October surge for Sarajevo Airport

Sarajevo Airport heading for all time passenger record

Sarajevo Airport has seen its passenger numbers skyrocket this October, with growth reaching 23.6%. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s busiest airport handled 64.387 passengers during the month. So far this year Sarajevo Airport has welcomed 584.432 travellers, an improvement of 15.5% on the same period last year, and has surpassed 2012’s annual result which stood at 580.058 passengers. In a statement the airport said, “Passenger numbers should soon surpass 600.000 which will mark an all time record since Sarajevo Airport opened its doors”. During October the airport also saw an increase in the number of flight operations, with a total of 518 operated flights, marking an increase of 12% compared to October 2012.

Sarajevo Airport is anticipating a busy winter ahead with B&H Airlines planning to launch flights to Belgrade from December 2. Furthermore, Moskovia Airlines, which initially planned to launch flights from Moscow to Sarajevo this week, has pushed back its inaugural service to December 20. The scheduled one weekly flight will connect the two capitals for the first time. Further details can be found here. In addition, Norwegian Air Shuttle has converted its seasonal summer service from Stockholm to Sarajevo to year long flights.

Meanwhile, it was a quieter affair at Banja Luka Airport which handled 650 passengers last month, seven passengers more than in October 2012. The airport is hoping for a late turnaround with B&H Airlines maintaining its flights to Zurich this winter and Air Serbia launching daily services to Belgrade. Banja Luka Airport says it is still in talks with Wizz Air over potential flights from the city and adds it is determined to resolve fuel pricing issues which have kept the no frills airline away. Yesterday, Miroslav Janjić was named as the airport’s new CEO, replacing Davorin Mihić. Mr. Janjić will hold a press conference at Banja Luka Airport on Thursday when he is expected to unveil his future plans for the airport.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:04

    Why the hell is JA so slow to add their Belgrade flights into the system?!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous10:06

    Great numbers for SJJ. Imagine how good they would be if we had flights to London, Paris, Rome....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous10:14

    Mod, why was my comment (about possible destinations) deleted, it had nothing malicious in itself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nikola10:40

      it wasn't deleted. it probably went to spam. it's something with Blogspot as software

      Delete
    2. It was transferred to yesterday’s topic since it is about Air Serbia’s future destinations. Off topics are allowed but if there is an active topic related to a subject published 24 hours ago there is no need to make an off topic.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous11:01

    I only hope Sarajevo will come out of the claws of Star Alliance and open up towards other airlines. The prices are shocking at the moment. So if they manage to see such a boost in numbers imagine how well they would do if there was more competition and lower fares.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:09

      Exactly! Hopefully Wizz will finally start flying to Sarajevo soon!

      Great numbers for Sarajevo btw!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:55

      Any chance Sarajevo airport hitting 1.4 million pax by 2020?

      I am being optimistic here but my projections put Sarajevo at 1.42 million in 2020.

      672000 this year, 770 000 in 2014 and 875 000 in 2015.

      Delete
  5. Purger12:28

    Increase of 12% of passengers in Air Serbia is a big disappointment.

    Air Serbia has 33 more flights than Jat had last year (November 2012 145 flights, 2013 178 flights per week). It is 23% more flights than last year, and even more seats because of two more A319 and more 737-300 flights than last year (few 737 was stored, but ATR made 100% flights).

    That means that LF is worst than last year.

    More lines should make even more passengers, and good results would be 35% more passengers on 23% more flights (more frequencies always accumulate much more passengers than increase of frequencies).

    12% of increases of passengers compare to 23% more flights (and much more seats) what is more than double increase in capacity, shows that new system fails. Of course it is too early to make some conclusions, but this is more than disappointment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:33

      Well, 12% was in the first six days when the second A319 was not flying while, due to the bureaucratic problems, YU-APC did not operate to any route other than the AUH one. So the 65% increase is for the whole winter timetable that increases gradually as more aircraft arrive. I suppose that in the first six days, that is for the statistics you mentioned, the increase was not more than 5% (in terms of more flights).

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:34

      Financial results count, not just percentage figures not showing structure of the income.
      At the company transition phase it is far too early for any definitive evaluations and great judgments, let alone not for "big disappointments".

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:39

      Most timetable changes (frequency increases) apply from January 1 not from October 27.

