B&H prepares for exciting 2009

From "T9" to "E7"

The country prefix for Bosnia and Herzegovina in aviation has changed from T9 to E7. One of B&H Airlines’ aircraft was the first to receive the new prefix registration. The ATR72, seen above, received the new registration at Airbus’ base in Toulouse, France where minor technical checks were also carried out.

Meanwhile B&H Airlines is preparing for the 2009 summer season. The airline is soon expected to receive a Boeing 737 aircraft, the first jet-engine aircraft in its 2 member fleet. However the exact type of the B737 is still unknown. It is likely that the aircraft will either be a B737-700 leased from the low-cost SkyEurope, which has found itself in major financial problems and is facing bankruptcy. The other suggested aircraft type is the 800 series. It has been implied that this aircraft would be given to BH from Turkish Airlines, BH’s new owners. No matter of the exact type, the new aircraft would allow B&H Airlines to commence services to more lucrative destinations which it cannot reach with its current fleet of 2 ATR72s. In particular BH would focus on the Scandinavian market, particularly Sweden where there is a large Bosnian Diaspora. The airline has already announced that it will redirect some of its flights towards Western Europe via Tuzla so it could include the domestic airport in its destination network. The airline’s management has announced that during 2009 the Bosnian carrier is aiming to commence direct services to Vienna, Prague, Dusseldorf, Gothenburg, Stockholm and Tripoli. The airline would also add new destinations to its regional network – Belgrade in Serbia and Podgorica in Montenegro. The only other regional destination the airline operates to is Skopje in Macedonia.

B&H Airlines recently launched its new look web-page at airbosna.ba which will allow passengers to book their flights via the Internet from March 2009.