The Sarajevo-based start-up FlyBosnia took delivery of its first aircraft in Sarajevo yesterday. The sixteen-year-old Airbus A319 jet from AerCap boasts 156 seats, twelve of which are in business class. The aircraft, which was repainted and retrofitted in Sofia, will now undergo final checks before the Bosnia and Herzegovina Directorate for Civil Aviation issues the Saudi-backed airline an Air Operator's Certificate (AOC), enabling it to launch commercial operations. The carrier's new CEO, Australian Chris Gabriel, said the company would focus both on flights to the Middle East and Europe. "I want to congratulate the entire FlyBosnia team which made this moment possible. The dream has become a reality after a lot of work and dedication by all involved in this project. FlyBosnia is developing a platform which will enable the Bosnian diaspora to fly home with greater ease".
FlyBosnia originally planned to commence operations between Sarajevo and Riyadh in June but failed to obtain an AOC at the time. In a recent company presentation, the airline said, "Operating initially one Airbus A319 aircraft under a dry lease agreement, FlyBosnia will add a second A319 within six to twelve months to provide extra capacity on the Sarajevo - Riyadh route, as well as new destinations when operationally viable". Mr Gabriel says that other destinations will include both points in the Middle East and Europe, such as London, Paris, Frankfurt, Rome and Moscow. "We want the number of flights from Sarajevo to more than double over the next twelve to eighteen months", the CEO added. The newly established airline currently has some twenty cabin crew personnel and eight pilots in its ranks.
The General Manager of Sarajevo Airport, Armin Kajmaković, said, "This is an extremely positive development both for Sarajevo Airport and Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole. We want to wish this young carrier, which has already employed a significant number of individuals, many new flights and routes, and for it to launch services to European destinations".
FlyBosnia has been set up by Saudi Arabia's Al Shiddi Group, which was founded in 1975 with interests in various fields, including construction, real estate, agriculture and tourism. It has been operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2006, where the group consists of four companies - SRE Investment, Shad Invest, Sarajevo City Center (SCC) and Hotel Bristol. To date, they have committed in excess of twenty million euros in start-up capital to FlyBosnia. "FlyBosnia has conducted extensive market research and detailed operational and financial business planning. Bosnia and Herzegovina is an emerging tourist destination, experiencing year-on-year growth of between 10% - 20%. There is no existing national airline serving Bosnia and Herzegovina, so FlyBosnia will immediately apply for national carrier status", the company previously said.
Good luck!
ReplyDeleteBravo!!!
ReplyDeleteI hope it's more successful then the other airlines in B&H.
ReplyDeleteI give it a couple of months.
DeleteTi si strucnjak:-) U svakom pogledu su se dobro pripremili. Opstace.
DeleteIt's a private airline, so the good news is that it doesn't really matter if it's successful or not, they won't be burning public money like previous airlines
DeleteThey could have been a bit more creative with the livery.
ReplyDeletelike a depresing November rain
DeleteAgree.
DeleteI hope that this livery is just demo version :D . Agree with you totally.FlyBosnia letters will be invisible on greater distance and logo on tail has those yellow parts that are barely visible. All in all,I hope they will change that and make some creative,good-looking livery.This one has nothing recognizable.
DeleteI think the logo is inspired by Aegean Airlines and a touch of Olympic Air.
DeleteThe designer might be Greek, eh?
Bravo Bosna!
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
ReplyDeleteLudost ludost, ali i hrabrost. U vreme kada je postalo jasno da je počelo konsolidovanje avio tržišta u Evropi i da će do kraja decenije ostati EU3 + lou kosteri + par manjih kompanija otvarati Bosansku avio kompaniju v5.0 je stvarno za pohvalu..
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteSve to stoji,ali ima nekih povoljnih okolnosti trenutno u Bosni. Nedavno je otvoreno nekoliko luksuznih hotela u Sarajevu (ibis,swissotel) i nekih koji su u izgradnji i trebaju biti otvoreni (rotana arjaan koji će useliti u Bosmal);osim toga skoro je otvoreno nekoliko luksuznih naselja koje bi trebali nastaniti Arapi tokom sezone (Poljine hills),a još neka naselja su u izgradnji.
DeleteSvi vlasnici tih hotela/naselja će,siguran sam,morati sprovesti agresivne marketinške kampanje kako bi napunili iste.A ciljna grupa će vjerovatno kao i do sada biti zemlje Arapskog zaljeva.+u februaru u Sarajevu počinje EYOF koji će okupiti 1500+ sportista i još nekoliko stotina članova delegacija.
Ibis je luksuzan hotel? U nekom paralelnom svemiru ili se nešto jako promijenilo u zadnjih mjesec dana?
DeleteIbis is "luxury" if you consider sleeping in a separate room from your camel a luxury. ;)
DeleteOvo nije BHairlines niti su konkurenti bilo kojoj evropskoj kompaniji, ovo je arapska kompanija fokusirana isključivo na bliski istok tj. S.Arabiju, tu nemaju konkurencije a potražnja je relativno velika naročito ljeti.
DeleteI really hope it's more successful then Wand Airlinee.
ReplyDeleteThey approached this much more seriously. They are actually getting an AOC and they actually have their own aircraft (not wet leased). So it's already looking more serious.
DeleteBut the people running both airlines are more or less the same.
DeleteBut it looks as if they've learned from their previous mistakes.
DeleteGood that they got a foreigner as CEO.
ReplyDeleteHe is the husband of a Bosnian politician.
DeleteHe has no prior experience in the aviation industry.
DeleteBeing the husband of a politician is far more important in the Balkans than experience in the aviation sector...
DeleteHere is a bit about him
DeleteChairman and Chief Executive Officer at Gabriel Holdings
Sydney, Australia
Gabriel Holdings is a global investment company focusing on property development, hospitality and technology start-ups.
