Mostar Airport seeks Belgrade flights

Mostar Airport hopes to secure flights to Belgrade in the near future, as it looks to expand its destination network. During a recent session of the Mostar City Council, the airport’s General Manager, Marko Djuzel, said there are contacts and talks taking place in order to introduce services to the Serbian capital. However, Mr Djuzel emphasised the process was still in the early stages and there are no guarantees flights would be established. The only scheduled carrier in a position to do so is Air Serbia, which currently maintains operations to both Sarajevo and Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Scheduled flights between Belgrade and Mostar were first established on March 15, 1962 by JAT Yugoslav Airlines. The service would operate off and on throughout the coming decades. The route initially served the local population but from the 1980s onwards became popular with transfer passengers traveling for religious purposes to visit the Medjugorje site. JAT itself sold special travel packages to Mostar for pilgrims in markets including the United States, the United Kingdom to as far afield as the Philippines. As Yugoslavia started to disintegrate, services were discontinued. JAT’s last flight on the route, which was also the final commercial flight between the two cities to date, took place on November 23, 1991.

During the final summer season unaffected by the Yugoslav wars, in 1990, JAT operated eight weekly flights from Belgrade to Mostar, and six weekly services from Mostar to Belgrade. The reason for the discrepancy in frequencies on the outbound and inbound operation was that services from Mostar to both Belgrade and Zagreb intertwined, with operations to Zagreb maintained eight times per week. Departure times from Belgrade to Mostar were in the early mornings, middays and evenings, depending on the day, while return services from Mostar to Belgrade also included early morning, early afternoon, late afternoon and early evening departures.

JAT's Belgrade to Mostar schedule, summer 1990

Earlier this year, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “We already fly to fifteen destinations in the ex-Yugoslavia. That’s more than any other airline. And we will continue to add frequencies to all the countries since they also provide us with passenger flow for connecting flights, especially for our long-haul operations”. As previously reported, Mostar Airport is also attempting to secure scheduled flights to Rome in 2024, which would be operated by Croatia Airlines. “In 2024, it is planned for Croatia Airlines to introduce services to Rome. Afterwards, we will draft a four-year plan with the carrier which would see them add a third destination in 2025 and then we would gradually increase the number of routes by one each year”, Mr Djuzel said earlier this year. Croatia Airlines restored operations between Zagreb and Mostar this summer, with services maintained three times per week on a year-round basis.