      Delete
  6. Purger13:54

    Not true:
    - Air Serbia increase 33 flights on 27th October
    - another 60 flights increase in December what will be total of 93 more flights compare to December 2012

    - first A319 flew to Abu Dhabi in first days, and it starts regular flights on Wednesday 30th October and since than it flew to Abu Dhabi, Podgorica, Zurich, Larnaca...
    - 2nd A319 came on Wednesday 30th October
    - but still with or without those A319 there was 33 new flights without any cancellation what is 23% more flights than in first week of November 2012, and just 12% of passengers increase

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Purger13:59

      Naravno da je puno prerano stvarati ikakve zaključek.

      No, da je 23% više linija i oko 35% više sjedala akumuliralo 20% više putnika onda ne bi trebalo donositi nikakve zaključke, no ovdje je otklon toliko velik (skoro pola manje povečanje putnika spram broja letova i trećina spram broja sjedala) da bi se svaki management trebao zapitati i poduzeti ozbiljne mjere (jača propaganda, niže cijene, akcijski paketi...). Nemojmo zaboraviti da je ovo povečanje rezultirano i enormnim publicitetom koji prati Air Serbiju (od najave projekata, preko potpisivanja ugovora, pressica, prezentacija, dolazaka A330 sa opremom, novog imagea, novih uniformi, novih proizvoda, dolaska prvog aviona, najava linija, najava prekooceanskih letova, najava preuzimanja drugih kompanija, prezentacije prvog aviona, prvi let, prezentacija imena "Novak Đoković", akcija 1+1 karta...), a što će izostati za 2-3 mjeseca kada Air Serbia postane "uobičajna pojava".

      To svakako treba gledati u svjetlu masovne ekspanzije koja dolazi za mjesec dana (u decembru) i koja ako se do tada neće stabilizirati može ozbiljno dovesti u pitanje cijeli projekt. Jer ako će rast frekvencija i linija biti bitno veći nego rast broja putnika, tj. LF će biti opasno nizak, teško da će nova kompanija biti u stanju poduzeti još bitno veću ekspanziju planiranu za mart (povečanje kapaciteta kroz daleko veću flotu, 7 novih linija i ogromno povečanje frekvencija).

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:08

      You do realize that those numbers, the 12% increase, was only for the first six days and the A319 operated only for the last three. Excluding AUH flights which anyway don't count that as they are not even daily.

      On top of everything, these statistics are published during one of the slowest months in Belgrade. If we were talking about July or August then fine. We are talking about the last few days of October and the first few days of November. They couldn't count on the O&D market to boost their numbers as there isn't that much anyway. That's why 12% is actually a success, especially if we see that they have on average 50 connecting passengers from cities such as LCA, ATH, SKG or SAW. All routes where there was absolutely no connecting traffic prior to the creation of Air Serbia.

      Delete
    3. Purger14:44

      - but still with or without those A319 there was 33 new flights without any cancellation what is 23% more flights than in first week of November 2012, and just 12% of passengers increase

      But problem is if November is slowest month (and it is not) than they should not increase frequenciest for 23%, because on that way they will loose a lot of money.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous15:06

      Please, read what I wrote. I wrote ONE OF the slowest months at Belgrade, it has less than 300,000 passengers.
      But even with 23% more flights, a 12% increase is still not that bad. The reason why they increased them by so much is because they are setting up a hub. It takes time to fill those seats.

      Delete
    5. @ Purger - With opening new routes and increasing frequencies, it is, if I could say so "natural" to expect loses during the initial phase of operations. It takes some time to penetrate the market and get people used to the new service and product available to them. Etihad, Emirates and Qatar were not profitable at the very beginning either (I am still not sure if Qatar actually is). It took them some time to build the network and get the passengers try their product. To me, the important thing that makes an airline fail or succeed is the ability to retain those passengers and make them come back again. We will see how this works with Air Serbia. They have had some bumps at the start but that's nothing unusual. More important is that they are responsive to customer needs and address the issues that might arise. I am a little bit disappointed that they don't advertise and make posts on their Facebook page in English too. I mentioned that to them few times and I see no change. I didn't request it because of me, but because of other people who don't speak Serbian and would like to learn more about their airline and product. If they want to count on passengers other than Serbs and the Diaspora, they better do something about it.

      Delete
    6. Purger17:10

      Well, if result would be equal to Jat (last year result + 23% increase) it would not be good.

      Sure, you need time for new routes, but time cost money. And let me remind you about bombastic announcement that Air Serbia would be profitable in one year time. It is not problem in “some bumps at the start” problem is in huge plans, big announcements, World company etc. and than they can not settle problem with catering in 10 days. It is much wisely not to speak a lot but to work a lot and than you can say in public “well, we have problem with catering because of big start, but that is usual in beginning and we will do our best to settle that as soon as possible”. But to say just one day before as you will have World company and next day to have huge delays because of catering, that is not good for company image. And not to go with premature announcement is policy of Etihad. Why, on earth Air Serbia does not follow that policy.

