The airports in both Skopje and Sarajevo have made the introduction of flights to the Spanish market as one of their highest priorities. Both saw one-off Iberia charters from Madrid this summer, operated on behalf of Spain’s Sama Tour, which sells holiday packages to the Balkans. Skopje boasted flights to Barcelona until 2021, which were operated by Wizz Air. The General Manager of airport operator TAV Macedonia, Nejat Kurt, said earlier this week, “We are working very hard on Barcelona which has not been established yet. It was a destination we had before but we hope it will be restored. Our Marketing Director is working very hard on securing those flights”.
Sarajevo Airport is primarily hoping on establishing services to Madrid. The Ministry for the Economy of the Sarajevo Canton, said, “Sarajevo Airport, as our partner, is continuously working on the launch of new routes and Madrid is certainly one we are working hard on. Upon Sarajevo Airport’s initiative, we recently held talks with representatives of Sama Tour on whose behalf Iberia operated two flights to Sarajevo this summer. We discussed the potential of adding extra charter flights, as well as the introduction of scheduled seasonal and year-round operations between Sarajevo and Madrid”.
Currently, the only two markets in the former Yugoslavia with nonstop flights to Spain are Croatia and Serbia, with Slovenia to join on a limited seasonal basis next month when Iberia introduces operations between Madrid and Ljubljana. A total of six airlines maintain flights between the region and Spain. This year, Air Serbia is the largest operator based on the number of flights and capacity, maintaining services from Belgrade to Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid, Malaga, and Palma de Mallorca. It is followed by Iberia, as the second largest with flights from Madrid to Dubrovnik, Ljubljana, Split and Zagreb. Then Ryanair with services from Zadar to Barcelona, as well as from Zagreb to Alicante, Girona, Lanzarote, Malaga, and Palma de Mallorca. It is followed by Vueling with services from Barcelona to Dubrovnik and Split, then Wizz Air with flights from Belgrade to Barcelona, and finally Croatia Airlines with a service from Zagreb to Spain’s second largest city.
Wouldn't Barcelona make the most sense from Sarajevo too? Rather than Madrid
ReplyDeleteMaybe are aiming at IB Latin America connections.
DeleteThat would make sense since the market from Sarajevo is quite large to South America.
DeleteAbsolutely!, BiH have huge historical connection to South America, large diaspora, tons of tourists and close business connections to the region
DeleteMy point exactly. If I were Benjamina Karic I would lobby hard for Aerolieans Argentina to extend EZE-FCO to SJJ. The A330 is perfect for this market and they could also sell tickets to Rome.
Delete😄😆😂🤣
DeleteIt has been normalized that airports attract airlines to land. Absolute inversion of the relationship. A normal title of the article should have been
DeleteAIRLINES TARGETING TO CONNECT A and B... Clown world
What's the mayor of a city got to do with running an airport or attracting flights. Isn't this an issue for the FBIH Government? Does the City of Sarajevo own the airport?
DeleteLots of love for Messi, Maradona, Pele - both in Sarajevo and Skopje.
DeleteThere are indeed quite a few South American tours but the main focus of these flights are P2P passengers which currently use Vienna, Frankfurt and Bergamo to get to Spain
DeleteIs there any interest from Spanish travelers to visit Bosnia and Macedonia for tourism or the flights would be for local demand to Spain?
ReplyDeleteNot really. Wizz used to operate SKP-BCN and those flights failed miserably. Most markets in the Balkans are still relatively poor to make these sunshine destinations works. Most North Macedonians go to Greece because they can drive. Same with Bosnians who go to Montenegro and Croatia.
DeleteWhat an idiotic comment - Flights SKP-BCN did not fail miserably.
DeleteAnd as far as prices and living standards: if Macedonians can afford to drive to Greece for vacation they can also afford to buy an airplane ticket to Spain on a budget airline where the prices are more or less the same.
So why did Wizz cut almost all holiday destinations from SKP? Because 50% passengers are from PRN and they only fly to gasto destinations. I am sorry but there is very little demand for flights like BCN, AGP, OPO etc.
DeleteIf you read the article you will see that charters are being organised this summer for Spanish tourists to both destinations.
Delete50% of the pax are not from Kosovo. Same comment every single time.
DeleteBCN-SKP flights were full of tourists most of the time from everywhere before the pandemic. After the pandemic the tourism in Macedonia had decreased as a result of the restrictions and less flights, thats why in 2021 the flights ended cause they werent profitable like they were before that.
Larnaca ended cause we from Macedonia were still restricted to visit Cyprus in 2021 and in 2022 i think. Stop spreading misinformation if you dont know anything about that.
BCN has also difficult time slots. Time slots are much cheaper if you fly daily than 2 or 3 times per week. Wizzair is also a difficult airlines they sell gasto routes for €400 return and they won’t fly to Barcelona for a 2% profit while a national airline would think a profit is a profit.
DeleteBCN and LCA would be back if there was real demand. SKP fan club tends to overestimate the airport's potential.
DeleteBarcelona was started in 2015 when Skopje had 1,4 million passengers. Skopje had last year 2,9 million passengers so if Wizz saw back than demand there is now also demand. The thing is many people think that to start a new route "profitabilty" is the only factor. There are many things that play a role such as "time slots" "other more profitable routes" "Wizz ask for Eindhoven €400 for a retrun without language they can also make a profit with €150 return to Barcelona. But they are not really motivated to start a route with little profit. While other airlines are more willing to make a sacrifie to start a route with little profit.
