Adria begins Banja Luka flights

Adria now in Banja Luka

Slovenia’s Adria Airways has begun flights to Banja Luka, linking the two cities via the air with a scheduled service for the first time. The inaugural promotional flight was carried out on Tuesday, while the first revenue flight began on Wednesday. The service, operated by the Bombardier CRJ200, was originally planned to run four time per week but low interest and non existent marketing have forced Adria to reduce the flights to only two times per week. The CEO of Adria Airways, Tadej Tufek, said, “We hope that the new service will be used by relatives, friends and business partners from both countries”. Adria is hoping to attract transit passengers, which would fly via Ljubljana to elsewhere in Europe, in order to make the route successful.

The Government of the Republika Srpska, the entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina in which Banja Luka lies, is subsidising the flights with 900.000 Convertible Bosnian Marks (approximately 460.160 Euros). The Minister for Transport of Republika Srpska, Nedeljko Čubrilović, said that the Adria service is important as it will lead to the development of air travel from Banja Luka. He also announced that the Government is working hard on opening services from Banja Luka to Tivat.

Adria Airways recently signed a cooperation agreement with Sky Srpska, an airline to be based in Banja Luka and expected to fly from next year. Such an agreement has already been made with Montenegro Airlines, while Jat Airways would provide all the needed technical and logistical assistance.