B&H suspends Belgrade and Vienna

No more B&H flights to Belgrade

B&H Airlines is set to suspend flights from Sarajevo to Belgrade and Vienna at the start of the 2011 summer season. The airline has already terminated services from Banja Luka to Vienna, which were originally set to end in March. B&H will operate its final flight from Sarajevo to the Austrian capital on Friday, March 25. During the winter, a total of 4 weekly flights operated to Vienna, however, recently, there have been frequent cancellations as the airline has been unable to fill seats. Meanwhile, B&H’s 6 weekly flights to Belgrade will also come to an end. The airline will continue to codeshare on Jat Airways’ service to and from Sarajevo. According to sources close to the airline, B&H planned to suspend flights to Frankfurt as well as loads have been light but in the end decided to keep the service until further notice.

With B&H cancelling many of its flights and no new destinations planned for the summer season, the national carrier of Bosnia and Herzegovina once again faces the prospect of having too many aircraft and only a handful of routes. Furthermore, the scheduled arrival of an Airbus A319 this summer is also under review. Amongst employees, dissatisfaction with Turkish Airlines (a 49% share holder), is growing as the airline continues to operate with multi million Euro losses and seems unable to expand. Turkish is keen to buy out the airline but the political limbo in the Federation is blocking the purchase.