At its next session, the Government will form an Interdepartmental Coordination Body for the Development and Increase of the Capacity of the Airports of Montenegro (ACG), headed by the Prime Minister. Milojko Spajic.
This was decided yesterday at a meeting between Spajić and the management of the Airports of Montenegro (ACG) and the heads of departments with jurisdiction over airports.
"Vijesti" has access to the draft information regarding the formation of this body, which lists the priority urgent activities that need to be implemented at the Podgorica and Tivat airports. The priority is also the development of a Master Plan, which should represent the basis for long-term and planned management of the development of airport infrastructure and define the needs for future capacities, directions of spatial and infrastructural development, priority investments and their phasing, framework investment needs and possible financing models.
After the meeting, the Prime Minister announced on Facebook that the state is starting to adapt the airports in Tivat and Podgorica.
"We are embarking on the adaptation of the airport for next year and the urgent preparation of a Master Plan for long-term development. With the heads of the relevant departments and institutions, we have agreed on a clear sequence of steps in order to welcome the next season with expanded terminals, additional gates, an extended runway - generally more adequate conditions for the increasing number of passengers in Podgorica and Tivat. 2026 set the standard, 2027 will surpass it," Spajić wrote.
This comes almost two months after the South Korean company Incheon International Airport Corporation announced on July 18 that it was withdrawing from the process for awarding a 30-year concession for ACG. Incheon did this just three months after the government selected it as the first-place bidder in a tender that had been dragging on since 2019, during which time the state-owned company ACG's hands were literally tied from making any significant investments in airport infrastructure. This has led to both Montenegrin airports, especially in Tivat, being in very poor condition and with their current capacities, designed and built some 20 years ago, it is very difficult to cope with the significant increase in the volume of aircraft and passenger traffic at these airports.
After its idea of leasing the airports to a foreign concessionaire for a long term failed, the Government has now decided that the state should urgently begin the process of urgently resolving the "most critical" of the numerous bottlenecks at the Podgorica and Tivat airports, and to finally begin drafting the key missing document - the Master Plan for the long-term development of these airports.
"Vijesti" had access to the draft "Information on the need to form an interdepartmental coordination body for the development and increase of the capacity of the Airports of Montenegro", which the Government should adopt at the next session, as the first step in the final assumption of responsibility by the state as the owner, to ensure and implement the modernization and expansion of the capacity of the airports in Tivat and Zeta, through its own airport company.
Who is involved in the work?
The Interdepartmental Coordination Body will consist of representatives of the Ministries of Public Works, Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, Finance, Transport, Defense and the ACG. If necessary, representatives of other state bodies, institutions, municipalities and other entities may be included in the work of the Coordination Body, depending on the nature of the activities and projects under consideration.
"The Government supports activities aimed at increasing the capacity, improving the infrastructure and operational functionality of Podgorica Airport and Tivat Airport and will initiate activities to develop a new Master Plan for the development of Podgorica Airport and Tivat Airport, using available mechanisms of international cooperation and engaging a relevant international partner with proven experience in planning and developing airport infrastructure. The ACG is tasked with, in cooperation with members of the Interdepartmental Coordination Body, immediately starting the preparation and implementation of priority activities and projects identified in the Information from point 1 of these conclusions, necessary for maintaining the operational functionality and increasing the capacity of Podgorica Airport and Tivat Airport," it says, among other things, in the draft conclusions that the Government will adopt in connection with this Information.
ACG is also obliged to "submit a report to the Government every three months on the implementation of priority activities and projects, based on the updated Implementation Monitoring Table, with an overview of the level of implementation, deadlines, possible obstacles and risks, as well as a proposal for measures to overcome them."
The Ministry of Public Works will be tasked with, “within its legally established competences, providing professional, technical and legal support to the ACG in the preparation and implementation of projects from the Information, including activities in the field of project and technical documentation, legal affairs and public procurement, as well as coordinating and supervising activities within its competence, while ensuring their timely, lawful, efficient, transparent and high-quality implementation.” This, in translation, should mean that activities that urgently need to be undertaken at airports so that they do not completely succumb to the growing volume of traffic, will probably be able to count on some kind of exemption from the general criteria provided for by the current Montenegrin very complicated and slow public procurement system.
The interdepartmental coordination body will be tasked with “monitoring and coordinating the implementation of priority activities and projects identified in the Information, through the Implementation Monitoring Table, and, within its competence, undertaking activities necessary for their timely implementation.”
