Interest from low cost airlines to fly to Sarajevo Airport

Sarajevo could soon see low cost flights from London, Rome and Dusseldorf as the Bosnian government relaxes its conditions towards no frills airlines. The government currently requires low cost airlines to pay a levy of ten euros per passenger in order to operate flights to the country. Until recently, the levy amounted to fifteen euros but the state government gave up on its share of the takings while the Federation government is expected to follow suit. According to the Al Jazeera Balkans network, interest has been shown for flights to commence from London, Rome, Dusseldorf and a city in Sweden to Sarajevo this summer. Recently, the low cost Austrian airline Niki, owned by Air Berlin, said it was evaluating the Bosnian market.

New airlines would be more than welcomed by airports in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In February, the country’s busiest airport, Sarajevo, suffered a 21% passenger decrease by handling only 26.278 passengers. During the month the airport was affected by bad weather but also B&H Airlines’ route suspensions. However, the full brunt of the carrier’s woes is to be felt at the airport in March. Currently, B&H operates a single daily flight to Istanbul with an ATR72. During February, Banja Luka Airport welcomed 424 passengers and Mostar 318. Tuzla did not manage to attract any passengers last month.

Sarajevo Airport is served by two low cost airlines - Germanwings and Norwegian Air Shuttle. Norwegian operates flights on a seasonal basis and will be resuming services from Oslo and Stockholm to the Bosnian capital this summer. On top of its all year round service from Cologne, Germanwings will resume seasonal flights from Stuttgart to Sarajevo this summer as well.

Soon in Mostar

The Italian airline Air Vallée will commence seasonal summer flights from Abruzzo Airport near Pescara, on Italy’s eastern coast to Mostar from April 1. The decision was reached after successful talks were held between the city of Mostar, Mostar Airport, tour operators and Abruzzo Airport. Services will operate twice per week, every Monday and Friday until the end of the summer season. As a result, a total 52 flights will be operated. A total of 54 seats per flights will be pre-booked by tour operators while the rest will go on sale.

Lucio Laureti, the head of SAGA, which operates Abruzzo Airport, told local media, “For the moment flights to Mostar will operate during the summer but there is already a pre-contract for flights to continue in the winter. Offcourse, everything depends on the response we get from passengers”. While pilgrims visiting Medjugorje will play an important role in making the flights a success, Laureti believes there is also room for other types of passengers. “There is commercial interest as well. Soon Mostar will host the International Economic Fair and Italy is Bosnia’s third largest trade partner”, Laureti says.

Flights between Mostar and Pescara operated for a short time last year by B&H Airlines although flights to Pescara ultimately went to Air Vallée this year. Late last year the Bosnian national carrier expressed interest to expand operations out of Mostar. While Mostar does not have scheduled flights, it enjoys numerous charters. In 2011, Mostar Airport handled 36.807 passengers, an increase of 107% compared to 2010, and secured its position as the second busiest airport in the country after Sarajevo.

Soon in Stockholm and Gothenburg

B&H Airlines will be resuming flights to Stockholm and Gothenburg this summer, as a seasonal service only. B&H suspended flights to both cities in August 2011. Services to Sweden, used primarily by the Bosnian diaspora, are extremely seasonal and see high passenger numbers in the summer months but struggle during the low winter period. Flights to both cities will operate twice per week. They will be separate services unlike last year. Both will operate with an Airbus A319, from June 2 to September 1. Flight details for the Sarajevo - Stockholm service can be found here, while details for the Gothenburg flights can be viewed here.

Late last year, B&H Airlines’ CEO, Altan Buyukyilmaz, said the airline was looking to expand its operations in 2012. Italy has been viewed as a potential new market for the Bosnian carrier after it successfully performed charters from Mostar to Pescara last September. The airline is in talks with Mostar Airport management to launch two weekly flights to the city from Sarajevo but is requesting handling fee exemptions.

Meanwhile, it was a matter of bad luck for B&H’s hub Sarajevo Airport as it handled 599.996 passengers, four short of its 600.000 passenger goal. The airport was hampered by foggy weather throughout November and December, which saw many flights diverted or cancelled. Still, the airport can be content with a 6.5% passenger increase on 2010. Bosnia’s second busiest airport, Mostar, saw impressive growth of 107% thanks to numerous charters for religious pilgrims and welcomed 36.807 passengers. Despite all of its financial problems, Banja Luka Airport pulled of a notable 74% passenger increase by handling 8.367 passengers. However, Tuzla underperformed with only 4.527 passengers, down 20% on 2010.

