Ryanair announced the introduction of flights to Sarajevo last week from five European cities starting next March, with the continent’s largest carrier aiming to carry 200.000 passengers in its first year of operations and grow further thereafter. “Ryanair is the only airline that can deliver rapid growth in Bosnia and Herzegovina - a stark contrast to competitor airlines who continue to cancel routes and reduce capacity. These new routes will drive valuable inbound tourism and business opportunities to Sarajevo from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and the UK - whilst also providing connectivity for Bosnian citizens and visitors at Europe’s lowest fares. We plan to handle 200.000 passengers on these flights within the first year and create 150 local jobs”, Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer, Jason McGuinness, said.
Taking aim at its competitors, Mr McGuinness added, “We have worked closely with our partners at Sarajevo Airport, the Tourism Association, and the government to launch these five new routes, and we hope to strengthen these relationships over time as we continue to work together to deliver further inbound tourism, connectivity, and low fares to Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens and visitors. For too long Sarajevo Airport’s traffic has been held back by high fare incumbent airlines such as Turkish, Austrian, and Wizz. This era of high fares ends with the arrival of Ryanair’s low fares”.
The Chief Commercial Officer ruled out the opening of a base in Sarajevo for the time being but added the carrier plans a long-term presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital. “I think Sarajevo always presented a void in our network and we have always had the desire to fly out of Sarajevo, but the costs were too high. We have no interest in short-term agreements and deals. These five new routes are just the beginning. During my discussions with the airport’s management and government ministers I said that Ryanair is here to grow. We want to expand in Sarajevo, but one must also take into account the very competitive market at the moment”, Mr McGuinness said. He added, "We will not initially have a base in Sarajevo. When we establish a base, then we will directly employ technicians, pilots, and cabin crew. We are not at that stage yet, but we are working on it".
Ryanair announced its arrival into Sarajevo after applying for a public call for the provision of subsidies for the launch of new routes. A new tender has since been launched, although it is being targeted primarily at Norwegian Air Shuttle and SAS Scandinavian Airlines, both of which have expressed interest in serving Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital. The former applied for the previous tender, however, its application was submitted past the set deadline.
I wonder what is the price paid to Ryanair to come to Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteIt seems this piece of information is missing.
Obviously it is huge amount of money as long as they hide it.
Delete@09:16
DeleteLOL, so true!
FR usually looks at getting everything for free.
DeleteIt's just a shame they don't want to open a base in SJJ.
DeleteFor now
DeleteWell done SJJ, for getting Ryanair. LJU, meanwhile, is going to solve all its problems with a "national" carrier. The rest of us will still have to fly FR out of Zagreb, TRS or VCE. Perhaps even KLU? Well done, LJU.
DeleteGeorgia paid so much to Wizzair to come and reached 10 million tourists in a year. Paying Ryanair to fly to Sarajevo and actually agree subsidies not for gasto routes only is one of the best way to spend public money. And who is hurt? LH, OS, Croatia... Those flying 1h flight for 300eur return. Ouch. Sarajevo can't be BEG or ZAG, but to reach being SKP (with Ryanair instead of Wizz) would be historic outcome.
DeleteAnd talking about Bosnia... We don't know where are much bigger amounts thrown away, from which public had no interest, that this almost doesn't matter in the case where public will really fly for 20eur.
anon 14:44
Delete+1
But they opened only gasto routes. What are you fantasizing about?
DeleteFUP needs to investigate this!!
DeleteThey are kind of cautious with just five routes so I hope they will expand during 2024.
ReplyDeleteYes thats what i wanted to say. If they were just getting started then they would have launched a bit more
Deleteroutes. They announced over 15 routes to Tirana in one day.
Excellent
ReplyDeleteNice dig at Wizz from McGuinness
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteShame Spain was not included in their list of destinations
ReplyDeleteSo 2 million passengers at Sarajevo next year?
ReplyDeleteExcellent news for Sarajevo!
ReplyDeleteThe question is will Ryanair have more success than Wizz. LCCs don't usually pack and leave after such a short time without a valid reason.
