Three out of five carriers that responded to a public call for the launch of new routes from Sarajevo Airport in return for subsidies have met the specified conditions, the Committee for the Expert Evaluation of Applications has disclosed. Ryanair, Wizz Air and SunExpress are all eligible for financial support, with additional details regarding routes and launch dates to be announced in due course. LOT Polish Airlines and TUI Airways, which also applied, did not meet the tender conditions. On the other hand, Norwegian Air Shuttle submitted its bid after the set deadline. As a result, its application was not taken into consideration.
The public call targeted airlines to either launch operations or establish a base in Sarajevo, offering funds to carriers introducing flights from unserved destinations in the past twelve months, starting services to strategically important destinations, stationing an aircraft in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital, or commencing flights longer than six hours. The value of the subsidies has not been made public. Routes deemed to be of strategic importance from Sarajevo are Berlin, Memmingen, Malmo, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Paris, Basel, Amsterdam, Eindhoven, London, Brussels, Rome, Milan, Budapest, Prague, Barcelona, Girona, Madrid, Geneva, Bari, Stockholm, Oslo, Dusseldorf, Athens, Tirana, Skopje, Izmir, Antalya, Podgorica, Abu Dhabi, Warsaw, any point in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Indonesia, Jordan, Japan, Lebanon, India, Israel, and Malaysia, as well as any destination in North America.
Ryanair and SunExpress, which have applied for the subsidies, do not operate flights to Sarajevo Airport, whereas Wizz Air recently launched subsidised services from London Luton. It’s Emirati subsidiary maintains seasonal operations from Abu Dhabi to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital. Some airlines have already announced new services to Sarajevo for next year, including Pegasus Airlines from Antalya and Air Arabia from Sharjah, with the latter being restored after almost two years. Based on indirect traffic flows, Sarajevo Airport’s busiest unserved route in Europe (including Turkey) is Ankara. It is followed by Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, Adana, Prague, Milan, Trabzon, and Barcelona.
Imagine Wizz exiting Sarajevo just for Sarajevo to PAY THEM to get back...This should be forbidden lol
ReplyDeletePeople on this forum keep complaining about Ryanair but Wizz is much worse.
DeleteBut if they are not ‘profitable’ without subsidy why would they stay? At the end of the day it’s a money making company, if you think it should be illegal then do something about it, because writing it here won’t change anything.
DeletePeople on this forum are all haters.
DeleteWow fantastic news for Sarajevo
ReplyDeleteThat's a good turn out for the tender. Piry Norwegian waan't considered
ReplyDelete*pity
DeleteWell done Sarajevo but dont let wizz let you down again, hopefully British Airways will connect Sarajevo with Heathrow that would be amazing!
ReplyDeleteGreat news for Sarajevo! Hopefully Lju has similar outcome from the tender
ReplyDeleteThe list of destinations is good. Me thinks FR is the perfect fit. They have a larger network and what is interesting is the presence of 3 Spanish destinations at once. Girona used to be a huge FR base in the past as they received a large amount of subsidies, which is a pity. Girona is a beautiful medival town and the access to the Costa Brava. Also only 30min with the high speed train to downtown Barcelona. Abu Dhabi is also a very good choice as Arabs love BiH. Good luck! :)
ReplyDeleteThat's a list of desired or eligible destinations, not the list of what will be launched. I guess Wizz has London, maybe they add one or 2 destinations, Ryanair will džadd max. 3-4 (hopefully not the same as Wizz).
DeleteWhat a shame they do not want to consider TUI. Sarajevo could have built itself up a winter tourism destination.
ReplyDeleteTUI flies too SJJ for a few months in winter
DeleteYes, and with subsidies it could have been much more.
Deletelol surely TUI is gonna fly year round.
DeleteBecause ski tourist would go to Jahorina, and political Sarajevo does not want to support it.
Deleteim not from BiH but I assume these tender is for year round flights so skiing in Jahorina or wherever in summer is bit difficult I would say
DeleteAnon 11:41, political Sarajevo lol, come on, be serious
DeleteMy guess if Wizz has applied for subsidies for Abu Dhabi route. I doubt they will launch anything else.
ReplyDeleteZa postojece linije ne vazi
DeleteMemmingen, Dortmund i Basel. Standard package
Deletebut Abu Dhabi is in the list
DeleteI wouldn't get held up too much on the "rules" of the tender. It is obvious money will be given for whatever route the airline starts. Same with the previous tender where Wizz resumed London even though they served it within the last year. Wizz just put Abu Dhabi for sale from Sarajevo for next summer season and I can guarantee you it's now subsidized. They would likely have resumed it either way, same with London but why not get cash for it.
