The airport modernization tax imposed by the previous concessionaire will be fully removed, assured Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development Andrei Spînu. According to the official, the tax of €9 was halved and will be fully excluded next year. The authorities are looking for investments of at least €200 million for modernizing the airport, but do not intend to concede again the facility, IPN reports.

Recently, the head of the Iasi Airport said that 30% of the passengers who choose to fly from the Iasi International Airport are citizens of the Republic of Moldova. Minister Spînu said this migration is not due to the bad management of the Chisinau Airport.

“At present, the Airport it is not managed worse. It only passed through a management crisis in a period of transition. It was managed by an organized criminal group. A new administration came. The airlines that generated a flight crisis left. Step by step, management at the Airport will be improved. It is for the first time that we extensively repaired the landing field. For the first time, the Airport makes purchases of security equipment. Today the modernization tax is twice lower and will be definitely removed next year,” Andrei Spînu stated in the program “Résumé” RliveTV channel.

The official said that he does not see the necessity of attracting a foreign investor to manage the Airport. The authorities aim to only attract foreign funds to modernize the Airport and to build a new terminal.

“We do not intend to find a foreign investor. Our goal is to bring international airport management expertise and skills. It is important to have people who administered large airports to help us manage it better. But the most important thing is to manage to attract sufficient investments, of €200 million initially, to build a new terminal, a new landing strip, parking places and to provide other services. After the Airport was taken over by the organized criminal group, no big deal happened. Only cosmetic repair was performed inside and on the landing field. The terminal is close to the point when it will no longer cope. If we today start to erect a new terminal, this will be operational in three-four years. The absence of flights and of a modern airport is not only a travel problem. It is also an economic development problem,” noted the Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development.

The Chisinau International Airport was transferred back under state management in April 2023 after it was conceded in 2013 for a 49-year-period to Avia Invest company.