✈Bosnia and Herzegovina air transport statistics for November

In November Sarajevo airport recorded 62.253 passengers, representing an increase of 7% compared to the same month of the last year. In period January-November airport recorded 993.218 passengers, a new record for the airport.On December 5th 2018 Sarajevo Airport welcomed its 1.000.000 passenger, a new record in airports 49 years history. 

Tuzla Airport has seen its passenger numbers decline by 18% due to Wizz Air converting four routes to summer seasonal and frequency cuts on existing routes. Winter cuts are coming as a result of airport's management not being able to meet basic infrastructure conditions for airport to run safe operations during winter months when visibility is low. Installation of new approach lightning system has been delayed for second winter in a row due to incompetent  management of the airport to complete the task, even though all funds are provided and financed by the Government of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
Another major issue contributing to Wizz air flight cuts from Tuzla is terminal building reconstruction, with finishing date  being delayed numerous times. Terminal building was scheduled to be finished before April of this year but unfortunately work is still going on without the set date for terminal completion. Yet again airport management is to blame for choosing construction company without any references and previous experience in airport terminal construction.

Banja Luka Airport recorded its busiest month ever since opening its doors in 1976. The airport recorded 8.272 passengers, an increase of 730% compared to November of the last year. Record numbers increases are result of Ryanair starting flights to the city from Brussels-Charleroi, Memmingen and Stockholm-Skavsta. Banja Luka airport is expecting to finish this year with 35.000 passengers. 

Mostar Airport has seen passenger numbers increase in November by 50%, but year to date airport has seen major decrease in passengers handled, due to Mistral Air discontinuing all charter flights from Italy to Mostar. Year to date airport handled 27.982 passengers, representing a decrease of 35% compared to the same time of last year when airport recorded 42.723 passengers. 

Croatia Airlines is the only airline operating flights to Mostar, with two weekly flights from Zagreb. During November Croatia Airlines transported  279 passengers on 14 flights. Flights were operated with Dash 8-400 aircraft with capacity to seat 76 passengers. Croatia Airlines managed to sell only 279 seats out of 1064 available, with average cabin load factor of only 26%. These flights are heavily subsidized by the Government of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Neretva County, but with such poor interest and very low load factor the future of these flights is very uncertain. 

During January-September all four international airports in Bosnia and Herzegovina recorded 1.594.208 passengers, representing an increase of 9% compared to the same period of last year. Bosnia and Herzegovina is expecting to finish this year with 1,7 million air passengers. In last four years number of air passengers in Bosnia and Herzegovina has almost doubled, from 956.870 passengers in 2014 to over 1,7 million this year. The trend is expected to continue in following years with 8-10% increase on average, with new low cost carrier routes from Banja Luka, launch of FlyBosnia flights from Sarajevo and possible Wizz Air expansion in Tuzla and Mostar.  

Source: Flying Bosnian and BHDCA