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Airlines in ex-Yugoslavia
前南斯拉夫的航空公司
Balkan unity?
巴爾干的航空公司們，聯合起來？
Four airlines may have to merge
四大航空公司不得不合并
EASTERN EUROPEAN airlines are sick.
東歐航線公司的日子可不好過。
Fuel is dear, their markets are small and budget airlines are poaching their passengers.
燃料費用高，市場容量小，就連廉價航空也正搶走他們的乘客。
Most eastern European airlines lose money.
多數東歐航線都賠錢經營。
Malev, Hungary's flag carrier, went bankrupt in February.
匈牙利航空公司Malev就于二月份以破產告終。
To avoid a similar fate, four Balkan airlines are considering a novel strategy: flying together.
為避免同樣的命運，巴爾干的四大航空公司想出了一個新點子：比翼齊飛。
The idea is not officially on the agenda when the bosses of Croatia Airlines, Montenegro Airlines, Serbia's Jat and Slovenia's Adria meet in Montenegro on May 19th.
5月19號克羅地亞航空公司、黑山航空公司、塞爾維亞航空公司還有亞德里亞航空公司的老總見面時，這個點子還不在官方的議程上。
But it will be discussed behind closed doors.
但私下里這一問題也將得到討論。
All are in debt and losing money,
四大公司目前全都負債累累、賠錢經營，
but between them they have many profitable routes.
但在他們之間，也確有一些航線可以掙錢。
Serving the scattered Balkan diasporas ought to be lucrative.
為巴爾干半島的僑民提供運輸服務就應有利可圖的。
Zoran Djurisic, the boss of Montenegro, says that before Yugoslavia collapsed,
黑山航空的老板Zoran Djurisic說道，在南斯拉夫解體之前，這個市場里的客戶數量多達1億人之多，
it represented a market of 100m passengers a year, of which 7m flew with JAT or Adria.
其中700萬的乘客乘坐的是塞爾維亞航空或者亞德里亞航空的航線。
Now, 11m people fly to or from the seven ex-Yugoslav states each year,
現在，每年1100萬名從前南斯拉夫的七個國家起飛或降落的乘客中，
but only 4m use the four carriers meeting in Montenegro.
只有400萬乘坐的是在黑山見面的四家航空公司的飛機。
Bosnia's BH airlines has only one functioning plane.
波斯尼亞的BH公司里能用的飛機只剩一架了。
Kosovo, with a large diaspora, has no domestic airline. And Macedonia's MAT went bust in 2010.
科索沃雖然有大量僑民，但是卻沒有國內的航空公司。2010年，MAT馬其頓航空公司也難逃倒閉的命運。
Mr Djurisic, who called the summit, says that in the short run the four airlines must co-operate to cut costs.
邀請來各位高層的Djurisic先生說，在短期，四家航空公司必須合作才能削減成本。
He hopes that, in five to eight years, they might create a single airline for this whole area, including Bosnia, Macedonia and Kosovo. Vladimir Ognjenovic,
他希望5到8年間這些公司能建立一個服務于波黑，馬其頓、科索沃等所有地區的統一航空公司。
the boss of Jat, says that such a merger is not realistic unless all are bought by another foreign airline.
塞爾維亞航空公司的經理Vladimir Ognjenovic說，除非有一個外國航空公司收購了我們的全部公司，否則合并就是不現實的。
All four have problems.
四家公司可謂家家有本難念的經。
Jat's ageing fleet glugs fuel and needs lots of costly maintenance.
塞爾維亞航空公司的飛機已然有年頭了，不僅費油，而且維護費用也十分高昂。
Two recent attempts to find a buyer for it failed.
兩次為自己尋找買家而不能。
Montenegro and Croatia Airlines are packed during the summer holidays but struggle to fill seats during the rest of the year.
黑山航空與克羅地亞航空的飛機在暑假時座無虛席，但其他時候則要盡力招徠顧客。
Adria was bailed out in September with 500m from the Slovene government. Now it is looking for a buyer.
亞德里亞航空公司從斯洛文尼亞政府手里拿到了5億歐元用于度過難關。
If that fails, its last chance is to join forces with the other three, says Klemen Bostjancic, its boss.
現在它也在尋找買家。該公司的經理Klemen Bostjancic說道，如果不能成功的話，他就要最后一搏，與其他三家公司加入聯盟。
A spokesman says Croatia Airlines is not interested in any type of merger with the other ex-Yugoslav airlines.
一名發言人說克羅地亞航空公司對任何形式的與前南斯拉夫航空公司的合作都不感興趣。
But Croatia's minister of transport says that unless the airline revives, a merger with Adria is possible.
但是克羅地亞航空公司的運輸部部長卻說除非公司能夠起死回生，否則還是有可能和亞德里亞航空公司合并的。
Luka Popovic, an analyst, predicts that the burden of history will thwart any merger.
分析師Luka Popovic預測道歷史的負擔將阻礙合并。
But the airlines may feel they have no choice.
但航空公司可能也別無他選，
And there is a precedent for a merger in stages:
尤其是有個分階段合并的先例擺在面前：
Scandinavian Airlines began as a co-operative venture between the airlines of Norway, Denmark and Sweden in 1946 and then merged in 1951.
挪威，丹麥航與瑞典航空這三大挪威航空公司在1946年聯合投資了斯堪的納維亞航空公司，并于1951年成功合并。
That could happen in the Balkans, too.
也許巴爾干的公司也應該這么做。
