FlyBosnia is retiring its only aircraft, an Airbus A319 jet registered E7-FBA, and will put a greater focus on lucrative charter services in the coming months. According to the “Klix” portal, the A319 aircraft, which is seventeen years old, will be scrapped. It has been parked at Sarajevo Airport since June. The airline has instead resorted to wet-leasing equipment with crew. It is currently utilising an A320 jet from Lithuania’s GetJet Airlines, which is operating almost daily charters between Sarajevo and Antalya. The move has also enabled FlyBosnia to lay off some twenty of its employees, as it too deals with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
FlyBosnia recently concluded an agreement with one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s leading tour operators, Fibula Air Travel, to run charter services on behalf of the company. The carrier will be focusing on leisure flights until the 2021 summer season. Apart from serving Antalya over the past month, the airline has also operated repatriation services to Saudi Arabia, with the Kingdom still closed for scheduled traffic. It also plans two roundtrips to Kuwait City, next Saturday and on September 12. Even prior to the pandemic, FlyBosnia planned on putting a greater focus on charter services, many of which were to operate to and from Italy, Egypt and Tunisia, in addition to Turkey.
FlyBosnia recently named a new CEO, with Haris Čoloman now leading the company. Mr Čoloman had previously worked at FlyBosnia as an Executive Director but left the company in September of last year. He has also been involved with Bosnia Wand Airlines and Sky Bosnia and has some twenty years of experience in various roles. FlyBosnia has been set up by Saudi Arabia's Al Shiddi Group, which was founded in 1975 with interests in various fields, including construction, real estate, agriculture and tourism. The Saudi conglomerate has been operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2006.
Hmm what a great vision
ReplyDeleteTuzla airport likes this.
ReplyDeleteI guess because they will gave more traffic than SJJ?
DeleteBiH NEEDS a national carrier!. Maybe Turkish could do something like what they did with AirAlbania. But if they create a carrier then they just can't fly to the gulf only but to places in Europe like Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, Paris, Amsterdam, London etc.
DeleteI smell corruption
Delete@ marko +1
DeleteBecause Tuzla stands to profit the most from SJJ's incompetence. High taxes, no LCCs, a collection of strange national carriers which all eventually fail... meanwhile TZL and BNX took their reality pills and made deals with LCCs that know how to stimulate demand in poor markets. I see many billboards around Belgrade for Sarajevo which is cool but reaching the city from Belgrade isn't easy. There isn't a highway and flights are expensive. How long does it take by road? Five hours? You could be in Budapest in less time than that and without being exhausted from driving through endless villages.
DeleteYou can see billboards but Tuzla is a highly unprofitable airport. It might have more traffic but at the end of the day it is money that counts. Unfortunately Tuzla is on the brink of bankruptcy and is pleading with local and federal government for help.
DeleteThat I understand but the real question is would their losses be bigger without Wizz Air? For example INI still manages to record a profit while having less traffic. How is that possible? What is Tuzla doing differently?
DeleteBased on INI's last financial report it is a loss making business. They had a net loss of over 10 million euros.
DeleteI just checked APR and it seems INI on its own is no longer a separate business and they are part of Аеродроми Србије д.о.о. Ниш. That's what it says, their old PIB is no longer valid.
DeleteThey published their 2019 numbers and this is what it says:
Neto dobitak: 32.601.000,00
A good indication is their 2018 report when they were still treated separately. The joint business certainly didn't make that money from INI.
DeleteCould very well be though I remember seeing they were officially in the black back then. Then again who is Aerodromi Srbije going to make money off of if not from INI?
DeleteAnyway, you took this discussion to another direction without answering my question. How can INI (or aerodromi Srbije) manage to pull off a profit but not TZL? Their financial issues seem to be a common topic on here.
But I'm telling you INI has not pulled off a profit. In fact it has a very big net loss and the official reason they gave for the loss was "We didn't get state subsidies during the year". So it's exactly the same in TZL. You can't live off 3 euro taxes. Same way TZL can't live off free handling for Wizz. And if you want to know the reason Aerodromi Srbije has a profit - the state pumped in millions onto their account.
DeleteAnon 11.43 can you please send us the links so I can see all that? INI is the main airport for weapons exports, IL-76s are coming in and going out all the time. You can see them on FR24. TZL had those meat export cargos some years ago but those seem to stop now.
Deleteyou cant pull off a profit with 3€ taxes. nor does any secondary airport in ex-yu
DeleteIt can have weapons transport. It does not change the fact that it is a loss making airport. No matter how different you want reality to be. Exactly the same situation with Tuzla, Banja Luka and other small regional airport which are either paying airlines or not charging airlines for services
Deletehttp://nis-airport.com/o-nama/finansijski-izvestaji/
And the loss for last year can only have increased with JU flying new routes because JU does not pay handling or landing. But the airport has to pay workers to handle these planes, has to have longer working hours etc.
