Ryanair blocked at Tuzla Airport over Wizz Air

The head of the Supervisory Board of Tuzla Airport has said the local government did not sign off on an agreement with Ryanair, which was to commence operations to the city in September, so as not to put its existing business partner, Wizz Air, in an “unequal position” and cause “unfair competition”, among other reasons. Ryanair, which had previously scheduled flights from Weeze and Baden Baden to Tuzla, discontinued ticket sales ten days ago after Tuzla’s cantonal government in Bosnia and Herzegovina declined to agree to the negotiated terms and conditions. The budget airline was also to announce a further three new routes from Tuzla for the 2021/2022 winter season, which begins in late October.

The President of Tuzla Airport’s Supervisory Board, Enes Avdić, told the “Klix” portal, “We want to negotiate better financial terms than the ones that were agreed. Furthermore, we believe the agreement must not put our strategic partner, with whom we do business, in an unequal position. We shouldn’t bring them unfair competition”, Mr Avdić said. Wizz Air is the only scheduled airline operating out of Tuzla Airport, with two aircraft based in the city. The President of the Supervisory Board added, “We have told Ryanair that we are interested in establishing cooperation and invited them to continue talks in order to reach a final agreement to the mutual satisfaction of both sides. We have not yet received a response from them”.

The outgoing General Manager of Tuzla Airport, Esed Mujačić, who was recently dismissed by the cantonal government, said the actions of local authorities were destructive. “We negotiated all the elements of the agreement with Ryanair, which was signed by the airline. It was forwarded to the Supervisory Board and the Ministry for approval, and we are still waiting for their response. The board has been constantly delaying a decision on the matter, despite both them and the government being directly involved in e-mail correspondence with Ryanair. In their last e-mail, Ryanair requested for us to respond as to whether we would sign the agreement or not. Neither the Board nor the Ministry replied”, Mr Mujačić said.

Talks between Tuzla Airport and Ryanair began in April of last year. “I can’t believe we have come to a point where we will miss out on such an opportunity. It would be a huge pity because we would have profited from their arrival, since each passenger would be a new one at the airport as Ryanair would have flown to unserved destinations. Other than Weeze and Baden Baden, the airline proposed to launch a further three destinations in the winter and additional new routes next spring. As a result, our destination network would have grown which would have benefited the public, the local economy, the canton and the airport itself”, Mr Mujačić said. He added that a Ryanair representative told him the airline would not consider Tuzla as a future destination in its network over the next three years if an agreement was not reached on this occasion.