Dumping Banja Luka

B&H to dump Frankfurt flights but keeps Zurich

B&H Airlines will terminate services from Banja Luka to Frankfurt on March 24, Emir Dervišević, the head of B&H planning, flight scheduling and networking confirmed for EX-YU aviation news. The 2 weekly service, which commenced only a few months ago (on November 1), will cease due to poor loads. However, the airline will keep its three weekly service to Zurich. B&H fought hard to gain rights to commence flights out of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s second largest city. Still, the airline dumped planed flights from Banja Luka to Vienna which were to commence in October 2010.

On the other hand, Adria Airways will keep its subsidised flights from Ljubljana to Banja Luka during the 2011 summer season. There has been no progress with Sky Srpska, an airline meant to be based in the city. Although plans were set for the company to commence flights last year, aircraft are yet to be leased.

Meanwhile, another airport in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mostar, has said that its business is in a “catastrophic” state due to high fuel prices. The Vice President of the Mostar Airport union told the “Dnevni Avaz” newspaper that Split and Dubrovnik were profiting at Mostar’s expense. Mostar sees the occasional charter flight during the summer. Although it did handle 15.000 passengers in 2010, the union vice president said that this was a far cry from the 100.000 passengers the airport handled prior to the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1980s.