Smaller EX-YU airlines face Covid hardship

Smaller carriers operating in the former Yugoslavia are facing increased pressure from the coronavirus Covid-19 outbreak and may not be eligible for financial assistance and stimulus packages which are being planned by governments across the region.

The Sarajevo-based FlyBosnia has been grounded since February 29 when it operated its last service between Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital and London. The airline has indefinitely discontinued services to Luton Airport. The coronavirus outbreak has severely affected its operations as it maintained two other scheduled routes – Rome and Riyadh. Italy has been the epicentre of the virus in Europe, while Saudi Arabia was one of the first countries to suspend all commercial flights. FlyBosnia planned to put a greater focus on charter services in 2020, many of which were to operate to and from Italy. However, not all is lost with the airline also having secured charters to Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia, as well as across the Middle East. FlyBosnia previously criticised local authorities for not doing more to support the carrier. “We are actually doing everything on our own and that is really difficult. As an airline, we need the support of the government and that is something we are really struggling with”, the company said prior to the Covid-19 crisis. FlyBosnia yesterday operated a rescue flight for Bosnian nationals stranded in Rome. Bosnia and Herzegovina will close its airports for commercial traffic on Monday.

Croatia’s Trade Air discontinued all domestic flights several days prior to the expiration of its four-year Public Service Obligation (PSO) contract with the Croatian government due to the ongoing pandemic. The agreement will not be renewed as the Croatian government is yet to start the six-month tender procedure to select carriers to operate the economically unviable routes. The value of Trade Air's PSO contracts amounted to 2.5 million euros per year. The largest share of the subsidies went towards the upkeep of the Osijek - Zagreb service (1.3 million euros per year), where the airline was compensated approximately 599 euros per passenger. The sharp downturn in demand as a result of Covid-19 has forced airlines to cut capacity. The aftermath of the health crisis is likely to see carriers slash routes and frequencies and shrink in size, diminishing the demand for wet-leases and ad-hoc charters. Trade Air has secured a number of contracts for leisure flights out of Ljubljana this summer with the carrier planning to base an aircraft in the Slovenian capital.

The potential set up of a new national carrier in Slovenia has been further diminished due to the ongoing crisis. Despite some interest from the country’s former administration to establish a new airline, the government in Slovenia has since changed and former Prime Minister Janez Janša, who initiated the sale of Adria Airways in 2012, is again head of state.

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