Sarajevo Airport and FlyBosnia have reached an agreement over the repayment of the latter’s debt amounting to over half a million euros, however, issues between the two sides remain. The General Manager of Sarajevo Airport, Armin Kajmaković, said, “If they so much as miss a single payment during the week, we will automatically begin procedures for the termination of their contract”. On the other hand, FlyBosnia noted that Sarajevo Airport’s fees remain high, “In Mostar or Tuzla, the airport taxes total five euros, while in Sarajevo they amount to thirty euros. Therefore, Sarajevo Airport does not help stimulate us in the development of our network, which is why we are looking at expanding our operations from Tuzla and Mostar airports”, the CEO of FlyBosnia, Tarik Bilalbegović, said.
FlyBosnia has faced a number of issues over the past few months. In addition to accumulating debt towards Sarajevo Airport, the airline has returned one of its two Airbus A319 aircraft to lessor AerCap and laid off almost half of its workforce. “We are a start-up company. As such, it is normal to experience some issues in the beginning”, Mr Bilalbegović noted. There have also been difficulties with employee relations. The airline said its problems are being blown out of proportion by the press. Furthermore, it added that the downsizing of its fleet and sacking of some employees is standard procedure in the aviation industry during the quieter winter months.
FlyBosnia will take delivery of two leased A319 jets in April 2020, which will enable it to introduce new services. “We will launch Paris on March 1 and shortly after we will introduce Milan and Barcelona and probably Moscow by July 2020”, the airline’s CEO said. The company will run a series of charters in the coming period from Mostar to Italy and Ireland. Since launching scheduled flights in June, FlyBosnia has handled over 40.000 passengers. It currently maintains scheduled services from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital to London Luton, Rome and Riyadh. The start-up airline was set up by Saudi Arabia's Al Shiddi Group and is 100% privately owned.
Good to hear they will repay the debt. I hope they manage to meet the deadlines.
ReplyDeleteWith those sort of taxes it is no wonder we don't have easy, Ryan or Wizz (other than one subsidised route) flying to Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. While I don't support Flybosnia making debt towards the airport some things at the airport need to change. Why is the tax so high in the first place?
DeleteBecause it is a state imposed tax "for the development of air transport in Bosnia and Herzegovina". Basically Sarajevo Airport is burdened with a tax from which the proceeds go to fund Mostar and Tuzla airports which keep low taxes and have no profit. Crazy system in my opinion.
DeleteWhy don't they keep the airport open 24 hours? That way they could get more money from airlines and offer some incentives to others. I mean look at this video from a few days ago where people are literally lining up in front of a locked airport.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dZ0PtgXO0k
But it is more expensive for the airport because you have to pay people to work over night.
DeleteI think they are slowly extending the work hours because some flights next summer will departing/landing quite late.
Delete@anon 9:20: look at the flight table: the airport is empty most of the day,
Deleteeven druing its "busy time" (12:00 to 15:30) it could easily handle twice as much as it does currently
if they can not attract enough passengers during the day, why they come at night?
They still leave very open ended whether they will keep routes from Sarajevo or in the future fly from only Tuzla and Mostar.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they are sure either.
DeleteEnding flights from Sarajevo would be the end of them. So hopefully they won't do it.
DeleteParis could work but only if it is launched from Sarajevo. Milan could do ok but I'm not so sure about Barcelona.
ReplyDeleteBarcelona has been a surprise success from Podgorica, Belgrade and Skopje from which it was launched recently so who knows. They must have some rationale for launching this route.
DeleteI'm surprised Wizz Air hasn't introduced Tuzla-Baeuvais. Paris will definitely work. As for Milan and Barcelona, I'm not so optimistic.
DeleteI think FlyBosnia is counting on transferring passengers from the Gulf to these destinations via Sarajevo.
DeleteGood luck with that.
DeleteLike someone said recently, it's not going to cost taxpayers, which is the main thing.
ReplyDeletethis would be right, if they paid back 100% of their debt, but their compromise was not structured like that....
DeleteIf they survive the winter I think they could offer a good network. Hope they have learned some lessons.
ReplyDeleteOnly if they stay in Sarajevo.
Deletethey will never have a network, best case is a few p2p connections in a few years
Deletesarajevo airport (even the under construction expansion) does not allow for any meaningful amount of transfers
so what is the deal then?? pretty vague
ReplyDeleteWell that they have to make debt repayments in installments. They just got some time.
DeleteSJJ most probably wrote off some part of the debt too.