ReplyDeleteWizzAir left Sarajevo because they ended the subsidies and because the airport did not agree to their blackmail, the whole summer the airport had to work until 03:00 in the morning because their flights were delayed by 3-4 hours every day. They left the passengers stranded, honestly I would like them to never come to Sarajevo again just because of the terribly bad attitude towards the passengers.
DeleteWill Ryanair be any different?
DeleteOf course Ryanair won't be any different. They are the same as Wizz Air just in yellow and navy blue. Just look at how they are treating airports across western Europe where growth potential and yields are much better than in SJJ.
DeleteSJJ had to make a deal with the devil after they failed so many times to make sure connectivity with the West was established .
I fear that the yields are simply too low. There is a reason why so few European airlines fly to SJJ. But I hope I'm wrong..
DeleteYields aren't low in SJJ. I mean listen to yourself people, you really think Prishtina and Skopje being that close and serving a small area can be successful but Sarajevo can't as a richer area with more tourism appeal? Sure it won't be a massive airport but 3M is realistic in 5 years if they keep up the pace. With the current schedule they're easily at 1.8M+ next year, 2M if they manage to seal the other deals they're chasing (Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo full year, Barcelona, Prague etc.)
DeleteAnd why did Wizz leave then???
DeleteSarajevo richer area??? boze sta procitas sve po internetu
12:16 The Bosnian diaspora flies much less than the Macedonian and Kosovan diaspora(Even though it is the same size as Kosovan and larger than Macedonian diaspora). I think that has to do that the Macedonian and Kosovan diaspora are slighly more wealthy than the Bosnian diaspora and ofc thaat Bosnia is atleast 4-5 hours closer than Macedonia and Kosovo. And if you are a Bosnian that doesn't live in a city with an airport and you are from a place like Tesanj that is 2 hours away from Sarajevo and Tuzla the choice to go by car is easy made.
DeleteMaybe SJJ is richer than Pristina but defenitly not than SKP econnimically both cities are similair level. Bosnia get defenitly more tourists, however if we look closely at western tourists the difference is not that big
Ryanair's on-time performance stands around 90%. So, no ... Ryanair is not Wizzair in yellow and blue.
Delete@Nemjee
DeleteI agree with you most of the times, but not today, sorry. The only thing Wizz Air and Ryanair have in common is being LCC. In all particular segments, for example punctuality, organization, profits.... Ryanair is light years ahead of Wizz
+100
DeleteAt pozdrav: you have zero experience with Wizz (simply because they dont fly to HR) yet you dare to compare
Delete@16:23 Imagine being an anonymous comment writer on the internet and accusing someone of "daring" to compare two of Europe's biggest airlines.
DeleteWizz Air flies to Croatia: it has 4 routes in Dubrovnik and 10 routes in Split. It also used to fly to Osijek. It flies to Ljubljana, Budapest and Venice. So lots of Croats use it. Especially people from Rijeka for whom Venice is the best large nearby airport.
I am from Zagreb and I used Wizz Air to fly to London (via Ljubljana) because it was £9.99 while British Airways and Ryanair were £140 to Zagreb. But according to you, I should not "dare" to make the comparison.
Pozdrav, I meant that they are the same in terms of their treatment of airports and how unpredictable they can be.
DeleteNemjee, calling Ryanair another Wizzair in yellow and navy blue proves just how little you have flown with Ryanair (which btw, are huge in your beloved Cyprus in Paphos). Ryanair has been around for decades and Wizzair began in the new millenium. Ryanair has a typical, rigid Angosaxon model and yes, it has a tough policy but working impeccably.
DeleteThey handled the pandemic much much better than Wizzair and the rest of LCCs. Yes, they had cancellations but not as much as Wizzair. Though I really like Wizzair, because thanks to them they made a revolution in the Balkans in the late 2000s approx.
Ryanair had a period of losing clients because of its absurd, strict luggage policies and overcharges but they became quite relaxed and made some changes especially to their website.
Mobile app, as someone using both Android apps of Ryanair and Wizzair, I can tell you, Ryanair´s app is simply awesome and barely crashes and has bugs compared to Wizzair.
Ryanair also is much more punctual and organised as an airline.
