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| Doha - Sarajevo service imminent, government says |
Bosnia and Herzegovina's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Igor Crnadak, has said that flights between Doha and Sarajevo are likely to launch next year. The comments came after Mr Crnadak met with the Qatari Minister for Economy and Commerce, Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohamed al-Thani, in Doha on Wednesday. The two agreed for a new route to be established as soon as possible and signed several trade agreements to encourage mutual investments. It follows on from earlier talks between the Bosnian Ambassador to Qatar, Tarik Sadović, and the CEO of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker. Mr Sadović said Qatar Airways will introduce services to the Bosnian capital in the near future, making it its third destinations in the former Yugoslavia following Zagreb and Belgrade.
In 2013, Bosnia and Qatar made amendments to the existing Air Services Agreement between the two countries, which regulates the rights of airlines of both contracting parties to establish direct flights to one another. The arrival of Qatar Airways in Sarajevo would be a major coup for the airport following Flydubai’s service launch last year. The Qatari carrier would not only become the first from the Middle East Big Three (which also includes Emirates and Etihad Airways) to operate flights to Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also the only airline from the Onewrold alliance to fly to Sarajevo. Qatar would provide competition to its rival Flydubai on the route but also Turkish Airlines. Turkish relies on a significant number of transit passengers on its flights to and from Sarajevo, a portion of which could be taken over by Qatar Airways.
The Bosnian Ambassador to Qatar says the flights would cater for both the sizable Bosnian diaspora working across the Middle East, but also those living in far off countries such as Australia. Furthermore, Bosnia has seen an influx of tourists from the Middle East in recent years. Qatar Airways itself has said it will reveal all of its new route launches for the coming year in due course. So far, the Qatari carrier has announced the introduction of services from Doha to Los Angeles, Ras Al Khaimah, Sydney, Boston and Atlanta in 2016, while planed nonstop flights Tbilisi have been put on hold and continue to operate via Baku. Sarajevo Airport’s Managing Director, Ivica Veličan, recently said, “We are currently holding talks with a number of airlines which plan to connect Sarajevo with several attractive destinations. We have the necessary capacity and are open for cooperation, both with full fare and low cost airlines. The introduction of new routes depends on the airline’s assessment of the market and is purely a commercial decision”.
Comments
+1
Поврх свега тога, не заборавимо да из Београда не постоји адекватна конекција из региона за Абу Даби. Путници из Сарајева за Абу Даби морају чекати на аеродрому од 16.10 до 23.15.
+1
Мени је само жао што се кренуло преамбициозно у целу ову причу и што се управа компаније није боље снашла.
As far as SJJ goes, it is going to be interesting to see if this materializes (since only bosnian government announced it) and in which form and frequency. Placing direct non stop flight seems like a challenge considering that bigger regional destinations such as ZAG and BEG started as tagged - and BEG is still tagged. I wouldn't be surprised if we see this service tagged to BEG (and subsequent delink BEG and SOF) or tagg to additional new destination (such as SKP or TIA). I would be very surprised to see SJJ initiated as non stop service. If that somehow happens, maybe max 2 or 3 times per week, but I would definitely expect SJJ tio share capacity with some other destination in favor of more frequency.
13 Oct 2015 15:00
Alitalia today unveiled a series of customer service enhancements that will improve the travel experience for air passengers. The national airline of Italy also confirmed that its three-year business plan was on track for profitability by 2017.
The Chairman of Alitalia, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, and Vice Chairman of Alitalia and President and Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airways, James Hogan, today revealed the details of a range of new initiatives that will be introduced in the next few weeks.
Two new long haul destinations, the first chauffeur service for business travellers, the opening of new VIP lounges and the refurbishment of existing ones at airports, new cabin interiors and Internet and email connectivity on board, as well as a focus on improving customer service at Fiumicino airport, are the highlights that were announced.
The airline yesterday briefed 2,000 staff at a special meeting in Rome.
Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said "Our performance is in line with the business plan. And, for the first time since 2009, the load factor for the quarter exceeded 80 per cent and we are on track to meet our objective of reaching profitability by 2017.
“We are announcing today two new destinations in Latin America, new services for business customers, significant investment in ground services at Fiumicino airport and an aggressive program to improve the medium-haul fleet. These will be introduced shortly and will help to transform the travel experience for customers flying with Alitalia."
