Air Serbia's dedicated leisure brand Aviolet will perform a series of charter flights from Banja Luka to Antalya in Turkey this summer season. The carrier will be operating on behalf of the Serbian tour operator Kontiki, which last week opened its offices in Banja Luka. Services from Bosnia and Herzegovina's second largest city to Antalya will commence on June 19 and run once per week until September 11. Air Serbia is currently Banja Luka Airport's only customer, with five weekly flights from Belgrade. The airport, which has seen its passenger numbers constantly decline since 2015, is in talks with a major low cost carrier to launch services to the city.
WOW That is great news for BL, finally something happening.
ReplyDeleteFinally something new for Banja Luka! Even if it is charters.
ReplyDeleteOh wow...so first it's current negotiations with LCC carrier (possibly W6) and now this. I think BNX has taken the situation very very seriously.
ReplyDeleteare all 4 737s still in use? JU website lists them all operational
ReplyDeletehttps://www.airserbia.com/en/our-fleet
They are not. They just haven't updated their site. Only YU-ANK and YU-AND are operational. YU-ANJ and YU-ANI have been retired.
Deletethanks!
DeleteHope INI is next.
ReplyDeleteWho will go to AYT from BNX? In better and more secure times Fibula had only a couple of rotations with F 100. Then Jolly failed with BJV and B 727. Kontiki should have offered seasonal ATH flights.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of question is that? Who will go to Antalya? Same would apply who would go to Athens. But guess what there is market for Turkey, not so much for Greece, reason is the price.. Turkey is way more affordable for people from Bosnia then Greece. This year there will be 6 weekly charter flights from Sarajevo to Antalya (4 weekly Turkish Airlines and 2 weekly Atlas Global), one weekly Tuzla- Antalya with Freebird Airlines and now one weekly Aviolet Banjaluka-Antalya. If we see any flights to Greece any time soon, it will be from Sarajevo. Good luck to BNX, hopeful they get back on the right track.
DeleteI remember some years ago I saw a JA charter in RHO. That must have been a wonderful experience flying from SJJ to RHO on an Atr.
DeleteI dont get the strategy of ASL. How come that noone is interested in setting up charters from INI which is actually in the country of which ASL is flag carrier? If they launched a weekly service to Paris or Oslo it is bound to have good loads.
ReplyDeleteCharter flights are organised by tour operators - not the airline. So any interest for flights from INI need to come from tour operators
DeleteSo how will JU organize that one weekly flight? Ferry empty plane from BEG, do the BNX-AYT-BNX and then ferry it empty back to BEG or will BEG-BNX-BEG be rescheduled once a week to make room for BNX-AYT-BNX between BEG-BNX and BNX-BEG?
ReplyDeleteW-rotation an option as well, BEG-AYT-BNX-AYT-BEG
DeleteI'm sure none of them will be empty.
Delete