Atlasjet plans big for B&H
The Turkish airline Atlasjet will create a regional carrier within the borders of the former Yugoslavia if it is successful in taking over a 49% stake in B&H Airlines. Atlasjet’s subsidiary would have bases in Sarajevo, Priština and Skopje, with its main operating base being in the Albanian capital Tirana. All four cities see high volumes of traffic to Turkey. Furthermore, both the airports in Priština and Skopje are run by Turkish operators. Another similarity is that neither Macedonia, Albania nor Kosovo have a national carrier. “Atlasjet’s plan to link passengers within these countries and take them onwards to other destinations across the world”, Bosnia’s Minister for Transport and Communication told the “Oslobodjenje” daily.
Atlasjet, which has fourteen aircraft in its fleet and a further ten on order, has held talks with the Bosnian government over the takeover of B&H Airlines and its plans for the region. Tarhan Tower Airlines, also based in Turkey, is vying for a stake in B&H as well. The airline has offered to provide its two MD82 jets to B&H Airlines as soon as it takes over the carrier and further invest in another ten aircraft, either Boeing or Airbus, in the coming years. The Malaysian no frills carrier AirAsia has requested more information on B&H’s business.
Meanwhile, the privately owned Libyan airline, Buraq Air, is still interested in a strategic partnership with B&H but says it is waiting for more secure times to invest. The airline says the current political instability in Libya following last year’s civil war has forced the CEO of Buraq Air to postpone talks with Minister Bijedić. In its takeover bid, Buraq has offered two of its Boeing jets to B&H, as well as a 50 member workforce. Due to the current situation in the North African country, the movement of Buraq Air employees is limited. Furthermore, the Libyan government, including the Ministry of Transport, is non-functioning, making it impossible to negotiate a deal with B&H.
Below you can view how the four abovementioned airports performed passenger wise in 2011:
| Airport | PAX 2011 |
|---|---|
| Tirana | 1.807.073 |
| Priština | 1.422.302 |
| Skopje | 759.928 |
| Sarajevo | 599.996 |
If they perform as they are performing from STN to Istanbul and they do all that with marketing and for the price they are doing now I can see something happening
ReplyDeleteEverything south of Danube will be OUA, Ottoman United Airlines. Telling you the truth, all is politics. The prize for Turkey not joing the EU is the Balkans. Thats why they build roads, airports, airlines. Very dangerous development. Thanks god Bulgaria and Romania escaped just in time!
ReplyDeleteI'd rather have the Turks rule us than the Russians!
DeleteWho are you talking about when you say "us"?
DeleteWe, the mighty Croats! (...one could also say that our brother Bosniaks, Albanians and the Macedonians agree with this!)
DeleteIt is not "Priština". It is Prishtina or Pristina. See official website: http://www.airportpristina.com/en/
ReplyDeletePriština, as far as I know is the official name of the city. Even if you believe that Kosovo is independent, than take into consideration that Serbian is the official language in the Province/"country".
Delete^ ...as well as Albanian! ;)
DeleteYes but he used a term in the official language of the province, hence why there is nothing wrong with it.
DeleteOT
ReplyDeleteNiki upgraded its service on VIE-BEG route from 2 daily DH4 to 1 daily DH4 and E90 each. But both flights operate at strange times: DH4 @1305 and then only 4 hours later @1715h. Strange. I wonder why they did it..
Anyways, whats going on with those charter Milan flights to/from BEG? Alitalia has 2 flights today and tomorrow on board A320 and Blue Panorama one flight on board 763 tomorrow?! Some game maybe?
Europa cup match Inter Milan - Partizan Belgrade!
Deleteso two A320 and one 763 for one single match!? :)
DeleteMany Italians are coming to Belgrade and have enough money to take a plane instead of bus.
DeleteThis Niki is a small but very good airline.
DeleteYou really should try them ...i did.
They fly double daily on working days and once daily the weekends.
So actually they are flying 12times a week.
And they use Dash8(from their partner airline Air Berlin).
