Swiss International Air Lines has no plans to launch flights between Geneva and Sarajevo next year, despite the route being publicly listed and announced as part of a set of five subsidised services negotiated with the Sarajevo Tourism Board for summer 2026. In a statement to EX-YU Aviation News, the Swiss flag carrier said there are no plans for the new service. Swiss originally appeared in the package alongside Eurowings, which was negotiated to launch operations from Berlin, Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Hanover to Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital. Swiss recently announced its expansion for next year, which will see the carrier launch seasonal flights between Zurich and Rijeka, as well as maintain operations to Dubrovnik and Niš, which were launched this year.
Swiss previously maintained the Geneva - Sarajevo route for one year, from April 2015 to April 2016, using a 97-seat Avro RJ100 aircraft. Last November, the Sarajevo Tourism Board announced Swiss had applied to launch the route in return for subsidies and funds would be granted. The Sarajevo Canton Tourism Association had listed a number of cities it deems of strategic importance and for which it would provide subsidies. They include Berlin, Memmingen, Malmo, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Paris, Basel, Amsterdam, Eindhoven, London, Brussels, Rome, Milan, Budapest, Prague, Barcelona, Girona, Madrid, Geneva, Stockholm, Oslo, Dusseldorf, Athens, Skopje, Izmir, Antalya, Warsaw, Hamburg, Rotterdam, and Baden Baden. Some have since been launched.
Swiss continues to serve Sarajevo from Zurich. It will maintain the same number of flights between the two cities next summer season, with six weekly rotations in April, May, June and October, growing to elven weekly during the peak travel period in July and August. However, the airline currently plans to reduce overall capacity on the route with the Embraer E195-E2 aircraft, operated by its wet-lease partner Helvetic Airways, to be used more frequently than other aircraft types, including the A220-300.
In September, the Lufthansa Group unveiled its sweeping Matrix Next Level program, a restructuring initiative aimed at centralising operations across its network while streamlining decision-making. Set to be rolled out gradually from early next year, the program involves all route planning decisions to be made in Frankfurt, ensuring schedules are aligned to maximize connectivity, as well as avoid duplication and reduce costs. The Group plans to optimize schedules around connections to long-haul services at its six hubs from European feeder markets. Meanwhile, Swiss has announced it is grounding its entire fleet of nine A220-100 aircraft until at least 2027 as issues with their Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan (GTF) engines continue.
I doubt anything will come out of those Eurowings routes either.
ReplyDeleteHonestly not surprised. Swiss barely committed to SJJ even back when they actually flew Geneva.
ReplyDeleteEleven weekly to Zurich in peak summer is actually decent. They’re clearly happy with Zurich–Sarajevo.
Delete^ You missed they are reducing capacity.
Delete11 weekly to Zurich peak summer is a lot. That’s already a strong presence.
DeleteGood example of why announcing routes before airlines actually confirm them is ridiculous. We’ve had so many “coming soon” claims in Bosnia that never materialise.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIt's like that in many airports in your area. Vucic was always announcing new routes too
DeleteWhenever someone writes something about Bosnia, someone else comes along to tell you "It's like that everywhere". Same comment with the criticism they got in EU progress report.
DeleteAirlines can apply for subsidies without any intention to actually launch the route.
DeleteI don’t trust any “planned routes” from Sarajevo until tickets are on sale.
DeleteThe problem is that they are legally obliged to present the results of a public tender for subsidies: Who got subsidies and for which routes? Swiss applied to such a tender last autumn, and applied for subsidies for a Geneva route in 2026. If they had launched it, they would have got subsidies for it. Now they won't get anything.
Delete@09:53 Yes, they just don't get anything, if they choose not to launch it.
DeleteIn reality, Swiss has bigger internal problems right now than opening niche Balkans routes. They’re grounding an entire A220 subfleet! That alone tells you where their priorities are.
ReplyDeleteThat airplane junk has been dismissed from many companies, so no surprise to Swiss as well. This is just a step towards complete retirement
DeleteGood thing OU sees value in them :D
DeleteAnon 09:33 Far from the truth. The entire Lufthansa Group will have the A220 as the core of its regional operations, and the new Lufthansa City Airlines has ordered 40 of them. Smaller airlines are giving up on this type because, due to current engine issues, they can’t afford to have part of their fleet grounded — something larger carriers can compensate for more easily. It’s an excellent aircraft with problematic engines, not some kind of general “airplane junk.” If that were the case, it wouldn’t be such a sought-after model.
DeleteIf the Tourism Board wants Geneva so badly, maybe the better target was easyJet. They dominate Geneva, not Swiss.
ReplyDeleteIt is time for easyjet to finally come to BiH.
