The Baltic Aviation System, a shareholder of the Latvian AirBaltic, gave up the strategic partnership with Jat Airways, the Serbian Ministry for Infrastructure and Energy released in a statement on Friday.

The ministry stated that the company has not officially announced the reasons for giving up Jat. The ministry's working group in charge of the transaction, made up of the representatives of Jat, state institutions and advisors, is preparing a proposal for the future steps in overcoming the difficulties in the public transport, i.e. air traffic, which the government will adopt at one of the next sessions.

The Baltic Aviation System was the only company which responded to the tender for finding a strategic partner so as to found a new Serbian airline.

The ministry sought the view of the Latvian company on November 25 about whether the arrest of Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov will affect the negotiations on establishing the strategic partnership between the company and Jat Airways.

Antonov, a co-owner of banks in Lithuania and Latvia, whose business attracted the attention of the local regulative bodies, was arrested in London on November 24. The ministry stated that, according to the previously delivered data, the Russian businessman is not on the list of Baltic Aviation System's stakeholders.

The company met all qualification criteria for the tender, and the concrete bid on the strategic partnership should have been submitted by December 12.

Minister for Infrastructure and Energy Milutin Mrkonjic stated in November that the Serbian government will found a new, profitable Serbian airline in any case, with or without a partner, and that the company will be exempt from Jat's debts. Mrkonjic announced that part of JAT's employees will move into the new company, which will have an optimal number of staff, and that the remaining workers will get severance pay.