The Serbian Minister for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Goran Vesić, has said the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate will launch tender procedures for the selection of additional ground handling companies at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. Mr Vesić, who has been critical of airport operator VINCI, said the French concessionaire is aware that a number of delays and flight cancellations in Belgrade are being generated due to a lack of airport staff, particularly baggage handlers, which he labelled as unacceptable. For its part, VINCI conceded that it is understaffed in certain departments in Belgrade and that it is in the process of hiring a further 100 employees. It will also increase wages in response to a lack of interest for job vacancies. ”VINCI has an obligation to ensure airport services operate flawlessly and that passengers who paid for their tickets and their airport service get what they deserve. VINCI has only one choice and that is to improve its service and to respect passengers. They will never convince me that in front of passport control they are unable to form lines and to hire security guards who will direct people to the first available counter. That’s how they do it in Paris, but they seem to think that they don’t have to behave that way in Belgrade. Well, they will have to”, Mr Vesić said. The President of VINCI Airports, Nicolas Notebaert, travelled to Belgrade last week to meet with the Minister and address ongoing bottlenecks at the airport.

The majority of Belgrade Airport’s ground handling is performed by the airport itself. Belgrade Airport’s other handling company is the privately-owned SKY Partner, which handles Wizz Air, Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Eurowings, Norwegian Air Shuttle and airBaltic. In 2017, in a bid to cut costs, Air Serbia halted operations of its Air Serbia Ground Handling Services (ASGS) company, which provided passenger service, supervision, station management, training, freight forwarding and customs clearance at Belgrade Airport. It outsourced these duties to Belgrade Airport instead. Up until now, the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate has limited the number of ground handling companies at Belgrade Airport to three, of which one is the airport itself. The other two are SKY Partner and Air Serbia Ground Handling Services, although, as mentioned, the latter has outsourced its handling to Belgrade Airport.