Sarajevo International Airport handled a total of 249.642
passengers last year representing a decrease of 78% compared to the 2019. The number of
aircraft operations decreased by 57%, from 13.671 in 2019 to 5.896 in 2020. Processed
cargo recorded a drop of 2%, handling 2.461 tons of cargo in 2020, compared to
2.523 tons of cargo in 2019. Due to the global pandemic air travel has suffered
big losses forcing airlines to cut and discontinued many routes but fortunately the airlines
operating at Sarajevo Airport prior pandemic are planning return during 2021. Sarajevo
Airport was in the middle of major expansion with plans to finish all the
projects before summer 2020 but global pandemic has put stop to all of that.
Sarajevo International Airport successfully completed
accreditation activities under Airports Council International (ACI) program for accreditation of health services at airports. After reviewing the evidence
presented through the evaluation process, Sarajevo International Airport has
shown and proved to provide a safe environment for all travelers, in
accordance with the recommended health measures established in ACI Aviation
Business Restart and Recovery guidelines, ICAO Council recommendations and in compliance
with best practices in the industry.
ACI’s Airport Health
Accreditation Program enables the airport operators to determine whether the
established health measures at the airports are in compliance with the
recommendations by ICAO's task force for recovery of aviation, CART (Council
Aviation Recovery Task Force).
Substantially, the benefits of health accreditation include
the possibilities of the airport operator to:
demonstrate to passengers, staff, the regulator
and the government that the priority of the airport operator is establishing a
safe health environment,
evaluate already established processes and
health measures in the facilities of the airport,
reassure passengers that using the airport areas
is safe,
promote professional performance regarding high
cleaning standards,
promote best practices in the aviation industry
and
enable the harmonization of health measures set
by International Civil Aviation Organization - ICAO and their implementation at
the airport.
The health accreditation included more stages and it implied
completing the questionnaire and supporting documentation, online interview and
assessment by the representatives of the Airports Council International.
Sarajevo International Airport was awarded the health accreditation by ACI
Airport Health Accreditation Program, after fulfilling the requirements,
presented through the evidence.
After awarded accreditation, the airport operator regularly
carries out an independent monitoring of implemented health measures and it
renews the accreditation annually, through the process of reaccreditation,
demonstrating a continued compliance with the requirements of the program .
Tuzla International Airport handled a
total of 228.425 passengers last year representing a decrease of 61% compared
to 2019. Due to the global pandemic air travel has suffered big losses forcing
airlines to cut and discontinued many routes but compared to airports in the region
Tuzla Airport had solid year when comes to the number of passengers handled
considering global pandemic and travel restrictions. The year ahead should be
year of recovery with all the routes resuming from Tuzla at the beginning of
summer timetable, first week of April. Tuzla Airport is expecting to handle 400.000
passengers this year, while 2019 passenger numbers are expected to be reached
in 2022.
Federation
of Bosnia and Herzegovina House of Representatives adopted the Budget for the
year 2021, within which 25 million Bosnian Marks (12,7 million Euros) is
intended for JP Aerodrom Bihać (Public Enterprise Bihac Airport) on behalf of capital transfers
to public companies based on the improvement of air traffic in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
The mayor of
Bihac, Šuhret Fazilić, emphasized how strategically important this project is:
"This
kind of project will revive us, because
it is of great importance for our city and canton connectivity. Our county has
largest number of people living abroad, who are using Zagreb Airport as
alternative for travel. Also, the development of tourism largely depend on new
airport, we could immediately redirect some flights that now come from Turkey
to Sarajevo, and go by bus to Bihać. Una National Park, as a carrier of tourism
for the Una-Sana County with new Bihac Airport airport would completely revive
this area. I am glad that the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina has included Bihac Airport in strategic projects and allocating funds for
the construction of the airport”.
Flydubai Boeing 737-800 landing at Sarajevo International Airport
Tourist
community of the Canton Sarajevo, the Association of Entrepreneurs and travel
agencies will in cooperation with hoteliers and KJP ZOI'84 make attractive
packages for tourists from the United Arab Emirates, in accordance with their
wishes and interests.
This
has been arranged in a joint meeting held in Sarajevo, which was attended by
the ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the United Arab Emirates Šerif
Mujkanović, representatives of the Tourist Community of the Canton Sarajevo and
the Association of Tourist Entrepreneurs as well as representatives of Sarajevo
International Airport and the travel agency Bosnia Travel.
At
this point of the pandemic, citizens of the United Arab Emirates have visa-free regime, without
any additional requirements, what made the participants of the meeting that an
additional attention should be directed towards the tourists from the UAE in
the upcoming period.
