Bosnia and Herzegovina is second in the world in terms of the number of inhabitants living in the diaspora. Regardless, the number of flights from the country to capital cities and attractive locations is limited. What do the citizens say, and what do the airport authorities say?
While there is talk of putting the Sarajevo airport under concession, which the state minister of transport sees as an option, and the airport management is talking about a hybrid concession, and aviation experts look at all this skeptically, from the capital of the country we can travel to Vienna, London, Istanbul, Dubai, Zagreb , Belgrade, Abu Dhabi, Frankfurt, Warsaw, Cologne, Zurich, Skopje and Jeddah. Citizens believe that the number of lines must be greater.
“It’s just ridiculous how many flights we have, compared to some other European cities. We are not even connected with the region as it should be, something has been established with Skopje, but it all started like that for a few months, weakly connected with Albania, not to mention with the countries of Western Europe”, one citizen told N1.
From BiH we cannot travel to the capital of France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, nor Sweden. While Tuzla and Sarajevo airports explain that they are negotiating and preparing an incentive scheme, it is currently difficult for citizens to come to the country.
This is particularly felt by BH diaspora. Those who actively work to promote Bosnia and Herzegovina and bring in foreign investors often do not achieve what they set out to do due to the lack of flights. That potential remains untapped.
“It’s very difficult and if you have a connecting flight through other airports, it’s very risky if you don’t get the job done on time, then you can’t transfer the flight, you get a marginal flight time and you’re in a situation where you have to travel by car to a neighboring country to get back,” says Nazif Hasanović, president of the Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina Businessmen in Sweden.
From Banja Luka, we can currently travel to Dortmund, Berlin, Basel, Belgrade and Memmingen. A huge number of passengers are unserved in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and after Wizz Air canceled 11 lines from Tuzla, more than 400 thousand people have a problem.
“Tuzla was quite convenient for us, and now those flights from Tuzla are very lacking for us, the people from Vareš,” another citizen explained.
Earlier there was talk about the arrival of the Montenegrin airline. But she was approved for flights only to the Netherlands and Turkey, so her arrival in Tuzla is uncertain. The Government of Tuzla Canton has now approved 2.5 million BAM for subsidies to airline companies.
“In the public invitation, it will be specified that the airline that wants to apply must have approvals for flights to those countries, in this way we rule out the possibility of falling into the same problem and finding out after a month or two that they cannot fly”, says Dževad Halilčević, director of Tuzla Airport.
On the other hand, experts believe that it will not give great results, and that the reason for the departure of Wizz Air should be found in the constant changes of the director of the airport in Tuzla and the failure to fulfill the promised construction of gate 3 and the lighting of the central line.
“What other companies are these? Ryanair came to Tuzla twice and gave up. Does Tuzla think it will come a third time? EasyJet, Transavia, Eurowings, Vueling or Norwegian have no chance to come to Tuzla. Eurowings would still make sense, but Lufthansa cut them and they don’t open many new routes. The only small chance is Norwegian, but it flies to Sarajevo and Belgrade and it will be difficult to decide on another airport nearby,” says Alen Šćuric, an expert in civil aviation.
The Canton Sarajevo Government has also decided to subsidize airlines, and the public call is open for three more days. The Sarajevo airport says that in October they had the same number of air operations as in 2019. Considering the number of flights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, many passengers arrive at their destinations instead of by plane, spending much more time driving in a bus or car.
