Sarajevo Airport is in talks with Ryanair and several others but has refused to say which airline plans to open a base in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital after winning a tender to station an aircraft in the city in return for incentives. Sarajevo Airport’s Public Relations Officer, Belma Čureković, said, “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. We are also in talks with Vueling regarding flights between Sarajevo and Barcelona, however, negotiations have just begun”.
The agreement’s ratification is believed to be taking longer than expected at Bosnia and Herzegovina’s air regulator, which is thought to be the cause of the delay in making public the carrier which plans to open a base in Sarajevo. Ryanair currently maintains services to Banja Luka and Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina; however, it plans to discontinue services to the latter at the end of next month after the airport presented the airline with the obligation to pay passenger service charges to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Directorate of Civil Aviation for the preceding winter season. The carrier is subject to the same charges in Banja Luka, although the airport has chosen not to pass on the fees at this point.
Sarajevo Airport has posted strong growth during the first quarter of the year, handling 194.240 passengers during the three-month period. The figure represents an improvement of 9.6% on last year, which was the airport’s busiest first quarter on record. In March alone, Sarajevo Airport welcomed 76.193 passengers, up 8.4%. So far, Saudi Arabia’s Flyadeal is the only carrier to have announced a new route to Sarajevo, from Riyadh, however, a number of other airlines will strengthen frequencies on existing services including Air Cairo, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways. Last summer, Wizz Air operated up to 46 weekly flights from its Sarajevo base, which the airport hopes to replace this year with the yet-to-be-announced carrier, Ex Yu Aviation news portal reports.
E.Dz.
