Belgrade airport welcomes four-millionth passenger

BELGRADE - Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport welcomed on Tuesday its four-millionth passenger this year, and Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic congratulated Serbia's first airport, opened for regular commercial flights 52 years ago, on reaching this important milestone.

The four millionth passenger served this year is student Nikola Miljkovic, who travelled to Banjaluka.

Miljkovic received a voucher from the Belgrade Airport Business Club for 2015 and two return tickets to any of the national airline's destinations.

Vucic said that the record-breaking passenger traffic at the Belgrade airport is even more impressive as the 32 percent rise is the highest traffic increase reported in Europe.

The prime minister said that he expects the airport, which is a public company, to serve between 5 and 5.5 million passengers next year.

"All public companies will contribute far more to the budget in 2015 than they did before," said Vucic, emphasizing that the government allowed the public companies to hold a monopoly so they could make profit, but that they should act responsibly towards the citizens and put part of the money back into the budget.

When asked if the airport will be privatized, Vucic said that the government will not sell the airport but that it is considering various other options, including concession.

Air Serbia should also report profit at the end of the year, and it will be the only such case in the region, considering that the business results of rival airlines are not as good.

Acting CEO of Nikola Tesla Airport Sasa Vlaisavljevic said that the company will serve 4.6 million passengers by year-end, which is the best result since its foundation.

Noting that Air...