Delete@9:45 because it’s difficult to do the same flight as last year with 2 planes less because of engine problems. You just really envy Skopje for no reason.
DeleteGood question
DeleteLet's start paying people to go on trips, and subsidize their flights and accommodation.
Wizz cut Barcelona because of the Covid the route was very succesfull
DeleteYes we envy SKP which has 2.8 million passengers and 80% W6 market share.
DeleteThe Covid excuse is so lame. SKP fanboys say the same about FZ and QR lol. Where are they? The real truth is that TIA growth affected SKP quite a lot. TIA has became more accessible for Albanians, who traditionally use SKP on gasto routes. BCN is not exactly a gasto route.
DeleteMore competition good to make JU and OU be better. I hope Sarajevo and Skopje get the flights.
ReplyDeleteThose Ljubljana flights shouldn’t even be considered as regular flights. They are a joke, there is like 14 rotations with CRJ1000
ReplyDeleteLJU has the biggest potential among SJJ and SKP, hope something materialises next year with Madrid or Barcelona.
DeleteThose flights are selling pretty well, so it's entirely possible they'll upgrade them next season, at the very least
DeleteI agree but both Madrid and Barcelona are strongly represented from Zagreb.
DeleteStrongly represented? How so? ZAG has seasonal three weekly with A319 to BCN and two weekly to GRO. Hardly strong presence.
DeleteIberia has like 12 weekly from Madrid
DeleteYes but BCN is weak
DeleteIberia is no. 1 operator based on number of flights and capacity. JU is only no. 1 by number of routes from Belgrade to Spain.
ReplyDeleteNo, Air Serbia has 1.780 flights filed (return flights included) and 297.672 seats, while Iberia has 1.268 flights and 219.632 seats. If it had more, it would say so in the article.
DeleteIn summer season? No.
DeleteGreat to see JU being so dominant
DeleteEX-YU with all due respect, why are you not intervene in worse situation than this? This was just layman's erorr...
DeleteHope both manage to get those flights
ReplyDeleteIt could work
ReplyDeleteFlights to Spain are much needed
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteDoes Vueling offer the opportunity of connecting flights?
ReplyDeleteYes they do
DeleteHow many weekly flights could we get in both cases.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is 2x per week for both.
DeleteSarajevo has been quite active lately and has more chances of getting the flights first. Most of the previous news here lately were services being boosted e.g. Kuwait, Luton, Zurich, Athens restarted, clearly showing the airport is heading towards the right direction. So why not Spain?
ReplyDeleteIf Skopie was unable to recover Barcelona after quite a while, then it clearly shows there is no demand. Remember quite well that on Friday evenings with Wizzair there were many prices for 19,99€. The schedule was good and even so, it seems there is no interest. Doubt that Madrid would work. Skopje seems to be in a much more stagnated state for some reason..
Well, there is one important fact you ignore. Tuzla is down 67% compared to last year, and Banja Luka is down 20% compared to last year. Those passengers need to go somewhere, and many of them go to Sarajevo. So overall, the number of passengers will still be the same in Bosnia and Herzegovina as last year.
DeleteSkopje also had many routes increased by Wizz Air, but because of the engine problem, there are 4 planes instead of 6. Last year, Skopje had almost 2.9 million passengers. If the engine problem is fixed, Skopje will surpass 3 million passengers. There are many holiday destinations. Barcelona was canceled during corona, and in 2021, it still had a load factor of 80% in January (go back to the trip report). Barcelona can be easily launched, but there are more factors at play than just being profitable
Barcelona was canceled from SKP because of Covid and the route was always full and succsefully
DeleteSkopje will get Barcelona soon , and its possible to get Madrid for next summer first as seasonal.
Those flights were for a particular member of the governing party to visit his second residence in BCN and party over the weekend.
DeleteNone of the reduced flights from Tuzla are in Sarajevo now except Gothenburg. The pax numbers are almost entirely from new routes. No doubt Sarajevo could hold a regular line to Spain given the big demand.
DeleteToo many non air travel motivated comments, insinuations here. Well this is still Balkans.
ReplyDeleteWhen Tenerife? Ibiza? Sevilla? Alicante? and other cities in Spain?
ReplyDeleteLet's first get Barcelona or Madrid.
DeleteFrom Sarajevo, is there any demand to Amsterdam, Brussel, Paris or Dublin?
ReplyDeleteNo but we'll subsidize that with public money.. everyone gets a 700 € voucher and a free flight. In their destination city, free meals and drinks and dating with anyone of your choice. The numbers are expected to soar sky high.
DeleteAmsterdam and Paris are among the top 5 destinations that Sarajevo really needs, since it is difficult to get slots in Amsterdam, Eindhoven is much more realistic. Ryanair already flies to Brussels. Dublin maybe Ryanair to try, otherwise difficult to be honest.
DeleteOf course there is, there are business travelers, local tourists and diaspora in all of those except Dublin to an extent. Having participated in the discussions the estimate is that 45-60k people travel to Madrid and Barcelona as their final destination yearly from SJJ. Barcelona holds a 63% share
DeleteBarcelona is in big demand in SKP and thats the destination people asking for everyday , I am sure we will it very soon , and its also possible for next summer we see seasonal Madrid too.
ReplyDeleteSince the demise of Malev, I've been shocked at the lack of OneWorld coverage in the Balkans. I truly believed BA or IB would have stepped up and filled the hole by now.
ReplyDeleteThy choose to ignore our region and fly elsewhere instead.
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