Wizzair were great focusing mainly on CE Europe, but because they became too "greedy" they decided to expand in the UAE, which is not a bad thing but Ryanair obviously immediately took advantage of this weakness. They deployed their brand new Maxes with more seats and more modern cabins and decided to slowly overtake them in many countries where their market share is higher e.g. Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, etc.
Also, if it were a bad airline then why would they still operate to INI and even expanded there? I am sure they could've based an aircraft there but the GoS is protecting Air Serbia. INI is the typical city which they can operate at least 20 routes. It is next to SOF and SKP and can be also used as an alternative because it has a good location, quite close to 2 capitals.
Go West and you will see extremely many people using Ryanair, because they are reliable and making travel simply much more affordable. Their luggage taxes are not as absurd as Wizzair and their fares are normal if you include 10kg on a 2h flight for instance.
Wizzair has became very chaotic. It would be interesting to see now that they have been granted to fly between Italy and India if they will deploy their A321XLRs over there, which is, in my opinion go to be a "threat" for Ryanair because it will allow them to access to big markets like the Indian one. With the arrival of the A321XLR it will be interesting to see how the events go on. Meanwhile, Ryanair are slowly beating them in Eastern Europe - a market which they were the "specialist" in. And with those latest Balkan expansions especially ZAG, DBV, SJJ, TIA, etc it is highly likely to see more and more of their planes in the region because this part of Europe is still lacking O&D traffic and being ripped off by OS or LH.
ZAG is definitely a success story for Ryanair. They will have 31 routes in summer 2023 which is simply a great achievement. ZAG is not as tourstic as its coast, but still an EU capital that can enjoy both a city break and business travellers. Simply, most of its routes still need to mature and it will take 2-3 years.
Finally, in a very important market like the UK, Wizzair no longer enjoys a good reputation. Their performance in Luton was disastrous and now Riyadh is going to be their next biggest failure after they cut many routes there, the latest which is going to be Venice. Even Bucharest, being a big market was cut.
I think they'd better stick to AUH, as it seems it is performing really well for them for the time being especially by entering the Central Asian market and Maldives. Still, the service is shabby compared to the Gulf LCCs like Salamair or flynas, etc.
@16.23
DeleteI work in aviation for over over 30 years.
As a passenger, I fly minimum 20 times per year
With Wizz, I flew about dozen times, last time Vienna to Pristina.
But I am happy for you to have superpowers and know everything about me 😆
Ryanair is the only solution for SJJ.
ReplyDeleteWell, SJJ was a perfect match for Ryanair. A desperate airport with minimal connectivity to Western Europe where FR is strong. Good thing is that they are being cautious with new routes given the economic climate both in Bosnia and the EU. Gasto traffic was the first to be affected by rising inflation. Time will tell to what extent this partnership will grow.
ReplyDeleteRyanair has cut quite a few routes from ex-YU and SJJ management should not forget that now that they are in bed with them. I might be wrong but I think ZAG is the only truly successful base in ex-YU. I know there is ZAD but that one is seasonal so it can't compete with ZAG where FR can employ capacity both in winter and summer.
+1
DeleteTypical FR move, Nemjee. They first begin with 1 route usually STN, then they try a couple of more ones and then suddenly BAM they quickly base a plane. There are many examples of such airports in Europe. I think CRL in Belgium is really one of their best success stories. CRL itself because a nice typical LCC airport to use and good alternative to the bloody expensive BRU. Same goes to other airports like Lanzarote, FMM, BVA, etc.
DeleteFMM went from less than half a million passengers a couple of years ago to nearly 2 million last year but also because of Wizz. The bus price to central Munich is only 10€, which is quite cheap. SJJ must work harder this time and do all its best to work with FR.
There is not a single base outside EU. And you dare to compare Bosna with Bavaria???
DeleteRyanair has a base in Marrocco.
DeleteYes but it has millions of EU tourists
Delete@anon 10:13
DeleteBus tickets FMM-Munchen Hbf were 16€ for adults (not Flixbus). For one person it's ok bit if you go family round trip XXX-FMM- Munchen, it goes over100€ just for bus tickets.
*but
Delete@10:34 Not true. Why are you lying? Ryanair has SIXTEEN bases outside of the EU.