Vice Chairman James Hogan added: "Together we have come a long way. Alitalia is ascending but it still has challenges and to maintain momentum we need to accelerate cultural and operational change at every level within the company.
"Being part of Etihad Airways Partners will help Alitalia succeed in its drive to profitability and with market confidence growing, its customers will have much to look forward to and experience in the next six months and beyond."
Planned? QR flew to TBS before - via Baku. You mean they dropped the route?
Complete waste of money I think.
Passengers would appreciate better frequencies instead of flights for only 3/4/5 days a week.
+1000
I entirely agree with you!
ot
Nek sada samo dode neki hrvat ili srbin pa da kaze da ce Emirates doci u BEG i ZAG jednim letom dnevno haha i to sa Airbus A380 ili Boeing 777-300 haha.
Djecak iz Srbije svaki dan prica o SAD letovima koji nema i koji nece dugo godina biti a neko je govorio da ce Air China doci u BEG. Treba biti malo realan.
Sto se tice SJJ, SJJ-FCO bi mogao biti dobro popunjen pogotovo zato sto brojni talijanci dolaze u BiH u Medugorje i u Sarajevo a trenutno ima samo carter letove za Mostar a Alitalia nije Star Alliance i lijepo bi bilo da dode jedan konkurenat i da se mozda zaustavi dominacija Lufthanse i ostali kompanija iz istog Alliance. A zasto bi bosanci isli u BEG ili u ZAG da bi dosli do Rima? Vjerujem da bi vama bilo krivo kad bi Alitalia dosla u Sarajevo. Lijepo sto ce Qatar doci a bas mi je neki dan tata rekao da bi British Airways mogao uvesti SJJ-LHR i ako BiH gradanima u vecini treba viza Englesku moglo bi se privuci engleski turista u BiH a moglo bi biti i transfer putnika preko bare da lete na LHR pa dalje za SJJ.
Bas sam neki dan citao kako je Vels navijacima bilo lijepo u Sarajevu i u BiH, jedan od njih kaze da je bio u dosta drzava sirom svijeta ali da je BiH i Sarajevo jedno od bolji mjesta koje je obisao.
Jeftino pivo (to se trazi kod engleza i ostali sa tog kraja Irska, Vels, Skotska), odlicna hrana, ima dosta vidjeti i ima dobri cura i zena.
Ako Ohrid i Skopje mogu privuci engleze, zasto ne bi BiH mogla isto tako uraditi?
ZAG je uvijek bio (prije raspada Jugoslavije) mali po Evropskom standardu sto se tice glavni gradova i uvijek ce biti mali aerodrom ako uporedis sa drugim glavnim gradovima po EU.
BEG samo moze sanjati o istom broju putnika kao Budapest ili Bukarest, barem dok smo mi na ovom blogu zivi.
I think you should apologise to the Croats and Serbs now.
And no, you can't compare SJJ with ZAG or BEG. There is no commercial sense to have a flight for 4.5 passengers per day flying between SJJ and FCO or even MXP which is not even served from ZAG. lol
Wake up bruh.
I think they only advertised the porcelain plates, metal cutlery and pretty blond air hostesses with too much red lipstick.
+1000
That would be bad for JU who needs to use Balkan trafic for its future flights to US and Canada.
A tek da ne pricamo o nekoj mogucoj liniji ASL za Juznu Ameriku kako ce tek biti.
INN-NS
Ako si procitao ko je napisao da je mesto malo ili tako nesto? Procitaj opet komentar i ukljuci kompas!
Ha ha ha ha ha you win the internet for today! Air Serbia has awesome new lounge, great service, real business class seats on Airbus short haul, wifi and mobile phone service, and you complain about too much lipstick? Ha ha ha ha ha comment of the year! With A330 going to the paint shop, it will be major crisis time for ASL h8ters! LOL, you made my day!
@INN - For the first time, don't exaggerate.
That would be bad for JU who needs to use Balkan trafic for its future flights to US and Canada."
No it won't, it was explained why long time ago. No makeup class for you!
Alitalia is Etihad's big investment and gamble, not JU.
Sorry if that upsets you.
Regards from Sarajevo.
And I think there is not enough load to warrant a widebody.
And yeah, it's something like 90 NM further than ZAG.