President and CEO of TAV Airports Holding Mustafa Sani Sener denied, on Wednesday, rumors about closure and staff reduction of TAV Tunisia SA, the operator of Monastir International Airport.
TAV Tunisia CEO said the company is still running the Monastir Airport and will work to improve passenger services, as airports are “countries’ shop-windows.”
The denial of TAV Tunisia comes in reaction to the week-long sit-in staged by the company’s executives and staff who, fearing for their jobs, called for entrusting operation of the Monastir Airport to the Tunisian State.
He added that his group, which has operated the Monastir International Airport since January 2008, has always honored its financial and social commitments and pledges to keep the airport’s activities and preserve jobs.
Mr. Sani Sener reminded, regarding the legitimacy of the operating contract, that TAV Tunisia had won the international tender launched by the Civil Aviation and Airports Board (OACA) to operate for a 40-year period the Habib Bourguiba International Airport of Monastir, as well as the BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) project of the Enfidha Hammamet Airport.
The official said the company “has not the right to divert or transfer air flights from Monastir Airport to that of Enfidha, nor determine the destination of air companies.” “The company promotes Tunisian tourist zones and not airports,” he said.
Mr. Sani Sener said, at a news conference held on Wednesday in Tunis that TAV Tunisia had invested 4 million dinars (MTD) in development and maintenance works of the Habib Bourguiba International Airport of Monastir. He emphasized his group’s commitment to increase in the coming years the number of flights to Tunisia via the two airports (Monastir and Enfidha), underlining that a rise in the number of passengers to 9 billion is expected during the next decade.
