Soon in Sarajevo
Kuwait Airways will launch two weekly flights to Sarajevo from its hub in Kuwait City this summer. Services will be inaugurated on August 7 and will run until September 18 via Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport. One of the two flights will operate as a triangle service, with the routing Kuwait City - Istanbul - Sarajevo - Kuwait City, while the other will have a stop in Istanbul on the return leg as well. Flights between the Kuwaiti and Bosnian capital will operate with the 232 seat Airbus A300-600, featuring eighteen seats in both first and business class and a further 196 seats in economy class. Additional flight details can be found here.
Kuwait Airways’ arrival into Sarajevo, albeit for a limited time only, will mark the airline’s first destination in the former Yugoslavia. Last summer, the charter airline Gryphon Airlines, operated nonstop flights between Kuwait City and Sarajevo with its Boeing 767-200, recording strong loads. At one point it operated daily flights between the two cities. The airline has expressed interest to resume the route this summer as well, however, it remains to be seen whether it will go ahead considering the added competition.
Flights between Kuwait and Sarajevo rely not only on tourists and diaspora in the region, but also American servicemen from the Middle East heading to bases in Europe. On top of the service to Kuwait, Sarajevo will continue to see regular charter services to another city in the Middle East, Beirut, operated by Middle East Airlines. Flydubai intended to launch two weekly to the Bosnian capital from April but shelved such plans earlier this month. Sarajevo Airport was once no stranger to flights to the Middle East. In the late 1980s JAT Yugoslav Airlines operated direct services from Sarajevo to Baghdad, Amman and Damascus.
'Flights between Kuwait and Sarajevo rely not only on tourists and diaspora in the region, but also American servicemen from the Middle East heading to bases in Europe'
ReplyDeleteHmm like SAR is the only place in Europe they fly to or such a great transfer airport..
It isn't the only place they fly to or transfer, but it is one place as they can take a day or two to relax and sightsee. It is the combination of all three types of passengers that has made Gryphon successful on this route. You have to realize that the number of servicemen and women is quite large and since they make the trip often a little variety in their routine doesn't hurt.
Deleteahhhh... once we were yugoslavia and had flights all over the world. i really cant believe that after 20 years croats, serbs, slovenes cannot, actually dont want to make regional airline company!!! we speak the same language, we understand each other. and we can have GOOD BUSINESS. who cares nowdays about nationality??? noone except bad and noteducated people. pitty how we destroy something that can be so big, good and recognized!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat about the bosnian people and the montenegrins?
DeleteIMO i think Adria after the fall of Yugoslavia had a good chance to enter the markets of the former republics and didn't seize the opportunity. Although it would be nice to see there flights work, but I'm very skeptical. I doubt there is much demand for F and J seats to SJJ, and that Bosnian diaspora is that big in Kuwait to justify the flights. TK offer fantastic connections in the region ex IST and KU is not QR. Makes me wonder if KU received 5th freedom between SAW and SJJ.
DeleteThese flights will mostly cater for tourists from Kuwait to Sarajevo - last year recorded something close to 10000 visiting and I have no clue why and how Sarajevo - so I suppose KU was considered as a more reliable option than Griffon and was chosen on that basis by the Kuwait's government.
DeleteHopefully there is somebody smart enough to look to tap into other markets as well in Near and Middle East and Maghreb as well. [S.K.]
JATBEGMEL
DeleteWell, they try. In 1991/92 they ask for regular every day flights (for some routes even 2 or 3 rotation per day):
LJU-PUY
LJU-RJK
LJU-LSZ
LJU-ZAD
LJU-SPU
LJU-DBV
But Croatian government did not give them license because they want to protect Croatia Airlines that was just founded but was on very beginning. They allowed Adria to fly only LJU-SPU (I don't know which year, maybe even by that request, but for sure in 1993 that route was on), but Croatia was too strong on ZAG-SPU route and after several years Adria canceled that route by herself. I thing intention was also to give permission for LJU-DBV, but as DBV was occupied and airport was destroyed on that time, they could not fly on that route.
good point anonym 1151h...