Sarajevo - Mostar in 2012

B&H Airlines plans to launch flights from Mostar to Sarajevo next year in hope of attracting transit passengers through the Bosnian capital. It has been proposed for the flights from Mostar to depart early in the mornings in order to connect on to B&H’s European network. The flights from Sarajevo to Mostar would leave in the evening hours, with the service to be operated by an ATR72. B&H has requested an exemption from fees at Mostar Airport during its first year of operations and has asked for the flights to be partially subsidised by the Mostar city authorities.

B&H operated flights from Mostar to Pescara in Italy for several weeks over the summer, which proved popular with tourists. The airline is mulling over plans to launch services to Rome next year. B&H Airlines will handle similar passenger numbers as last year. Despite a promising start to the year, with a strong passenger surge recorded, numbers were severely hit in the past few months after the airline’s destination network was significantly cut. On the other hand, Mostar Airport handled 35.329 passengers by the end of November, an increase of 98%.

Soon in Pescara

B&H Airlines will commence scheduled charter flights from Sarajevo via Mostar to Pescara in Italy. The service will begin next Saturday, on September 17. Flights will operate with an ATR72 with the departure times from Sarajevo alternating between 13.00 one week and 13.45 the other. A total of 7 flights are planned to be operated, with the last service taking place on October 29. The flights are being subsidised by the local authorities in Mostar and Pescara.

All sides participating in this project are hoping to attract Christian pilgrims from Italy visiting Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina. B&H Airlines should make good money from the service as all seats on the aircraft will be pre-booked by a tour operator. Pescara is located on Italy's eastern coast, some 180 kilometres from the capital Rome.

B&H Airlines has attempted several times to operate flights out of secondary airports in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2008 and 2009 the airline commenced flights from Mostar to Istanbul and Stuttgart but failed to attract any interest. Similarly, it operated out of Tuzla to Frankfurt in 2009 and from Banja Luka to Istanbul and Frankfurt in 2008 and 2010 respectively, with little success.

Passenger numbers increase across Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sarajevo Airport handled 81.042 passengers in July 2011, an increase of 12% compared to the same month last year. Driving the growth are larger capacity aircraft foreign carriers are sending, an increase in travel from the diaspora as well as visa free travel for Bosnian citizens to Schengen Zone countries, introduced in December last year. So far this year the airport handled 355.772 passengers and will comfortably surpass last year’s annual result of 563.266 passengers. Although the airport saw numbers slip in January compared to last year, business picked up from February with the airport enjoying 6 months of consecutive growth.

Other airports in Bosnia and Herzegovina also saw their figures improve, particularly Tuzla. Thanks to charters to Antalya and seasonal summer flights to Dubai, Tuzla Airport welcomed over 1.000 passengers in July. Similarly, Mostar, which has been enjoying a flurry of charters this summer, saw over 5.000 passengers pass through its doors. However, there is trouble at Banja Luka Airport which is seeing its numbers decrease as summer progresses. The airport handled just over 500 passengers, putting it in last position for the month amongst Bosnia’s international airports for the first time in several years.

Charter flights for B&H

B&H Airlines will begin subsidised charter flights from Mostar to Pescara in Italy. Flights are expected to begin in early September and are scheduled to run until the end of October. The service will operate once per week. All sides participating in this project are hoping to attract Christian pilgrims from Italy visiting Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina. B&H Airlines should make good money from the service as all seats on the aircraft will be pre-booked by a tour operator. Pescara is located on Italy's eastern coast, some 180 kilometres from the capital Rome.

Mostar Airport has been reporting strong passenger figures this year, thus becoming Bosnia and Herzegovina’s second busiest airport, behind Sarajevo. The airport is booming thanks to religious tourism and has seen an increase in charter flights this summer. However, the airport still doesn’t have a single scheduled service, as a result preventing it from reaching its full potential.

Meanwhile, Dubrovnik Airline from Croatia will begin summer flights from Dubrovnik to Pescara. The 1 weekly service will commence next week. Flight details can be found here.