It
has been agreed, that the Tourist Community of the Canton Sarajevo in
cooperation with the Association of Tourist Entrepreneurs of Bosnia and Herzegovina would
organize the arrival of leading tour operators, bloggers and representatives of
media from the United Arab Emirates in Sarajevo. The ambassador Mujkanović will provide help in
relation to discussions with tour operators and bloggers from the UAE and he will
arrange specific cooperation activities between them and the Tourist Community
of the Canton Sarajevo, the Association of Entrepreneurs of Bosnia and Herzegovina and
domestic travel agencies.
According
to the arrangement, the Tourist Community of the Canton Sarajevo, the Association
of Entrepreneurs, and the travel agencies will in cooperation with hoteliers
and KJP ZOI'84 make attractive packages for tourists from the United Arab
Emirates, in accordance with their wishes and interests.
As
of January 1st 2021, the Tourist Community of the Canton Sarajevo will open
tourist info center at Sarajevo International Airport and set conditions so
that every guest – tourist is adequately informed on tourist potentials of the
Canton Sarajevo, destinations and other information in relation to the pleasant
stay in Sarajevo and the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sarajevo International Airport will, in
accordance with its possibilities and authorizations, create all necessary
requirements regarding the reception and the flow of the UAE tourists at the
airport.
Based
upon the statistical data of the Tourist Community of the Canton Sarajevo, the
tourists from the UAE visited the Canton Sarajevo quite significantly during
the period of 2019 and 2020. There were more than 5.000 tourists from the UAE
in 2020 for a period of ten months, with 25.000 overnight stays. The number of
arrivals exceeded a number of 25.000 in 2019, with more than 90.000 overnight
stays.
Currently Flydubai is offering four weekly flights between Dubai and Sarajevo. From March 1st 2021 Flydubai will offer daily flights between Dubai and Sarajevo, increasing to two daily flights from the beginning of May 2021.
DANOVA – Innovative
transportation services for blind and partially sighted passengers in Danube
Region is a transnational cooperation project co-funded by Interreg Danube Transnational Program, one of the programs of
the European Territorial Cooperation objective funded by the European Union. The
aim of DANOVA project is to improve the accessibility of airports, ports,
trains and bus station to blind and partially sighted people by developing a
set of new services and competences in order to allow them to have a full
access to all transportation information and services. The project with
duration of 30 months (01 July 2020 – 31 December 2022) and a total
budget of 2.192.546,66 Euro brings together partners from 9 different
countries motivated to work together so as to make transportation facilities
more accessible.
DANOVA Participating Countries
In Europe, there are
over 30 million of blind and partially sighted people who cannot travel
independently as more than 96% of European transport system, especially in
Danube Region, is still not totally accessible to people with visual
impairments. Many blind and partially sighted passengers find it extremely
difficult, and in some cases even impossible, to use conventional transportation
such as airplanes, railways or urban public transportation. Reasons for this
are various: blind and partially sighted passengers do not have equal access to
up-to-date visual or written information regarding transportation; personnel is
often not trained to support and adequately communicate with blind and
partially sighted passengers; there is a lack of adequately accessible
infrastructure; differences among national legislations about accessibility
exist from country to county etc. In all Danube Region, there is an increasing
demand from organizations working and representing blind and partially sighted
people to set up new services which will make the environment of transport
facilities more inclusive and accessible, and where the blind passengers will
be treated as equals.
DANOVA’s goal is to meet
this need by producing several concrete and tangible outputs through an
integrative and transnational approach:
International
investigation on best solutions to be transferred in Danube Region;
Capitalisation Strategy
to support decision makers to transfer the identified solutions in an efficient
way;
Involvement of
stakeholders in the design process of a new transnational concept of a totally accessible
transportation system to blind and partially sighted passengers in Danube
Region;
Testing of innovative
solutions in involved territories;
Equipping the personnel
on how to use new services and how to adequately assist and communicate with
blind passengers.
The consortium of 14
partners is led by Dubrovnik Airport (Croatia). The consortium is well-balanced
in terms of involvement of airports, ports, research institutions, local
authorities and associations representing blind people: Airport Bratislava,
Budapest Airport, Centre for Budapest Transport, University of Maribor,
Bulgarian Association for Transfer and Technology Innovation, Croatian Blind
Union, Austrian Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted, Dubrovnik Port
Authority, Municipality of Maribor, Airports of Montenegro, Port of Kotor,
Sarajevo International Airport, Moldova Association of the Blind. The project involves
also 4 associated partners: Slovak Blind and Partially Sighted Union, Ljubljana
Airport, Civil Aviation Authority of the Republic of Moldova and DEX Innovation
Centre.
