Banja Luka Airport expects for Europe's largest low cost airline, Ryanair, to introduce additional new routes once it enters the Bosnian market in late October. The carrier will launch flights from Charleroi, Memmingen and Stockholm Skavsta to Banja Luka starting October 29. The airport's General Manager, Duško Kovačević, noted, "We will suggest for Ryanair to commence seasonal flights from a point in Greece. The airline has a base in Thessaloniki and Athens. This would be of great use for our citizens holidaying in Greece. Furthermore, Vienna is an option, however, Ryanair doesn't have base there but it does in nearby Bratislava. I think it is realistic to hold talks with the airline concerning services from the Slovak capital".
The Prime Minister of the entity of Republika Srpska, Željka Cvijanović, previously said, "Following the introduction of these routes to Banja Luka, a second set of new destinations will be announced, which is encouraging". The General Manager noted that ticket sales for the upcoming services have performed beyond expectations. "Based on the information we have received from Ryanair, they are pleased with ticket sales so far which they say have performed beyond their expectations. Some flights around the New Year holidays are sold out. Ryanair is extremely satisfied and the load factor is excellent". He added, "I am also delighted that the capital of the European Union - Brussels - will be the first destination from which Ryanair will launch flights to Banja Luka. The EU is our strategic goal and there is a lot of symbolism in that the first route will be between Brussels [Charleroi] and Banja Luka".
Mr Marković refused to comment whether Ryanair will receive subsidies for its operations to Bosnia and Herzegovina's second largest city. "Negotiations with low cost carriers are confidential. We cannot comment on the contract signed with Ryanair. The company obliges us to keep this information a business secret. If we were to reveal certain aspects of the agreement we risk Ryanair cancelling the contract altogether. What I can say is that, personally, I believe the agreement is very favourable for us". Apart from Ryanair's new routes, the city will continue to be served by Air Serbia from Belgrade, which plans to maintain two weekly flights to Banja Luka for most of the winter season, with an additional weekly service to run between mid-December and mid-January.
Banja Luka will have a Nis style renaissance. Happy for them
ReplyDeleteWould be nice if they too attracted Swiss.
DeleteA few years ago Edelweiss started ticket sales to Banja Luka but flights were cancelled before the launch.
DeleteAnd it is still uncertain if it's because of poor sales or the management at the time chased them away.
DeleteAt the same time Endelweiss also planned to start Podgorica and they started sales too but cancelled it before it started.
DeleteGreat news. I hope Ryanair's arrival makes a few other airlines take note.
ReplyDeleteThis is a big turnaround. I'm very happy for Banja Luka.
DeleteWe could probably expect Weeze - Banja Luka in the future
DeleteBanja Luka - Ryanair
ReplyDeleteMostar - Eurowings
Tuzla - Wizz Air
Impressive BiH
It is. But Sarajevo is missing which shows that the airport is obviously too expensive.
DeleteBosnian airports are developing very nicely lately
DeleteAgain I must ask, would all these airlines to Mostar, Banja Luka and Tuzla considered them without subsidies?
Delete"We cannot comment on the contract signed with Ryanair" I bet they are milking them
ReplyDeleteWell we still don't know the terms of Wizz Air's contract in Tuzla five years on...
Deletewow thats a transparency
Deleteit's not transparent, but it's bussiness. airports never publish contracts with LCCs, as some have more favourable conditions than others
DeleteExactly. You don't reveal such agreements with any airline, be it full fare or low cost.
DeleteIt's the only way smaller airports can survive and I'm sure the return on investment outweighs the subsidies.
DeleteThe only airport that has reveled how much their contracts cost is Mostar. It was published here. It's unfortunate that the new flights are completely underperforming. Zagreb-Mostar is empty literally and Eurowings is flying with Dash turboprops!
DeleteINI as well, they said it from the start how much they charge everyone.
Delete@anon 9:23: it is not business; maybe it is our bosnian business; just imagine FRA or MUC if they had special discounts for any airline; does anybody remember the outrage FRA received after it was claimed that changed their price structure to make it more appealing for Ryanair?
DeleteBut here it seems normal that they hand out our taxes without any accountability as if it were their money. It is so disgusting that they even get praise for that.
""I am also delighted that the capital of the European Union - Brussels - will be the first destination from which Ryanair will launch flights to Banja Luka. The EU is our strategic goal and there is a lot of symbolism in that the first route will be between Brussels [Charleroi] and Banja Luka"."