Soon in Pescara

B&H Airlines will begin seasonal summer flights from Mostar Airport to Pescara in Italy. The exact date of the service launch will be known soon when the local authorities from Mostar meet with their counterparts in Italy. There they will agree on a date for the first promotional flight between the two cities and the actual date commercial flights should begin. The airline is hoping to attract Christian pilgrims from Italy visiting Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina. B&H Airlines should make good money from the service as all seats on the aircraft will be pre-booked by a tour operator. Pescara is located on Italy's eastern coast, some 180 kilometres from Rome.

The flights are expected to operate once per week with an ATR72. B&H’s ATR currently flies only to Zurich and fills in on other routes from time to time in case of a technical fault with the Airbus A319. Last year, B&H Airlines operated many charter flights, in particular to Turkey, even having an aircraft entirely dedicated for charter services. However, this year B&H is not operating virtually any charters. All of them have been taken over by the Turkish based Corendon Airlines and Tailwind Airlines operating charters to Antalya.

The new flights will come as good news for Mostar Airport which has seen a bounty of charter flights this summer season. Last month the airport handled 4.029 passengers making it Bosnia and Herzegovina’s second largest airport in terms of passenger numbers after Sarajevo and ahead of Banja Luka and Tuzla.

B&H to commence Pescara service

Mostar Airport has announced it is finalising an agreement with B&H Airlines to commence seasonal summer charters from the city to Pescara in Italy. Mostar Airport’s managment is visiting Pescara in order to finalise the flight details. The project is being propped by a local tour operator. This is welcomed news for the airport as it has been struggling to attract airlines for years. If all goes to plan flights could commence next month, local media reports. In April, Mostar handled 2.193 passengers thanks to charter flights from Italy and Lebanon. It is believed Mostar Airport could attract airlines offering flights to religious pilgrims visiting the nearby Medjugorje.

On the other hand, Tuzla is anticipating the start of Air Arabia’s Dubai service, which commences on July 1. The airport handled only 54 passengers last month. Meanwhile, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s second largest city, Banja Luka, saw 719 passengers pass through its doors. Finally in April, Sarajevo handled 49.489 passengers. In total, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s four airports handled 52.455 passengers in April.

Bosnia and Herzegovina to stay without a fifth airport

For the past two years, local authorities in Trebinje have claimed that they will build Bosnia and Herzegovina’s newest airport. However, the project has been cancelled. Local authorities say that they failed to find a party interested in participating in the construction together with the government of the entity of Republika Srpska, despite initial interest from a Chinese corporation. The Government of Republika Srpska has spent 1.6 million Convertible Bosnian Marks (820.000 Euros) for the Trebinje Airport project documentation. It envisaged for the airport to handle up to 250.000 passengers per year. Within a 120 kilometre radius from Trebinje there are airports in Dubrovnik, Mostar, Tivat and Podgorica.

Bosnia and Herzegovina currently has a total of 4 international airports – Sarajevo, Mostar, Tuzla and Banja Luka and most are struggling, both financially and passenger wise, with Sarajevo being the only exception. The 4 airports handled a total of 42.151 passengers in March 2011. While Sarajevo saw 40.803 passengers, it was followed by Mostar with 696 passengers, Banja Luka with 640 and Tuzla at a distant 4th place with a total of 12 passengers handled in March.

B&H to dump Frankfurt flights but keeps Zurich

B&H Airlines will terminate services from Banja Luka to Frankfurt on March 24, Emir Dervišević, the head of B&H planning, flight scheduling and networking confirmed for Source : EXYU aviation news : http://exyuaviation.blogspot.com. The 2 weekly service, which commenced only a few months ago (on November 1), will cease due to poor loads. However, the airline will keep its three weekly service to Zurich. B&H fought hard to gain rights to commence flights out of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s second largest city. Still, the airline dumped planed flights from Banja Luka to Vienna which were to commence in October 2010.

On the other hand, Adria Airways will keep its subsidised flights from Ljubljana to Banja Luka during the 2011 summer season. There has been no progress with Sky Srpska, an airline meant to be based in the city. Although plans were set for the company to commence flights last year, aircraft are yet to be leased.

