✈Sky Alps should open base in Tuzla and Mostar

During Summer Timetable 2024 Tuzla International Airport will see a significant drop in flights and seats offered when compared to the year before. For the same months last year Tuzla Airport had 501.480 seats on offer, while this year the airport has 206.988 seats, representing a decrease of 59%. 

The number of flights last year stood at 2.786, while this year is 1.276, representing a decrease of 54%. Due to Wizz Air closing its base at Tuzla Airport and withdrawing two Airbus 320 aircraft from the airport,  many destinations are discontinued without suitable replacement. Tuzla Airport management was surprised by the abrupt Wizz Air base closing and was scrambling to find any replacement for Wizz Air. 

With the financial help of Tuzla County Government, Tuzla airport was able to sign the deal with Greek airline Lumiwings to open base at Tuzla Airport with one Boeing 737-700 (149 seats). Lumiwings was awarded 2.400.000 Bosnian Marks (1.227.000 Euros). The airline opened five routes to secondary airports in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Nederland’s and just recently one main airport, Istanbul in Türkiye. 

Lumiwings is very small, unknown airline with a fleet of only two aircraft, one Boeing 737-700, currently based in Tuzla and one Embraer 195, currently based at Foggia Airport in Italy. The airline operates only subsidized flights, making it unappealing by its competitors and airports. 

Since local governments are offering large sums of money as subsidies to airlines, more attention should be paid to other airlines besides Wizz Air and Ryanair. Great example of an airline that could establish itself on Bosnian market is Sky Alps or Aegean Airlines, with its sister company Olympic Air, both airlines have perfect fleet for Bosnian market operations.

Tuzla is paying way too much to Lumiwings  for such a small number of flights and very unappealing secondary airports it operates too. 

Tuzla Airport management team together with Mostar Airport  should reach out to Sky Alps to nagotiate a deal that would benefit both airports. Sky Alps has ideal fleet for Tuzla and Mostar airports and could benefit of basing airplanes between both airports. Two airplanes could be based at Tuzla  during summer and offer Mostar flights as well (for example flights could operate as follows, TZL-MUC-OMO-MUC-TZL etc. This way Tuzla and Mostar could get flights to main airports like Munich, Copenhagen, Berlin, Cologne, Rome, Ljubljana, Vienna (there won’t be a problem of selling 76 seats on Dash8 aircraft compared to 180 seats Airbus 320). During winter months airline base should be in Mostar since weather conditions are more favorable in Herzegovina, flights could operate as follows OMO-FCO-TZL-FCO-OMO. 

Smaller aircraft is perfect for seasonal markets like Mostar and Tuzla, it would have year long great bookings, regardless of the season. This would ensure sustainability to the airports and safety to the customers, that their flights won’t be canceled very last minute. 

At the very first year of operations, passengers numbers won’t be as great as they were in 2019, but is should be around 400.000 for Tuzla and 150.000 for Mostar. Being connected to major airports in Europe is the goal of every small airport including Tuzla and Mostar. Both airports should put their resources together to achieve same goal. Both airports should cancel current very unfavorable subsides, Tuzla Airport (Lumiwings), Mostar Airport (Air Serbia and Croatia Airlines). 

Sky Alps would definitely be more affordable, and offer better services then current airlines. Since Sky Alps has Italian AOC it would be able to offer flight to both Belgrade and Zagreb. Unfortunately routes out of Mostar to Belgrade and Zagreb are purly political, based solely on political agenda, without any analysis on routes optimization and profitability. Sky Alps signed agreement with Lufthansa on feeding its route network, which could impact Mostar and Tuzla operations in big numbers, providing route to Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, Stuttgart or Cologne and offer endless number of connecting flights on Lufthansa network. Such a deal would be big win for both airports, even if only one of the above mentions routes would be established, most likely it would be Munich.   

Zagreb route has been in service for awhile, and we can definitely confirm that this route is loosing big amounts of money without any benefit to the city or airport. Belgrade has more potential due to connecting flights but still, its way to expensive for what it is. 

Following routes could operate as year long with 2-3 weekly flights. All flights are possible to operate with two Dash8 aircraft with bases in either Mostar and Tuzla or one in each. After network development and frequency increases, all Italian flights could operate with crew and aircraft based in Italy.

Source: Zahid Krkić