ReplyDeleteWhat an idiot. The flight isn't even to Brussels.
Why the nitpicking? Sure, the statement isn't too clever, but Charleroi is indeed advertised as Brussels Charleroi on RyanAir.
DeleteBut still, it is not Brussels. Even if Ryanair advertises Hahn as Frankfurt, it was never close to Frankfurt. I am happy that they are not allowed to sell Memmingen as Munich anymore.
DeleteI'm sure Ryanair can't care less. They're opening a flight to the distant suburb of Brussels, the same place where they see all the Ballan nations in the EU. Those comments are pathetic and another attempt at scoring cheap political points.
ReplyDeleteThis is what Our region needs, not some boutique nonsense or Emirates megalomania.
ReplyDeletePeople are mostly poor and are looking on saving every penny they can.
Congrats to airports such as INI, BEG, SKP, TZL and OSI for being realistic.
Yes in our region is a lot of poor people but even low cost airlines are not meant for them. LCC are in Europe mostly used by middle class and also, middle class people are passengers in our region that mostly use LCC. Poor people do not fly. Those that are really poor they don't move from their town/village except when they decide to emigrate and even then plane is not their main option. So please stop with that people in our region are poor and because of that we need LCC. We don't need boutique airlines and airlines with expensive first class not because people are poor but because most of the people are not wealthy enough. There is a big difference between those two.
DeleteOh please, who needs expensive airlines to travel within Europe, anyway??
DeleteLCC is making at least 60% of the travel in Europe.
Take SKP, thanks to W6 most (poor and rich) fly to most part of Europes for low prices.
Take INI, thanks to LCC southerners no longer fly from BEG. LX connects INI with the world via it's ZRH hub. We are seeing more A320's being sent vs A220.
Take TZL - a real success story.
Take OHD - a sleeping airport that suddenly turned into something attractive, for being underrated.
Take TIA or PRN - nice combination of LCC + legacies.
Outside ex-YU take SOF, CLJ, DEB, VAR and of course gigantic OTP. All success stories.
BNX will undoubtely see a nice developement similar to TZL.
Yes, people in the Balkan are generally poor but that doesn't mean that there are no medium class citizens.
The whole Balkan region has developed a lot during the last years, especially countries like Serbia, N Macedonia and now EU members RO and BG where standards of living are increasing very quickly.
For those of you who are against LCC, it's your choice - it's a free democracy. But facts and examples have shown how many poorer regions benefited from them.
Charleroi is in Wallonia, which is the poorer part of Belgium. FR and W6 have just made wonders with the airport. Last year, 7,7 million passengers were handled. That's both BEG and ZAG traffic altogether!
I won't even say that most of the people in Balkan area is poor. Most of the people live in their own property that may cost from few tens of thousands to several hundreds of thousands euro's. They maybe don't have big salaries and they don't have much for everyday spendings and travel but they are not poor at all.
DeleteLCC changed aviation and made flying not just possible for majority of people in Europe including Balkan region but also made it possible for people to fly frequently and that is why we need more LCC on every airport in our region.
huh? BEG and ZAG together? Not quite, do the math again.
Deletegood news for Banja Luka
ReplyDeleteIf Wizz Air was smart they should just launch Vienna-Banja Luka. Not only would it be a success, they would also have presence in BNX which gives them a better opportunity to compete against Ryanair.
ReplyDeleteRyanair could dispatch Laudamotion too.
DeleteVIE-TZL is already underperforming, adding BNX would only make a bad situation worse.
DeleteJust because VIE-TZL is under performing does not mean BNX would too. They cater for different populations.
DeleteThere is a much bigger community from Banja Luka and surroundings in Vienna then there is at Charleroi.
DeletePeople said that Austrian would tank on SJJ VIE after Wizz starts VIA TZL. But now we know that there was no noticeable effect effects on neither loads nor prices for Austrian. There are just a lot of different demographics with many different needs. Sure it would be great if Wizz could spread its VIE lines between TZL and Banja Luka. But even if they would like to start, BNX would never allow them and risk the only real customer they have. (AirSerbia has no realistic chance to quit, even if they had a load of 10%)
DeleteNext year BNX could have 100,000 passengers :))
ReplyDeleteBNX aka ZAG's new traffic borrower.More people will benefit from the BNX-CRL route because flights from ZAG are very high.
Delete:@Anonymous28 July 2018 at 11:48
DeleteNobody will bother going to bnx, there are adequate service flights to Brussels from Zagreb with OU and Brussels air. Also Brussels is a business destination, most flights to Brussels are early morning or morning flights, money isn't important here as EU or companies pay for these flights.
