B&H Airlines, which is partially owned by Turkish Airlines, is awaiting full privatisation. The national carrier of Turkey is willing to purchase 100% of B&H, however, political limbo in the country has stalled the process so far. The Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was formed last week, 5 months after citizens took to the polls. The government is now expected to sit down and negotiate with Turkish Airlines. The national carrier of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been at a standstill for several months as it awaits its future ownership status to be resolved. The airline is yet to finalise its 2011 summer timetable which begins in 6 days.However, an unnamed source for the “Dnevni Avaz” newspaper said that Turkish is using B&H Airlines and is purposely waiting for the airline’s debt to pile up so it could inexpensively take over the company. Furthermore, Turkish is more interested in slots and the free sky agreement Bosnia and Herzegovina has with the European Union, then the Bosnian market itself. According to the source, B&H Airlines’ debt currently amounts to 8.1 million Euros.
From next week, passengers travelling with B&H from Sarajevo will be hit by an 18 Euro airport tax. Passengers will be forced to pay the tax in local currency at the airport check in desk prior to departure. The airline explains this is the result of a decision made by Sarajevo Airport. The tax only applies for B&H Airlines flights.
Is the airline owned by the Federation government and not by the country at a federal level?
ReplyDeleteSo what if TK wants to profit from BiH open sky agreement with EU? That would still mean that flights start from SJJ (BNX/OMO/TZL) and that was the whole point of having national airline.
ReplyDeleteAlso IST is too far from SJJ for TK to try to route westward flight through it so I do not see anything negative with TK taking over majority share.
@Peter from Sydney
Yes. It is entity owned. I might be wrong but if I remember correctly in its first incarnation ("Air Bosna") it was owned by state & Energoinvest. During restructuring state opted out and only one entity decided to chip in money necessary for restructuring. (However it is national airline of BiH).
Imo all other ex-yugoslav states should follow Bosnias example and sell out its "national" airlines (and it seems that Montenegro and Slovenia are doing that). Reason for state ownership is that you want to benefit your own citizens in some way - currently what we see is that only C level people in these companies are benefiting while the general population is footing the bill via taxes.
Nothing new from JA releasing their summer timetable unbelievably close to the wind - any chance the current scheduling team can be replaced by competent individuals who could actually maximise usage of the planes, and possibly turn a profit??
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the 2nd A319 is also being used as a bargaining chip? We should have seen it by now...
I wouldn't rely on any reports from Dnevni Avaz. They tend to be very sensationalist and biased with pretty much any information they post. Their reports are based on personal interpretation with no verified facts or industry knowledge. As Zrak pointed out, this report about Turkish wanting to profit from Open Sky agreement and waiting for B&H to accumulate even more debt has no sense. Bosnians tend to blame others for their own faults and see crap everywhere else but in their own yard.
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ReplyDeleteI bet we will see PanAm fly again before we see Sky Srpska. Come on, you really think another airline will come into BNX to fight for all 4 passengers that Adria currently carries? For once, be realistic and stop being blinded by national pride.
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ReplyDeleteWhen is lufthansa supposed to start flights to pristina?
ReplyDeleteFirst we should stop assume that the others think like us. As if they say: "If I were the TK manager, I would do such a tactic."
ReplyDeleteThis is not a local gang business! We must keep Balkan slyness to ourselves. Otherwise no foreign investment will come... (Somebody wants it!)