FlyBosnia will restore flights with the lease of three aircraft. The company’s owner, the Al Shiddi Group, confirmed the carrier had signed contracts for three Airbus A320 jets with the capacity to seat 180 passengers. The first of the aircraft is expected to arrive as early as this month, while the remaining two are due in April of next year. They have been contracted from lessor GE Telesis. One of the three jets, registered N419UA, is 26 years old and had previously operated for United Airlines. The airline has been without an aircraft since retiring its sole A319 this summer and laying off most of its flight staff. During the peak summer months, it wet-leased both equipment and crew from Lithuania in order to operate leisure flights from Sarajevo to Turkey, Ex-Yu Aviation news writes.
Sarajevo International Airport terminated its contract with Fly Bosnia on November 17th after the airline failed to pay its debts. This information was confirmed for Klix.ba from the Sarajevo airport, stating that the suspension of Fly Bosnia started on September 18 this year.
”Considering that the air carrier, neither settled its debts within the given period of 60 days, nor did it accept the proposal on the manner of debt repayment, the contract on the provision of services of acceptance and dispatch of aircraft, passengers and luggage between J.P. Sarajevo International Airport and FlyBosnia Airlines were terminated on November 17, 2020,” they said from Sarajevo Airport.
In addition, they added that all necessary legal actions will be taken.
”In connection with the goal of protecting their interests, a request for activation, ie collection of a bank guarantee, was submitted on November 18,” they added.
Fly Bosnia confirmed in December last year that they had agreed to repay the debt to Sarajevo Airport, but also did not want to state how it will be done and what the amount is. The debts were not paid despite the mentioned agreement, Ekapija writes.