From Banja Luka with love

Rejected

All indicators point that B&H Airlines, the national carrier of Bosnia and Herzegovina, will not commence 11 weekly flights between the country’s 2 largest cities – Sarajevo and Banja Luka. Banja Luka Airport, which has the power to decide whether the airline will serve the city, is yet to give an answer to B&H’s flight permit request, even though it was lodged more than a month ago. The flights are supposed to begin in just over 2 weeks.

It is believed that Banja Luka Airport does not want to let B&H Airlines to pose as a competitor to a future airline to be based at the airport – Sky Srpska. The Government of Republika Srpska, the entity in which Banja Luka lies, has said that it does not want to get involved in the issue but believes that one international route should be kept operational from the airport. Until recently B&H Airlines operated flights from Banja Luka to Zurich. These have been cancelled with the start of the summer season and were to be substituted with the Sarajevo service.

The CEO of B&H Airlines, Nudžeim Rečica, said that the airline is loosing its patience with Banja Luka and would turn to other destinations, “There are so many destinations we can serve, from Skopje to Rome”, Rečica told the “Dnevni Avaz” newspaper.

If B&H is not granted rights to operate flights to Sarajevo, Banja Luka will be left without any customers. Currently, the airport doesn’t have a CEO as the previous one was recently removed from his post.

Together with Banja Luka, Zagreb is also expected to be dumped as a destination. Fights to the Croatian capital were supposed to begin in May as well. Skopje seems to be the front runner as a substitute to the cancelled regional services.