DeleteNow we know why Wizz left Sarajevo and Tuzla. Why bother paying yourself for the market when they can get Bosnian taxpayers to do it
DeleteWow fantastic news for Sarajevo!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see the new routes.
ReplyDeleteI don't get the point of subsidizing Abu Dhabi which is already more or less part of your network.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Anadolujet, now Ajet, will consider Ankara since there is demand from Sarajevo. Nice to hear about the three other airlines.
ReplyDeletePretty sure SunExpress will do Izmir and Ankara
DeleteWonder if Ryanair will actually open a base in Sarajevo. Would be interesting.
ReplyDeleteI doubt it. I think it will first be a few routes from their European bases.
Deletethey have no base outside EU. Morocco maybe but that is a huge market
DeleteRyanair has a base in Tirana
Delete^ no it does not. All flights from/to Tirana are operated by aircraft from other bases.
DeleteI don't think FR will be too willing to have a base in SJJ with current weather conditions. Most nights in winter the airport is struggling with weather conditions. It's very cold and snowy brr
DeleteFantastic news for Sarajevo. 2024 will be very busy.
ReplyDeleteSun Express will probably start Izmir and Antalya.
ReplyDeleteThis model worked very well for SKP, so Sarajevo will benefit a lot in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThey even have an advantage because both WIZZ and Ryanair are present.
I'm all for this but considering they are using tax payer money to fund these flights, the least they could do is say how much they are offering airlines.
ReplyDeleteI'm positively surprised by the amount of airlines that applied.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIs SunExpress registered in Turkey or Germany? They are 50% owned by Turkish Airlines and 50% by Lufthansa. Can they fly e.g Hamburg-Sarajevo? Do they count as an EU airline?
ReplyDeleteIt is registered in Turkey. They can't operate from Sarajevo to EU unless they get a permit.
DeleteSorry for getting into this debate- But aren't subsidies meant for routes that don't exist?? IF Sunexpress launches to antalya then what is point when TK and Anadolujet offers the same route?
DeleteI will use Sarajevo airport a lot if the BiH government pays for all my flights..
ReplyDeleteI expect Ryanair will be the only one to actually bring new destinations to Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteMost likely
DeleteRyanair will most likely start BER, FMM, ATH, ARN, MAD, FCO or CIA, BGO and WMI.
DeleteLol
DeleteI guess BUD will be linked by wizz not because of the demand. Its a good starting/end pont fir W flights.
ReplyDeleteWizz used to fly BUD-SJJ once upon a time, when the Hungarian government used to subsidize it.
DeleteSJJ wa part of the 5 subsidized route to west Balkans. After the subsidy expired, wizz kept 3 of them, all 3 year round (TIA, PDG, SKP). Podgorica flight is a W flight. It would make sense to launch BUD-SJJ-???-SJJ-BUD.
DeleteYeah. It was a scheme that subsidized the Malev flights in the Balkans. Almost every capital had it except Belgrade. 10€ per pax.
DeleteWhy would they fly BUD-SJJ-???-SJJ-BUD just for W rotation when they can do it from any other base or Budapest to Dortmund/Eindhoven/Basel than to SJJ than same way back ... BUD-SJJ would make sense if they would offer transfers like Ryanair does but with Wizzair's funny OTP it won't happen in near future.
DeleteBUD-SJJ doesn't make sense in its own, otherwise W6 would have kept the route. BUD base crew is cheaper than Dortmund/Eindoven/Basel, thus W flight could be beneficial.
DeleteBUD-SJJ was one of the busiest Wizz routes, top 10 in every year of operation. However the subsidy contract didn't allow for free price formation which is why they pulled out after it was over
DeleteYou guys are discussing here and you don't even know where are the bases (Anon 15:44) or you claim that route with less than 80% load factor was one of the busiest Wizz routes. Where? Out of SJJ when it was only one or?
DeleteFinally!
ReplyDeleteIts interesting that Trabzon is among the top unserved routes out of SJJ.
ReplyDeleteOslo please :)
ReplyDeleteNorwegian was make this route on summer
Deleteonly 2 months a year :(
DeleteYes. Oslo would be great
DeleteHopefully a base by ryanair
ReplyDeleteThey should add Gothenburg from SJJ. Wizz had the most of it's week schedule flights to Gothenburg.
ReplyDelete