The government of the Herzegovina - Neretva Canton in Bosnia and Herzegovina has expressed its willingness to provide financial assistance for the launch of Ryanair flights from Mostar. Europe's largest carrier is soon expected to ink a deal with Mostar Airport in order to commence operations from the city during the 2020 summer season. Similarly, the Herzegovina - Neretva Canton approved a five-year subsidy agreement with Eurowings in 2018. The low cost airline is being granted just over a quarter of a million euros on a yearly basis until 2023 (inclusive) for its seasonal services from Dusseldorf and Stuttgart. The Canton is also providing financial assistance for the upkeep of Croatia Airlines' two weekly year-round service between Zagreb and Mostar. The agreement is valued at half a million euros per year.
Ryanair and Mostar Airport have discussed potential flights on several occasions since 2012. Previously, it was proposed for the low cost airline to introduce services from Charleroi, Frankfurt and Oslo to Bosnia and Herzegovina's fifth largest city. However, there is also strong potential for the carrier to cater for religious tourism on routes from Italy and Poland. Next year, Mostar is expected to become Ryanair's second destination in the country after Banja Luka. The airport is currently in the process of finalising the extension of its terminal building which began in April. Work on the structure, which is linked to the existing terminal, is expected to be completed in the coming weeks. The project, valued at almost half a million euros, was funded by the Federal government.
Mostar Airport handled 8.489 passengers during the first half of the year, representing a decrease of 6.4% on 2018. Commenting on the decline in traffic, the Ambassador of the United States to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Eric Nelson, said in a recent blog post, "Bosnia and Herzegovina's tourism sector is already growing 13% per year, yet Mostar’s Airport is practically idle. Herzegovina’s beauty takes several days to appreciate, yet most visitors come for just one day, to the benefit of bus operators from Croatia, and not to the hotels and guesthouses of Bosnia and Herzegovina. If Mostar Airport were freed from party control and operated under a concession agreement like most airports in the region, it could easily attract many more flights and tourists".
This is the saviour Mostar has been waiting for.
ReplyDeleteWill it be one route or several?
ReplyDeleteI think we are talking about 2-3 routes.
DeleteI'm interested to see whather it will be more gasterbaiter routes or more oriented towards tourism.
DeleteMy guess is gasterbaiter with a seasonal route from Poland.
DeleteI think a flights from Bergamo, Weeze and Warsaw would work great.
DeleteI heard that besides Dublin, OMO is negotiating Ciampino and Warsaw Modlin with FR. We will see soon I guess,
DeleteI wonder how much will the Ryan Air subsidies amount to.
ReplyDeleteEW is getting 250,000 for 2 seasonal routes. My guess is FR will be getting around the same and will probably launch the same number of routes too.
DeleteHate to say it but the ambassador is 100% correct.
ReplyDeleteIt's no secret. Everyone knows what the problem is.
DeleteHopefully better days are to come for OMO. With FR, OU and EW they should have decent passenger numbers. Plus it's good to hear about the terminal expansion.
ReplyDeleteI don't think OU can push their numbers are up a lot, it's a two weekly flight on a regional plane.
DeleteNice. We will have four airports with traffic, four airports offering LCC options and four airports with renewed terminals.
ReplyDeleteThe extension looks good in my opinion
ReplyDeletehttps://static.klix.ba/media/images/vijesti/b_190814097.jpg
Nice! In my opinion looks nicer than Tuzla.
DeleteIt looks really nice, modern and fresh.....good job OMO! :D
DeleteBeside not looking as a bunker, nor locking the terminal from future extensions, it took them just a fraction of time compared to a certain other extension project...
DeleteI flew from Mostar yesterday on a fully packed A319, and in my opinion check-in terminal have generous space, and gate have adequate space for that amount of passengers (compared with Wizzair's gate at BEG, OMO is pure luxury :)
DeleteThat being said, seating options are quite bad, and ventilation of the gate is relatively bad. Making some of the gate area glasses in the upper row over to windows could be a simple solution to increase ventilation.
Overall, quite modern and nice small airport.
I wonder what Wizz Air's response will be? Ryanair will now be taking two cities in the country. Wizz has Tuzla but it has not grown from there in a while.
ReplyDeleteThey could always bite the bullet and start Sarajevo (other than the subsidized Budapest flight).
DeleteSJJ is just too expensive for LCCs.
DeleteHow come it's not expensive for Eurowings, Norwegian and Pegasus?
DeleteThey are not ULCCs like Ryan and Wizz.