DeleteAnd those are which, Enstein?
DeleteForget UK ...
DeleteRyanair are hardly reliable partners.
ReplyDeleteGreat. In my opinion City of Sarajevo now needs to do more work to promote itself as a city break destination, particularly in the west. Ryanair flights are perfect in bringing in these kinds of tourists.
ReplyDeletethe Tourist Board of Canton Sarajevo is doing a good job
Delete+1 it's a very underrated but beautiful city
DeleteCouldn’t agree more and that goes for all of Bosnia. From Sarajevo to the natural beauty. So much people don’t know exists.
DeleteI hope that Ryanair will consider some leisure destinations from Sarajevo too like Corfu or maybe some Spanish destinations
ReplyDeleteYes Spain from Sarajevo would be fantastic! :)
DeleteRyanair should also introduce flights to Malta in the next round. Both because of tourism and because of the growing diaspora
ReplyDeleteit would make more sense to Banja Luka
DeleteThey are holding another tender just for Norweigan. Is this a joke?
ReplyDeleteZasto vic. Skandinavia je vazna za Sarajevo
DeleteNot just for Norwegian and SAS, there are other airlines involved such as Czech, Qatar, vueling etc.
DeleteAhaha Czech
DeleteGood luck SJJ!
ReplyDeleteRyanair are even more demanding in terms of discounts and incentives than Wizz. Good luck with that.
ReplyDeleteRyanair is a good and mature airline that has been in the market for almost 40 years. I'm sure they'll do a good job in Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteWait til the contract stop
DeleteThis will be a great substitute to Wizz Air.
ReplyDeleteSJJ needs to be 24/7 airport.
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be a good year for Sarajevo in 2024.
ReplyDeleteBosnian aviation is getting pretty impressive. Interesting times ahead
ReplyDeleteLol
DeleteIt will be interesting to see Wizz Air's reaction.
ReplyDeleteThey won't react. They are withdrawing from Bosnian market. Last year they closed the SJJ base, this year the Tuzla base.
DeleteHow much? €€€
ReplyDelete"For too long Sarajevo Airport’s traffic has been held back by high fare incumbent airlines such as Turkish, Austrian, and Wizz. This era of high fares ends with the arrival of Ryanair’s low fares"
ReplyDeleteAnd he is 100% right. OS is really a rip-off of an airline for the degrading service and ancient aircraft they fly. How can they allow themselves, coming from a developed country, to fly planes that are more than 20 years old, no longer offer "free" luggage or catering and now converting their planes to economy only and still wanting 300€ for a RT in Europe!!! Disgraceful! They really went downhill.
As for FR, SJJ will only benefit a lot from them simply because they are huge and sorry, but have a much better reputation than Wizz. They are far from perfect, but usually very safe (not 1 sole accident since its creation) and punctual. You follow their simple rules, you have no problem at all. Even businesses in Europe use them in bigger airports especially in the Baltics.
SJJ has much much more potential as a capital similar to LJU and they should simply follow the steps of ZAG, which will become a more and more affordable destination. It used to be very expensive to fly too and you had limited options via MUC or FRA. Good luck, BiH!
Nonsence they had Wizz abd it didnt work out. ALL the fanboys just copy and paste what they wrote back then but for a different airline now
DeleteSimilar as LJU? Sarajevo Area is at least 2 times bigger than LJU. So it’s a shame that Sarajevo doesn’t have at least 2 mio pax!
DeleteMuch better reputation than Wizz??? Haha
Deletelol "a capital similar to LJU"? Sarajevo is much bigger than LJU, and so is Bosnia bigger than Slovenia, the comparison doesnt make sense.
DeleteLjubljana metro: 537.000
DeleteSarajevo: 555.000
"Much bigger" big fail LOL
Yes but Ljubljana leaks passengers to Zagreb, Budapest, Klagenfurt and Venice while Tuzla is the only competition to SJJ.
DeleteSarajevo is a much bigger city than Ljubljana, no doubt about that. Plus to that metro area you mentioned you should add some 100,000 that are in East Sarajevo, which is basically Sarajevo as well. Not to mention that in Sarajevo's proximity you have Mostar and Zenica, each having 100,000+ people, whereas in Ljubljana you have not. Their second largest city Maribor of 90,000 people is not even close to Ljubljana.
