Flights suspended before they even commenced
Just two weeks before flights between Bosnia and Herzegovina’s second largest city, Banja Luka, and the Austrian capital were supposed to be inaugurated, B&H Airlines has suspended the service. Low interest has forced the Bosnian carrier to dump plans for two weekly flights which were to commence on October 31. The airline will keep its new services from Banja Luka to Zurich and Frankfurt, which are to begin on October 31 and November 1 respectively. B&H will operate 4 weekly flights from Sarajevo to Vienna. Originally, 2 of the flights were planned to operate via Banja Luka. Now, all 4 will operate nonstop.Besides flights to Zurich and Frankfurt, Banja Luka Airport will be connected with Ljubljana throughout the winter as subsidised flights, operated on behalf of Adria Airways, continue 4 times per week.
In an attempt to win over passengers, B&H recently launched a 1 Euro ticket sale (no taxes included). The promotional campaign is in the lead up to the abolition of EU visa requirements for Bosnian passport holders. The abolition of visas to the European Union (excluding the United Kingdom and Ireland) is expected to take place in December. Similarly, last year’s visa requirement elimination for Serbian, Montenegrin and Macedonian citizens saw a significant increase in airline traffic and passenger numbers from those countries.
can;t believe it i wanted to fly that , from vienna to banja luka it was perfect! i was going to fly to vienna from vancouver with Air Berlin then stay at with my uncle's family in vienna for one day! Well it's looks like i will have to fly to belgrade! at least i have friends there just get a bus from Belgrade to banja luka then
ReplyDeleteCan B&H just go away, they're worse then Jat! It seems there's absolutely no planning of these route announcements, it seems all they're doing is announcing a destination and then just hope people are interested. No research, no nothing, where the hell is Turkish Airlines in all this, aren't they the ones supposedly running a 'successful' airline?
ReplyDeleteNo sense of building up patronage, no sense of network planning, no sense of fleet utilisation. If other airlines in the region s(eg JU) weren't as much of a joke, JA would be *the* basketcase of the exYU airlines.
ReplyDeleteSome proper staff well versed in the industry (possibly from parent TK) can't come fast enough.
Most news of ex-Yu carriers looks like
ReplyDeleteMuppet's Show.
Are the airlines managed by skilled people or amateurs or maybe by politicians?
I would of thought VIE would do ok from BNX considering there are ALOT of ex-yu people in Vienna. I guess its just one of the 2 or 3 daily via ZAG or the 6 daily via BEG.
ReplyDelete@ administrator
Visa's are being lifted from the Schengen Zone, not the EU, thus the reason why Switzerland and Liechtenstein will be accesable visa free where as the UK isnt.
I was on a business trip in Copenhagen few weeks ago and had to go to another trip to Istanbul few days later. I realized that I could actually take B&H to IST from CPH with a day or two stop-over in SJJ to visit some family.
ReplyDeleteFrom previous experience I know that Turkish offers one stopover for free and I hoped that B&H was also doing the same (but I was also willing to pay for that).
So I started by going to the site and trying to buy ticket form CPH to IST. To my surprise it was impossible. After few more tries I realized that it was impossible to buy any tickets which were not point to point (i.e. either originating or ending at SJJ).
I thought that this was some kind of bug because I couldn't imagine that any respectable company is only selling point to point tickets nowadays. Hence I decided to call them. I got in contact with very service minded person at the other end. I wondered about stop-over and she didn't have a clue what I was talking about! (this was not a language issue as I speak Bosnian)
Then I explained that I wanted to travel from CPH to IST on same ticket with one stop at SJJ. She explained that I had to purchase two tickets.
Thus I basically realized that B&H airlines doesn't understand at all concept of routing traffic through the SJJ which perfectly explains why their connection to SKP was complete failure. Also not being able to understand the concept of stop-over probably removes a lot of business passengers from them. In many companies it is impossible to get through procurement if you are buying two tickets.
Now I ended actually buying two tickets - price was reasonable, connection times good and most importantly at my company I do not have to explain double tickets.