DeleteDidn't Norwegian and Eurowings scale back their presence in SJJ?
Deleteno. Eurowings launched flights between Berlin and Sarajevo this summer. Their third destinations to Sarajevo.
DeleteDY cut some routes to SJJ though.
DeleteIt didn't. It introduced a new seasonal route from Gothenburg this summer
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/p/norwegian-gothenburg-sarajvo.html
Great work Mostar. I am really optimistic that brighter days are ahead :)
ReplyDeleteAgree with the ambassador. An airport in such location really shouldn't be struggling to get airlines and passengers and shouldn't be subsidising every airline to fly there.
ReplyDeletewhy don't ex-yu countries just privatize these smaller airports? Wouldn't it be easier? Plus the new owner would actually want to have flights and invest money in them.
DeleteWhere would local politicians employ their friends and family then?
DeleteI will believe it when I see it.
ReplyDeleteBosnia becoming popular with LCCs
ReplyDeleteMostar should have gone for easyjet. That way we would have all the major LCCs in Bih :D
DeleteThis year is looking dire for OMO. I'm not sure they will achieve last year's poor result and that is even with larger capacity Eurowings planes and entire year of OU flights.
ReplyDeleteWith so many subsidies, you have to wonder at what loss this airport is operating at.
ReplyDeleteMacedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia also subsidize its flights, what's wrong with that?
DeleteGood. Can't wait to finally see some serious airlines that can serve the local population.
ReplyDeleteEurowings isn't serious enough for you?
DeleteApparently Vueling is also interested in seasonal Mostar flights from Spain. Hope it happens.
ReplyDeleteReally? That would be fantastic.
DeleteWould be nice but I highly doubt it.
DeleteMostar is located about two hours from both SPU and SJJ. I can see it serving quite a market out there.
ReplyDeleteItaly, Germany and the Netherlands could be the first markets.
ReplyDeleteWil FR fly just seasonally or year round to Mostar?
ReplyDeleteThere's a good chance it will be seasonal. OMO suffers from bura wind in the winter and that requires pilots to depart from the other side of the runway over the mountains visually. Therefore pilots need special training. I think it is the reason why EW only flies seasonally.
Deleteinteresting, didn't know that.
DeleteIt's an exciting time for aviation in BiH. Record number of pax at Sarajevo, country taking over all of its airspace at the end of the year, Banja Luka finally rejuvenated with Ryan, Tuzla negotiating new deal with Wizz, Ryan coming to Mostar, FlyBosnia expanding and launching new flights.
ReplyDeleteAnd Bihac Airport is building a test runway :D
DeleteFinally! Can't wait to see the destinations.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid this is a balloon story since we know that when Ryanair came to Banja Luka there was not a single information about that until the contract signed and everything was arranged
ReplyDeleteWhen were Ryanair flights announced officially by the airline and when did flights start?
Delete
DeleteThe official announcement was in April 2018, with flights start at the end of October of that year.
before that there was no information other than to negotiate with some companies about flights
Rynair is very restrictive on this point and i know that he interrupted negotiations several times when the information leaked...
Government subsidies for Eurowings, Croatia Airlines and now Ryanair. Government investment in Mostar airport infrastructure. One way or the another, government investment and subsidies are required to keep smaller interior airports of the region active: Mostar, Nis, Tuzla, Banja Luka. Where that money flow is missing, as with Maribor or Kraljevo Morava (until now), there is no commercial traffic.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Unfortunately many airports in ex-YU rely from government funding.
DeleteDusseldorf Weeze or Dusseldorf International?
ReplyDeleteEurowings is flying from Dusseldorf International, if that is what you are referring to.
DeleteCraziness ...
ReplyDeleteToo many airports which cannibalize each other !
Oncoming recession will sort out the goodies from the baddies ...
Maribor is dead, Rijeka and Osijek are struggling .
DeleteMost unprofitable routes are by Eurowings, these will be the first that have to go when consolidation kicks in .
Zagreb already the first to stop growing .
DeleteNext year will be a consolidating year with very low growth on all ex yu- airports .
Except BEG
DeleteAko dodje do realizacije ugovora sa Ryanair mislim da ce biti velikih promjena i kod ostala dva prevoznika iz OMO. Druga stvar, obavezno napraviti zeljeznicku stanicu Ortjes i ubaciti jos jednu '' Talgo'' frekvenciju zavisno od reda letenja.
ReplyDeleteI agree....OMO should be conected with downtown Mostar with some sort of urban railway, like SPU is now
DeleteThe right decision at a wrong time?
ReplyDelete