DeleteMaribor-LJU 1h 30min by car
DeleteMostar-SJJ 2h by car
"Not even close" sure lol. You are probably the same dude that thinks Skopje is second biggest city in EX-YU.
he is rather the guy that stil believes Sarajevo is bigger then Skopje
DeleteZenica - Sarajevo is a 50min drive, and Zenica is bigger than Maribor. Sarajevo - Mostar is 1h45min drive. Not sure what you are trying to prove? Sarajevo is bigger than Ljubljana as a city, and the catchment area of Sarajevo is bigger than the one of Ljubljana, and Bosnia is bigger than Slovenia.
DeleteBro Sarajevo is not New York comparing to Ljubljana. Those 20k more people aren't gonna change anything.
DeleteLMAO. If ryammerd has a better reputation than Wizz, then flying pigs are coming next
DeleteSo they are avoiding BEG and SKP because they are not desperate to let them fly for free?
ReplyDeleteThey believe they can blackmail BEG as they do it with other ex yu airports. What a nonsense.
DeleteAll they are doing by avoiding BEG is to lose market share of airport with 8 mil pax. Once they recognize they need to enter BEG market with commercial prices they will have to invest much more money to beat the competition that already based 5 planes in Serbian capital.
What a plonker!
Yes, I am sure that anonymous comments on this blog know more about aviation than Europe's biggest airline and the world's largest international airline. Which is also the most profitable airline in Europe.
DeleteWell its more then embarassing that Ryanair is missing out on SKP while Wizz has stationed 6 aircrafts there and has only two year round flights from Serbia. More then embarassing
DeleteGood to see Ryanair expanding in the region. As they are one of the few airlines in Europe that have a large fleet of Boeing 737’s they aren’t suffering like other airlines that use Airbus in Europe and thus struggling to recruit enough pilots as they are all being taken by each other.
ReplyDeleteReally fantastic news for Sarajevo, well done! :)
ReplyDeleteThis is yet another proof that if the city is not some kind of tourist Mecca or major metropliis, one needs national airline in order to have proper connectivity.
ReplyDeleteBosnian tenders are masterpieces of transparency
ReplyDeleteIndeed
DeleteHad Lumiwings been smart they would have opened a base in Sarajevo rather than Tuzla.
ReplyDeleteThat actually would have made more sense.
DeleteThey don't care because they'll get 2.5 million euros for the year and just leave if the deal isn't extended
DeleteI just don't get why they didn't open a base
ReplyDeleteThe market is not big enough
DeleteThe market is big enough but they want to see how everything works out, LF isn't an issue, it's more about the airline operations, delays etc
DeleteWinter will be a little problematic as there is a lot of snow and mist.
DeleteBut i dont think that it will be too much of a problem.
In the end Ryanair will do much good for Sarajevo airport.
Just a "little"
DeleteWhat percentage of people travel from SJJ to TZL to fly with W6? Are they doing it now?
ReplyDeleteI always considered TZL as SJJ's second airport, but now something has changed….
DeleteIndeed many people from SJJ traveled to TZL to fly to eg Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium. It is sad that the airport has lost W6. However, I'm sure many people would still prefer to fly Wizz Air to Dortmund or Basel. I have only flown once from TZL in 2016 to Malmö.
DeleteBetter than connecting with OU via ZAG to AMS, BRU, CPH
DeleteNice to see Ryanair put the new flights from Zagreb, Zadar and Banja Luka that were announced here last week on sale today.
ReplyDeleteAnd some more too. Rijeka, Pula and Split all got new flights.
DeleteTrue. RJK is getting Vienna as well. Announced few hours ago.
DeleteSJJ-ATH please!
ReplyDeleteMa kakvi
DeleteWe need Prague-Sarajevo Athens-Sarajevo Munich-Sarajevo and Barcelona-Sarajevo
ReplyDeleteThey need a direct route from Beijing to Tuzla. Bring that Chinese money!
ReplyDelete