Studija o procjeni Utjecaja na okoliš radi se za projekat
izgradnje aerodroma u Bihaću. Cilj projekta, izgradnje aerodroma, je
uspostaviti zračni promet i povezati Grad Bihać i Unskosanski kanton sa ostalim
gradovima u BiH (Sarajevo, Mostar, Tuzla) i drugim destinacijama izvan BiH-a, u
cilju razvoja poslovanja, turizma, sporta i privatne avijacije i generirati
privredni rast kroz izgradnju poslovnog - turističkog aerodroma u Bihaću na
lokaciji gdje trenutno postoji mali sportski aerodrom. Značaj aerodroma se
ogleda i u tome, što će Zapadno Evropsko turističko tržište postati važno
odredište za turoperatore koji će uključivati charter prijevoz ove zračne luke
u svojoj ponudi zbog raftinga, lova, ribolova i drugih turističkih I poslovnih
aktivnosti i mogućnosti koje postoje u samoj regiji ali i susjednoj Hrvatskoj.
Ova turistička i
poslovna tržišta predstavljaju vrlo dinamičnu ekonomsku kategoriju sa velikim
mogućnostima u pogledu postojećih poslovnih veza sa firmama iz Bihaća i
sportskoturističke aktivnosti koje se nude u regiji i šire.
Dakle, generalni ciljevi
projekta su:
uspostavljanje regionalne rute sa: Sarajevom, Bečom,
Minhenom, Skandinavskimzemljama, Katarom, Turskom, Dubajiem i sl.
mogućnost
organizovanja čarter letova (mogućnost organizovanja turističkih ruta)
preseljenju
i uspostavljanju novih industrijskih zona
promociji
i razvoj turizma
poslovna
povezanost grada sa zemljama u okruženju.
Germany is one of the most important trade partners of Bosnia and
Herzegovina. With around 400.000 citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina living and
working in Germany. Many German companies are present and operate on Bosnian
market especially in banking sector.
Bosnia-Germany air routes (year 2019)
German companies continuously are hiring workforce from Bosnia and
Herzegovina for employment in Germany in many fields, but particularly in
medical field (all professions), caregivers, building and road constructions,
hospitality etc. Due to unstable political and economic situation in Bosnia and
Herzegovina majority of young people are deciding to leave Bosnia and
Herzegovina in search of better jobs and security. Germany is still number one
destination for Bosnians when comes to finding employment outside of
Bosnia. Last year alone around 30.000 Bosnians have immigrated to Germany
(mostly skilled workforce).
Bosnia-Germany passenger numbers in 2019
Due to major flow of capital and people all major German cities are
connected with flights to airports in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnia and
Herzegovina have four international airports and all four have flights to
Germany. During 2019, total of 11 airports in Germany are served with flights from
Bosnian airports.
Last
year Bosnia and Herzegovina recorded 1.919.342 air passengers, with
27% of passengers traveling to and from Germany. Total of 511.588 passengers
traveled by airplane between two countries, putting Germany at number one spot
for air travel from/to Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by Turkey in second
place with 370.000 air passengers
Bosnia-Germany passenger numbers by the airport in 2019
Sarajevo
International Airport has terminated its contract with Fly Bosnia after the
airline failed to pay its debts.
This
information was confirmed to Bosnian news portal Klix by Sarajevo airport,
stating that the suspension of Fly Bosnia has started on September 18th
of this year.
"Considering
that the airline did not settle its debts within the given period of 60 days,
nor did it accept the proposal on the manner of debt repayment, the contract on
providing services for receiving and dispatching aircraft, passengers and
luggage between Sarajevo International
Airport and FlyBosnia was terminated on November 17. 2020.” Sarajevo airport
said.
In addition, Sarajevo
Airport added that all necessary legal actions will be taken.
"In
connection with the goal of protecting its financial interests, a request for
activation (collection of a bank guarantee), was submitted today (November
18)," Sarajevo airport added.
In
December of last year, Fly Bosnia confirmed to Klix portal that they had agreed
to repay the debt to Sarajevo Airport, but also did not want to state how it would
be done and what the amount was.
Sarajevo airport
confirmed that the debt was not paid
despite the mentioned agreement.
Public
Enterprise Bihac Airport has applied to
the Federal Ministry of Transport and Communications for the funds to continue the
construction of the test section of the runway by the end of the year. Funds
from the Federal Government are expected
in the coming weeks. Also, by the end of the year, Bihac Airport expects the
completion of the Aeronautical Study and the Revision of the Main Project.
Bihac
Airport submitted the Request for the Urban Planning to the Federal Ministry of
Planning and Construction. At the beginning of 2021 Bihac Airport is hoping to
get all necessary water and waterways protection permits, and finally by the
end of 2021 hoping to take a historic
step by applying for building permit.
In
addition, the airport is expecting that
through the Law on Public-Private Partnership, it will be competitive with
potential investors with whom they have already passed a certain number of
steps, believing that Bihac Airport will achieve cooperation through the
"build-operate-transfer" model.
