Bihać Airport project to resume


The ambitious redevelopment of Bihać Airport in north-western Bosnia and Herzegovina, initially scheduled to commence last February, has received renewed backing from the Federal government which will provide the necessary funding in order for construction to begin this year. A groundbreaking ceremony was cancelled in 2016 after the government snubbed the project and failed to provide the required funds. However, the Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Fadil Novalić, said last week, "The city of Bihać missed out on an initial investment of one million euros because they failed to submit an investment plan. We will provide one million euros for Bihać Airport this year and will inject a further million each subsequent year".

The Mayor of Bihać, Šuhret Fazlić, says construction of the airport's terminal building is likely to begin this year. "We have already formed the public enterprise JP Aerodrom Bihać, which manages the airport, while all property ownership issues have been resolved. We must now conduct a feasibility study, obtain the necessary project documentation and determine how to secure additional funding in order to begin work this year. A public private partnership is also possible", Mr Fazlić said. Turkey's Çelebi Aviation Holding, a ground handling services company, had previously expressed interest to partake in the project. "There is also interest from a Saudi investment fund based in Dubai", Smail Toromanović, the advisor to the Mayor of Bihać, previously said.

Bihać Airport's redevelopment includes the lengthening of the runway from the current 1.200 metres to 2.000 metres, as well as the construction of a new control tower and passenger terminal. "This project is of great importance to the region for the development of both the local tourism industry and economy, even if the airport caters only for charter flights. The land around the airfield is owned by the city, so there are no issues concerning possession rights", Mr Toromanović noted. The Bihać-based Euroing company was responsible for the design of the terminal. Once built, it will become Bosnia and Herzegovina's fifth commercial airport, following Sarajevo, Tuzla, Mostar and Banja Luka, which handled just over 1.230.000 passengers in 2016. Bihać is located near the Croatian border and is the country's eighth largest city.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:03

    Wouldn't this money be better spent by investing in Tuzla or Mostar?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:17

      Both are being upgraded as we speak. Banja Luka.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:20

      I wanted to say Banja Luka as well.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:22

      Well if the government has extra cash to burn I would rather they set up a small but efficient national airline.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:28

      Extra cash
      hahahaha
      And "investing" money like this is the reason for the extra money

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:06

    If they find a private investor to build it then I don't mind but I'm not for wasting public money on such a project.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:10

      I agree but public money is already being spent through this public enterprise. Same way there was a JP Aerodrom Trebinje.

      Delete
    2. Spending money for nothing! It's very hard to understand what they are going to do with this airport. Just spilling money and pay offs.
      Another ghost airport.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:08

    I think 4 functioning commercial airports is enough.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous09:18

    Not again. I was hoping they gave up on this.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous09:22

    The design actually looks good. I like it

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous09:26

    This airport could serve a part of Croatia too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:55

      This could be problematic. The airport is very close to the boarder meaning aircraft would do most of their approach in Croatia which could be an issue. Look at Osijek as a reference.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:33

    This terminal would look much better at Banja Luka airport. Wizz/Ryan Air's aircraft in front of it too.

    Unfortunately,the government prefers to waste money on yet another ghost airport and BNX management is mentally retarded and incapable of attracting anything except Air Serbia.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous09:43

    Sorry for OT, but does anyone know why ALT is in Berlin right now?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:46

      http://www.bktvnews.com/info/srbija/drama-na-nebu-avion-er-srbije-hitno-preusmeren/88623

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:55

      Where are other turboprops, why is JU190 late for three hours ?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:38

      This morning only two ATR, out of six, are operational.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:24

      How come?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous15:58

      Where are the other Atr's?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous17:00

      JU probably can't afford to fix them.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:53

    I suggest a joint venture with Ponikve, Morava, Trebinje, Niksic, Varazdin airports.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous09:59

    While it might all look like a joke, Bosnia's geography is such that western Bosnia does actually need an airport. The roads between Bihac to Sarajevo/Tuzla/BL are quite bad. Same as to reach the boarder to got Zagreb or the Croatian coast.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why not connect a flight Bihać-Sarajevo as roads quite bad? :)

      Delete
  11. Anonymous10:17

    Bihac-Dortmund by Wizz Air :D

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous10:24

    First airport render in region that doesn't have A380 parked next to the new terminal :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This one has what looks like a koenigsegg parked in front. :P