"Members of the Coordination Body are obliged to act as a priority upon the requests of the ACG and provide the necessary opinions, consents, approvals and other acts within their jurisdiction," the draft conclusions state.
The information that "Vijesti" has access to contains 13 identified priority activities that, in the opinion of the ACG management and the relevant authorities in the Government, should be implemented most urgently at the airports of Podgorica and Tivat, as well as at the Kapino Polje airport near Nikšić, which is a kind of nonsense because the Nikšić airport has no tangible future in serving commercial air traffic.
Emergency activities
For Podgorica Airport, priority activities that need to be implemented in the near future include the expansion of the terminal area on the northern side, improvement of the airport's electricity supply, expansion of the terminal building on the western side, expansion of the aircraft stand and platform capacities, use of part of the military airport infrastructure for civilian needs, putting "the existing military terminal into the function of serving certain categories of traffic, primarily VIP flights, state aircraft and other special categories of flights", as well as considering the possibility of taking over, or purchasing, the existing facilities in Golubovci from the private company Vektra Airways in bankruptcy.
For Tivat Airport, priority urgent activities include adapting the canopy in the arrivals area of Terminal 1, constructing a canopy at Terminal 2, repurposing the hangar for general and business aviation, and resolving the issue of space use in the Tivat Airport area (management of part of the road and the associated space in the immediate area of the airport).
For both airports, one of the priority measures listed is the procurement of new or additional equipment for the handling of aircraft and passengers, maintenance of operational areas, security checks and other airport processes.
None of the 13 priority activities in this document are more precisely quantified in terms of the area of new facilities to be built or the value of these investments.
ACG has previously, on several occasions "urging" the Government to finally make a decision on whether to grant the airports a concession or not, announced that the state-owned company has the financial and other potential to develop the airports in Tivat and Podgorica on its own, if the state decides to keep management in its own hands.
ACG is headed by the Executive Director Roko Tolic who several years ago successfully led a large-scale project to modernize and expand the “Ruđer Bošković” Airport in Dubrovnik. Around 225 million euros were invested in it, of which Tolić and his associates managed to secure 158 million euros in grants from the European Union’s regional development funds.
Investigate the potential of the "Kapino Polje" airport in Nikšić
One of the 13 priority activities in the Information is "considering the possibilities of using Kapino Polje Airport".
"Within a broader review of available airport capacities, it is necessary to analyze the current state and possibilities of using the infrastructure of Kapino Polje Airport in Nikšić. The goal is to review the potential of the existing infrastructure and the possibility of its more efficient use within the overall development of air traffic and airport capacities in Montenegro. In this way, in addition to the existing two international airports, the potential of other available airport infrastructure and the possibilities of its future use would be reviewed," the Information states.
Due to its technical characteristics, the environment that attracts it and the proximity of the existing commercial airports in Podgorica and Tivat, Kapino Polje Airport is completely unprofitable and unpromising for any possible use for the purpose of serving commercial passenger air traffic.
Finally understood that a new master plan needs to be made
The Government stated in the Information that in addition to the 13 identified "priority activities", the development of a new Master Plan for the development of Podgorica Airport and Tivat Airport should be immediately initiated.
This is what the profession that manages Montenegrin airports in a technical and commercial sense insists on, because a clear long-term development plan is something without which Tivat and Podgorica airports cannot continue to develop successfully and in a planned manner.
"The existing development documents are based on previous traffic projections, while the achieved growth in the number of passengers and aviation operations, changes in the traffic structure and the development of the airline network require a new view of the long-term needs of both airports. The new Master Plan should represent the basis for long-term and planned management of the development of airport infrastructure and define the needs for future capacities, directions of spatial and infrastructural development, priority investments and their phasing, framework investment needs and possible financing models," the Information states.
For Podgorica Airport, it is necessary to consider the development of terminal capacities, reconstruction and expansion of platform areas, development of the runway and other infrastructure necessary to accommodate the expected volume and structure of traffic in the long term. For Tivat Airport, it is necessary to consider further development of terminal capacities, stands, taxiways, runways and other infrastructure necessary for the long-term sustainable functioning of the airport.
"The development of the Master Plan represents a strategic direction of development and will be implemented in parallel with the implementation of priority activities from this Information. Its development should not delay the implementation of interventions that can improve existing capacities in the short term," the Information states, noting that "when defining future investment priorities, it is necessary to consider the possibilities of using available international and European sources of financing for the development of airport infrastructure."
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