The
airport emphasizes that the funds for the previous activities were provided by
the Federal Ministry of Transport and Communications, with promises that Bosnia
and Herzegovina federal government will continue to finance the improvement and
construction of the project, because the Airport in Bihac is the obligation of
the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
So
far, the expropriation of land for the needs of the construction of the airport
has been carried out according to the agreement from March 19. 2019, in the
total amount of 6,612,100 Bosnian Marks.
For
the purchase of land with an area of 264,484 m2, 2,000,000 KM was paid on
March 19. 2019, then 1,500,000 KM on July 29. 2019, and another 2,000,000 KM on
November 7.2019.
So far, the total amount paid for land expropriation amounts
to 12.112.100 Bosnian Marks or 6.192.818 Euros.
The
rest of the debt for land expropriation in the amounts of 1,112,100 KM should
be paid by December 31, 2022 at the latest.
Sarajevo International Airport
has posted statistic data for October, reflecting large decreases in all areas
of operations due to global coronavirus pandemic. During the month of October a
total of 21.416 passengers traveled through Sarajevo Airport, representing a
decrease of 77% or 74.212 passengers less when compared to the same month of
the last year. Number of operated flights decreased by 45% or 502 flights less, while transported cargo
recorded decrease of 20%.
European aviation is feeling the burden of the COVID-19
crisis even more heavily than other world regions. Its year-to-date cumulative seat capacity is down
by 55% – worse than in any other region.
Moreover, according to IATA, its airlines generated negative
free cash flow at -83% of revenue in 2Q2020, versus an average of -52% for all
regions. Preliminary 3Q2020 results from the leading European airline groups,
Lufthansa, IAG and easyJet, indicate that they have continued to burn through
cash at a rapid rate.
Europe's year-on-year cut in seat capacity narrowed slightly
to -62.1% in the week commencing 26-Oct-2020, the first week of the winter
2020/2021 season, compared with -63.4% in the previous week. This was the first
improvement in the trend in 10 weeks, but Europe still has the equal biggest
reduction in capacity, tied with Middle East on -62.1%. Africa is -58.4%, Latin
America -57.4%, North America -51.5%, and Asia Pacific is -38.4%.
Globally, airlines are expected to continue to burn cash
until at least the end of next year, but Europe's airlines may struggle for
cash break-even for longer than that.It is a sure sign that things are desperate when Europe's
airlines, pilot unions and airports all agree. Jonathan Hinkles, CEO of the UK regional airline Loganair
argues that without testing at airports, UK aviation is "whirling around
like a leaf in an autumn storm".
EUROCONTROL member states
✈EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren says "Aviation continues to
face the most severe threat in its history".
✈Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss warns that "without mass
testing", the UK's economic recovery "will not take off".
✈British Airways Airline Pilots' Association general secretary Brian
Strutton believes "UK aviation is in a death spiral".
✈Augustin de Romanet, chairman/CEO of Groupe ADP, owner of
the two main Paris airports, fears the "entire airline sector is slowly
dying".
After reaching peak recovery in Aug-2020, Europe is now
eight weeks into deepening year-on-year capacity cuts. Seat numbers are down
-62.2% in the week commencing 12-Oct-2020. Only Middle East has a deeper cut,
with -63.2%; Africa is -59.1%, Latin America -56.7%, North America -51.6%, and
Asia Pacific is -39.0%.
The European aviation industry urgently needs standardized,
consistent COVID-19 testing to replace the web of quarantine restrictions that
are choking it. After nine successive weeks of progressively worse
year-on-year declines, Europe now has the deepest capacity cut of all the world
regions.
Seat numbers have been cut by -63.4% in the week commencing
19-Oct-2020. Middle East, previously occupying last place, now moves above
Europe with a -62.8% cut, while Africa is -59.1%, Latin America -57.8%, North
America -52.1% and Asia Pacific is -39.2%.
Ryanair, Europe's biggest airline, has cut its winter
capacity plan from 60% to 40% of 2019 levels. EUROCONTROL DG Eamonn Brennan
told CAPA Live October that he expected air traffic movements in Europe at 40%
of last year's this winter, which suggests a lower figure for seat capacity
(since long haul flights, with more seats, have been cut more heavily than
short haul).
The EU's 'traffic light' approach to travel restrictions
does not seem likely to alleviate the outlook to any meaningful degree. With
Europe's aircraft perhaps only half full on average, passenger numbers could
fall short of 25% of prior year traffic, pushing revenue even lower.
From pandemic towards recovery – tracking the evolution of
European aviation during the pandemic.
We can expect European airline bankruptcies by the end of
this winter.
The ANKER (Airline Network Knowledge Expertise & Research)
The report for European Airport Traffic Statistics for January-September 2020 is showing huge decline in passengers numbers compared to the same period of last year due to coronavirus pandemic. The report is showing passenger numbers by majority of European airports by each European country.
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Source and Copyrights Ⓒ 2020 The ANKER Report and flyingBosnian (www.anker-report.com)
