Portoroz Tourism Association to file lawsuit against JAT

(Portoroz)

The Portoroz Tourism Association has said it will take legal action against the Serbian carrier Jat Airways for failing to commence planed flights from Portoroz to Belgrade and Rome.

The service, which was meant to commence on December 9, has now been delayed until February 20.

- Jat is not a serious business partner - says Director of the Portoroz Tourism Association Jadran Furlanic and adds that they have started seeking a new carrier.

The Portoroz Tourism Association says that Jat, at first, claimed it had technical problems resulting in the delay of the service launch and only later said there was no interest.

“On January 20 at least 30 passengers are scheduled to travel on Jat’s flight from Rome to Portoroz”, the Association says. The passengers are part of a group of gamblers planning to visit the Portoroz Casino as well as casinos in Croatia.

Furlanic has assessed that the inflicted damage is already quite big and that there is no point in waiting and cooperating with Serbs. The Portoroz Tourism Association Director has also asked lawyers for advice on how to terminate the contract with Jat and file a request for compensation.

The Slovenian Ministry of Trade has already provided EUR 400,000 for Rome-Portoroz flights, half of which has already been spent on a tourist promotion in Rome.

Other partners in the project are also entitled to compensation.

Casinos situated in that part of Slovenian and Croatian coast and tourism organizations in Italy are interested in launching of flights between Rome and Portoroz.

That would contribute to promotion of tourism in the whole region because there are no flights from Slovenia to Italy, while traveling to southern Italy by bus or train is too exhausting for spoiled tourists.

According to the press in Belgrade, the new flight Belgrade-Portoroz was launched last year and was operated between April and September 15, after which it was agreed that Jat should operate the flight from Belgrade to Roma, via Portoroz, as of December 9, 2010.

Jat Airways says it does not fear a lawsuit, saying that a total of only 14 tickets have been booked for all of the planed flights, thus making it financially unviable to operate the service. “We have no intention of allowing our aircraft to fly empty”, a Jat statement reads.

Air Serbia ad Beograd

Portoroz Tourism Association

JAT

JAT Airways

Delo

Jadran Furlancic

Compass

Life Class

Portoroz

Umag

Mulin

Rome

Ljubljana