Minister of Justice: “Chisinau International Airport returns to state ownership”

Justice Minister Sergiu Litvinenco announces on Wednesday, November 23, that Chisinau International Airport is returning to state ownership. According to Litvinenco, the decision of the Court of Appeal was handed down a short while ago and is “final and enforceable”.

“Congratulations to the people of the Republic of Moldova. It is to your credit,” the minister wrote.

On Wednesday, 23 November, the magistrates of the Chisinau Court of Appeal examined the decision of the court of first instance on the termination of the contract for the concession of the assets of Chisinau International Airport.

The Chisinau Court, Râșcani seat, rejected on February 21, 2022 the request of S.C. “Avia-Invest” S.R.L. against the Public Property Agency (APP) on the cancellation of the contract of concession of the Airport assets.

According to the Judgment, the action in administrative dispute of the plaintiff S.C. “Avia-Invest” SRL against the Public Property Agency (APP) for the annulment of the unfavorable individual administrative act of 08 July 2020 and the decision adopted in the preliminary procedure of 17 July 2020, was rejected as unfounded.

In July 2020, the APP announced the termination of the concession contract for the Chisinau International Airport, the reason being that the “Avia Invest” Ltd. had not fulfilled its contractual obligations. The company denied the information.

Although the airport concession contract was terminated in 2020, Avia Invest continues to manage Chisinau International Airport(AIC) as Avia Invest has appealed APP’s decision on the termination of the contract in court. Thus, until a final decision Avia Invest continues to manage Chisinau airport.

Meanwhile, representatives of Avia Invest, which manages Chisinau International Airport, say that “the decision of the Court of Appeal of 23 November is illegal and will be unconditionally appealed to the Supreme Court of Justice”. At the same time, they claim that the termination of the contract “implies a mandatory return of the investments, which currently amount to more than 90 million euros”.

“The reason for the termination, the alleged failure to provide a guarantee of conscientious performance of the contract, is absolutely absurd and even bizarre. At least on the basis of the documents currently issued by the courts, the insurance contract is valid and legally binding.

(…) It is obvious that political pressure has been exerted on the courts, which is clear from numerous statements by state leaders, who have insisted at all costs on taking such decisions, even by causing damage to the state.

The Moldovan authorities must clearly understand and know the consequences of the illegal decision of the Chisinau Court of Appeal of 24 November 2022 – the unconditional return of all investments, especially as these are confirmed both by the APA itself and by the annual international audits approved by the APA from 2013 to 2021,” Avia Invest said in a statement.

At the end of 2019, the Parliament took note of the reports of the Commission of Inquiry on the privatisation of “Air Moldova” and the concession of AIC.

The AIC concession was carried out in several steps. First, on 19 June 2012, the Government issued a decision on the initiation of the public-private partnership project for the concession of the State Enterprise “Chisinau International Airport”, with the official objective of “continuous development of the infrastructure and quality of services provided”. This was followed by the Government decision of 30 May 2013, which approved the concession and set the conditions of the concession. On 14 June 2013, the Ministry of Economy set up the tender commission responsible for organising and conducting the procedure for selecting the concessionaire, which, also in June, sent invitations to seven potential companies participating in the tender.

By 5 August 2013, the deadline for submission of bids, only two companies had expressed interest, both from Russia: “Vnukovo Invest” and “UK Komaks” in association with Habarovskii Airport JSC, Kolomensky Zavod JSC and Avia Invest JSC. At the meeting on 15 August 2013, the tender committee rejected the tender submitted by “Vnukovo Invest” on the grounds that it did not meet the requirements of the tender specifications. Under these circumstances, the only remaining bid was that of the Association of Legal Entities “Avia Invest”, which was also declared the winner. The bid set a concession period of 49 years, a royalty of 1% of the concession holder’s revenue and investments of €244.2 million.