Representatives of Air Moldova said the government blocks the airline’s activity. Against its will, the company was involved in a huge economic and political scandal that intensified during the past few days. It goes to the relations between the authorities and Avia Invest company that manages the Chisinau International Airport, IPN reports.

In a press release, the airline says that even if it is in an extremely difficult situation owing to the pandemic, as the global aviation sector is, the company is making effort to honor all its obligations to the partners. The administration of Air Moldova decided to raise a loan from a foreign bank so as to pay for the services from which it benefitted. Among the creditors of Air Moldova is Avia Invest.

This way, a sum of €2 million was transferred to the company’s bank account at BC “Moldova-Agroindbank” SA. According to Air Moldova, the bank blocked yet the money without providing a plausible legal reason, while the invoked motives are completely unfounded from legal viewpoint.

“In fact, Air Moldova found itself in the same situation as Avia Invest, which also announced the blocking of a sum of almost €2 million in another commercial bank. Given the purpose of the raised loan, to clear the debts, including to Avia Invest, taking into account the recent statements about the authorities’ intention to bring back the Chisinau International Airport under state management at any cost, we consider the blocking of the €2 million by BC “Moldova Agroindbank” SA was orchestrated. The authorities’ intention is to abusively and artificially cause the bankruptcy of Avia Invest so as to achieve their goals,” runs the press release.

“We call on all those involved in the committed wrongdoings to stop the illegal actions and to concentrate their efforts on solving the country’s economic problems and to satisfy the public interest.”

Air Moldova was privatized in October 2018, being sold for 1.2 billion lei. Of this sum, 50 million lei was transferred to the state budget, while the rest was used to clear the company’s debts. An audit by the Court of Auditors revealed that the privatization process deviated at some of the stages and the method of assessing the facility was thus influenced, the price of the airline being much lower than the real market price.