Sarajevo Airport has successfully completed the US Transportation Security Administration’s audit, which is a prerequisite for the launch of nonstop flights to the United States and is conducted prior to the introduction of services to the country. Through its foreign airport assessment program, the TSA, a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security, determines whether foreign airports that provide service to the United States are maintaining and carrying out effective security measures. During its assessment, a team of inspectors used several methods to determine the airport’s level of compliance with ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) standards, including conducting interviews with airport officials, examining documents pertaining to the airport’s security measures and conducting a physical inspection of the airport. Similarly, the TSA audited Belgrade Airport in late 2015 prior to Air Serbia introducing flights to New York.
Commenting on the development, the airport said, “The goal of the audit was to assess the implementation of civil aviation security standards and the appropriate recommended practices”. US-based carrier Eastern Airlines planned to launch operations between Chicago and Sarajevo this summer but cancelled ticket sales within days. Sarajevo Airport’s General Manager, Alan Bajić, told EX-YU Aviation News last month, “We are currently negotiating with Eastern Airlines, which plans to establish flights between Chicago and Sarajevo”. The carrier intended on operating the route once per week between May 28 and September 3 with its 238-seat Boeing 767-200ER aircraft.
Sarajevo has never had scheduled nonstop flights to the United States. In the pre-pandemic 2019, New York, Chicago and Boston were the top unserved routes between Sarajevo and the United States based on OAG data. There were a total of 7.165 passengers flying between New York’s airports and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital, 5.995 to and from Chicago and 3.165 passengers to and from Boston. Turkish Airlines, Austrian, Air Serbia and Lufthansa were primarily used by travellers to connect onto flights between the United States and Sarajevo.
So Eastern Airlines might start flights to Sarajevo after all.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn’t be surprised that they scheduled the flights without checking if BiH meets all requirements. That’s why they stopped selling tickets.
DeleteYea sure, that was the only reason why they stopped. LOL
DeleteThey stopped ticket sales within 48 hours. What, you think loads were the reason? They managed to determine the success within two days. Not really.
DeleteWow these would be nice.
ReplyDeleteNot gonna happen.
ReplyDeleteLooks like it will.
DeleteI'll believe it when the first flight takes off.
DeleteIf there’s ~15K travelers from 3 major locations, what’s to say that there will be more because of direct flights. Their pricing would also have to be much better than indirect options. A family of 4 wouldn’t be paying $4000 to fly direct when they can go indirect for $2800. Just saying my opinion and knowing the mentality of the Balkan traveller from diaspora. So it’s either going to be a success, or, pun intended, it won’t get off the ground.
DeleteWhere is the Bosnian diaspora mostly concentrated in the US?
ReplyDeleteSt. Louis , Chicago
DeleteSt Louis
DeleteYes, St Louis is the biggest "Bosnian" US city.
DeleteThank you for the responses.
DeleteThe largest Bosnian American communities in the US are found in St. Louis (Bevo Mill's "Little Bosnia"); followed by Chicago, Jacksonville, New York City, Detroit, and Houston.
DeleteAtlanta has Georgia's largest Bosnian American community with approximately 10,000 in the metro area.[4] Approximately 10,000 Bosnians live in Phoenix, Arizona.[5]
Other large Bosnian American communities can be found in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as in Indianapolis, Hackettstown, New Jersey; Seattle, Washington, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Bowling Green, Kentucky; Erie, Pennsylvania; Nashville, Hartford, Connecticut, Salt Lake City, Portland, Oregon; Utica, New York Waterloo, Iowa; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Boston; Louisville, Kentucky and Syracuse, New York.
United States of Bosnia and Herzegovina ☺
DeleteWell this is unexpected
ReplyDeleteCan US flights to Sarajevo work?
ReplyDelete238 seats once per week for a few months could work.
DeleteI doubt it
DeleteHope they pass the audit.
ReplyDeleteIt's not easy at all actually. BEG had to make quite a few investments.
DeleteWhat did they have to do?
DeleteSecurity. They had to purchase new scanners, build a separate entry for staff and do some work on the parameter fence.
DeleteChicago would make sense. There is a big ex-yugo diaspora in Chicago. They might attract a lot of passengers from the region.
ReplyDelete+1
Deleteonly JU has the biggest potential to manage that, because they already have decent regional network, I see them flying maybe even next year to ORD
DeleteBut how are those passengers going to continue onwards to their final destination? They would have to purchase two tickets, enter Bosnia, pick up their luggage. Wouldn't work.
Delete@9.16, the longer they drag their feet, the greater the chance is someone else will start flights from somewhere else in the region. There is potential for these one weekly flights from Sarajevo, United has said it plans to introduce second route from Croatia next year (probably from Zagreb) so...
DeleteThey could always drive.
DeleteSJJ can only serve B&H, not the region. It takes a minimum of five hours to reach adjacent capitals by road.
DeleteLoving that livery.
ReplyDeleteSarajevo is on fire this year!
ReplyDeletehuh ?
DeleteNew Wizz flights to European destinations, lots of Gulf flights, new flights to Turkey, potential transatlantic flights. They are doing better than pre-Covid.
DeleteTrue they are doing well. But it will be interesting to see if one of these summer months they will have more passengers than in 2019.
DeleteWe won't be able to see that until the full Wizz schedule starts. So August is the month to watch.
DeleteSarajevo today has 20 arrivals, compared to 11 in Ljubljana, and 15 in Skopje :) Really unexpected, well done Sarajevo!
DeleteSarajevo is having one of its best years during the biggest pandemic ever :D
DeleteSJJ better hurry up with its expansion. It will need the extra capacity.