Meanwhile, another airport in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mostar, has said that its business is in a “catastrophic” state due to high fuel prices. The Vice President of the Mostar Airport union told the “Dnevni Avaz” newspaper that Split and Dubrovnik were profiting at Mostar’s expense. Mostar sees the occasional charter flight during the summer. Although it did handle 15.000 passengers in 2010, the union vice president said that this was a far cry from the 100.000 passengers the airport handled prior to the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1980s.

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

From today, passport holders of Bosnia and Herzegovina can travel to 25 members of the Schengen Area as well as Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus and Lichtenstein without a visa for up to 3 months. The visa liberalisation is anticipated to have a big impact on passenger numbers travelling to and from airports in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Last night, Sarajevo celebrated the lifting of the visa restrictions with a “New Schengen Year” party in the city centre. B&H Airlines will today operate a special flight to Strasbourg in France, carrying deserving citizens as well as politicians and members of the media. From Banja Luka, a special flight will be chartered to Brussels. Sarajevo Airport has seen a massive increase in passenger numbers mostly due to B&H Airlines’ increased flight offering. Both the airport and airline will hope to see an even better 2011. Whether foreign carriers will be enticed to commence flights to either Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Mostar or Tuzla remains to be seen.

Last December the same visa restrictions were lifted for citizens of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. All three countries have seen a sharp increase in passenger numbers at their airports this year. Belgrade Airport has so far recorded an increase of 13% with the visa liberalisation coinciding with the introduction of the open sky policy. Similar growth has been recorded at Macedonia’s two airports, with numbers at Skopje increasing by 12.6% and at Ohrid by 9.3%. Meanwhile, Montenegro’s two airports saw a combined passenger increase of 20% (Podgorica up by 47% and Tivat by 2%).

Passengers skipping Sarajevo

The services for using airports across Bosnia and Herzegovina are expensive and the airports are failing to attract customers. Nudžeim Rečica, the CEO of B&H Airlines says, “At Sarajevo Airport where most of Bosnia’s air traffic is handled, taxes amount to 18 Euros per passenger plus a further 10 Euros is paid for tax for the development of civil aviation in the Bosnian Federation. In the rest of Europe taxes mostly vary between 15 to 20 Euros but most airports have their own taxes added as well, such as a security tax". The CEO of Sarajevo Airport, Bakir Karahasanović, says that prices have never deterred airlines from Sarajevo but the country’s major problem is that there is a lack of a middle class and thus airlines do not see the potential of flying to Sarajevo. ”We do not have enough passengers so airlines are avoiding Sarajevo", the CEO of Sarajevo Airport says adding that the airport handles approximately 500.000 passengers annually which is nearly 90% of all air traffic in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Banja Luka Airport has only 2 scheduled services, to Zurich (operated by B&H Airlines) and Belgrade (operated by Jat Airways). Airports in Tuzla and Mostar have no scheduled services. Marin Raspudić, the CEO of Mostar Airport, says that airports in Croatia pose the greatest competition. "Despite its location most passengers are avoiding Mostar. This is a city which is regressing and its airport is no exception", Raspudić says. In order to attract airlines to smaller airports many governments in European countries finance low cost airlines for a certain amount of time to fly on these services, which is not the case in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

3 new destinations for B&H

Only months after being purchased by Turkish Airlines, the national carrier of Bosnia and Herzegovina, B&H Airlines, has published its summer schedule which includes 3 new destinations. The 3 destinations are all in Scandinavia where one can find a high concentration of the Bosnian Diaspora. Two of the destinations are in Sweden (Stockholm and Gothenburg) while the other is in Denmark (Copenhagen). Unfortunately these flights, scheduled to begin in May, have still not gained government approval. Once they do tickets will go on sale and flights details will be released. The new service should be operated with a Boeing B737-400, B&H’s first jet engine aircraft. All other services will be operated with the airlines 2 ATR72-200 aircraft.

Two services will be suspended - to Cologne Bonn and to the Macedonian capital Skopje. The service to Cologne was operated twice a week during the winter while Skopje 3 times per week. Both destinations have been dumped due to low profitability. To Cologne B&H lost most of its passengers after the low cost Germanwings began operating this sector (the airline is increasing its frequency to 3 weekly flights from summer 2009). Other services will receive a frequency boost although Istanbul will be unchanged with 6 weekly nonstop services from Sarajevo and one weekly service via Mostar. B&H will also, for the first time, include Tuzla in its services with the city being a stop over from Sarajevo to Frankfurt twice a week.

