Boeing B737-700 ... soon in B&H livery
The CEO of B&H Airlines has revealed that the airline will be receiving 2 Boeing B737-700 aircraft, the first of which will enter the fleet in January. A second aircraft of the same type will arrive in March 2010, just prior to the start of the summer season. As a result, the Bosnian national carrier will return its current sole jet engine aircraft, the Boeing B737-400, to its owner Turkish Airlines. The B737-700s, which will be registered in Bosnia and Herzegovina, will be approximately 4 years old.Speaking of new services B&H’s CEO, Nudžeim Rečica, said in an interview on Saturday that the airline will begin operations to Amsterdam which will allow its passengers to connect to flights to the United States and Canada. Rečica also announced that the airline’s management is working on improving its schedule and frequencies to Istanbul, Vienna, Frankfurt and Zurich and is hoping to sign code share agreements with Austrian and Lufthansa on flights from Sarajevo to these cities.
Unlike previous announcement by Rečica, that the airline will operate with 3 jet engine aircraft by the end of 2010, it now appears the airline will operate with 2 ATR72s and 2 Boeing B737-700s.
meh, small improvement, but B737....hmmm im skeptical about its success but good luck anyway. anyways, its an improvement to the B734's :)
ReplyDeleteThere has been lots of speculation about a possible new aircraft for B&H. First it would be a 734, then a 734 and 319(or 32S) and now 2 73G's. I sure hope it is true, but in order to be competitive in the Balkans as well, I think a Third ATR is necessary..
ReplyDeleteLet's wait and see till the new aircraft arrives and they finally publish a new summer schedule (Proabably last week of February :S)..
Poz,
Bo
Mmmmmmmmm.....just wondering how they will fill up these flights. Two more planes, of course I'm happy, but filling these up.....
ReplyDeleteI would've rather wanted to hear about a new marketing campaign!
Well, consider it 1 more plane, since the 734 will be returned to TK, and the fact that the 73G can operate more economical and is filled with less seats according to some statements it might actually be an improvement.
ReplyDeleteBut I have to agree on the marketing bit, It just is non-existant, which is a pity and a shame..
Poz,
Bo
@ Bo
ReplyDeleteDidn't know they could be filled with less seats! The aircraft will hopefully look good, not bad present from Turkish Airlines considering they are four years old!
I could just remember that someone on this blog (comments page) said that they saw B&H Airlines billboards around Montenegro!
So they're finally sort-of getting it right: they need jet aircraft, they need to be smaller than huge, fuel-guzzling 734s and they need to be around for a while.
ReplyDeleteWhere are these planes coming from? Are they straight out of the TK fleet, or from somewhere else (eg ex-SkyEurope)?
To answer the questions above about seating, as the 73G is smaller than a 734, we're looking at 120-130 seat mark which is far better than 146 seats on the 734s.
What I want to know is how soon they'll be flying out of Trebinje on services to BEG...
@ Bo
A 3rd AT7 isn't needed if they actually use the planes properly, and hand over longer routes to the 73Gs.
Good move. I was really skeptical when I heard about both 737-400 and A319 arriving. It didn't make any sense.
ReplyDeleteNow 2 737-700 definitively makes sense. 140 seats vs. 159 seats (standard seating) and reachability of 6,2kkm instead of 4kkm. Also higher speed. Good improvement. African charter destinations starts being possibility and even connection to Tripoli.
Btw guys check this page:
http://www.fortunecity.com/oasis/tropicana/533/BH-AIRLINES-STATISTICS.htm
It contains load factor for BH airlines in first 3 quarters. Unfortunately load factor is given in passengers and not in percentage. But assuming that their ATR72 and Boeing were equally much in the air it would give something like 31% load factor in Q1, 46% in Q2 and 66% in Q3. Good increase but they are still missing around 10% to be on the par with other airlines.
Luftwaffe: 77%
Turkish: 74%
SAS: 74,3%
Usually they climb to close to 85% in good times.
Anyone knows what is the usual load factor at JP/JU/OU/YM?
Proper link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fortunecity.com/oasis/tropicana/533/BH-AIRLINES-STATISTICS.htm
and add this one to my link from above: RLINES-STATISTICS.htm
ReplyDeleteFino jos samo da se to i ostvari a da ne ostane samo na pricama. 2Boeinga 737-700 bi bio idealan izbor flote za BH Airlines, sto bi trebalo zadovoljiti potrebe barem u naredne dvije do tri godine, a po ukidanju viznog rezima EU za BiH mislim da postoji mogucnost za uvecanje flote za jos jedan Boing i jedan ATR sto bi bio maksimum za BH Airlines.Sretno!!!
ReplyDeleteGood to see BH airlines modernising its fleet however i i thing they would be better of with one 737-700 and a smaller regional jet such as a Sukhoi or Bombardier. All ex-yu airlines should consider purchasing regional jets and a few large capacity jets this is one of the reasons why Adria airways is successful.