DeleteReally hope they come soon.
DeleteEasyJet owns Geneva.
DeleteeasyJet would be perfect seasonal operator.
DeleteLufthansa is the problem.
ReplyDeleteExactly. People underestimate how much control Lufthansa now has over Swiss network planning. If Frankfurt says “not profitable” – that’s it. End of story.
DeleteTrue. LH has even reached that Singapore airlines is not allowed to fly to GVA
DeleteReally? That's crazy
DeleteLufthansa Group is clearly pushing traffic into hubs.
ReplyDeleteGVA–SJJ only survived one season in 2015/16 and that was WITH the old RJ100… if it didn’t work then, why would it work now with higher costs?
ReplyDeleteThis time it would be subsidized.
DeleteThere is a market from Romandie, but it’s fragmented. Many Bosnians from that area are actually flying via Basel, Zurich or even Milan. That hurts the case for a nonstop Geneva route.
ReplyDeleteSarajevo is spending money trying to “buy” routes but you can’t subsidise everyone. Better to secure fewer airlines but with real long-term commitment.
ReplyDeleteThe government should focus on making taxes and fees lower for all carriers instead of paying subsidies for specific routes. That would attract more airlines organically.
DeleteSwiss on the whole is very conservative with expansion right now. They are in cost-reduction mode and trying to fix the A220 problem. New routes are not the focus.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Volotea or easyJet would be better candidates for Geneva–Sarajevo. Swiss is not interested in experimenting outside of Zurich right now.
ReplyDeleteI doubt Volotea can find Bosnia on the map. Other than Dubrovnik and Split (seasonally) they don't fly anywhere in ex-Yu.
DeleteVolotea has 24 routes in Ex-Yu. Yes, they are all in Split and Dubrovnik but it is a very high number.
DeleteThey cut them every year.
DeleteI mean, they cut the number of routes.
DeleteThe fact they immediately said “no plans” tells you the negotiations didn’t even get far.
ReplyDeleteTourism Board implied negotiations were done, and clearly they were not.
DeleteWhy did the tourism board stop with these tenders?
ReplyDeleteProbably money ran out
DeleteBecause they got Ryanair
DeleteThe subsidies list is crazy. They basically wrote a shopping list of every European city where diaspora might live
DeleteWill ZRH-INI have the same number of flights as this year? Hopefully they will extend the season a little bit.
ReplyDeleteExactly the same as this year.
DeleteSJJ should try to get Wizz back in full strength
ReplyDeleteSwiss already tested GVA–SJJ and pulled the plug.
ReplyDeleteSwiss is cutting costs everywhere
ReplyDeleteGeneva is mostly O&D + diplomacy travel. Sarajevo doesn’t fit that profile.
ReplyDeleteCGN-SJJ (Cologne/Bonn) would likely perform better than Geneva. The diaspora catchment around NRW is larger and cheaper to stimulate.
ReplyDeleteWhat is NRW?
DeleteThe diaspora from Switzerland mostly flies via Zurich anyway. Geneva is niche.
Delete@anon 10.24
DeleteNorth Rhine-Westphalia
NRW je vec dobro pokriven.
DeleteGeneva to Sarajevo would have been useful for me personally, but I always doubted it would really happen.
ReplyDeleteI still believe Geneva–Sarajevo could have worked if they did it twice weekly in summer.
ReplyDeleteSarajevo desperately NEEDS more Western Europe connectivity.
ReplyDeleteyes but not via Swiss.
DeleteWhatever happened to Ryanair's base plans in SJJ?
ReplyDeleteThey said they would open it if government cut passenger tax.
DeleteAnd they have not removed them and will not. Only chance is if airport covers these costs.
DeleteRyanair said that if the taxes are removed. Even if they are removed, I feel that won't materialise in the near future.
Delete"that" as in the base I meant
DeleteSwiss has no incentive to cannibalise Zurich route
ReplyDeletecorrect, Zurich is the hub, Geneva is irrelevant to LH connectivity.
DeleteThe Wizz Air flights ex BSL to ex YU are challenging Swiss. Otherwise the growth would hve been stronger. I think for the time being the 3 daily LX BEG flights will remain and I doubt LJU will see more flights, after LH has upgraded FRALJU capacity significantly as of SUTT 2026.
ReplyDeleteOther airports are well served with Edelweiss and ZAG will most probably be left purely to OU ops.
This means that funds that were planned for Swiss can be given to someone else. Any idea who could get them?
ReplyDeleteMore money for FR
DeleteAnyone know how the Sarajevo subsidies work? What do they cover? Or are they paid per passanger carried?
ReplyDelete