Sarajevo Airport has completed work on the demolition of its old Terminal A building to make way for for the multi million euro expansion of its Terminal B facility, which should result in more traffic. The airport's General Manager, Armin Kajmaković, said, "Following the demolition of the old terminal building, the construction of a new and modern facility will begin soon. Upon its completion, Sarajevo Airport will have the capacity to handle two million passengers per year, enabling us to further attract new airlines and to open the doors to more destinations". He added, "In 2018, a greater emphasis will be put on the opening of new routes, which will allow for the development of Sarajevo and the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina as an appealing tourist destination. This growth requires significant capacity expansion".
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| Area where Terminal A once stood |
The demolition of the Terminal A building, which was opened in 1969 and was utilised by passengers until the outbreak of war in 1992, began in December 2017. In its final years it was used by some 120 staff, housing the airport's operations centre, catering services and other departments. "To streamline costs, all equipment from the old terminal was used to equip temporary facilities. The contractor has also been obliged to determine whether any scrap is of value, so the airport could later sell it at market value. The estimated value of the demolition is 81.000 euros", the airport said. The twenty million euro expansion of the existing passenger terminal will result in an additional 10.000 square metres of space spread across four levels. Its completion is expected next year.
Sarajevo Airport started off 2018 on a strong note by handling 54.113 passengers in January, representing an increase of 24.8% on last year. The number of aircraft movements stood at 919, up 28.4%. "Despite fierce competition, the airport is constantly working on attracting new airlines and is seeking to adapt to the individual and specific needs of each carrier. The airport’s management is undertaking ambitious infrastructure projects and other investments with the aim of further expanding its capacity and strengthening its leadership role on the Bosnian market", Sarajevo Airport said. A number of carriers currently serving Sarajevo have announced plans to up their frequencies this summer, while SAS Scandinavian Airlines will launch new seasonal operations from Copenhagen later next month. Furthermore, start-up FlyBosnia, which is in the process of acquiring its Air Operator's Certificate (AOC), plans to base its operations out of Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital.
| Month | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| JAN | 54.113 | ▲ 24.8 |
Good news. This growth will keep them away from Tuzla which has been steadily growing over the past few years.
ReplyDeleteBtw with all the flights to IST, could we see TK send their A330 to SJJ?
I don't think so because it would be subject to weight restrictions.
DeleteI doubt it will as it won't depart at MTOW. flight to IST is not even two hours.
DeleteIn that case, would be nice if they did.
DeleteThe market is there especially in summer.
DeleteSJJ needs to allow JU and OS to depart and arrive after closing hours so that more connections can be offered. Their numbers would grow even more.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI think they need to extend their hours. Being a good destination to pick up transfer passengers, I think several European airlines would fly out during the early morning.
DeleteI hope the expansion of the terminal will be followed more new routes and airlines like they say. Good luck Sarajevo.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI hope some new European carriers will coma with this expansion. Wizz Air should open some new routes.
With current pricing at the airport I don't think we will see them add new destinations soon unfortunately.
DeleteRyanair 😍
DeleteHuge jump in a number of pax in January. SJJ will be a star of 2018.
ReplyDeleteImagine if they had normal management. They could easily handle 2.5 million a year, if not more.
DeleteNice growth. I think 1 million passengers will be easily reached. Is there something that can be done about the whether? Can they upgrade the runway navigation system? I notice there are often flights diverted or cancelled at SJJ because of poor weather.
ReplyDeleteThat happened last night when the plane carrying Izetbegovic had to divert to BEG.
DeleteI'm not specifically talking just about yesterday. Yes yesterday OS diverted to BEG, JP cancelled its flight but in general flights often get cancelled at SJJ in winter because of bad weather which is unfortunate. I'm just wondering is there some solution?
DeleteI think the geographical location of the airport is an issue. Not much they can do there unless they build it somewhere else.
DeleteThey did say last year that they were trialing some new technology for fog dispersal. Not sure what happened with that.
DeleteWell, what the airport has to do is to upgrade their lights to CAT3. What then BHANSA has to do is to upgrade their Navaids such as the ILS to a CAT3 and upgrade the approach path in the AIP, instead of believing it’s still 1969 and that technology hasn’t moved forward. You can’t do either one without doing the rest as it is the weakest part that will screw up the entire thing.