ReplyDeleteU ljetnom redu letenja mozemo ocekivati sljedece:
ReplyDelete---------------------------------
letovi iz Sarajeva
dnevni let za Frankfurt ATR/737
dnevni let za Bec ATR
dnevni let za Cirih ATR
9 puta sedmicno za Istanbul 737/ATR
3 puta sedmicno Dizeldorf atr/737
3 puta sedmicno Kopenhagen 737
3 puta sedmicno Stokholm/Geteborg 737
4 puta sedmicno Amsterdam 737
carter letovi za Antaliyu
---------------------------------
letovi iz Tuzle
2 puta sedmicno Frankfurt ATR
2 puta sedmicno Istanbul ATR
carter letovi za Antaliyu
--------------------------------
letovi iz Banjaluke
3 puta sedmicno Cirih ATR
2 puta sedmicno Bec ATR
--------------------------------
Velika vjerovatnoca i za letove iz Mostara !
Nothing new except for AMS? Why not add London and expand in the region. Let 737 take over the FRA route, so you can utilize the ATR in the Balkans..
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous
ReplyDeleteThe destinations you listed could be easily covered just with one ATR and one 737. To fully utilize the fleet they plan to have, it would be beneficial to start flights to London, Paris and maybe Moscow with 2-3 weekly flights to penetrate the market. I also see a lot of potential increasing frequencies from SJJ to ZAG, LJU, MUC, especially during the summer season when there is huge influx of diaspora coming home for holidays. Hope all works well.
Good luck B&H and please change the livery. It looks awful.
Liveries of all ex-YUG airlines, with the exception of bankrupted MAT Airways look awfully bad. It looks as it was created by some pre-school kid playing with dots, squares and stars. No creativity at all, which ultimately leads in no visbility and poor image in the market. Even the old JAT logo (egg shaped with JAT letters in it) seems to impress more than the current 3 dots with no meaning at all.
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with Adria livery? If you compare it with other *alliance members http://www.staralliance.com/en/
ReplyDeleteI could see B&H Airlines starting up new flights to London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris and Pristina and maybe Moscow and Milan.
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with their livery? It looks awesome! The MAT Airways livery also looked good.
@ to Sam
ReplyDeletebas me zanima kako je moguce te sve destinacije pokriri sa dva aviona????Ako ti ATR leti za Frankfurt i nazad to ti je otprilike nekih 6 sati,s tim istim avionom mozes pokriti jos Bec i to je to. Sto se tice Boieng-a sa jednim avionom dnevno mozes uraditi Istanbul i jos jednu destinaciju u Evropi i to je to.U sakom slucaju svaka novi avion i destinacija je super a pogotovo za BiH koja je toliko izolirana zbog slabih puteva i zeljeznica.
Rad it again. There will be at least 3 aircraft in the fleet. Not 2
ReplyDeleteRead again PBY, it's not about the fleet, but about Sam's comment that BH could easily handle the proposed schedule with 2 aircraft..
ReplyDeletealthough I think it needs all four aircraft they will possibly get by 2010.
Pozz,
Bo
@ Anonymous
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't agree with you. It might be true that you need approximately 6 hrs with ATR to complete the SJJ-FRA roundtrip before using it for another flight, but in first place, ATR shouldn’t be used for this route at all. I don't know how many airlines use their ATRs for such long distances??? It's not what ATR is made for. If, for instance B&H decides to use its ATR for VIE, ZAG, and LJU, it could easily cover all three destinations daily with a single ATR. The same is for 737. It could easily cover let's say FRA in the morning, ARN in the afternoon and IST late evening with overnight layover. What's the point of having the aircraft sitting on the tarmac all day...
@ Anonymous
ReplyDeleteAdria’s livery is fine. However, it starts looking very busy and unrecognizable once they paint their aircraft in all those annoying ads.
…and about B&H livery…I personally liked much more ex Air Bosna’s. The current B&H livery looks very plain and disproportional…especially on the aircraft’s tail.
@ Sam
ReplyDeleteJAT has flown their ATR's to TXL, MUC, ZRH, CGN...but yes, you have a valid point.
I don't think they should start a route to London, even though I live there, it would be nice to hop on a plane and fly there without connections. I don't see there being enough interest for the flight.
ReplyDeleteA few years back BA started a route LGW to SJJ and had to stop the route after 6 months, not enough passengers.
Interested in seeing the new 737-700s!
@ Faris
ReplyDeleteBritish Airways didn't stop flights to Sarajevo because of low passenger numbers but because of high fuel prices and it decided to terminate OTHER destinations because of this!
@ Faris
ReplyDeleteThe flights to London are not meant to target only people who live there, but also passangers connecting from US and Canada. London is the biggest hub in Europe and is hard to ignore it. Besides, it would be a nice way to attract new tourists to Bosnia. I think B&H with 737-700 and 3 weekely flights would be a great way to start this.
@ BOSNAN & Sam,
ReplyDeleteOk, my father flew several times and told me there weren't many passengers. London could be expensive for them to run in terms of rights at the airports.
I am all for seeing a direct route to Sarajevo, but they are already planning trans-atlantic links in Amsterdam. I mean that would increase weekly connections, but it might not pay off for them. They should be careful choosing their destinations so they are profitable.
BTW I emailed BH Airlines regarding information on a route to London, and they replied saying "We are not looking into London yet as it is not popular with passengers. We may look into it after the arrival of the new aircraft."
@ Faris
ReplyDeleteThank you for the information.
About the BH liveries, in my opinion they looked a bit dated when first revealed, something more modern like Croatia's would look professional. They could do a lot more in marketing, a TV advert again like Croatia's would give a clean professional image.
ReplyDeleteHopefully THY will help them re-brand their image with a new logo, liverie and some stronger advertising.