Sarajevo Airport is on track to maintain record growth throughout the rest of the summer season. This surge is being driven primarily by Ryanair, which has launched five new routes and increased frequencies on services introduced last year when it began operations to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital. Nearly all other airlines serving Sarajevo have also boosted their frequencies or capacity. Alongside Ryanair, the fastest-growing carriers at the airport this year include Pegasus Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Wizz Air, Norwegian and AJet.
Projected capacity growth at Sarajevo Airport by month, summer 2025
Sarajevo Airport has recently experienced a wave of new route announcements from the Gulf region, aligning with the government’s decision to lift visa requirements for citizens of Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Bahrain between June 1 and September 30. The visa-free entry, allowing stays of up to thirty days, is aimed at boosting tourism. However, despite this positive development, two major Gulf carriers are reducing their presence in Sarajevo this year. Air Arabia has fully exited the market after years of operating flights from Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, while Qatar Airways has scaled back its seasonal summer operations.
Sarajevo Airport continues to work on expanding its route network, with high-priority targets including Amsterdam, Berlin, Eindhoven and Prague, followed by plans to connect with more distant destinations. The Tourism Association of the Canton of Sarajevo has been actively supporting this effort by offering incentives for new routes. Following its latest public call, several airlines have committed to launching new services to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital next year. These include Eurowings, which will introduce flights from Hamburg, Dusseldorf, and Hannover, as well as Swiss, which will commence operations from Geneva.
Excellent news for SJJ
ReplyDeleteImpressive growth and great to see more connections from Western Europe coming in.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of momentum shows how much potential the airport has when the right policies and incentives are in place.
ReplyDeleteI'm still surprised by Air Arabia completely withdrawing. Anyone know what happened?
ReplyDeleteThey announced the other day that they are cutting workforce by almost 30% so I’m guessing it has to do with that as well … probably not that profitable for them, considering the competition from wizzair
DeleteI’m glad Ryanair is expanding, but the airport needs to ensure it doesn’t become too reliant on them.
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DeleteYes. God forbid. Or perhaps the airport should aim to maintain a positive relationship with them and all will be fine. There are airports in Western Europe with a decade+ long relationship only with Ryanair and it works fine. But that takes time and effort when in the Balkans leadership can change overnight and so do then the terms and conditions.
DeleteWith so many flights from the Middle East, Sarajevo shouldnt be worried too much.
DeleteI have read that visas will be introduced for Kuwaitis from October because of EU pressure. I wonder how it will impact traffic from Kuwait next yeaer.
ReplyDeleteEach year they allow tourists from Gulf countries to visit Bosnia without visa during the summer. And then they introduce visa regime after the summer (around start of the October)
DeleteSo I don't think there'll be any issues with that
Nice work. Terminal looks great
ReplyDeleteThis is the most dynamic summer Sarajevo Airport has ever seen. Excited to see what’s next in 2026.
ReplyDeleteThe announced major Eurowings expansion in SJJ materialising in 2026 is the best thing that can happen for SJJ. It isn't impossible that other things materialise as well though.
DeleteWhy wouldn't other things materialize?
DeleteI flew yesterday from Sarajevo, the new terminal looks awesome and the airport was packed!
ReplyDeleteI'm just sad they didn't make the building bigger or start work on another expansion straight away because SJJ is going to need it.
DeleteAmsterdam should be the highest priority!
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping Transavia if not KLM.
DeleteYes and Etihad too
DeleteThe combination of Gulf tourism and new European links is exactly what Sarajevo needs to have steady passenger numbers year round and reduce seasonality.
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DeleteExactly! Sarajevo is doing great!
DeleteWhat are the chances of long haul flights from Sarajevo?
ReplyDeleteInexistent
DeleteSingapore wait to be lauched
DeleteSingapore?
DeleteYes with A380
DeleteLagos maybe?
DeleteSarajevo-Malta is next step
ReplyDeleteMany Bosnians live all over the world and travel with different passports. But they all want to include visits to their homes, cities, families in their vacations... The wish of a Bosnian living in Norway, Denmark, Germany, Sweden is to come by car to BiH, then fly on vacation and return to Bosnia, spend a few more days at home and then drive back to the countries from which they came.
DeleteMalta is the last priority, if at all. Its importance is for seasonal economic migration and of course for Ryan's maintenance. Othervise, there would be hardly any flight from region to Malta.
DeleteAt the Mediterreanen, Sarajevo's priorities are Spain (including Mallorca), than South France, than more flights to Italy, than Greece.
Sorry, no perspective for Malta...
Spain is definitely a waaay more popular tourist destination for Bosnians than Malta.
DeleteSarajevo! S A R A J E V O!
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DeleteHaha love it! Sarajevo indeed! 😍
DeleteOne and only! This numbers are awesome
DeleteExcellent stuff
ReplyDeleteBelgrade might be the biggest airport in the region but still could learn a lot from Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteVisa waivers for a short time in summer is the way to go.
Even if less attractive maybe than a muslim majority it could still attract enough tourists.
Not all Arabs are the same btw...
corrected ...a muslim majority destination...
DeleteThe EU has threatened Bosnia numerous times about this visa waiver even though Bosnia is furthest away from membership.
DeleteIt's not a solution. And it probably won't stick around for much more. When you get millions from EU in funding you can't just do as you please. That's why Serbia introduced visas for Qatar, Kuwait, Tunisia in the last year.
Last anon, Bosnia is gradually introducing visas for third countries just like Serbia, it is an agreement made with the EU. We will gradually introduce visas one or two countries per year as far as I can remember, and the last three ones will probably be China, Russia, and Turkey.
DeleteWe will never enter EU and we don't even want that, so no need to worry about that. And chances of introduction for Russia and Turkey are 0%
DeleteChances for China are maybe 5% max
07:58 speak for yourself: the entire region will join the EU sooner or later. And also, all relevant surveys clearly show support to join is almost 80% at the level of BiH. EU does not pressure Bosnia too much on visas issues, but also that is something the country signed way back before 2010 when Bosnia joined visa free scheme with the EU. It was one of the key preconditions. So, this is nothing new and for now this idea with visas being lifted during summer season is a decent compromise. At a later stage Bosnia will probably have to introduce a new system, but for now this is it. And yes, Bosnia needs the EU and there are a million reasons why, including aviation development.
DeleteAnon 09:49, also a Bosnian here in support of our EU membership. and Im pretty sure many other people as well. Anon 07:58 is by far a minority who thinks this way. It will happen at some point, not for Bosnia only but for the entire region, its not even our decision at this point :)
DeleteI am quite happy that Bosnia will most likely not join the EU in my lifetime (and I am 58 right now). EU will at some time have to finally lift the visas for Turkey, for Russia and China they are more likely to remain
DeleteWhy they removed SKOPJE? They should add either Skopje or Tirana! (OR PRN)
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone when Geneva - Sarajevo will be introduced?
ReplyDeleteBritish Airways to LHR please.
ReplyDeleteSJJ looks great!
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