BHDCA: Sarajevo Airport is the only one in BiH collecting fees from airlines

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Sarajevo International Airport is the only one in BiH providing data based on which the Civil Aviation Directorate of BiH (BHDCA) invoices and collects fees from airlines.

Aleksandar Lalović, expert associate for public relations at the Directorate, explained to the Patria news agency that in 2018, the Civil Aviation Directorate collected 501,320 BAM in fees per departing passenger.

"Based on Article 4, Paragraph (1) of the Decision on the amount of fees paid by aircraft operators per departing passenger and the amount of fees paid by aircraft operators per ton of cargo/freight departing from airports in BiH, airport operators are obliged to submit a monthly report on transported passengers/goods/cargo in scheduled and unscheduled air transport departing from the airport, for each individual air operator conducting traffic through that airport, in a way that data on passenger transport must be shown separately from data on cargo/freight transport," explains Lalović. 

He points out that Sarajevo International Airport is the only one providing data based on which the Civil Aviation Directorate of BiH invoices and collects fees from airlines, but, Lalović adds, the Directorate does not have a mechanism to force other airports in BiH to provide them with such data.

"Given the fact that the decision in question does not contain a penalty for the airport operator's failure to comply with the cited provision of the Decision, the Civil Aviation Directorate of BiH has sent an Information on the problem of non-collection of fees to the Council of Ministers of BiH," says Lalović, noting that the Council of Ministers of BiH has not yet decided on this information.

In addition to Sarajevo International Airport, which is the largest, Bosnia and Herzegovina has three smaller airports: Banja Luka International Airport, Tuzla Airport, and Mostar Airport.