      Sure, if you want to start with 23% increase of flights, and 66% increase after just one month, than LF would be small, and that cost money. But than you can not say that 12% more passengers is good result, and for sure you can not plan to make that company profitable in one year.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous17:30

      Hogan said that he told Kondic to bring the airline to profitability in two years but if he could do it in a year then it's even better.

      Delete
    8. Yes,Mr.Kondic and Etihad announced that Air Serbia should be profitable in 2016.
      That simply means it will be still lossmaking till 2016.The aim is a massive reduction.
      Nobody knows this better than Etihad,which also needed years to achieve profitability.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous14:13

    Looking to me like Sarajevo is going to have to expand its airport soon which would be great news

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous14:18

    Purger you can not judge is it disappointment after few days. No one expected some huge increase of passengers and spectacular numbers after less than 2 weeks. Take it easy and lets wait for few months to pass. They need to get new planes and develop the business. I dont know what you expected but you as an aviation expert should know its not so easy to overtake some markets. Its just not realistic. Big respect for you but you are ruing your credibility with this statements.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Purger15:04

      Let me repeat:

      Naravno da je puno prerano stvarati ikakve zaključek.

      No, da je 23% više linija i oko 35% više sjedala akumuliralo 20% više putnika onda ne bi trebalo donositi nikakve zaključke, no ovdje je otklon toliko velik (skoro pola manje povečanje putnika spram broja letova i trećina spram broja sjedala) da bi se svaki management trebao zapitati i poduzeti ozbiljne mjere (jača propaganda, niže cijene, akcijski paketi...).

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:28

      Oh God, it doesn't mean anything. First of all, it's six days only, not a whole month. Second of all, most promotional campaign were held just around the launch. I am sure most people did not book flights in a week from that moment. So 12% in a way is really good. Let's also remember how long it took them to load the new schedules. People were probably reluctant to book flights until they saw it was not all a scam.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous17:31

      ...also Air Serbia has a much healthier cost structure than Jat did. So a 12% increase despite additional flights doesn't mean they are losing money.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous21:09

      "Second of all, most promotional campaign were held just around the launch."

      Well, that's really not true. We all know how many press conferences, announcements, plans, signature of contracts etc. was organized in front of newspaper... Public was raped since beginning of June. Every new route or peace of information was top story.

      "...also Air Serbia has a much healthier cost structure than Jat did. So a 12% increase despite additional flights doesn't mean they are losing money."

      Even if you are magician you can not be more profitable if you have 23% more flights with just 12% more passengers...

      Delete
    5. Anonymous00:10

      First of all, promotional campaigns as in lowered ticket prices, not conferences and so on.

      Second of all, you all make it sound as if 12% increase in passenger numbers was actually bad. Jesus, what's wrong with you people.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous14:32

    OT: Purgeru, imaš li kakav inside info o zainteresiranosti avio kompanija za OU, osim informacije koju si već dao, o eventualnoj kupovini od strane nekog hrv. fonda?

    Usput, čestitke Sarajevu za odličan porast broja putnika ove godine i puno sreće u budućnosti, kao i Air Serbiji!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Purger15:06

      Nažost ne...

      ... no vrlo je indikativno kada ministar kaže "Javile su se 4 kompanije među kojima i Garuda" (a to je rekao i CEO CTN-a). To samo znači da su ostale 3 još slabije od Garude, jer da nisu, onda bi se i te kako one isticale kao referentne.

      Delete
  10. Does anybody know if and when Sarajevo,Skopje and Zagreb will get Alitalia flights?
    It was reported that they were to introduce these flights
    but probably will have to wait till summer season.

    Today AZ upgraded one of its double daily flights to Belgrade to Airbus 321.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous18:47

      Who knows, Alitalia is in very deep red and its facing one of its worst crises ever. I don't know if time for expansion is now.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous18:11

    OT: Hamburg airways is just about to land at BEG from HAJ. Somebody knows a bit more? I am so curious!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous20:05

    Interesting article about Zagrebs old airport in Borongaj on www.forgottenairfields.com...
    Also interesting but sad to see how Germany influences the fate of everything in Croatia.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous18:23

    Air Serbia starts at bnx in two days.

    ReplyDelete

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