The national air carrier "Air Montenegro" normalized flights four days ago after one of its four planes was out of service because it was hit by a flock of birds at the airport in Istanbul on August 22.
Due to this event, the state company, according to unofficial information from Vijesti, "suffered great losses because it was a leased plane for which the company from which it was leased did not provide a replacement for all flights, so a number of flights were canceled, while for a certain number of flights aircraft of other airlines.
"Air Montenegro" confirmed to "Vijesta" that an "A320" aircraft, leased from the Croatian company "Trade Air", was hit by a flock of birds at the airport in Istanbul on August 22, but they could not specify the amount of damage on that basis.
"At the moment, we do not have sufficiently precise information about the financial damage caused by the grounding of the A320 due to the incident at the airport in Istanbul," said the national airline.
One of the questions is what are the contractual obligations and whether the company with which "Air Montenegro" has a contract had an obligation to find a replacement for that plane. It was clarified that "Trade Air" periodically provided replacement aircraft from other tenants for our company's traffic.
According to the company, Air Montenegro currently operates four aircraft according to the planned fleet for the summer season, namely two owned aircraft of the type "Embraer 195" and two leased aircraft - Airbus 320, from the Croatian company "Trade Air" and Embraer 190, from the Ukrainian company. "Wind Rose".
"The A320 aircraft, leased from the Croatian company Trade Air, was struck by a flock of birds at the airport in Istanbul. After the inspection, the plane was grounded and its rehabilitation was done at the Istanbul airport. The main cause of the traffic disruption that Air Montenegro has faced for the past two weeks has been mentioned. During the grounding of the mentioned plane, our company managed to transport almost all passengers by providing replacement planes when possible, which is especially challenging in the season and at the end of August, as well as by performing night flights on the remaining three planes. During the period of grounding of the A320, "Trade Air" periodically provided a replacement aircraft from other tenants for our company's traffic. Certainly there are certain negative effects of the outage of the rented plane, about which we cannot give a precise answer at the moment.
The company said that the traffic of "Air Montenegro" was completely stabilized on Sunday, September 8, and currently all flights are operating according to schedule, with all four aircraft in traffic.
"The previously mentioned unforeseen circumstances that led to the grounding of the leased plane resulted in changing the flight schedule, engaging partner companies and performing night flights on the remaining three planes that the company had at its disposal. In the end, four flights were cancelled, other companies realized 28 flights for us, and significant delays were recorded on 28 flights. Passengers from canceled flights are adequately taken care of and transported by flights of partner companies at the expense of Air Montenegro or one of the following flights of our company. Also, unfavorable weather conditions at the given moment contributed to some delays. On this occasion, we would like to apologize to all our passengers who experienced inconvenience and thank them for their patience and understanding", explained the company.
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