Submission of offers for BH Airlines start today

The Bosnia and Herzegovina agency for privatisation has , from today, started to accept offers for the national airline in order for it to be privatised. The privatisation of B&H was approved by the Bosnian government on May 29 this year. It won’t be a classical privatisation but a certain amount of shares will be sold so a strategic partner can be found who would work closely with the Bosnian government and both should invest money in the airline. There have already been talks with investors from the United States, Turkey (Turkish Airlines is interested in the purchase) and Croatia (Croatia Airlines has also voiced its interest). The foreign investor would gain 49% of the airline, with the majority share still in the hands of the government. The first action the new part owner must accomplish is to purchase the airline a 100 seater aircraft. This way the airline would have 3 fleet members. Last year the airline carried 70,000 passengers, an increase of 14.1% compared to 2007 and had a profit of 7.3 million Euros, a 9.5% increase compared to 2007.