B&H dumps Zagreb
Extremely poor loads have forced Bosnia and Herzegovina’s national carrier, B&H Airlines, to terminate services from Sarajevo to Zagreb starting September 1. The service, which commenced only several months ago, failed to interest many passengers and most flights until September 1 have already been cancelled. The six weekly service is operated by the regional ATR72 aircraft. The news will be more than welcomed by Croatia Airlines, which has been in direct competition with B&H. During the 2010/11 winter season, Croatia Airlines will continue to operate fourteen weekly flights between Zagreb and Sarajevo.Meanwhile, the cancelation of the Zagreb route leaves B&H with more unutilised aircraft. It is believed that B&H will replace the Zagreb service with another regional destination, either Podgorica or Skopje, both of which were terminated last year due to low interest.
B&H will soon be getting a new CEO as Nudžeim Rečica, the now former CEO, has had his resignation formally approved by the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mr. Rečica will now become the Ambassador to the State of Qatar.
Talk about not knowing how to run an airline...
ReplyDeleteLet's run through the checklist:
- impractical flight times for many passengers
- poor fleet utilisation and amateurish scheduling (improper use of short-haul aircraft, long layovers and too few cycles to turn a profit)
- insufficient advertising (especially in and around ZAG), properly done would have also advertised seamless connections to IST or any other new destinations OU doesn't serve early morning from ZAG
- high fares (it was 99 + tax??) given odd times of flights
- competition from OU with connections to other destinations
Basically, they set themselves up to fail on a failproof route. This should have, and could be a natural winner for the airline. The current administration are obviously out of their depth, and their immediate cutting of new routes if they aren't profitable from day 1 is alarming... SKP, TGD, BNX, PRG, PRN, TXL, now ZAG and the list keeps growing! This is a route that could sustain 3- or even 4-return flights in a day in the long run.
Need one also mention the inability to fly from any other city within the country - BNX, OMO and TZL all without regular flights, and that ridiculous unnecessary airport planed for Trebinje...
Sad to see, if done properly this could have been a long-term benefit for this small, struggling airline. Perhaps more than just the CEO needs replacing!
Only solution for B&H is that Turkish forces competent ceo on them. Otherwise amateurs like Recica will be continuing to run the show.
ReplyDeleteSarajevo-Podgorica-Skopje without 5th freedom again? Hmm... oh well.
ReplyDeleteIf only running an airline is so straightforward it wouldn't be one of the riskiest business ventures.....and I say ‘good for them’ to have decided to cease Zagreb flights before accumulating even more losses. Who would cover it, the Federation budget that’s already bursting at all seams.
ReplyDeleteWithout wishing to go deeper into (in)competence of BH Airlines management, this was a sound decision.
[SK]
What a joke of an airline.
ReplyDeletethe schedule for 27/28AUG LJU-IST due to the FIBA worldchampionsship is now as follows:
ReplyDelete27AUG 9 flights LJU-IST
including 4 Boeing 737-800 of Sun Express ETD 0300h-0340h plus 2 TK flights (1 737-800 and 1 A321)
28AUG 9 flights LJU-IST (all JP
2 A320, 3 A319, 3 CR9, 1 CR2)
@frequentflyer: good statement. Bravo
hej, do you know how many passengers are on board flight JP504 29AUG LJU-ARN? thnx
ReplyDelete@anonymous:
ReplyDeleteJP 504 - 29AUG ETD 1805 CR9
80 passengers in Economy
01 passenger in Business
a/c registration S5-AAK
a/c configuration: 86 seats
I believe SKP wasn't terminated cause of poor loads or interest.
ReplyDeleteSome kind of political issue. SKP will be resumed in Winter as will AMS be introduced..
Pozz,
Bo
Changes are coming...
ReplyDelete...Namjera turske strane je da "BH Airlines“ u što skorije vrijeme samostalno donosi bitne poslovne odluke, rekao je predsjednik UO "Turkish Airlinesa“ Hamdi Topču, budući da ova kompanija ima potencijal da bude važna u regionu. U tom smislu trebalo bi izvršiti i određene promjene u organizaciji i upravljanju preduzecem, kazao je Topču.
I don't have time to translate everything from Bosnian but the last sentance is stating "certain changes needs to be done in organisation and how company is run". This coming from board chairman visiting Bosnia and talking to other owner is quite strong signal..
Does anyone know what is happening with their loads to Belgrade?
ReplyDeleteI remember some time ago I read that Sarajevo is doing extremly well for Jat just a few months after it was reported that it was doing extremly bad.
How about Cimber, does anyone know what is happening with them?
@ JU520 BEGLAX
ReplyDeleteHvala! I've only called it as I see it, and it is now up to the new owners to flush out the dead wood and make the place turn a serious profit.
@ Zrak
Any chance you could either post the full article or the link to it for us to have a read? I'm sure most on this forum can read their way through, others could use google translator...
@ Bo
AMS using the AT7s just taken off the ZAG run? Anything seems possible with this current administration...
@ Anonymous (#11)
This is the thing about this secretive airline. Nobody has a clue how things are actually running, and public information is scarce (atypical for public companies/govt organisations). Monthly pax loadings, profit/loss statements, the lack of stats is alarming!