The Sarajevo Canton government has allocated 255.000 euros in subsidies for airlines willing to launch flights from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital. The funds will be distributed to an airline or carriers willing to base aircraft in Sarajevo, those launching flights to cities within Europe deemed to be of strategic importance, as well as those operating long-haul flights from the capital, i.e., services of over six hours. A public tender is to be launched by the Tourism Association of Sarajevo Canton to seek out airlines that meet such requirements. “This measure will enable the development of tourism in this region. We believe there will be wide-scale interest for this program”, the government of the Sarajevo Canton said.
The development comes after Sarajevo Airport issued a public call late last year for an airline to station an aircraft in the city in return for incentives. Although the airport has said one carrier applied and a contract has been signed, the name of the airline has not been revealed so far. The airport has insisted that an official announcement is being held up by delays with regulatory approvals. “We are in talks with several airlines, and we are continuously in discussions with carriers based on demand indicators. After Wizz Air closed its base, we immediately launched a tender to find a replacement. We are in talks with both legacy and low cost carriers, among which is Ryanair. We have already signed a contract with an airline to open a base, but we still can’t make a public announcement on the carrier in question. The agreement must be ratified on behalf of our state and in line with our laws”, Sarajevo Airport said back in March.
Wizz Air’s base closure late last year has had an impact on Sarajevo Airport’s passenger performance. It is one of the rare European capital city airports to have registered a decline in figures during the first half of the year when compared to the same period in 2022, part of which was still impacted by coronavirus-related travel restrictions. During the first half of the year, Turkish Airlines was Sarajevo Airport’s largest carrier, both in terms of the number of operated flights, as well as seat capacity.
Sarajevo Airport’s largest carriers by seat capacity, H1 2023
I’m starting to think no airline will open a base in SJJ and now they are offering subsidies directly from the city, since incentives from the airport didn’t work.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately it seems so
DeletePeanuts
DeleteWith all due respect, it seems most ex-Yu (capital city) airports are subsidising routes to the most basic of European destinations. I really don’t get it. If you can’t sustain flights to Paris, Amsterdam or Brussels without subsidies then you have a bigger problem.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteYes, the problem is not having a national carrier.
Delete@Anon 09:32
DeleteThe problem in SJJ is that demand exists only for the Middle East and few gastarbeiter destinations in Europe.
This money is peanuts
ReplyDeleteGood on you Sarajevo
ReplyDeleteMight be getting a bit ahead of themselves with long haul. First secure Paris, Rome, Madrid/Barcelona, London, Berlin...
ReplyDeleteSJJ still lacks flights to most major European cities. I'm glad the city has become more proactive in this regards because something really needs to change.
ReplyDeleteDoubt anything will come of this.
ReplyDeleteWhy?
DeleteWhen will the subsidies start?
ReplyDelete250.000€ is only good enough for MAYBE once Saab 2000 stationed there.
ReplyDeleteSlovenia is giving away a few million yearly and no one is applying.
What are they thinking??
250k Way too low
ReplyDeleteZagreb - Sarajevo could be nice to be introduced by Ryanair to compete against OU. Ryanair can sell return tickets for 25€ while Croatia Airlines sells same ticket 100€ one way.
ReplyDeleteMost of the pax on Zag-Sjj route on OU flights are transfer pax. Arriving from overseas and from northern Europe. I really don't think that these are the kind of pax that will transfer to LCC.
DeleteWhy didn't Croatia Airlines apply to open a base in SJJ? Years ago they wanted to open a base in Sarajevo.
DeleteTo admin: there's a typo in the title - 'subsidies' instead of 'subsidise'.
ReplyDeleteGuys the ugly truth is that until they move the airport to a new location they will not do better. If BEG can have both JU and W6 then Bosnia and Sarajevo can have JA back and another LCC. Like that they will compete for the big market which has millions in diaspora and millions more in tourists from the middle east. JA can offer very good transfers to both.
ReplyDeleteJA? JetSmart from Chile? And you are comparing Belgrade with Sarajevo?
DeleteJA used to be the code for Air Bosna which went bankrupt. You should know this, it's an aviation portal.
DeleteMy apologies for not being aware of IATA code for each and every delusional and bankrupt project in the region. Yeah, let's try to create another failed attempt of an airline in a poor, barely functional country, but prior to doing that, let's move the airport to another location. And all of that on the premise of big market with millions more tourists (900k last year).... SMHID
DeleteIt was obviously Anon was not talking about Chilean airlines. You were just arrogant.
DeleteI dont see why they should have flights to Chile prioritized over North America.