What I was positively surprised is how service minded all the staff of B&H airlines have been on all four flights. Everybody from stewards & stewardesses to ticket office. Basically everybody actually doing the job and not being in managerial position.
So keep the people on the flour, give them some more education and throw out the incompetent management which is not able to understand basic concepts of aviation industry today.
And btw on the same trip I mentioned in my earlier post I was reading an interview with Turkish CEO (NBC Business September edition). Basically he states in that interview that purchase of B&H is exception to the rule that Turkish is only growing organically. He continues that they do not need to purchase any more companies due to their organic growth being so good (10% credited mostly thanks to good strategic location of IST)
ReplyDeleteSo it didn't seem to me plausible that JAT would be purchased by TK at any time soon.
Does anybody know how you can get the new 1 euro flight deals from BH Airlines? There is no mention of it on their website.
ReplyDeleteWhat a bunch of jokers.
ReplyDeleteFirst everyone is moaning why they are making a stop on such a short flight.
ReplyDeleteWhen they decide not to do so, everyone moans again.
I know B&H isn't the best airline in schedules, transfers, updates or marketing. But hey, give them a break..
Besides, Anonymous: the action is mentioned on the main page of the website..
Pozz,
Bo
Give them a break? Give me one good reason why we should give them a break! With an airline that operates such a stupid schedule every year dropping and adding the same routes seems like a circus in Sarajevo at the moment and not to mention the company being financed by Turkish Airlines! That just goes to show what Turkish Airline is like too.
ReplyDeletePeter, Turkish Airlines own only 49% of B&H Airlines, and therefore isn't running the company but Bosnians. If you are so good in ''dissing'' then you should know more about the company first before you post something stupid. :)
ReplyDeleteAirKoryo, what Turkish Airlines is like too? Well you can see that yourself wherever you want, that company is one of the best in Europe and the whole world. Mangement of Turkish Airlines isn't allowed to manage B&H Airlines.
ReplyDeleteHater.
@ Zrak
ReplyDeleteTKs offer of JA was an interesting one, something both historic and, I believe, they see a bright future for - you could say they have taken a gamble that BiH will stabilise and prosper financially and politically in the short-medium term.
Perhaps it does need to flounder a bit more before getting in their own (TK) staff.
@ AirKoryo
Tocno! Public companies are open to scrutiny... and you are right about the circus of schedule by the airline: the only given seems to be a daily flight to IST and some to ZRH!
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteBest in Europe and the world Turkish Airlines? Mate get off your high horse and get back down the earth with the rest of us. Turkish Airlines is a Government pumped carrier that has no future goals but to compete with everyone else! It's a statment to get the name "Turkish" back into people's good books. Simple! Get over it Turkish Airlines is not the best nor will it ever be. How can you compare Turkish to the likes of LH, AF, EK etc.
@frequentflyer
Nice finaly a person who can speak some sense! B&H's scheduling has been a joke for their entire history dropping routes adding routes then dropping the same ones.... No wonder Air Bosna turned to dust.
@ Air_Koryo:
ReplyDeleteSince you at the other hand, are the most competent person alive as you make it sound.. Why don't u take over BH management and clear all the mistakes that have been made.
Management is bad, not the company. If you stick someone in a suit it doesn't mean he can run an airline.
But I guess that's the way it works in some places..
Hope that problems will fade with the departure of Recica.
Pozz,
Bo
@Bo
ReplyDeleteSorry to burst your bubble but the people in the "suits" control the company and make it what it is. So your comment on the company not being "bad" makes no sense.
Bad managment, bad leadership = a darn bad company! Simple!
Best Regards
Vlad - P'yongyang
They should have interline agreements with LH or UA... just to try to manage transportation of transfer pax (with reasonable fares) via FRA? I'm not sure that there are enough point-to-point pax to make this route profitable. Flight to ZRH departs early in the morning from SJJ with stop in BNX which is not so good because of fog.
ReplyDelete