The government of the entity of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina is in the final stages of talks with a private Russian carrier over the introduction of three weekly flights between Moscow and Banja Luka. The entity's Minister for Transport and Communications, Nedjo Trninić, said, "These negotiations are in their advanced stages. We already have a draft agreement in place. If all goes to plan, as we expect, flights between Moscow and Banja Luka will commence in April. A total of three weekly services are planned and we are fully engaged on this matter". The Minister did not reveal the name of the Russian carrier in question.
On the other hand, Ryanair is set to launch flights between Berlin and Banja Luka on April 3, while Mr Trninić believes that additional new routes will be introduced by the budget carrier later this year. "We are preparing an autumn surprise, but I will keep that a secret for now", Mr Trninić said. Berlin will become Ryanair's fourth new destination from Bosnia and Herzegovina's second largest city. "We have given our proposals to Ryanair concerning new routes. Of course, it is up to them to make a final decision based on their research, however, I expect at least one more new and interesting destination to be announced", Mr Trninić noted.
In addition to Ryanair's expansion and the planned flights from Moscow, Banja Luka Airport will also see charter flights to Antalya and Athens this summer. "In 2019, we anticipate for Banja Luka Airport to handle over 130.000 passengers, which would make it a record year", General Manager, Duško Kovačević, said. Banja Luka Airport handled 36.180 travellers in 2018, representing an increase of 73.4% on the year before. The bulk of the growth came during the last two months of the year, when Ryanair launched operations to the city. "With four routes this year we will help deliver over 135.000 customers through Banja Luka Airport", the low cost carrier said.
Is there enough demand for 3x weekly Moscow-BNX?
ReplyDeleteAlso which airline could it be?
DeleteMy guess is Red Wings. As for demand, flights are probably subsidised.
DeleteYou got to start somewhere. Wizz's Tuzla flights are also subsidised... it's the only way these small ex-Yu airports can get some traffic.
DeleteMaybe DME-BEG-BNX?
DeleteBNX will also see charter flights to Athens, Kon Tiki has massive promo going on now and they even advertize it as charter flights straight from BNX.
ReplyDeleteNicw
DeleteATH flights could definitely work on a regular schedule 3-4 times a week for starters.
DeleteI can also see them working on a year round basis if there is some type of codesharing with Agean for connections out of ATH.
This will be operated by JU which will run Athens charters this summer.
DeleteI am curious to see how Berlin performs since it failed from LJU and it isn't doing as great from ZAG, only three weekly on overpriced EW. Let's see if Ryanair from BNX affects this route in any way.
ReplyDeleteI meant Adria from LJU, it's still early to judge easyJet's success.
DeleteNo one said it doesn't perform well from LJU with easyJet, except if something changed during winter months. I also presume it took some passengers from Zagreb, since flights from LJU are almost half cheaper.
DeleteI think some people wrote on here that it was performing badly. Plus, didn't it almost get cut this winter? Maybe I am confusing some things.
DeleteWhen was the route launched? I will check once the numbers become available for winter. I know AMS-LJU affected AMS-ZAG big time.
I think it was lauched in August 2018. Please check, if you can. Where will you post the results? Cheers.
DeleteJust checked. Latest numbers are for July. I did check Zagreb, same, up to July. On average there were 3.300 passengers per month to Berlin, I suppose it's the same for LJU.
DeleteYeah similar number of seats.
DeleteLooking forward to the "autumn surprise".
ReplyDeleteCould it be announcement of FR opening a base in 2020?
DeleteOr maybe LX giving BNX another go?
DeleteThat would be nice... or Austrian coming back.
DeleteWith Austrian planning on retiring the Q400s I don't see them launching any new markets that couldn't be transferred to larger aircraft in the next few years. Also, Vienna is relatively close so OS would be competing with bus companies.
DeleteI think we should be careful with our predictions for autumn not to be disappointed when the announcement is made. :)
They should get Laudamotion to fly the Voenna route.
Delete*vienna
DeleteWow the great news for Banja Luka just keeps rolling.
ReplyDelete3 weekly to Moscow is excessive in my opinion. Just to remind people that Moscow-Sarajevo flights failed.
ReplyDeleteI think Moscow has much more potential out of BNX than SJJ.
DeleteWe will see.
DeleteDude BNX has flights to several cities that failed from SJJ.
DeleteHaha! First of all BNX with its entire 36k passengers has less flights than little Ohrid in Macedonia, so comparing BNX to SJJ is just funny. You see, unike BNX, SJJ does not give subsidies for airlines to operate from the airport. And what are those routes that failed from SJJ? BNX has a total of 4 routes operated twice weekly, wake up you fool.
DeleteThey will need to expand facilities if they keep going this way.
ReplyDeleteGreat news. Keep up the good work Banja Luka!
ReplyDeleteThis is great to hear. Good luck BNX.
ReplyDeleteBNX is becoming the new TZL, brilliant!
ReplyDeleteJust with more diversity. Soon they might have three airlines. Say what you will but Serbian management does well with underserved airports, same as with INI.
DeleteSerbian management had BNX and INI airports all but abandoned. Until they finally woke up.
DeleteThe demand that those markets have and the number of routes launched prove how incompetent previous managers were.
Just my2cents
It also shows incompetence has become a thing of the past.
DeleteLets hope that those people who had left the Republika and the southo RoS without air connection for such a long time are never allowed to a position of power again.
DeleteTZL has 600.000 passengers and 2 airplanes based at the airport, BNX has 3 destinations with 2 weekly frequencies and 36.000 passengers, give me a break...
DeleteWould have expected Moscow to be the next destination, but it's good that Banja Luka will get more variety with airlines.
ReplyDeleteSorry that was supposed to say "would not have expected".
