✈Sarajevo Airport signed transnational cooperation project for blind and partially sighted passengers

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.

Project details:

Project number: 543

Start date: 01.07.2020

End Date: 31.12.2022

Total budget: 2.192.546,66 Euro

ERDF contribution: 1.739.970,00 Euro

IPA II contribution: 362.130,00 Euro

ENI-MD contribution: 90.446,66 Euro 

Source: Sarajevo International Airport

✈BHANSA is fully compliant with EU regulations in the field of air navigation

The inspection by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has shown that Bosnia and Herzegovina Air Navigation Services Agency (BHANSA) is fully compliant and air navigation services are provided as required by Bosnia and Herzegovina  and European Union regulations in the field of air navigation. 

BHANSA main office building in Sarajevo

On October 03. 2019, inspectors of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) accompanied by inspectors of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Directorate of Civil Aviation carried out a comprehensive standardization inspection of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Air Navigation Services Agency in the field of air navigation.

Inspection was carried out in Banja Luka where Air Traffic Control Unit /Operational Unit II , Approach and Aerodrome Control Unit Banja Luka, Meteorological Watch Office, Flight Information Service – FIS and Rescue Coordination Centre – BHRCC are located.

The inspection has shown that BHANSA is fully compliant and air navigation services are provided as required by BH and EU regulations in the field of air navigation.

During the inspection, EASA inspectors visited the Ops room of Operational Unit II and Control Tower of Approach and Aerodrome Control Unit Banja Luka where they had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the work of air traffic controllers and other professional aviation staff of BHANSA in providing air navigation services.

Source: BHANSA

✈ ACI EUROPE: 2015 Airport Traffic Report

European airport trade association, ACI EUROPE released its traffic report for 2015. This is the only air transport report which includes all types of civil aviation passenger flights to and from Europe: full service, low cost, charter and others. 

Passenger traffic across the European airport network in 2015 grew by an average +5.2%.  

At EU airports, the average increase in passenger traffic was +5.6% with airports in Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Lithuania achieving double-digit growth. Meanwhile, non-EU airports reported diminished growth of +3.9%. This was mainly due to a significant decline in demand for air travel across Russian and Ukrainian airports, as well as almost flat growth in Norway – despite a stellar increase in passenger traffic in Iceland and sustained growth at most Turkish airports.  

Freight traffic at Europe’s airports only grew by +0.7%, as international trade remained subdued. Aircraft movements saw an increase of +2.2%.  

Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE said “2015 has been a very good year in terms of passenger traffic, with European airports welcoming an estimated 1,95 billion passengers. 20% of them achieved a double-digit increase and many broke new traffic records – mostly fueled by the continued growth of low cost airlines and selected non-EU airlines. EU airports generally performed extremely well, despite Germany and France being impacted by airline & ATC strikes and the Paris terror attacks. Remarkably, Istanbul-Atatürk airport became the 3rd busiest European airport with 61,8 million passengers, after London-Heathrow (74,9 million) and Paris-Charles de Gaulle (65,7 million). It should be noted however that small regional airports* across the continent underperformed the European average, with their passenger volume only increasing by +3,8%. This is indicative of traffic growth becoming more concentrated and less inclusive." 

    

COMPARING 2008 AND 2015 

Commenting on the air traffic recovery since the global financial crisis, Jankovec added: “While the EU economy did not even grow by +3% between 2008 and 2015, passenger traffic at EU airports increased by +13,6% over the same period. Such a wide gap is pointing to a lasting discontinuity in the usual relationship between GDP growth and passenger traffic performance. This is reflective of new market dynamics, changing consumer behaviors and the increased importance of air transport for the European economy.” 

CURRENT OUTLOOK 

Looking at the outlook for the coming months, Jankovec concluded: “The positive momentum created by improving economic conditions in the Eurozone, low oil prices and loose monetary policy is likely to persist for most of 2016. This should help keep passenger traffic growing - except for Russian airports. However, downside risks abound, and they are mainly of a geopolitical nature – both homegrown and external. These range from the unprecedented migration crisis and its repercussions on Schengen to the UK Brexit, heightened terrorist threats, instability in the Middle East & North Africa and deteriorating prospects in emerging markets."  

BREAKDOWN BY TRAFFIC CATEGORY 

Over the full year, airports welcoming more than 25 million passengers per year (Group 1), airports welcoming between 10 and 25 million passengers (Group 2), airports welcoming between 5 and 10 million passengers (Group 3) and airports welcoming less than 5 million passengers per year (Group 4) reported an average adjustment +3.7%, +6.3%, +7.1% and +5.5%. 

The airports which reported the highest increases in passenger traffic during 2015 (compared with 2014) are as follows: 

• GROUP 1:  Madrid-Barajas (+12.0%), Istanbul IST (+9.1%), Amsterdam (+6.0%), London LGW and Barcelona El-Prat (+5.7%) and Rome FCO (+5.0%)  
• GROUP 2:  Istanbul SAW (19.7%), Athens (+19.1%), Dublin (+15.3%), London STN (+12.8%) and Izmir (+12.1%)  
• GROUP 3:  Milan BGY (+18.6%), Gothenburg GOT (+18.1%), Berlin SXF (+16.9%), Porto (+16.7%) and Glasgow (+12.9%)  
• GROUP 4:     Ohrid (+53.3%), Ponta Delgada (+29.5%), Astrakhan (+26.1%), Santorini/Thira (+87.6%), Cluj and Timisoara (+25.8%) 

Among the airports in the Top 5, several airports will now move to a higher traffic category for 2016.