DeleteThey are expecting to finish the expansion by December this year, the works are ongoing on the new facade at the moment :)
DeleteDo I have a problem in understanding or is there an inconsistency in this story? It's written within the article: "US-based carrier Eastern Airlines planned to launch operations between Chicago and Sarajevo this summer but cancelled ticket sales within days." If this is the case, then for which flights are the preparations exactly now?
ReplyDeleteMaybe you should read the entire article...
Delete@9.16 it says they are negotiating with Eastern. The airport's CEO says so. Obviously the airline started ticket sales hastily without assessing whether bureaucratic conditions have been met, which there are several if an airport does not already have flights to the US.
DeleteSo Sarajevo could become only ex-Yu city with flights to Chicago :D
ReplyDeleteLet's not get ahead of ourselves.
DeleteSurprised about Boston being third on the list.
ReplyDeleteThere is a Bosnian diaspora there.
DeleteIt seems New York is the top route from every ex-Yu city.
ReplyDeleteOnly not from Ljubljana. I remember reading the article here it is Bucharest :D
DeleteWell even from Ljubljana, New York was second.
DeleteGreat news. Step in the right direction. They are aiming high and that is what every airport should do. Some are targeting flights to the US, while my airport's biggest dream was to get flights to Dubai... :/
ReplyDeleteWell at least the persistence paid off haha.
DeleteYes, it only took 10 years...
DeleteAgree with anon @9.31. The sky is the limit
Deleteanything is possible and all ex-Yu airports should aim high.
DeleteWell done Sarajevo!
ReplyDeleteWhat an exciting year for Sarajevo. Well done.
ReplyDeleteCrazy
ReplyDeleteWhy?
DeleteMuch larger European cities don't have nonstop flights to the States and you expect Sarajevo to get them?
DeleteSo? Much larger European cities than Belgrade for example don't have nonstop flights to the States, yet it has them. It's not all about city size. There are many factors at play.
DeleteA seasonal low frequency service like the one planned by Eastern would work perfectly.
DeleteIt's fantastic to see so many new positive developments at Sarajevo. Is this related to their new management or just the market taking care of itself?
ReplyDeleteI think it has more to do with Covid and the government realizing it can't milk the airport for ever. They finally got rid of those stupid taxes.
DeleteThe airport must be doing something right
DeleteIronic in these circumstances.
DeleteWe only needed a deadly global virus for the management to wake up :)
DeleteThis would be like a dream come true. Fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't hold my breath
DeleteThis will never work out.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you know...
DeleteThere were weirder flights. Remember when Malaysia Airlines used to fly to Zagreb in the 90s?
DeleteThe time you speak about, Emirates was still relatively small, and Qatar and Etihad barely existed. Turkish didn't operate Australia. And Malaysian provided good connections at reasonable prices. Plus some local traffic. I flew MH to KUL (and on to Manila). LF was good, yields decent. There was absolutely nothing weird in that service.
DeleteWhat is the largest passenger plane that can land with a full load in Sarajevo? I know the 767 can but what about B777, B787?
ReplyDeleteI think takeoff is a bigger issue for planes than landing.
DeleteLQSA is definitely 'hot and high' airport, but with max. t/off weight limits B762, A332 even B772 should not have issues. [S.K.]
DeleteBut in the long term, LQSA would definitely need to do something with its apron, I think only the parking position 7 is certified for twin-engine wide-bodies regarding the aircraft weight, but is is also used for military flights and the general aviation. It is an extremely small apron for any substantial increase in the number of aircraft-operations.
DeleteNa Međunarodni aerodrom Sarajevo može sletjeti svaki avion, osim AN225
DeleteGreat, thanks!
DeleteI wouldn't be surprised at all if nothing happens after this.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't to the audit for the fun of it. Obviously they expect to get flights.
DeleteThis would be a great development for Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteIt could really put it on the map.
DeleteLol
ReplyDelete+1
ReplyDeleteDidn't expect this but hope it happens.
ReplyDeleteEastern seems perfect for this route. It has the right aircraft for these flights and they target niche markets.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible that flights launch this summer or is it too late?
ReplyDeleteI think it is too late. But I could see them operating flights during Christmas/New Year, as in charters.
DeleteExciting. Next year we could have BEG, ZAG, DBV and SJJ all with transatlantic flights.
ReplyDeleteBEG, ZAG and DBV already had transatlantic flights in 2019 (not to mention even in 1976). For SJJ, I would be happy if such flights start next year, but I really doubt they will
DeleteBefore pandemic BEG-ORD had at least 5-6 times more passengers than ORD-SJJ. Air Serbia would also have transfer potential on BEG-ORD route unlike Eastern on ORD-SJJ yet Air Serbia doesn't fly to Chicago. 'Nuff said.
ReplyDeleteI wish SJJ luck, but can we walk before we run? Is SJJ even connected to London, Rome, Madrid, Budapest, Prague, Skopje? They should focus on expanding regional connections before worrying about transatlantic flights.
ReplyDeleteSJJ could ask Eastern to stop at Heathrow and De Gaulle and kill both birds with one stone:
DeleteSJJ-CDG-LHR-ORD
haha :D
DeleteSarajevo-London start 1st of November.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYou should really read the article that you are commenting on.
DeleteMy mistake. Comment removed.
DeleteHave there ever been any long hauls to Sarajevo? Even as a one off charter?
ReplyDeleteMaybe, even probably, but I can't recall it.
DeleteI hope they hopefully have flights from Sfo to sjj but can Sarajevo even handle big aircraft like 777 and 787 I wonder if the runway is long enough for those type of planes too because if it is not then who knows what they will do also will the terminal be able to handle a lot of passengers because i know they a building a new terminal or what i think is a new terminal Hopefully it will happen
ReplyDelete