More passengers – greater losses

B&H to have more flights to Istanbul
In an interview to the Internet portal beta.ba, Nudžeim Rečica, the CEO of B&H Airlines, said that the airline will finish the year with a financial loss although he can not precisely say how much it will amount to. Rečica blames the loss on the global financial crisis and the significantly lower ticket prices the airline is offering in order to fend off competition. He reminds us that B&H has had 2 difficult successive years. In the first half of 2008 the airline made a profit of 800.000 Convertible Bosnian Marks (410.000 Euros) but ended the year with a 1 million Euro loss.

Speaking about the airline’s future plans, Rečica revealed that B&H will operate daily flights to Zurich, Frankfurt, Istanbul and Vienna while it will continue flying to its destinations in Scandinavia – 2 to 3 times per week to Copenhagen, Stockholm and Gothenburg in 2010. “We plan to reduce the number of flights we have but concentrate on our key markets”, Rečica says. So far this year, flights to Prague, Berlin and Skopje have been terminated.

“Currently we are drafting our future strategy. There is a plan to replace the 2 current ATR72 turboprop planes”, Rečica says and adds that the airline will receive 2 Boeing B737-700s, the first one arriving in January and the second in March of 2010.

So far this year B&H Airlines transported some 80.000 passengers, well ahead of last years total which amounted to 63.000. Rečica believes the airline will reach 100.000 passengers by December 31.

Comments

  1. I wonder what they'll replace their ATR's with - hmmmmmm.....

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  2. frequentflyer12:33

    'blames... the significantly lower ticket prices the airline is offering in order to fend off competition'

    Huh? There isn't much competition with direct flights out of SJJ, perhaps through hubs where passengers have a greater choice of destinations and possibly loyalty programs.

    This is probably an issue that the airline needs to establish itself more firmly in the minds of travellers - something that has been difficult with only 2 aircraft and very few destinations!

    @ Bosnian

    Newer ATRs? It's not like parent company TK has props in its current fleet, it could be an autonomous choice by JA...

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  3. Interesting...the smallest aircraft type TK has in its fleet is A319. It's hard to figre out what the replacement for ATRs could be. Maybe CRJ 200s?

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  4. Anonymous18:45

    Are they joking? Lower prices????? Competition with...?????????????

    One way ticket to Zurich from BNX is 250 euros!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    If they cal that low then I must be from another planet! I think that all issues on balkan are just getting worse!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Faris22:04

    I love this airline but they seem on thin ice, making losses is not a good thing for a company that has been around for some time.

    I hope they can pull things together. I have one bit of advice, work on the marketing, it's one thing they are missing!

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  6. Zrak00:57

    What is the reason that they want to replace ATR's?

    Bosnian market is quite immature and usage of turboprop vs. jet probably doesn't matter to broader public.

    OU is operating Q400 and there has not been any negative publicity about this at all. Especially considering all accidents that happened with this model last year. This caused SAS to phase out all their Q400 (although they have been ideal for short range flights in domestic markets of nordic countries) and Bombardier to discount pricing of CRJ200 just so SAS wouldn't complain too loudly about Q400.

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  7. @ Zrak

    I disagree with you. My uncle and aunt who fly every summer to Bosnia don't know a lot about aviation. However, every time I look for their flights, they warn me not to put them on a turboprop airplane. They told me they are too noisy, small and flying gets very bumpy.

    On the other hand, B&H's CEO didn't say anything that they were replacing their ATRs with smaller jets. Maybe they get Q400s as well

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  8. Anonymous18:40

    Better results for Adria in 3/4 2009: http://www.finance.si/263862/Adria-Airways-prvi%E8-letos-z-dobi%E8kom

    ReplyDelete
  9. Zrak13:43

    @Sam

    Well your uncle flies TO Bosnia and not FROM Bosnia :) I would argue that , that doesn't make him representative of general Bosnian population as he leaves abroad.

    I still haven't seen a single article in bosnian news papers on Q400 problems or about about turboprops and jets.

    Anyways I might be wrong :)

    ReplyDelete

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