Mostar Airport is expected to welcome its first scheduled flights in 27 months next summer after Eurowings scheduled the resumption of flights between Dusseldorf and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s fifth largest city. At this point, operations between the two are set to commence on June 30 and run twice per week until the end of August. The low cost airline had previously maintained subsidised seasonal operations from both Stuttgart and Dusseldorf to Mostar, however, both were unsuccessful, with the airport blaming high fares for their failure. Mostar last saw scheduled commercial flights in March 2020, when Croatia Airlines maintained operations to Zagreb, which also failed to generate sufficient demand and have been terminated since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mostar Airport has struggled to attract customers over the past years and has been severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Its main source of traffic - European charters serving religious pilgrims - have been all but wiped out. In 2020 the airport handled just 1.374 passengers, while during the January - November period of this year, figures barely improved with a total of 1.737 travellers passing through its doors. Despite the disappointing results, Mostar Airport anticipates a revival in 2022. “A fully operational airport is of strategic interest. Over the past six months, we have been working hard negotiating new routes that are needed to link Mostar to European destinations. A functional airport will enable us to fully utilise the benefits of our geographic location”, the Mayor of Mostar, Mario Kordić, said last week.
Mostar Airport has seen some early signs of recovery in recent months with several charters operated by Croatia Airlines to Dublin and Cork in Ireland, as well as a flight from Madrid earlier this month. “Statistics show that our primary source of passengers are pilgrims visiting the Medjugorje sight. As a result, we plan to do more to secure operations from markets such as Poland and Italy, from which we welcome most pilgrims, but we are also interested in flights from Spain, Ireland, Germany, Jordan, and Lebanon. In cooperation with local and foreign tour operators, we are working on a project targeting some 35.000 pilgrim passengers next season. We expect to obtain necessary assistance from all levels of government to subsidise one or two airlines that would be able to maintain these services and would be selected through a public call”, the General Manager of Mostar Airport, Ivan Ljubić, said. The airport’s busiest year so far was in 2013 when it welcomed 75.244 travellers through its doors.
Further flight details for the Dusseldorf - Mostar service can be found here.
Don't know why it would work now if they didn't have success previously.
ReplyDeleteThat's why they will only operate flights during high season.
DeleteMostar can only thrive if a proper LCC like Ryanair or Wizz Air sets up a base there.
ReplyDeleteWith the weather limits, it will never happen.
DeleteIt's guaranteed to lose a ton of money, especially in the winter.
They said the same about Tuzla...
DeleteRyanair doesn't come anywhere for free, especially small airports.
DeleteThere's a big difference between Tuzla and Mostar when it comes to weather.
DeleteTuzla has a proper ILS. Mostar doesn't, and it's very unlikely it could even be installed.
How much money has been spent on this airport in the last 10 or 20 years and still disastrous results. Time to draw the line.
ReplyDeleteOne of the worst managed airports hostage of politics.
DeleteEWG is very expensive LCC.
ReplyDeleteOMO needs to negotiate with RYR or WZZ to open Rome,Milano,Warsaw,Malmo and Cologne as soon as possible
Agree. That's the only way forward for OMO.
DeleteEW only came to Mostar because their main route manager is from Mostar.
DeleteIf Wizz starts flights to Mostar they will rule the BiH market.
Delete@9.19 well Eurowings CEO is becoming the CEO of Lufthansa in April :)
DeleteSo?
DeleteMaybe Lufthansa replaces Eutowings to Mostar ����:D
DeleteTheir numbers this year are atrocious especially considering the airport is open unlike last year for months.
ReplyDeleteAnd I imagine these numbers also include private flights, crew, etc.
DeleteConsidering Tuzla rejected Ryanair to protect Wizz, I hope Ryan will consider flights to Mostar at least.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately because of their experience with Tuzla, I think Ryanair will steer clear of BiH for some time. They already said they won't consider Tuzla for 3 years.
DeleteSad
DeleteAt least something
ReplyDeleteHope it works out this time.