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:47

      Haha, missed that one. Would be great to drive supercar on bosnian roads :)

      Delete
  13. Anonymous10:30

    A380 will land at Belgrade Airport in two months ! of course only once.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:34

      It's going to be delivered to Etihad Airways from Germany.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:24

      Would it be the first A380 to visit ex YU?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:53

      Great news, what's the occasion?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:09

      BEG Airport sale to a UAE consortium?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous14:40

      A380 will visit some other European airports as well before directing to Abu Dhabi. All of that is for promotional reasons.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous12:00

    It is great that the municipality has all that money lying around. o.O

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous12:35

    BiH has enough airports for its size.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous12:43

    Agree with other people that Tuzla should have a priority with a terminal like this.

    Same thing with Kraljevo. Terminal looks great but should have been built in Nis or even as an extension to BEG.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:58

      A terminal like this for Tuzla would be fantastic. Also the terminal in Kraljevo and even the one in Uzice looks great.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous13:15

    I have heard so many stories of Turkish investors wanting to build airports in ex-Yu and nothing ever happens of it. The only exception is Zagreb through ADP.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:34

      ADP is not Turkish, it is French! ;)

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:45

      But TAV is Turkish, which has 15% share in MZLZ.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous13:21

    The biggest secret of Zagreb airport is that Etihad will introduce year round Abu Dhabi - Zagreb service with A320.
    You will see soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:23

      Doubt that EY would damage its own loads and JU loads to/from BEG

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:25

      Besides flying empty from ZAG.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:28

      A person wrote back in June last year on here that Etihad has started talks with Zagreb.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:32

      And it will operate 4 weekly flights. Departure time from Zagreb will be around 11 pm.
      All information will be soon known.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:33

      Now that EK will fly to ZAG,there really is no point in EY launching the service, since EK will most likely grab the most passengers continuing on to Asia or Australia

      Delete
    6. Anonymous13:50

      Don't think this is the news. :)

      Delete
    7. Anonymous14:00

      Tip zafrkava, nije Etihad :)

      Delete
    8. Anonymous14:13

      It's not Etihad, trust me, just be patient... Coming soon :)

      Delete
    9. Anonymous14:24

      Is it a US carrier?

      Delete
    10. Anonymous14:32

      EY flights to ZAG will surely damage JU loads on the BEG-ZAG flights.
      Also BEG's role as a hub for the western Balkans.
      Why would EY want to do that?

      Delete
    11. Anonymous14:47

      Don't understand why you just don't come out and say who it is. It's not like they will hunt you down and arrest you if you do.

      Delete
    12. Anonymous15:03

      They would damage their own loads on BEG-AUH since their a/c waits the mid-day wave to depart precisely because of that.

      Delete
    13. Anonymous15:28

      Guys, it is not EY. I don't know who it is but it is not EY. The post is a provocation.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous13:29

    At least they managed to make better renders of the project than Tivat and Split :D

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous20:27

    Hey guys, totally OT, but here's my question:

    Why does LJU airport (serving Slovenia) serve around 1.5M PAX/year, while Riga airport (Latvia having a population ~2M, similar to Slovenia) serves >5M (!!!) PAX/year?

    I don't think there are more tourists to Latvia than there are to Slovenia, and their buying power is lower, so I don't understand where they get all the PAX?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous20:29

      Venice, Wien, Zagreb, Graz... all those airports "destroy" LJU airport.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous22:23

      Sometimes it's worth watching the highway system of a country

      Delete
    3. Anonymous22:56

      Re/ the highway comment, Vilnius in Lithuania is similar in that it's doing much better than LJU (~3.3M PAX/year with a population of 1.7M), but has considerably better highways (comparable to Slovenia).

      Delete
    4. Anonymous22:57

      Sorry, wrong population stat, is actually 2,9M, but 3.3M PAX/year is still considerably more, even taking into account the larger population...

      Delete
    5. Anonymous23:17

      Ljubljana and Slovenia are close to most things that are interesting to Slovenians - Croatia, Austria, Italy, southern Germany, Switzerland..whether that be business, tourism, education, and so on..these are also countries from where the majority of visitors to Slovenia come. The Baltics on the other hand are further away from western and central Europe

      Delete

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