In 2013, Chisinau International Airport was managed by a company led by the oligarch Ilan Sor. It happens on the basis of a public-private partnership contract.
The company Avia Invest is committed to invest around 250 million euros in the modernization of the airport for the next 49 years. Everything was to happen in three stages, and among the objectives were listed the rehabilitation of the runway, the renovation of the terminal and the arrangement of parking spaces.
The concession of the airport, which is otherwise a strategic objective of the country and cannot be privatized, has been the subject of investigations all these years.
But in 2019, the Sandu Government finds violations of the provisions of the contract, goes to court and demands the termination of the agreement. For its part, Avia Invest sued the Government of the Republic of Moldova at the Court of Arbitration in Stockholm, but the court later rejected the company’s request.
In 2020, the Public Property Agency retroactively canceled the concession contract concluded with Avia Invest. In November 2022, the magistrates at the Chisinau Court of Appeal decide that the airport returns to state management. On the other hand, the concessionaire company says that the decision would be illegal, taken under political pressure, and states that it will appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice.
However, the processes are moving forward, and on March 27, based on an order of the Public Property Agency, the official takeover of the airport’s assets begins. Later, the president Maia Sandu would declare that during the 9 years of the concession, the state would have lost 1.6 billion lei.