DeleteEspecially Berlin is a great add. Is it offered from Tuzla?
DeleteYes, there are flights between Tuzla and Berlin.
DeleteAnd SSJ?
DeleteSJJ?
DeleteLet's see what happens with Tuzla flights from April.
DeleteThere used to be flights between Berlin and SJJ operated by Germanwings but they were cancelled in 2015.
DeleteAh now I remember, they never performed that well.
DeleteI would love to see Pobeda launch these flights.
ReplyDeleteBut Pobeda is not a privately owned company no?
DeleteBNX has the potential from its catchment area to grow a lot.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteOnly airport in BiH left to get itself in shape now is Mostar.
ReplyDeleteMaybe SU? They have SSJ.
ReplyDeleteIt says it will be a privately owned airline.
DeleteFinger crossed for S7 airlines! It's a quality carrier and a One World alliance member.
DeleteAgree! S7 would be a great choice.
DeleteDoubt it's S7, it's probably some obscure private company like Red Wings.
DeleteI really wouldn't call Red Wings obscure. A more obscure airline would be someone like RusLine.
DeleteIt would be better if it was an airline with a large enough network so that the flight could offer a lot of connections from Moscow to the rest of Russia and CIS republics.
DeleteThis is another positive effect of Ryanair's arrival. Hope to see even more new routes in the future.
ReplyDeleteAny possibility of seeing Aegean launch flights from Athens? Banja Luka is not a small or poor city.
ReplyDeleteThat's right sir/madam, Banja Luka is not small or poor city.
DeleteIt is a small AND a poor city.
By Balkan standards it's neither small, nor poor. It's richer than most cities that have commercial services: Nis, Osijek, Mostar, Podgorica...
DeleteThanks for the important classification "by Balkans standards." Airlines don't make decisions on launching new routes "by Balkans standards" I'm afraid.
DeleteWorth noting also that Podgorica is the capital of an independent country with a major tourism industry.
Now, which of the other airports you've listed is served by Aegean?
In any case, I love the city of Banja Luka but a dose or reality needs to be injected from time to time.
Says someone who accused Pobeda or stealing dots from Jat Airways. I think you need to be re-connected with reality.
DeleteBy that logic BEG is way ahead of everyone else since it's the only airport to have year-round flights by Aegean.
As for BNX, say what you want but they are one of the few cities in ex-YU to have charter flights that are filled (to the gills) by outbound demand.
275.000 people live in Banja Luka, by ex-YU standards that's not small. For comparison's sake, 185.000 people live in Podgorica with its surrounding areas. BNX is lagging behind when it comes to passenger numbers.
DeleteIn 2019 I think the airport will handle around 120.000 passengers.
You suddenly forgot that ZAG is just round the corner. The catchment area should be around 3 million - BNX + ZAG metro area.
DeleteNas i Rusa 300 000 000
Delete"The catchment area should be around 3 million - BNX + ZAG metro area."
DeleteHahahahahaha!
I don't see why BNX couldn't reach 500.000 in the next three to five years. They seem to be expanding quite nicely. I wonder if FR might add some more frequencies by summer.
DeleteAs for the catchment area, naturally BNX covers northern Srpska and Slavonija. Someone who lives in continental Croatia doesn't care if he flies from OSI, TZL, BNX or ZAG. For example, take someone who lives in Pozega (HR) and who needs to fly to Berlin. Why should he go to ZAG when Tuzla and Banja Luka are right there and are probably cheaper to fly out of. Same way people from OSI fly out on charters from BEG.
People probably will do that. But I don't see that much of an impact.
DeleteSame story was on this blog about INI, not long ago.
Yes but the thing is that INI affected some numbers in BEG, luckily the drop was compensated so there was overall growth. When several airports share a common catchment area these kind of changes are felt throughout the region.
DeleteWell. according to Wiki stats:
DeleteBNX
Population (2013 census)[1]
• Urban 199,191
• Metro 274,914
Population (2011)[3][4]
• Rank 3rd in Serbia
• Urban Increase 209,544a
• Metro Increase 240,279a
• Administrative Increase 282,245a
Basically they are extreme lookalikes.
In general, it seems that by 2019 we can see BiH handling possibly 2 million aiports which is what Macedonia has with its 2 airports:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_in_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina
This means that there is definitely room for much more flights from Bosnia.
Now if only OMO could get its act together.............
DeleteIf FlyBosnia succeeds in SJJ, W6 bases another plane in TZL and BNX expands to Russia and in autumn, the chances for OMO will be less.
DeleteI am shocked that most airports in BiH are doing well. 1,7 million is not a bad figure, tbh.
OMO's catchment area is not the biggest but they can have at least daily flights in total... this now is a disaster. Could we see FR from CIA?
DeleteCIA or BGY and BVA seem to quite logic destinations. Although BVA is usually a destination served from a non-BVA FR base.
DeleteThat said, there will be now a new Bosnian race between BNX and TZL.
Are there any additions to TZL in 2019? BNX will need a lot of time to reach 500.000 like TZL. Biggest victim will be OSI.
DeleteNo additions for TZL so far. It will take 2-3 years for BNX just like INI to reach 500.000.
DeleteW6 are currently expanding and have problems with Fiumicino Airport relocating to Ciampino.
Same old Italian drama and headache.
Such a shame TZL has stopped growing like it used to, maybe Tuzla needs to work on attracting a new airline? Like that Wizz will have more incentive to be proactive. I doubt BNX will wake them up. :(
DeleteJat Airways's "three dots" livery is alive and kicking apparently, reincarnated as Pobeda.
ReplyDeleteIs it just my observations or are Russian airlines "borrowing" from other brands:
>>> Pobeda and Jat's 3 dots
>>> Rossija and Roger Federer's R
>>> Utair and United Airlines' U