“The armored car was never used for such services (no VIP customer transport services), it was used exclusively for Ilan Şor. When I made a small trip with the press to the administrative headquarters, I saw a piece of armor that was expressly mentioned as a gift given to President Ilan Şor on his jubilee. If we ask our colleagues how many times the customers went to the aircraft with this car, the answer will be – zero”, said the deputy head of the Chisinau International Airport.
Even so, Vozian says that at the previous rates the prices for using the luxury cars owned by Avia Invest are quite stingy:
“At the old rates, the price of renting such a car was quite high – around 5,000 lei for a few tens of seconds to the aircraft. Whoever procures the transport service with a luxury car, it was obviously logical to also cross through VIP. Pay for the additional VIP, pay for the “senator” services. This service was around 5,000 lei. We must revise the tariffs because, in principle, all the tariffs we approve must be justified from the point of view of the cost base”.
AGORA recalls that, starting in 2013, Chisinau International Airport came under the management of a company led by oligarch Ilan Șor, based on a public-private partnership contract. The Avia Invest company has committed to invest around 250 million euros in the modernization of the airport over the next 49 years.
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.
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.
