✈Record August for Sarajevo Airport

Sarajevo Airport has recorded its busiest August on the record since opening its doors 50 years ago. During the month of August, the airport has recorded 178.943 passengers, representing an increase of 12,18%, or 19.437 passengers more compared to the same month of the last year. Year to date airport recorded 817.606 passengers, representing an increase of 9,15% or 68.578 passengers more. 

Double digit increase in passengers was fueled by the introduction of many flights to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. During August FlyBosnia operated daily flights to Riyadh, two weekly flights to Jeddah and Kuwait and one weekly flights to Bahrain, Gassim and Monastir. Also, during last month the airline operated 12 flights from Medina to Sarajevo bringing around 1.700 Bosian pilgrims returning home from Hajj pilgrimage. 

Flynas had strong presence in Sarajevo during the last month with its daily flights from Riyadh and five weekly flights from Jeddah. Initially Flynas scheduled 3 weekly flights from Riyadh and two weekly flights from Jeddah, but due to extremely high demand flights were upgraded to daily and five weekly. 

Qatar Airways significantly increased capacity on its Doha-Sarajevo route by upgrading aircraft from Airbus 320 to Airbus 321 for the first half of the month, and increasing it again to Airbus 330-200 during the second half of August. 

From the first week of June until the last week of August demand for airline seats from: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman is increasing every year, due to many tourist agencies offering vacation packages to Bosnia and Herzegovina promoting Halal tourism. In the past three years many tourists from these countries switched from vacationing in Turkey and other European countries to Bosnia and Herzegovina due to its hospitality towards Muslim population and safety. In coming years, we can see these numbers growing with more airlines discovering Bosnia and Herzegovina as perfect tourist destination.

New flights operating this year (August 2019 vs. August 2018)

Airline	Destination	Weekly flights
Aegean Airlines	Athens	2 weekly
Eurowings	Berlin	2 weekly
FlyBosnia	Riyadh	7 weekly
	Jeddah	2 weekly
	Kuwait	2 weekly
	Bahrain	1 weekly
	Gassim	1 weekly
	Monastir	1 weekly
Flynas	Riyadh	7 weekly
	Jeddah	5 weekly
Norwegian	Gothenburg	1 weekly
Total		31 weekly

Compared to August 2018 number of weekly flights from Sarajevo Airport increased by 31 new weekly flights.

Source: Flying Bosnian and Sarajevo Airport