Montenegro’s Ministry of Transport has engaged former JAT Airways and Belgrade airport director Saša Vlaisavljević as a special consultant to analyse aviation infrastructure, but has not disclosed when he started or how the engagement was arranged. The ministry said his work is a strategic review and is not conditional on producing a master plan for the country’s airports.
Vlaisavljević, a Belgrade-based aviation expert and graduate transport engineer, was hired to prepare an assessment of the state of aviation infrastructure, according to the ministry. It described him as a recognised aviation expert and a “top professional” with management experience at JAT Airways and Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport.
The ministry, led by Radoš Zečević of the New Serb Democracy party (NSD), did not say when Vlaisavljević began work or whether it used a tender, public notice or direct appointment. It said his management experience and expertise would contribute to long-term development policies and improvements to Montenegro’s aviation system.
The assignment is not narrowly tied to the airport master plan, the ministry said. It covers strategic analysis of infrastructure initiatives and system-level solutions for the long-term development of the transport sector. Vlaisavljević’s advice has already been used in formulating official responses to journalists’ questions about air transport and commercial aviation.
Consultant’s record in aviation
Vlaisavljević joined Serbian national carrier JAT Airways in 1995 and was appointed its chief in 2007. At the time, the airline had debts of more than 200 million dollars. After an initial attempt to privatise JAT failed, he presented a restructuring and recovery programme, but that effort also did not succeed.
Etihad Airways of the United Arab Emirates entered JAT in 2013 as a strategic partner through a state arrangement with the Serbian government, then led by the Serbian Progressive Party. The airline was subsequently renamed Air Serbia, Serbia’s current national carrier.
In 2009, Vlaisavljević briefly served as Belgrade city manager in the office of then-mayor Dragan Đilas, of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia. He became president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia in December 2009, before being appointed director of state-owned Nikola Tesla Airport in 2014.
During his leadership of the airport, traffic volumes increased and the company recorded good business results. Vlaisavljević also took part in preparing the airport’s long-term concession. The concession took effect in 2018, when French operator Vinci Airports took over the airport’s operation.
Vlaisavljević remained head of the state company Nikola Tesla Airport Belgrade after the handover, overseeing implementation of the concession arrangement on behalf of Serbia. The Serbian government dismissed him from that role in March last year. He then worked as an independent aviation consultant through Altaero, his private company based in Belgrade.
Airport plan procurement remains undecided
Montenegro’s Ministry of Transport has not formally decided how to select a contractor for a future master plan covering the country’s airports. The plan is intended to set the strategic direction for the airports in Tivat and Zeta over the next 10 to 15 years, address existing technical and technological constraints at Tivat and Podgorica airports, and assess investment needs.
The ministry is considering either an international tender or selection through existing government agreements with other countries, known as Government-to-Government, or G2G, arrangements. The work is estimated to cost at least between half a million and 1 million euros. The ministry has described the master plan as a project of key national and strategic importance.
France’s Artelia group has sent the government a letter expressing interest in preparing the plan. The company has experience in airport capacity planning in China, Hong Kong, France, the United States and Denmark.
Interest has also been expressed by Aero Infra Five International (AIFI), a recently formed Serbian-Montenegrin consortium. Its members are Serbian companies NEO Aerodromes Engineering, Cepting and SIMM Inžinjering, alongside Montenegro’s AG Infoplan and International Partners Group, based in Kotor.
In a presentation submitted to the ministry, AIFI described itself as a consortium for designing, building and developing modern airport capacity. International Partners Group presented itself as a provider of comprehensive business consulting in Montenegro. Among the consortium members, NEO Aerodromes Engineering is the one identified as having experience designing parts of airport infrastructure.
NEO’s references include work at airports in Belgrade, Kruševac, Kraljevo, Vršac, Niš, Chișinău in Moldova, Skardu in Pakistan, and in Congo, Tanzania and Senegal. Its master-planning references are limited to the small sports airports of Pančevo and Lisičji Jarak in Serbia, and the small commercial airports of Ouro Sogui and Saint Louis in Senegal.
The ministry rejected as speculation and insinuation claims that it had “any special ties, consultations, arrangements or agreements” with AIFI concerning the master plan or another project. It said it regularly receives letters, unsolicited presentations and proposals from domestic and foreign entities, and that receiving them does not imply cooperation, special status or preference for a bidder.
The ministry said the contractor would be selected under Montenegrin regulations and standards of transparency, competition and expertise, through an open international tender or transparent G2G mechanisms. It said the public would be informed in due course of the next formal steps; no selection route or timetable has yet been set out.
