CHISINAU (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th June, 2022) Turkey detained a Moldovan passenger plane at Antalya airport, Air Moldova said in a statement.
The airline company confirmed on Saturday the detention of it's plane and specified that "Turkish provider referred to the alleged contractual debts," however the debt has already been settled.
"According to the accounting data, which was adopted following the privatization of CA "Air Moldova," after internal audits, all invoices to the supplier were paid. At the moment, Air Moldova has no debts to the Turkish provider," the airline said on social media.
The airline apologized to the passengers, who spent from 9 to 14 hours at the Antalya airport and noted that the problem is being addressed.
"One of the flights to Antalya has already departed, the next ones will depart soon. Air Moldova apologizes to passengers affected by this situation," the statement read.
According to the online schedule at the Chisinau International Airport website, five Air Moldova flights from Antalya have been canceled.
"The Air Moldova team is making every effort to solve the problem. Due to the incident, there was a disruption in the flight schedule. Many passengers were redirected to flights of other airlines, they will return home on Sunday," the statement read.
According to Moldovan media, Air Moldova was privatized in 2018 by Civil Aviation Group, founded by two citizens of Moldova and a Romanian airline, Blue Air. However, the latter withdrew from the deal less than a year after the privatization and about 50% of the shares were transferred to the Latvian company Dzintars Pomers.
The amount of the transaction exceeded 1.2 billion Moldovan lei ($62.9 million), of which 50 million lei were transferred to the state budget, while the rest was Air Moldova's debts, which the investor committed to pay within three years.