Deletewe have so much in common but instead of using our strenghts, the region went backwards....the last 20 years are 2 lost decades and what angers me the most is that others are taking our business away. all our airlines are heading to grounding and at the same time Wizz Air, Ryanair, LH, TK and others are making good biz out of the region. Not to talk of SPU,DBV who are flooded with foreign carriers during summer months. but as long nationalistic thinking and insisting on own positions are more important than the common welfare and development for the region, things for our airlines wont change. and the problem already starts within this blog, almost every 2nd day u can read plenty of verbal attacks between serbs and croats, argumenting who is the better of the two. People outside the region are asking the same question again and again. why is that? I don t have an answer for that. I also don t have an answer for the conflict between Israeli and Arabs. at some point you just start to accept the way it is, but really understandable it is not.
Adria is a good example. no one showed interest to purchase them. Also JU tried to push privatization, but no one was really interested. Reasons are obvious and clear but our region does not want to change. somehow frustrating to see that you love this part of the world, because you have roots here but instead of progress we see mostly regress.
But the region is not only consisting of ex YU, if you look over to Italy, Hungary or down south to Greece, u discover similar behaviour. Interestingly all their airlines are in deep sh..... too
anyway let s leave this topic and lets be pleased that KU operates two weekly widebody during S13 to SJJ.
@ purger
DeleteInteresting comment. Was more on the point of JP in airports like SJJ. I imagine that JP was rejected in Croatia more on political grounds that existed between Slovenia and Croatia rather than Zagal (OU) itself. Would of been interesting to see how far JP would of come had it opened bases in the former YU republics after the war, as i think JP was more stable, being based in stable Slovenia, and other than Croatia didnt have problems with the other former republics.
@ JU520 BEGLAX
The hatred on this blog is not from people living in the ex YU republics, rather for its diaspora, who originate from some random village abundant with caves as seen in the primative comments. I think its safe to assume that they are still to learn that the war is long over and should be sent home on a reality check to see what the real issues in our respective countries are!
the ex YU region cannot be compared to those such as Italy, Hungary and Greece. JP was mismanaged and have the wrong aircraft for its market, and JAT is just corrupt run by an incompetant lazy government. All 3 countries you mentioned have (had) national airlines with poor service, poor standards, poor management with good competition on its routes, and fair trading laws in the respective countries and are loosing out.
Kuwait Airways seems to follow the path of Air Arabia...
ReplyDeleteOf course it will be fun for us passengers to fly with such a big aircraft
from Sarajevo but will the flights be profitable enough to continue them in future?
I really doubt it.
Especially when you have TK with 2-3 daily flights.
TK offers best connections to Kuwait with the stopover in IST.
Then Pegasus will go daily and B&H will also follow path.
I have nothing against competition but with this extreme overcapacity in Sarajevo it is clear that there will be loosers and cutting in frequency the result.
Why on earth no airline wants to start BEG-BCN/MAD route since Spanair collapsed?
ReplyDeleteBecause jat pilots won't allow any competition into Belgrade!
DeleteLow yielding tourist based route is the reason. Spain is in crisis and its businesses dont need routes like BEG. Your comment is btw off topic.
Delete@ anonymous
The Serbian Aviation Directorate doesnt consult applications with workers of the national airline, and Serbia implies an open skies policy towards EU members. Applicants from countries with which Serbia has an open skies policy are not denied landing rights when they are requested.
My comment is "off-topic". Hmm, i didn't need your "intelligence" to notice that. It wasn't even a comment btw, but a question. You're even more stupid then by answering to something you already disprove.
DeleteWell, it is interesting that Vueling recently started BCN-KBP, which is not such a different market either...
DeletePathetic - every topic that does not concern JAT or Zagreb Airport is immediately hijacked by "off topic". Great news, first scheduled wide-body in Ex-Yu for this summer?
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, we dont give a damn about JAT/Zagreb/Beograd topics on articles related to Sarajevo! So please stop already!
DeleteIt is not first. Korean already shaduled flights from Seoul to Zagreb.
ReplyDelete