FlyBosnia lost its only aircraft over the weekend – the Airbus A319 (registered E7-FBA). The plane was transferred from Sarajevo to Marana Airport (in Arizona) via Reykjavik and Bangor, BiznisInfo reports.
The plane last flew for FlyBosnia on repatriation service to and from the city of Kuwait in June. FlyBosnia will now rely solely on the equipment and crew it hires. The company is currently leasing an Airbus A320 from Lithuanian carrier GetJet Airlines, but has fired most of its flight crew.
FlyBosnia was founded by the Al Shiddi group from Saudi Arabia, which owns the Sarajevo City Center shopping mall in Sarajevo. FlyBosnia was in trouble even before the pandemic, and they have been exacerbated by mass flight cancellations this year due to the spread of the virus.
FlyBosnia recently concluded an agreement with one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s leading tour operators, Fibula Air Travel, to run charter services on behalf of the company. The carrier will be focusing on leisure flights until the 2021 summer season. Apart from serving Antalya over the past month, the airline has also operated repatriation services to Saudi Arabia, with the Kingdom still closed for scheduled traffic. It also plans two roundtrips to Kuwait City, next Saturday and on September 12. Even prior to the pandemic, FlyBosnia planned on putting a greater focus on charter services, many of which were to operate to and from Italy, Egypt and Tunisia, in addition to Turkey, Ex-Yu Aviation writes.
FlyBosnia recently named a new CEO, with Haris Čoloman now leading the company. Mr Čoloman had previously worked at FlyBosnia as an Executive Director but left the company in September of last year. He has also been involved with Bosnia Wand Airlines and Sky Bosnia and has some twenty years of experience in various roles. FlyBosnia has been set up by Saudi Arabia’s Al Shiddi Group, which was founded in 1975 with interests in various fields, including construction, real estate, agriculture and tourism. The Saudi conglomerate has been operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2006.
