B&H destinations dropping like flies
After terminating services to Prague and Berlin earlier this month, the management of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s national carrier has now decided to drop flights to Podgorica and Skopje due to low interest. The airline will be suspending flights to the capitals of Montenegro and Macedonia on October 23. Flights to Podgorica are operated 3 times per week on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Flights to Skopje also operate 3 times per week with flight JA606, which is conducted on Wednesday and Friday, going via Podgorica. The direct flight to Skopje is operated on Mondays. The regional ATR72 is being used on all of the flights. The new services were launched with much fanfare earlier this year. Flights to Podgorica were resumed after a 20 year air link absence. However, it seems that the 20 years were not long enough to interest the public. With a return ticket between Sarajevo and Podgorica amounting to over 150 Euros it was exceptionally difficult to attract any passengers.Meanwhile, one of B&H’s owners, Turkish Airlines, announced yesterday that it will be commencing services to Podgorica, among other European cities, within a year. The B&H operated flights to Podgorica were strategically placed in order for passengers from Podgorica to easily connect onto B&H and Turkish Airlines flights to Istanbul. You can read all of B&H’s timetable modifications for the 2009/10 winter season tomorrow on the blog.
If B&H Airlines continues like this even with the second Boeing, then a good idea would be flying to cities served by foreign airliners flying to Sarajevo (Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Munich, Oslo - seasonal, etc).
ReplyDeleteJA shouldnt compete with foreign established airlines in BiH, especially on routes in the Yugoslavia region. JA have flown ZAG before but couldnt compete with OU who offer i think double daily flights to SJJ (or is it now daily since the arrival of the Q400's). JAT have managed to maintain daily flights to SJJ for a few years now, with even double daily on some days during the summer. JA on the SJJ-BEG route imo would be more O&D traffic rather than connecting people, like with the JAT flights.
ReplyDeletethe B734 to me is too big for JA to nicely expand, i believe it limits their expansion. After all, there is 150 seats to fill in the aircraft, which doesnt generally happen on flights to LJU, PRN or BEG, which are larger and attract more passengers every year than SJJ. Time for 2 ERJ190 to replace 1 B734 :-)
If they keepp dropping routes at this rate, a second Boeing won't be necessary.. Only FRA, ZRH and VIE remain for the ATR as DUS goes Boeing, but probably will be changed into ATR now and then..
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with JATBEGMEL, such a big aircraft to start expanding can't be profitable.. With some help we should be able to lease a E70 or E90, perhaps even a Fokker but make it smaller.. Operating costs will decrease, so a break even profitlevel will be much easier to reach..
Just my 2cents,
Pozz, Bo
hhehehehe.....
ReplyDeleteTurkish Airlines probably doesn't even care, they're just dumping their old aircraft to B&H Airlines. A smaller jet engined aircraft - Embraer or Airbus A318?
This all just pointless! I cannot believe that all EX yu airlines are CONSTANTLY going into something which is obviosly is not going to work! Sarajevo-Podgorica-Skopje is great idea but AGAIN if they were hoping that the planes will be full for the price mentoned above they must be joking! Low cost airlines are solution for ex YU market and that is it! Like Aer Lingus has done! i have flown with them to Vienna for 50 pounds return and they are GREAT, if you wish or that desperate to eat than get couple of euros and buy it on the plane! Pozdrav svima
ReplyDeleteI will go to Sarajevo in december month with Croatia Airlines because the flight was cheap but i have flyed with BH Airlines B737-400.
ReplyDeleteI will look how the expansion on SJJ is going and maybe take some photos.
the Yugoslav region already had a low cost carrier and that was the Belgrade based airline Centavia which had 2 leased BAe aircraft and had sent crew to be trained in Melbourne, Australia. Funny enough, the Montenegrin government and the Croatian government both rejected landing rights into the respective countries for regular flights, and with the lack of organisation it fell apart, only to have flown summer charters in Greece, Turkey, Egypt and a couple charters i think the Azerbaijan or Armenia. The low cost thingy could work in Croatia and Slovenia but for the rest....2 words: Schengen Visa. Its a b#+%h to get it and an incread travel expense of 40 euros which isnt little when your income is something like 300 euros a month.
ReplyDeleteIt will be intresting to watch JA in the next 6 to 12 months and see what happens. I dont see the B734's lasting, but we will have to wait and see.
150 euros to Podgorica - what a joke. What were they thinking? What kind of lemmings thought that this would ever work? Hello?
ReplyDelete