More information on Jat's new programme:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aviokarta.net/vesti/1506-nova-formula-za-novi-jat/
Their math is wrong: 23.5 million in '98 dollars is much more than 23.5 euro today, so the airplanes are not discounted so much (their number was <50 mill per plane which is the price you never get for 4 planes). Still any deal which brings new metal to Belgrade is a good deal :)
DeleteAs well as Prague airport offering incentives for re-opening of direct Belgrade flights, Zagreb flights of little interest, airport says.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aviokarta.net/vesti/1507-praski-aerodrom-trazi-direktnu-liniju-do-beograda/
What exactly would PRG benefit from BEG? This route was never successful anyway.
DeleteHuh? The loads were really good but the yields were the problem due to CSA's cost structure.
DeleteIt would be good if you could provide us with some concrete facts.
Why do you think it was never successful??? I travelled a few times on that route and the plane was always full (and the flight was served daily). It is true that there were lot of transit passangers and that now that market captured Lufthansa and co.
DeleteWhy do you think it was never successful??? I travelled a few times on that route and the plane was always full (and the flight was served daily). It is true that there were lot of transit passangers and that now that market captured Lufthansa and co.
DeleteIf it were successful, then why didn't JU launch flights and do a code-share on BEG-PRG after OK stopped flying? Besides they were mostly operating their ATR instead of B737 or A319...
DeleteYour worry for Zagreb is really bizarre, having in mind number of problems your region is dealing with.
DeleteTry to concentrate to well being of your region and leave others to deal with themselves and their problems, as they like.
OK was operating ATR at the time when Prague was served TWICE daily. I think it was during last summer season. Before that it was B737.
DeleteAs for JU, I don't understand what you mean. By that logic we can say that any line not served by JU if not successful.
I agree with Prague airport estimation, that 2-3 times per week could optimal and profitable.
If there are people here who still believe Kosovo is a province of Serbia, try filing for traffic rights to Prishtina in Belgrade. Truly sad what extreme nationalism can do to your state of mind.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot fly from Belgrade to Niš neither. Is this a hidden sign of not beeing at the same country?!So, please, give me a break.
DeleteYou misunderstood what s/he said: they said that Serbia does not have any control whatsoever of the Kosovar air space, its supposed province. The point was not that there are flights between the two capitals.
DeleteAlso, if Jat Airways wants to fly to Nis then they can do so. If the wanted to fly to Pristina, malo sutra. Although, I personally think that such a route would most probably be pretty successful.
Qatar Airways global 7-9.11 sale excludes Zagreb.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.qatarairways.com/global/en/offers/belgrade-offers.page
Not only Zagreb:
ReplyDeleteVaži na letovima Qatar Airways-a, sa sledećim izuzecima:
- putovanja iz Indonezije, Irana, Libije i Južne Afrike
- letovi iz/za Amritsara, Budimpešte, Ženeve, Goe, Kozikodea, Manile, Montreala i Zagreba
- letovi između Denpasara/Bali I Singapura, Hanoja I Bangkoka, Ho Ši Mina i Bangkoka, Sao Paola i Buenos Airesa
- putovanja gde je Doha finalna destinacija (ne uključujući transit kroz Dohu), osim putovanja koja započinju iz Bahrena, Iraka, Jordana, Kuvajta, Libana, Omana, Katara, Saudijske Arabije, Ujedinjenih Arapskih Emirata i Jemena. Putovanja koja zahtevaju transit kroz Dohu su dozvoljena
But when zagrab zagrab...
DeletePathetic, anon @ 8:38. Get a life.
DeleteBy the way, this is a clear sign that this flight is doing really well. Honestly, I would love to know more - is it ZAG or BUD that's bringing the business? I would say it's the latter, as this is the only BUD's connection with the region, but again, would be pleasantly surprised if ZAG had a significant role.
The best solution for B&H Airlines is to try and work out a way with SAS just like the Baltic carriers due to the large number of Bosnians in Scandinavia. But, I guess the influence of Turkey on both Macedonia and Bosnia is quite big.
ReplyDeleteNot a bad idea, really.
DeleteIt does not mean that it's mutually exclusive. They can link-up with Atlasjet, try and sign up an agreement with Scandinavian (or even airBaltic) and, ideally, rebrand - B&H Airlines is a terrible brand.
Not much to do then.
But Atlasjet is a charter airline?!
ReplyDeleteThey should not waste their time with shaky Balkan airlines.
This is all politically motivated nonsense...
It is not charter
Delete
ReplyDeleteI would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this post. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well.