Moldovan cabinet, Swiss Federal Council to sign agreement on regular air services

Chisinau, 15 November /MOLDPRES/ - The cabinet of ministers, at a today’s meeting, approved the signing of an agreement between the Moldovan government and the Swiss Federal Council on regular air services. The document will establish principles of regulation of the work of the bilateral air services and will comprise norms on the aviation security and certificates of navigability and competence.  

The signing of the agreement will contribute to the opening of Moldova’s air services’ market and diversifying the destinations of the Chisinau International Airport. Also, the accord will facilitate access to markets from the western part of the Central Europe and to a market demanded in the field of air transport, such as the Swiss Confederation. Statistics data shows a significant growth of the flow of passengers travelling to this destination. In the last 12 months, about 17,000 entrances/exits on the flight Chisinau-Switzerland (Geneva, Zurich, Basel, Berne) were recorded. All these flights were made only via connections.  

A direct flight to Switzerland will essentially increase this figure and will provide passengers with the comfort of a direct flight, without stopover, the Economics and Infrastructure Ministry said. According to the ministry, the flights to Switzerland should have a frequency of 2-3 times per week. The Air Moldova national company has already showed interest in initiating flights to Geneva as of next December.    

In the process of talks, Moldova’s delegation proposed to liberalize the market of air services. The Swiss side, however, did not accept the proposals and insisted on the nomination of the air companies for providing the services stipulated in the agreement.   

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcaza)