After being destroyed during the war 1992-1995, Sarajevo Airport was re-opened for civil air traffic on August 15, 1996. That day had a special meaning for the Airport employees but it also meant that things were getting back to normal in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Immediately after the official re-opening, Croatia Airlines established the air service connecting Sarajevo and Zagreb while the Turkish carrier Top Air started flying from Sarajevo to Istanbul by the end of the year. Sarajevo International Airport had 26.000 passengers and was the only airport in BiH with civil aviation flights. All maneuvering surfaces, technical buildings and the Air traffic control tower were restored and put into operation.
A few months earlier, from April 1996, civil authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina took over the control of one part of Sarajevo International Airport. From that moment started a battle for preparing the conditions for the Airport to serve again for civil aviation operations exclusively. The Airport was donated some second-hand equipment, the sorting area was restored into an improvised Terminal, while the employees, after being trained in Turkey, took over their duties.
General reconstruction of Terminal building with completely new technology and top quality equipment was successfully finished in the beginning of 2001. The official re-opening ceremony was held in March 2001, when Sarajevo International Airport completed all the facilities being necessary to meet passengers’ needs. From that moment started a new era of quality ground handling and top-grade business results.
Today, Sarajevo is an interesting destination for tourists, what was recognized by numerous airlines including: Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Adria Airways, Croatia Airlines, Qatar Airways, etc., with which we have had a successful cooperation for years on mutual satisfaction.
Nowadays with more than a million passengers a year, over 13.000 flights, two million kilograms of cargo, a constant increase of all these figures, extensive development project and introduction of new air services, Sarajevo International Airport has achieved the level of quite a modern airport that significantly contributes to the growth of other industrial branches in our country.