Chris is:
• A renowned international telecommunications executive with a passion for operational excellence and over-achievement in high-growth start-up, turn-around and emerging market environments;
• Recognised as the pioneer of cross-border mobile commerce in Africa;
• A results-oriented and delivery-focused entrepreneur with a proven track record;
• An engaging, charismatic and decisive leader who is self-motivated, with energy, drive and enthusiasm;
• A goal focused team player who is proactive and creative, with a strong readiness to “challenge the norm”;
• Renowned for building, developing, leading, mentoring and retaining high-performance teams; and
• An exceptional communicator with strong interpersonal and presentation skills.
Education
London Business School
Degree NameSenior Executive Program Field Of StudyInternational Strategy
Dates attended or expected graduation 2004 – 2004
University of Technology, Sydney
Degree NameBachelor of Laws (LLB) Field Of StudyIntellectual Property Law
Dates attended or expected graduation 1994 – 2000
University of Technology, Sydney
Degree NameMaster of Business Administration (M.B.A.) Field Of StudyMarketing
Dates attended or expected graduation 1990 – 1993
University of Technology, Sydney
Degree NameBachelor of Business (B.Bus. Hon) Field Of StudyAccounting/Organisational Design
Dates attended or expected graduation 1980 – 1985
Great but lacking any sort of aviation background.
DeleteHe can't be that successful if he is leaving such a well read background to become the CEO of a 1 aircraft airline ....
DeleteFor Rome and Paris it is unfortunate, German destinations are pretty well served (Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart), for Moscow I don't think there is much demand, and there is no point of having flights to/from London as long as the Brits require a visa from BH passport holders
DeleteI'm glad to see they plan to fly to European destinations too.
ReplyDeleteYes! It's really unfortunate that Sarajevo still has no links to cities like Frankfurt, Paris, Rome, Moscow and London.
DeleteEven the airport CEO is asking them to start Euro flights
DeleteThe General Manager of Sarajevo Airport, Armin Kajmaković, said, "This is an extremely positive development both for Sarajevo Airport and Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole. We want to wish this young carrier, which has already employed a significant number of individuals, many new flights and routes, and for it to launch services to European destinations".
He should have done more to attract European airlines then.
DeleteSJJ's numbers will sky rocket.
ReplyDeleteThey could certainly bring an extra 100,000 passengers per year.
DeleteYou are being wayy to optimistic about hat figure.
Delete*that
DeleteStill it should provide a nice boost.
DeleteSo they will have a proper business class. Nice.
ReplyDeleteRich Saudis don't like flying economy.
DeleteI'm trying to be optimistic and I do wish them all the best BUT I think it will be very difficult for them. This isn't an easy business. Many airlines from the west, which are much more established and known, have failed to make flights from/to Sarajevo work. I think it will come down to them flying to Saudi Arabia and some gulf countries, where they can actually make money.
ReplyDeleteSo when can we expect them to launch?
ReplyDeleteIt would be ludicrous before the start of the summer season 2019 even if they got the permit tomorrow.
DeleteAnd in the summer they will only fly Riyadh.
DeleteI've seen all of this before with that Wand Airlines...
ReplyDeleteNice that they got a water cannon salute :))
ReplyDeleteI would be much happier if that was a Wizz plane.
DeleteHajde hvala Bogu da se i mi pomjerimo malo s mjesta
ReplyDeleteDaj boze da ostane. Zivi bili pa vidjeli.
DeleteBiH is appearing almost everyday in this blog, which is only good news!
ReplyDeleteBut, in times when airlines are starting to go bust, especially the smaller ones. We have witnessed some important bankrupcies during the last couple of months:
- Monarch
- Primera Air
- Cobalt Airlines Cyprus
- Small Planet Airlines Poland
- Skyworks Switzerland
Lets hope they are lucky.
On the other hand, it seems that the aircraft was bought from Bulgaroa's Balkan Holidays Air (BH Air). I didn't know they flew A319 but rather A320.
https://seenews.com/news/flybosnia-acquires-aircraft-from-bulgarias-balkan-holidays-air-report-632740?fbclid=IwAR3BYXdcSlEb3lM0Z46l7n9d6_DrHwabT4-ajLdfJ7L-4Ls8ggxlDhb8xoQ
The plane is dry leased, they don't own it. AerCap (leasing house) does but it was operated by Balkan Holiday Air.
DeleteAgree with your comments. We will see what happens.
Sretno i uspješno poslovanje
ReplyDelete156 seats 12 out of which are premium/business is far too much for 319 flying on 5 hours flights. I doubt it would be too comfortable if/when packed
ReplyDeleteYet again somebody is feeding the incorect data, full economy 138 for charter flights, 12C 120M scheduled flights. 18 C class seats are convertible and they become 12 for scheduled flights. For A319 to have 156 seats, 2 more window exits are needed.
DeleteSo, anyway...given that there will be SJJ-DOH, then forget about QR landing on SJJ tarmac anytime soon:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/11/flybosnia-acquires-first-jet-unveils.html
On the other hand, I think JU must act fast and quickly base 1 Airbus A320 in SJJ and get it from the Arabs in EY before it´s too late.
JU can do what JP did in PRN.
Ju downscaled their operation to Sarajevo a few years agobfrom two to one daily flight so they will not be basing any aircraft there!
ReplyDeleteThey never flew two daily. There was always one daily JU flight. B&H used to have some flights to Belgrade in its last year which were codeshared by JU.
DeleteGood luck. Sarajevo needs more flights to western capitals. There is a market and potential.
ReplyDeleteTo Bosno!!! <333
ReplyDeleteKad ce poceti ljetjeti iz Sarajevo do Nis i Pristina .
ReplyDelete