DeleteThe main thing FlyBosnia needs to focus on is actually having more than 20 passengers on their flights.
ReplyDeleteWith almost non existent marketing, I can bet you the majority of people in Bosnia haven't even heard of this airline, let alone further afield.
DeleteThey would have more than 10 passengers on their London flights if they didn't start ticket sales less than a month before the flights began. And they did the same with Rome.
DeleteExactly. As an unknown brand you can't put tickets on sale 2-3 weeks before the flights start.
DeleteI wonder how Riyadh is performing in these winter months.
DeleteI'm not surprised their London flights are failing.
DeleteImagine the loss of flying planes to London with such poor loads.
DeleteI really wonder what their financial performance is like.
ReplyDeleteIf they have to make debt repayment agreements you can guess.
DeleteThey also had to return one A319. And this wasn't planned so it means they couldn't pay for it anymore.
DeleteI can only imagine how much money they burned in the last 4 months.
DeleteWell they really didn't need a second plane for three routes.
DeleteI still think Bosnia has potential for a national carrier but whose prime motive is to serve citizens of Bosnia. Fleet of 2 aircraft with 80 seats would do the job to several main European airports.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteATR 72,.SSJ to CPH revival ;-)
Delete*SJJ
DeleteI hope their finances improve and that the new routes turn out to be successful,
ReplyDeleteMe too. At least they are employing locals and improving Sarajevo Airport's numbers.
DeleteYes but if so few people are flying with them and it costs the airport then what's the point.
DeleteDoesn't Sarajevo Airport have some incentive program for new routes and airlines?
ReplyDeleteYes it does
Deletehttps://www.sarajevo-airport.ba/Dokumenti/Dokument/1f21b1af-ee85-425d-ab31-ea3ac605ab4b
Thanks. The airport is indeed expensive.
DeleteBut I don't get it. FlyBosnia CEO says tax is 30 euros butin the price list it says 18.
DeleteBecause that's just the passenger tax. There are others too. And even that passenger tax is bigger than the ones in ZAG and BEG.
DeleteWhich airlines in SJJ will be hurt on the future SJJ-BCN Air Bosnia route? Not sure if JU will like it.
ReplyDeleteJU has no connections to/from Sarajevo on BCN route and neither does Croatia Airlines so I don't see how they could be hurt. I don't think anyone would be hurt.
DeleteAre you sure¿
DeleteОТПРАВЛЕНИЕ
вт, февр. 4-го 2020
ИЗМЕНИТЬ РЕЙС
15:10
SJJ
19:40
BCN
4 hrs 30 mins
1 Stop
(BEG)
(дополнительные услуги могут отличаться в зависимости от рейса)
Air Serbia
JU 113
ATR ATR 72
Выполняется Air Serbia
Air Serbia
JU 584
Airbus A319
Выполняется Air Serbia
RUB 7,084
Economy Light
ПОДРОБНЕЕ
I really don't think FlyBosnia is in a position to hurt anyone.
DeleteTheir prices are relatively expensive so I think the competition will offer better fares.
DeleteIf they already have over 500,000+ debt to SJJ I would be very careful to work with them and very skeptical about that debt being repaid.
ReplyDeleteI remember when B&H Airlines was not paying its obligations to SJJ and then SJJ started charging people the passenger tax at the airport. So you had to check in and then go to another desk to pay the tax.
ReplyDeleteHow convenient...
DeleteIt would have been best for Sarajevo Airport had the Federal government given Wizz Air a million euros and for them to start flights to a number of cities.
ReplyDeleteIf they just had the knowledge it could work.
ReplyDeleteGood news that they resolved their differences.
ReplyDeleteAko smatrate da ste start up komanija Vasim dolaskom, onda je to mozda istina. Fly Bosnia postoji vec skoro godinu i po i ne moze se reci da je start up. Pogotovo pored nekretnina i ostalih projekata kojima se grupacija Shiddi bavi. Imali ste godinu i po vremena da se dogovorite sa aerodromima u vezi visine troskova a vi ste to ocigledno zanamarili i radili sve ad-hoc i bez know-how. Jos hocu da pitam, da li je jedini problem otvaranja letova prema Parizu bila nagodba za odgovodjeno placanje prema aerodromu ili postoje neke analize za opravdanost uvodjenja te linije ? Da vam je Bog na pomoci da docekate iduce ljeto a onda ce se sve vratiti na svoje sa arapskim destinacijama.
ReplyDelete