DeleteIt's like some people on here live in a parallel universe.
How can it increase of JU pays the same as others?
DeleteRead what I wrote and you will see how.
DeleteWhat you wrote is wrong.
Delete@ Marko
DeleteTK already had its adventure in Bosnia 10 years ago when it held 49% of B&H Airlines.
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2012/06/turkish-airlines-pulls-out-of-b.html
@ nemjee
flights between BEG and SJJ are ok priced for what it is, something between 6.000 and 10.000 din (45-80 EUR) depending how far ahead the ticket is purchased. Wizz is charging similar fares between BUD and SJJ. Tax is higher in Bosnia brining up the fares. Checking the JU website, departing BEG tax is 2.600 din (20 EUR) while departing SJJ 3.500 din (28 EUR). It would be nice however for JU to up the frequencies to allow more choice, perhaps a split morning and evening rotation.
It's pathetic how some expect these small airports to be profitable after the region was economically devastated. Get real.
DeleteCharter is the future not only for Air Bosnia but for the rest of the ex-Yu carriers too. Bravo BiH!
ReplyDeleteBravo nema sta
DeleteNiti jedna kompanija u Ex-Yu nece prezivjeti.
DeleteПреживеће оне које ће моћи да примају помоћ државе и када прође корона.
DeleteI don't see this working long term.
ReplyDeleteNot working short-term either.
DeleteOU and JU should take the BiH market and FlyBosnia will die
ReplyDeleteHow can they do that? Other than fly maybe two daily flights to SJJ, I don't think they can just start flying fifth freedom routes from Sarajevo?
DeleteReally tough times for them
ReplyDeleteLet's see if FlyBosnia survives
ReplyDeleteThey were facing issues even before Covid. Let alone now.
DeleteThey have a rich owner. They will pull through
DeleteThere is a limit to everything. The owners are also affected by this. They will look to cut non essential investments once all this is over.
DeleteLet's wait and see. It will also depend how long this drags on for.
DeleteGood news for TZL and BNX.
ReplyDelete"lucrative charter services in the coming months."
ReplyDeleteHaha. Joke of the year.
The truth is: They haven't paid salaries for four months, healthcare and pension funding for over a year now... they laid off all pilots but two (they need them to fly FBA to USA and then will be laid off), all cabin crew including manager is laid off... They have big 0 on all of their 7 bank accounts, but instead using some other doggy accounts... Have no idea why and how BHDCA let them have AOC!!
ReplyDeleteThat does not sound good. But I realized that the wet lease means they have fired all crew.
DeleteYes, that sounds like they can NOT have AOC, they can NOT operate at all because they do NOT meet any of their obligations! Pay your workers and go back where you came from!!!
DeleteAgree
DeleteBravo BiH !
ReplyDeleteThey will need it.
ReplyDeleteCorona will definitely purge the smaller airlines around. Let's see what happens in ex-Yu but its definitely not looking good.
ReplyDeleteActually they are spot on :
ReplyDeleteCharters are where the money is !
You only have to look beyound the border to Belgrade airport :
Today 4x Egypt + 5x Turkey .
Tomorrow 6x Egypt + 3x Turkey .
Yes, but JU and also OU have regular lines and their planes do not fly MAYBE once a day (like FlyBosnia's planes). FlyBosni does not have crew now and does not have planes either, so they wet leased a plane(very expensive for such a small airline). FlyBosnia like this is NOT a national carrier, it is just a really small charter company. I do not think that in this route is so much money from wich they can pay off wet lease and have profit from that.
DeleteNew airline is coming :D Don't worry
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/flybaairlines/
Oh god, here we go again.
DeleteFlyBosnia has now become a virtual airline.
ReplyDeleteWell, virtual airlines usually have a route network of their own that they let a real airline operate for them. In this case, it sounds like the charter customers have the route network, while the wetlease provider is the aircraft operator, making FlyBosnia an unnecessary middle man. I would only call them a charter broker until they resume their own routes. Only then will they be a virtual airline.
DeleteExactly! Tourist agencies don't need to pay FlyBosnia as a middle man. Next season they will get smarter, cut out FlyBosnia and directly hire some airline to operate Sarajevo - Antalya charters for them. FlyBosnia doesn't have planes and crew, they are not needed for tourist agencies. That will be the final end of FlyBosnia.
DeleteFly Bosnia je i prije KORONE imala vise otkazanih letova nego sto je letila na druge aerodrome...
ReplyDeleteTuzla je potrisila dosta para za pregovore sa njima i na kraju nista...
ISTO KAO ONA PRICA DA DILAZE IZ SARAJEVA U TUZLU ZBOG DUGA...
BiH has been doing quite a lot lately. Charter schemes, and many new stuff. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteAre you for real?
DeleteDisaster
ReplyDeleteWell, the company served it's
ReplyDeletepurpose...