The upper air space over Kosovo – skies above 10,000 feet – will remain under the control of a Hungarian state company for “an indefinite period” after the current five-year agreement signed in 2014 “for the provision of air navigation services and other relevant activities in the designated airspace over Kosovo” expires on April 3.

The agreement signed between Hungary and the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, KFOR, in April 2014, reads that it “shall automatically be extended for an indefinite period unless either Party has submitted a written notice at least six months before the termination of the initial period”.

“Neither of the Parties has submitted a written notice,” a NATO official told BIRN on Monday in a written answer. “Experts are taking necessary steps to renew the operational and technical arrangements,” the NATO answer reads.

Kosovo’s Air Navigation Services Agency, ANSA, controls only the lower airspace over the country, amounting to about 20 per cent of commercial flights to and from the country. The other 80 per cent of air traffic in the upper airspace is controlled by Hungary.

A Hungarian state-run company, HungaroControl, provides air traffic services for the upper airspace under the agreement with NATO.

Data from HungaroControl, from May 2018, said activity in “the high airspace over Kosovo increased significantly by 33.85 per cent, compared to May 2017 data”. During May 2018 alone, there were 11,649 operations in the upper airspace, graphics show.

HungaroControl said air traffic in Hungary’s airspace had grown almost tenfold, in line with global trends, over the years. “By the end of 2018, the company provided safe traffic for more than one million aircraft,” it said.

“This incredibly high value also includes the upper airspace over Kosovo,” a statement published on the website of HungaroControl in January said.

Income earned from departures and arrivals at Pristina airport, to and from around 25 destinations, goes to Kosovo’s ANSA.

“Last year we earned 4 million euros [from this], while the upper airspace should have generated around 6.7 to 7.8 million euros – but we have no exact data about that,” the director of ANSA, Bahri Nuredini, told BIRN.

If Kosovo had full control over its upper airspace, the country could earn millions more euros a year. Kosovo could create “a minimum of 100 new jobs for its citizens, while from the financially aspect, there would be 6 to 8 million euros [extra] per year,” Nuredini said.

He added that current tariffs are set by the Civil Aviation Authority of Kosovo, which “has the right to decrease or increase tariffs when evaluating the development of national policy”.

According to ANSA, 2018 saw over 16,000 commercial operations, an increase of 12 per cent from the previous year.