The schedule below shows the frequencies during this winter and the planned frequencies. Also the table shows the aircraft used during the winter months and which aircraft will be used during the summer.

Flights from Sarajevo:

Destination	Frequency (winter 2008/09)	Frequency (summer 2009)	Aircraft type (winter 2008/09)	Aircraft type (summer 2009)
Cologne/Bonn	2	SUSPENDED	ATR72	-
Frankfurt	4	6 (2 via Tuzla)	ATR72	ATR72
Istanbul	7 (1 via Mostar)	7 (1 via Mostar)	ATR72	ATR72
Skopje	3	SUSPENDED	ATR72	-
Zurich	4 (2 via Banja Luka)	4 (2 via Banja Luka)	ATR72	ATR72
Stockholm (from May 1)	-	1	-	B737-400
Gothenburg (from May 2)	-	2	-	B737-400
Copenhagen (from May 4)	-	2	-	B737-400

* All frequencies above are weekly. The timetable is subject to change and if there are any changes it will be updated.

On October 25, 2008 B&H Airlines, the national airline of Bosnia and Herzegovina will begin with its winter schedule. With as small amount of destinations and a fleet of only two aircraft (ATR72’s) there won’t be many changes however some lines have been rerouted and some reduced while others increased.

B&H Airline has recently been purchased by Turkish Airlines. The exact amount of shares purchased is still uncertain (49% or 51% - to be announced in the following days) however B&H Airlines is increasing its frequencies to Turkish Airlines’ base – Istanbul. Flights will be increased from 4 per week to 6 flights per week. The Sarajevo to Frankfurt service will increase from 2 weekly to 3 weekly flights.

Furthermore B&H will replace the nonstop Sarajevo – Stuttgart service with a stop via Mostar from October 26. Flight JA214 will be operated twice a week. Frequencies to Zurich will remain as they have been operated during the summer – 4 times per week and the same goes for Cologne which will continue to be operated twice times a week. B&H’s only destination within the EX-YU region, to Skopje, Macedonia, will be decreased from 2 flights to 1 flight per week. The airline will maintain its code share agreements with Jat Airways from Sarajevo to Belgrade and Croatia Airlines from Sarajevo to Zagreb. B&H Airlines will continue operating from Banja Luka to Zurich via Sarajevo.

This is BH Airlines’ last timetable before the privatisation process is officially completed. The 2009 summer season should offer a greater variety of services with new aircraft expected.

Any related updates will be posted. Any question our readers might have regarding the new schedule can be posted by using the “comments” option or contacting us using our e-mail address. Soon the Adria Airways, Montenegro Airlines and MAT Macedonian Airlines 2008/09 winter schedule will be published on the blog.

BH Airlines
Unfortunately with a lack of aircraft the airline was unable to start recently announced services to London or Skopje however there is some good news from the Bosnian carrier. The airline will, on June 10, commence flights to Stuttgart from Mostar. Relying on the diaspora and some tourism the flights could be successful. Meanwhile the airline has continued cooperation with Jat Airways by continuing 3 weekly code share flights to Belgrade (operated by Jat Airways). Jat Airways flies daily to Sarajevo.

Croatia Airlines
Croatia is as usual spreading its wings this summer especially in the region. Competition for regional routes will now be high between Croatian and Jay. Croatia Airlines is starting flights to the Montenegrin capital Podgorica on June 17, 2008. The airline starts services to Priština on June 16 (in the disputed breakaway Serbian region of Kosovo) where Jat is currently not allowed to operate.

Montenegro Airlines
The Montenegrin national carrier is this year, with a brand new Embraer E195 (which arrives this Sunday – stay tuned to this blog), starting flights to a couple of European cities. In the next few days the airline will start daily services to Frankfurt while new destinations in the airline’s network include London from June 15 and Milano from July (although a date has not yet been specified). The airline is also hoping to start flights to Brussels, Moscow and Berlin however this might be just a bit too optimistic for this summer.