Croatia Airlines plans to resume flights between Zagreb and Mostar next summer, linking the two cities for the first time following a twelve-year hiatus. Earlier this week, the Federal government of Bosnia and Herzegovina approved over half a million euros in funding to subsidise the service. In a statement, it said, "The subsidies for the launch of this route will exclusively cover the costs incurred by the airline operator, in order to make the service profitable on a long-term basis". Talks between Croatia Airlines and the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton in Bosnia and Herzegovina concerning the route's resumption began in September. Although the scheduling is yet to be finalised, services are expected to commence in June and run at least twice per week.
Flights between Zagreb and Mostar were last operated in the summer of 2006. The now defunct B&H Airlines launched the service three times per week with an ATR 72 aircraft on January 2006. The flights were codeshared by Croatia Airlines. However, the route was short-lived and was terminated at the end of the 2006 summer season, after the Croatian carrier pulled out of its arrangement with B&H Airlines. At the time, B&H cited poor loads for the suspension. In 2015, start-up Air Croatia announced plans to resume flights between the two cities and put tickets on sale but the airline terminated all operations prior to the planned launch. The carrier was to run the service three times per week with a 52-seat ATR 42 turboprop.
Mostar Airport sees a range of seasonal and charter flights during the summer, primarily catering for pilgrims visiting the Medjugorje site, as well as tourists. However, its passenger numbers have been in free fall over the past eleven months, during which it handled 42.723 travellers, down 20.3% on last year. In contrast, 2018 promises to be a year of growth, with Eurowings to launch flights from Dusseldorf and Stuttgart in May, in addition to Croatia Airlines' planned new service. The Federal government has allocated a further 1.8 million euros in funding for Mostar Airport next year in order for it to build a cargo centre, expand the apron, install new lighting and purchase a self check-in kiosk.
Comments
The timing though is strange. US carriers have already announced their plans for Summer 2018 transatlantic flights. They like to have many months of advance sales for these routes.
I think it will be UA in the end, it was already reported on here.
Also, these days BNX has around 45 passengers so loads are not bad. I think it has to do with JU not having enough aircraft. It will go to five weekly in March.
ZAG-OMO-BWK-OMO-ZAG.
However, with low fares JU can make BEG-BNX work. They have been recording good loads on the route. I am sure if they had more planes they would have increased the number of frequencies.
That said, BNX management should encourage Wizz Air to launch flights from their two new bases: LTN and EIN.
Both could attract a great number of passengers from Croatia especially since ZAG lacks lowcost links to either one of the two cities.
"Druga polovina" je isto zastupljena u Vladi Federacije. Odrijesivanje kese nisu sprijecili jer, zamisli, i njima se putuje!!!
Great news for ZAG, Croatia and the ex-YU region!
Anyway, happy holidays and do keep us informed ;)
Sa seljačkim pozdravima!
Hvala puno na čestitkama.