DeleteThanks for the info. Hope they invest in it. It would really help the airport.
DeleteSJJ will most likely never be Cat 3. Not because of lights, but because of the terrain in the vicinity of the airport.
DeleteThe only way it could potentially work is with significant reduction in payload for Cat 3 operations.
Yes. The climb gradient limitations...
DeleteDoes anyone know who is increasing frequencies as mentioned in the article?
ReplyDeleteFlydubai and Wataniya as far as I know. Unfortunately Atlasglobal and TUI won't be flying this summer.
Delete+ we have SAS as new airline and Qatar Airways which started flying to SJJ late last year.
DeleteIt is expected that this year flights to Podgorica and Skopje will start. Not sure which airline yet.
DeleteIt's unfortunate they let CSA go. They would have been a nice addition from Prague.
DeleteSo that's it? SAS is the only new airline this year?
DeleteJust to remind you Flydubai will be flying 3 DAILY to Sarajevo!
DeleteIf Fly Bosnia launches flights and bases plane in SJJ numbers will grow rapidly.
ReplyDeleteIf it happens at all. But numbers will grow with or without them.
DeleteI'm a bit sad it's gone. It was really a historic part of the airport :) but I'm glad modernization will happen. Good luck SJJ.
ReplyDeleteFinally things moving in the right direction at SJJ.
ReplyDeleteNice result in January. February should be big since last year there was a decline that month.
ReplyDeleteFeb 2017 had only 41,122 pax so for sure this year should be much better.
DeleteBravo Sarajevo, nadam se konacnom razvoju tog aerodroma! Pozdrav iz Beograda.
ReplyDeleteWould the government consider putting SJJ up for concession?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so. It is very profitable.
DeleteWell it's usually profitable airports that are given up for concession, otherwise no one would want it.
DeleteConsidering that Sarajevo airport is financing the whole development of air trafic in the country I don´t see a big chance for that. All the money that this year is going to be distributed across airports in the country are originating from that 10€ tax on every outgoing passenger at Sarajevo airport + this tax would have to be abolished if someone would take over the airport.
Delete2018 looks promising!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see the completed project.
ReplyDeleteTuzla is catching up to Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteThere is more than 400,000 passenger difference on annual level.
DeleteYep, and this year Tuzla will have max 600,000 and Sarajevo close to 1,1 million, so not really catching up :)
DeleteThere is no way SJJ will jump from 800.000 to 1.1 million.
DeleteOk but it is still impressive when you think Tuzla had no passengers a few years ago.
Delete@ anon 1.08 Sarajevo handled 957.696 passengers last year not 800.000.
DeleteIf Sarajevo can get Wizzair in, and few other LCCs, numbers will skyrocket. However, LCCs never pay for landing, or pay peanuts.
DeleteAirport will only incur costs without any serious benefits in return.
This airport has so much potential, they should definitely let Wizz or Ryan base a couple of aircraft there and launch European destinations.
ReplyDeleteAny chance of Eurowings revisting their plans to start Dusseldorf-Sarajevo?
ReplyDeleteNo chance. They are starting Mostar instead.
DeleteGood that the project is progressing and seems to be on schedule.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteThat was quick.
ReplyDeleteWell it is relatively easy to demolish and dismantle a building ;)
DeleteOr as we've seen throughout ex-YU that it's also easy to dismantle an airline but it's much harder to rebuild it after.
DeleteIts interesting that the expansion is smaller than the one in Ljubljana but is more expensive o.O
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense since the Sarajevo project also involves demolishing the old building, which they have done.
DeleteIs there enough space in the area to eventually build a third building i.e second terminal?
ReplyDeleteYes
Deletehttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/SarajevoFlughafen-SA.jpg/800px-SarajevoFlughafen-SA.jpg
Like someone said Sarajevo has huge potential and it is still missing a lot of viable routes. They would have double the numbers if there was a professional management in place.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible for a330 to land on sjj at all?
ReplyDeleteAny news about FlyBosnia? It’s been more than 3 months since they applied for AOC, did they get it? Hopefully they will realize their promises and launch some flights from SJJ. All the best.
ReplyDeleteThere will be some news on FlyBosnia later this week. Stay tuned.
DeleteGreat, thanks.
ReplyDelete