Serbia’s Privatisation Agency and submitted a formal letter of intent," it said.
In an open letter to Serbia's President Aleksandar Vučić published via social media, Aviogenex's CEO, Bojan Nikolić, accused government of sacrificing the airline's future in order to protect that of Air Serbia's.
Employee's have also questioned why Belgrade has been willing to assume Air Serbia's total debt of RSD19.3billion (USD194.94million) while overlooking the USD2.2million owed by Aviogenex, due in large part to its employees, in the form of back wages. They further claim that Belgrade does not want to create additional competition for Air Serbia, which operates three B737-300s under its own charter firm, Aviolet (Belgrade Nikola Tesla).
Once a prominent player in the European ACMI/charter market with a fleet featuring B727-200s and B737s, Aviogenex has been reduced to one aircraft - a B737-200Adv. - and 39 employees.
