SAS denies Sarajevo plans

Maybe next time

SAS Scandinavian Airlines has denied claims it will launch services from Copenhagen to Sarajevo by July this year. In a statement to EX-YU aviation news, the airline states it is unaware of any plans being made for the carrier to inaugurate flights to the Bosnian capital this summer. Last week, Sarajevo Airport, on its official Facebook page, informed its followers, “The management of Sarajevo Airport is constantly working on attracting new airlines, both low cost and others. We are proud to announce that from July SAS will launch flights Sarajevo - Copenhagen”.

The airport has since clarified its statement. It now claims it has made an offer to the airline to launch services to Sarajevo this summer season and is awaiting their reply, which is in stark contrast to the airport’s initial announcement. SAS was once active in the EX-YU region, particularly through its now defunct subsidiary Snowflake. However, the major problem for passengers proved to be extremely high ticket prices set out by the carrier, which led to their subsequent pull out of both Sarajevo and Belgrade. SAS is currently present in Priština on an all year round basis. The airline also operates seasonal summer flights to the Croatian coast.

Meanwhile, Sarajevo Airport has managed to shrug off two months of passenger decline to see numbers in April rise by 0.4%. Last month Bosnia’s busiest airport welcomed 49.709 passengers. In the first four months of the year Sarajevo handled 145.999 passengers, which is 5.8% down on last year. With large amounts of charter and seasonal traffic on the horizon, Sarajevo is likely to overturn its downward trend in the following months.