Well, if we look at official statistics of LJU-BRU and ZAG-BRU then we can see that the market is almost the same size. However, I doubt LJU alone can stimulate all that demand which can only mean that Wizz Air does attract passengers from the wider region.
DeleteZAG-BRU
2016: 97.515
2017: 118.675
LJU-BRU (both airport)
2016: 96.576
2017: 104.101
Logically speaking if they are going to LJU then why wouldn't they also go to BNX? Especially if they are Croats who are coming from or going to eastern Croatia.
where is there any significant competition between ZAG and BNX?
DeleteI just crossed the border and was lucky because I waited just under 2 hours. The problem is not only the long hours at the border. the main problem is that they are totally unpredictable and that one can wait for hours even in the middle of the night when there are tourists anywhere....
BNX flights start in winter when there aren't that many people on the border crossing.
DeleteIn my opinion it's not so much about Croats who will go to BNX as much it is about Serbs from Srpska who will no longer need to cross into Croatia in order to catch a flight to one of these three destinations.
DeleteAgree with Nemjee.
DeleteBut either way, BNX will affect ZAG traffic and act like an alternative airport.
DeletePeople from Nova Gradiska, Slavonski brod comming to Gradiska (10 min from BNX) to buy cigarttes, vegeta, food and drinks and u mean they will not fly for 1/4 price. They will, just we will se numbers.
Delete@Nemjee28 July 2018 at 16:11
DeleteFrom eastern Croatia along the border with Bosnia, perhaps few here and there will use BNX, but issue of border is important one. Most Croats could just take bus to Ljubljana if price was an issue, however as I've said, Brussels is a business destination, and two airlines maintain service to it, Brussels Air and Croatian airlines.
As to Bosnian market, Tuzla, Sarajevo are doing their best to keep Bosnians flying, as evident, Ryan Air service out of BNX , no comment. I would never fly out of BNX anywhere if I have perfectly good airport next to me. Sure I could save some money, but if you include the hustle, getting transport from here to bnx and from marginal airports that are 50-60-100km away from their destination and getting transport to your actual destination, too much hustle, i never fly with LCCs, i don't mind Ryan air and Wizz coming to Zagreb at some point post 2020, however as of now, I am quite happy with the current service. Would love to see SAS, Finnair, Air Baltic, Aer Lingus, TAP, EasyJet and Alitalia come to Zagreb very soon, so that we have good coverage of destinations across the continent.
Post 2020, I wouldn't mind LCCs coming to Zagreb, Wizz, Ryan, Transavia France, Vueling adding year round service to Barcelona, Valencia & Seville, Malaga and Palma seasonally.
Voltea, Flybe and number of other LCCs would also be welcomed.
I'm glad they are getting their act together.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see Ryanair paying a bit more attention to this region outside Croatia.
ReplyDeleteWell they have been expanding in Serbia and Montenegro.
DeleteI noticed recently that BNX has a completely new facade. Have they done any work inside the building too?
ReplyDeleteThey have done some renovation work inside.
DeleteAll of B&Hs airports now have decent traffic and airlines.
ReplyDeleteMostar not really. Just 3 scheduled routes, two of them are seasonal. From winter they will have just two weekly flights to Zagreb with a Dash. Same as what BNX had last winter just to BEG.
DeleteLooking forward to more flights from Banja Luka, hopefully they will be as sucessful as Tuzla :)
ReplyDeletehopefully.
Deleteit would be too good to be true.
An LCC route to Greece would be fantastic. There are none from ex-Yu.
ReplyDeleteI think Thessaloniki would work much better in this case then Athens.
DeleteI'm happy about Banja Luka because I think Ryanair's arrival is really a new beginning for them.
ReplyDeleteI'm waiting to see how Wizz Air will respond to Ryan in Banja Luka.
ReplyDeleteThe Air Serbia charters from BNX to Antalya have also been a great success. I hope they consider offering more holiday destinations from Banja Luka next summer.
ReplyDeleteAre they operated by Aviolet?
DeleteIf yes, then I am not sure if the BoB service is available from BNX?
http://www.aviolet.rs/Data/Files/aviolet_airshop_20180301.pdf
Service depends on what the tour operator wants to be served onboard. It can be either BoB or something else.
DeleteMaybe something from Zurich?
ReplyDeleteThat will be great
I expect two more flight to announce...