DeleteAnonymous10:04
DeleteSarajevo is smaller than Novi Sad in population, and although generates almost half of Bosnian and Herzegovian GDP its still extremely poor. Comparing SJJ to BEG that serves 2 largest cities in a country that has the economy 3 times the size as the one in Bosnia, even JU would not have survives without government bailing it out. JU is growing, but its current state is far from good and they still have to improve their poor approach towards the customers.
Sarajevo has a much greater problem than just not having an airline based at SJJ. There is little or no reason an airline should fly there, the demand is obviously small, alternatives in Tuzla and Banja Luka are there and are much cheaper. Plus, going to Sarajevo bus bus or a train is hell. Just to Belgrade you need like 7h by a bus and its not that far away.
Some major European and regional airlines like AirSerbia and Croatian Airlines also fly there with their small planes, selling tickets for a fortune and using the state SJJ is to make profits.
Once airlines see a reason to fly to SJJ they will, until then either they much higher incentives or they just give up.
This year we went to BiH via belgrade from new york area. Typically travel is from new york area is via europe (Germany, Austria, swizz) layover and then to SJJ. This time only we took one flight jfk to beg via AS. Travel to hometown is 3 hr by car from sjj. Beg to hometown was 4h. overall AS saves me time (no layover) and money. I think AS can probably charge LH or swiss prices considering no additional fees for 2 checked bags and carryon. surprisingly car rental is alsp cheaper in belgrade than sarajevo. Paid 100 marks in sarajevo in 2022 compared to 35 euro in belgrade for similar car in 2023. border crossing no issues either.
DeleteBosnia has - because of them not being in EU, opportunity to create their own national carrier, without any hassle (apart from money), 250k is peanuts
ReplyDelete250.000 is not enough for a national carrier and Bosnia is poor so they can't afford it.
DeleteGood luck Sarajevo! Wish them all the best
ReplyDeleteWouldn't be smarter to found a new airline with 2 to 3 aircraft and secure key destinations?
ReplyDeleteYou would need a lot more than 255,000 for that
DeleteAll national airlines attempts in BiH have failed. Why try again?
DeleteActually all national carriers at the Balkan are failing. Croatia and Serbia Airlines are just burning a millions of tax money.
DeleteActually Air Serbia gets zero government funds. It is complete self sufficient and profitable.
DeleteIf Wizz could not make it work out of Sarajevo with incentives, it is questionable about others.
ReplyDeleteWizz Air actually was profitable in Sarajevo but they could make better money elsewhere
DeleteI'm sorry but how do you know they were profitable in Sarajevo? Do you have any proof they were profitable?
DeleteSo what would be the target long haul market for SJJ? US?
ReplyDeleteLong haul should be London, Frankfurt, Paris flights for them :D
DeleteI really hope LH brings back Munich. They used to fly it until Covid.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised they didn't keep it together with Frankfurt.
DeleteTransavia could fly from both ORY and AMS to SJJ in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAMS is capping flights. Doubt we will see many new European destinations out of there.
DeleteWatch how this money will somehow attract someone mote serious than the multimillion Slovenian subsidies
ReplyDeleteThis LCC base saga will soon celebrate its 1 year anniversary.
ReplyDeleteThat is true 🤣
DeleteZadar pays much more.
ReplyDeleteZadar is a coastal seasonal airport. Sarajevo is the capital of a European country.
DeleteJust saw an article today how the passport control queue extends onto the apron. In the sun.
ReplyDeleteIf they can't get the basics right (with the cooperation of the government who runs the border police), they won't get far. If they can't serve 3 planes at the same time, imagine what would happen if there were more flights.
How historically ironic that most of the traffic from the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina is going to Turkey and Austria, of all places...
ReplyDeleteThat applies to majority nations that were colonized.
DeleteSarajevo needs Wizz replacement ASAP.
ReplyDeleteSve šuplja...
ReplyDeleteCan you translate please?
DeleteSarajevo with its central position could have have many more flights and passengers.
ReplyDeleteBut with too many airports around that is not possible.
As someone already mentioned - the many small airports drag each other down.
I think this is an opportunity for JU to have more frequency from Sarajevo and put to use those new E195’s. You have seen Ryanair and Wizz dont like being at the same airport in our region. If Ryanair gains any subsidy then Wizz air will throw its toys out of the pram and just cut back even more here. Seems to be the story all over the region. Whilst I would like to see Ryanair at Belgrade you know if they did come Wizzair would just pull back on any plans to expand they have there
ReplyDeleteI feel the only reason Wizz left was because of Tuzla being so close and they have no competition in Tuzla not because they weren’t doing good, i find it hard to believe RyanAir wouldn’t succeed with w base of 1 aircraft?
ReplyDelete