ReplyDeleteIf they didn't make it flying Q400s last time, I'm skeptical about their chances of success with A319.
DeleteWizz Air/Ryanair are much better than Eurowings in generating demand
ReplyDeleteThis is Eurowings. By next June they will modify their plans a hundred times. We've seen it in Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Very unreliable.
Deletethey should try to get charter flights, especially pilgrims for Medjugorje from Poland, Italy, Spain, Ireland and some from Muslim countries for Mostar. local demand is low because the population is small
ReplyDeleteThat's what they have been doing and seems like they plan to do. The issue is that even charters have collapsed in the last few years because there are cheaper alternatives to nearby cities.
DeleteOU had barely 10 passengers per flight. I'm not surprised they have terminated these flights
ReplyDeleteI mean the schedule Zagreb flights. Not charters.
DeleteOr maybe they collapsed because there was no one to negotiate and organize these charters.
DeleteHercegovina has huge amount of gasto workers in W and N EU, particularly Germany. So transfer traffic could work, same as it worked during ex-yu times with daily flights to both BEG and ZAG. In addition to that, there are literally tens of thousands of succesfull and rich people from Hercegovina living in Zagreb who can afford P2P traffic. Economic cooperation is significant as well. The only reason why this service is not success is criminal organization which is in charge of both OMO and OU
DeleteIt worked during ex-Yu times because JAT and Yugotours used to make a lot of tour packages and they had passengers as far and wide from the US to the Philippines visiting Medjugorje.
DeletePart of the reason the OU flights didn't work is because they were poorly scheduled with few connections.
Why would OU care. They got 500,000 EUR subsidy per year for a 40 minute flight. It was only terminated because OMO no longer had the money.
DeleteYugotours did not operate to OMO, it was Pilgrim Tour’s which was part of JAT, we had two flights a week from LHR, and importantly good connection from Zagreb and Belgrade 90% of Traffic was for Medjugorje
Delete@An.13.52
DeleteAbsolutely correct, with exception of Yugotours. Number of Medjugorje pilgrims was such that the first Far Eastern scheduled new destination after Seoul was supposed to be Manila, and once MD11 started joining, scheduled Washington D. C., Houston, Miami, San Francisco and Vancouver were planned to start as well
Too many airports in short proximity. They will cannibalize each other.
ReplyDeleteWho they gonna cannibalize? DBV? Lol
DeleteI think Mostar Airport is now under pressure since all other commercial airports in Bosnia and Herzegovina are functional and have regular flights. Yes, Mostar is a small town, but still, we are talking around 450.000 potential passengers in wider Herzegovina region.
ReplyDeleteFlights to Zagreb were a purely political move, just like Banja Luka- Belgrade, but it seems the last works much better.
Mostar must focus on tourists and to get into "fight" against airports around that benefit from charter flights: in short, people fly to Dubrovnik or Split to reach Međugorje. That is ridiculous and the fact we have no charters to Mostar is nothing but politics that is directed against the interests of Mostar and all its citizens. Paradoxically, Mostar Airport is under control of HDZ party that claims it protects the interests of Croats in Mostar while it does everything to destroy the potential Mostar Airport has. They are literally handing over financial benefits to neighbouring airports in Croatia.
+1
DeleteEvery word is correct. The problem of Mostar Airport is the administration, whose people are members of the HDZ party, which is destroying everything in front of it.
DeleteI agree with you @An.11.10, I would just add that not only they are handing over financial benefits to SPU and DBV, but they hand over the same financial benefits to FOREIGN carriers which has 90 % market on the mentioned airports
DeleteIt would be great if they attracted easyjet. Time for them to enter BiH market.
ReplyDeleteOut of all the cities you think easyjet would enter Bosnian market through Mostar? No way.
DeleteWhen exactly did Croatia Airlines have Cork & Dublin - Mostar charters?
ReplyDeleteIn September. One flight each.
DeleteAnyone know who operated the recent Madrid charter?
ReplyDeleteAlbaStar - Spanish charter airline.
Delete