Criteria for funds allocation have been developed
On 22 of July at the Ministry of Transport with representatives of the Bulgarian Aviation Industry Association (BIAI) and the Bulgarian Airlines Association (BAA) will be discussed the options for granting state aid to companies in the aviation sector. This was announced by the chairman of the organization, Todor Ivandjikov, who received an invitation from the ministry yesterday.
So, in fact, after months of appeals, the two associations are one step away from their ultimate goal – to convince the government that the domestic aviation will not survive without additional support. A number of letters have been sent to line ministries and several meetings have been held, the latest of which took place on 19 of July at the Ministry of Finance. On behalf of BAIA, Todor Ivandjikov and Secretary Yanko Ivanov attended the event.
We would like to remind you that at the end of June BAIA asked for part of the funds available at Sofia Airport to be used to help the airline industry. It is about 60 million leva left after the concession. Subsequently, the caretaker Minister of Transport Georgi Todorov sent a letter to Ivandzhikov with a copy to the President of the BAA, in which he agreed that these funds should be redirected to help the companies in the aviation sector.
In this line, the two associations have drawn up criteria by which these funds can be allocated fairly. Some of these include the following requirements, namely: Airlines must have a valid Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) and Operating Licence; Aircraft must be listed in the AOC specifications of the respective operator; Aid is only allocated to aircraft with a valid Certificate of Airworthiness with Bulgarian registration and a valid Airworthiness Review Certificate as well as an active insurance policy; at least 1 crew is available for each of the aircraft on a contract of employment with the given carrier; the airline operates passenger scheduled and/or charter flights; the airline has at least 25 staff; the carrier operates commercial passenger services with a total capacity of at least 21 passenger seats, etc.
Last but not least, the fact that maintenance companies, training centres and handling agents are also extremely hard hit and that there is currently a huge inter-company indebtedness is also taken into account. This is why BAIA and BAA propose that aviation operators should commit to paying off Bulgarian companies in the industry as a matter of priority so that the financial assistance has a beneficial effect on the entire industry.
In this regard, Mr Ivandzhikov said:
“We are ready to set up a work-group to draw up a short programme of financial support to be sent from the Minister of Transport to the Minister of Finance. We have already provided the criteria together with our colleagues from the BAA. We would like them to be refined as soon as possible to be submitted to the MoF, for which we are ready to provide colleagues for a work-group. Let us inform the members of all the letters.”