New managers to Otopeni and Baneasa Airports

Minister of Transport Radu Berceanu (photo) yesterday announced the dismissal of the Managers of the Henri Coanda (Otopeni) and Aurel Vlaicu (Baneasa) Airports - Gabriel Tara and Stefan Mladin - and the appointment of Sorinel Ciobanu and George Mihalcea.

'I have decided to replace the managers of the Baneasa and Otopeni Airports not because I have something to reproach them, but because I generally replace good mangers with even better managers,' Berceanu said, quoted by Mediafax. According to the minister, the new managers will need to change the organization of specific activities, deal with the issues between legal and illegal taxi driver, increase the quality of the service and co-operate to complete the merger of the two airports. He said the appointments had taken into consideration the professionalism of the two, who had over 20 years of experience in the field, as well as the political algorithm according to which the Otopeni Airport went to PSD and the Baneasa Airport to PDL. The in-coming Baneasa Airport Manager, Gheorghe Mihalcea, was taken by surprise by his being appointed. 'I admit I have been to that airport twice this year and I was shocked to see what it looked like', said Mihalcea.

The new manger of the Otopeni Airport, Sorinel Ciobanu, in turn says his intention is to break some records. 'I want to raise traffic because Romanians like their travelling, but they don't have the means to. I was the one to bring the low-cost carriers to Baneasa,' said Ciobanu. The former General Manager of the Baneasa Airport, Sorinel Ciobanu, and five other people were prosecuted by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate last year on the charge of authorization of an illegal exchange of land between SN AIBB and an individual person, making the company lose over EUR 4 M. 'There is no object to this case as long as the exchange of land has been cancelled. My case was referred to court in August 2008, so I'm waiting for it to be adjudicated,' Ciobanu said.

Yesterday, Berceanu also announced a few airport modernisation projects: EUR 300 M investment of the Japanese Investment Bank in a new underground transport line to Otopeni, plus financial resources to be raised from other banks by the ministry, and a railway service to connect the North Train Station to the Otopeni Airport.

Utilitarian aviation claim EUR 25 M damages from MTI for late registration of property deed

The Utilitarian Aviation has taken the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (MTI) to court, asking for EUR 25 M in damages because the institution had been late to register the property deed for a plot of land awarded by court about which Minister Radu Berceanu says was considerably undervalued. The Utilitarian Aviation won a lawsuit against the Ministry of Transport in the High Court of Cassation and Justice, containing 90,000 square metres of land from the Baneasa Airport. The Ministry estimates the value of the land to be EUR 150 M, but it was formally valued at being worth EUR 486,000, and entered to the company's capital at a value of EUR 5 M/ sq m. He added that AVAS President Mircea Ursache was exploring all available legal options.

Nine O'Clock