B&H cancels all flights until further notice

B&H drops Skopje launch

The CEO of B&H Airlines, Damir Jažić, has confirmed that the Bosnian national carrier has cancelled all flights until further notice after its only ATR72 in operation suffered technical problems. “You never know what can happen, we can’t take risks. We have made the issue known to the plane manufacturer which overlooks all key components”, Mr. Jažić said. “We will take off as soon as they give the all clear”, he adds. B&H’s other ATR is still in Germany. While work on the aircraft has been completed, the maintenance company is awaiting for payments to be made in order to return the plane. Mr. Jažić says that while the Federation government has cleared funds to make the payments for the aircraft, it still has to make the decision official.

According to global reservation systems, B&H Airlines has cancelled all of its flights until next Saturday, April 27. The airline suspended services last week, though flights were planned to resume yesterday. Furthermore, the airline has cancelled the launch of its Sarajevo - Skopje service. Services were originally planned to be inaugurated on April 1 but were later moved to May. Flights have now completely disappeared from reservation systems and tickets can no longer be booked.

Despite B&H’s woes, Sarajevo Airport recorded strong growth last month. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s busiest airport handled 44.631 passengers, up an impressive 21.4% compared to the same month last year. In the first quarter Sarajevo welcomed 108.467 passengers through its doors, up 12.6%. Meanwhile, Tuzla notched up another month without a single passenger. However, all of that will soon change as Wizz Air launches flights from the city to Malmo and Basel. Yesterday the airline introduced an additional third weekly flight from Tuzla to Malmo, indicating that ticket sales are going extremely well. The added third weekly flight will be launched from June 19.