More passengers – greater losses

B&H to have more flights to Istanbul

In an interview to the Internet portal beta.ba, Nudžeim Rečica, the CEO of B&H Airlines, said that the airline will finish the year with a financial loss although he can not precisely say how much it will amount to. Rečica blames the loss on the global financial crisis and the significantly lower ticket prices the airline is offering in order to fend off competition. He reminds us that B&H has had 2 difficult successive years. In the first half of 2008 the airline made a profit of 800.000 Convertible Bosnian Marks (410.000 Euros) but ended the year with a 1 million Euro loss.

Speaking about the airline’s future plans, Rečica revealed that B&H will operate daily flights to Zurich, Frankfurt, Istanbul and Vienna while it will continue flying to its destinations in Scandinavia – 2 to 3 times per week to Copenhagen, Stockholm and Gothenburg in 2010. “We plan to reduce the number of flights we have but concentrate on our key markets”, Rečica says. So far this year, flights to Prague, Berlin and Skopje have been terminated.

“Currently we are drafting our future strategy. There is a plan to replace the 2 current ATR72 turboprop planes”, Rečica says and adds that the airline will receive 2 Boeing B737-700s, the first one arriving in January and the second in March of 2010.

So far this year B&H Airlines transported some 80.000 passengers, well ahead of last years total which amounted to 63.000. Rečica believes the airline will reach 100.000 passengers by December 31.