January 10 (SeeNews) - French company Vinci Airports, selected as best bidder for a concession contract to operate Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, has committed to keeping the jobs of all airport's employees, according to Serbia's infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic.
"There will be no layoffs and all rights and obligations of the employees will be set in a collective labour agreement," Mihajlovic said in a video file posted on the website of Serbian news agency Tanjug on Tuesday.
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Vinci will keep the Belgrade airport fees unchanged in the first three years of the concession and will be able to increase them afterwards depending on retail prices, Mihajlovic said.
The best way to use the 417 million euro ($498.4 million) upfront payment that the Serbian government will receive is to invest it in the country's economic development and the repayment of debt taken under unfavourable conditions in the past, she noted.
The government plans to keep investing in the development of smaller airports such as Nis and Kraljevo, as it needs an alternative capacity to Belgrade, Mihajlovic added.
Serbia's government said last week it selected Vinci Airports as the best bidder in a tender for a 25-year concession contract to run the international airport in Belgrade. The French company offered to pay 501 million euro for the concession plus an annual concession fee of between 4.5 million euro and 16 million euro. Vinci also committed to making investments worth 732 million euro during the duration of the concession.
The Serbian government owns 83.1% of Aerodrom Nikola Tesla, the operator of Belgrade airport. The company's net profit dropped to 3.2 billion dinars ($32.4 milion/27 million euro) in 2016, from 3.3 billion dinars in the previous year.
($ = 0.836672 euro)