✈Bosnia visa-free entry for citizens of Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia

The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina has formally approved visa-free entry for citizens of Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia for the upcoming summer season. This temporary measure is intended to simplify travel arrangements and encourage visitors to experience Bosnia and Herzegovina during its peak tourism period.

Key Details of the Decision:

Validity Period: June 1 to September 30, 2026.

Permitted Stay: Up to 30 days

Objective: To promote tourism and strengthen bilateral relations between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the participating countries.

The introduction of visa-free travel is also expected to benefit the aviation sector, with several airlines planning or already scheduling flights from these markets to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Scheduled flights from : Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia

In the past, Gulf Air operated scheduled charter flights between Bahrain and Sarajevo. These flights, running once or twice weekly, were arranged on behalf of tour operators in Bahrain offering vacation packages to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Source: Zahid Krkić

✈Gulf Air to resume Bahrain-Sarajevo flights

Gulf Air has scheduled its return to Sarajevo this summer with regular charter flights. Bahrain’s national flag carrier will connect Manama and Sarajevo once weekly from June 8^th to August 24^th. All flights are booked in advance by tourist agencies from Bahrain, offering one week vacations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bahrain (BAH) – Sarajevo (SJJ)

Route	Flight number	Flight times	Operating days	Valid from-to
BAH-SJJ	GF 7735	10:00-15:20	-----6-	08.06.-24.08.
SJJ-BAH	GF 7736	16:20-21:00	-----6-	08.06.-24.08.

---

Source: Zahid Krkić

✈Sarajevo Airport schedule for December 2021

Next month Sarajevo International Airport is expecting to reach passenger numbers of pre-pandemic traffic of December 2019. Total of 13 airlines will serve the airport with 29 routes across Europe,  Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates.

Wizz Air will station second Airbus 320 at the airport, introducing seven new routes from Bosnian capital to: Billund, Cologne, Frankfurt-Hahn, Hamburg, Malmo, Oslo-Sandefjord and Venice-Treviso. With the fleet of two Airbus 320 aircraft based at the airport, Wizz Air will position itself as Sarajevo Airport busiest airline, offering  46.620 seats on 254 flights to seventeen destinations during December.

Also, next month Flydubai will be boosting its flight offerings from Dubai to 58 flights with 10.092 seats on sale. Swiss International Airlines will increase its service from Zurich from 16 flights in November to 26 in December, boosting its seats offering to 3.250 seats.

The city with the most frequencies out of Sarajevo is Istanbul with 20 weekly flights, followed by Vienna with 13 weekly flights. Countries with largest number of seat offers from Sarajevo are Turkey, Germany, United Arab Emirates, Austria and Sweden.

With Flynas, Gulf Air and Swiss International Airlines extending its flight operating during winter months Sarajevo Airport  is on the right track to reach 2019 numbers next year, when airport handled record number of 1.143.680 passengers. According to  Eurocontrol projections, majority of European airports are expected to reach pre-pandemic (2019) numbers in the year 2025, while Sarajevo Airport will reach 2019. numbers in upcoming year 2022.

During the month of December, the airlines operating at Sarajevo Airport have scheduled 858 flights, with 127.546 seats on sale. The airport is expecting to handle 75.000 passengers in December.

Source: Flying Bosnian

✈Gulf Air to operate Sarajevo flights during winter

Gulf Air will reintroduce two weekly flights from Bahrain International Airport (Manama) to Sarajevo on December 15, 2021. The flights are scheduled as regular charters and will operate on Wednesdays and Saturdays with Airbus 320neo aircraft. The airline initially started Sarajevo flights in June of this year, as summer seasonal, but due to increased demand for tourist visits from Bahrain to Bosnia, Gulf Air will now operate flights as year-round.

Last week Flynas has decided to upgrade its Sarajevo service to year-round from both Riyadh and Jeddah. During spring and summer months Bosnia and Herzegovina is very popular tourist destination from countries in the Gulf region, but due to opening of many new hotels and resorts, and promotion of the country as  year-round destination,  the airlines are seeing very strong demands and upgrading seasonal flights to year-round. With the introduction of extra flights from Gulf countries, Sarajevo Airport will start reaching  pre-pandemic passenger numbers in December.

This winter season Sarajevo will be connected with following destinations in Gulf region:

• Abu Dhabi – Wizz Air 2x weekly
• Dubai – Flydubai 4x weekly (two daily 24.12.21.-08.01.22.)
• Flynas – Jeddah 2x weekly
• Flynas – Riyadh 3x weekly
• Gulf Air – Manama 2x weekly

For upcoming summers season 2022. Air Arabia has already scheduled Sharjah-Sarajevo flights resumption three months earlier than usual. The service is scheduled to resume on March 30, 2022. with three weekly flights, increasing to daily from July.

Source: Flying Bosnian

✈ Gulf carriers extending Sarajevo flights!

✈ Gulf Air inaugurated flights from Manama to Sarajevo

Gulf Air inaugurated regular charter flights from Bahrain International Airport (Manama) to Sarajevo with Airbus 320neo aircraft. Flights are scheduled to operate two times a week (Wednesdays and Saturdays) until the end of October.

Source: Sarajevo Airport and Flying Bosnian

✈Sarajevo Airport see strong summer bookings

• The airlines are responding to strong demand for Sarajevo travel, by increasing flights and capacity. Just today we published one new route from Gulf region to Sarajevo, Gulf Air’s new two weekly service from Bahrain to Sarajevo.

✈Gulf Air to launch Bahrain-Sarajevo flights

Gulf Air will launch two weekly Manama-Sarajevo flights from June 26, 2021. Flights are scheduled to operate as regular charter flights until the end of October. Flights will operate with Airbus 320neo aircraft.

Source: Flying Bosnian

✈ Strong demand for air travel from Gulf countries to Sarajevo!

All airlines flying from Gulf countries to Sarajevo are recording extraordinarily strong demand for air travel to Sarajevo. At the beginning of the year the airlines were selling limited number of flights, but with the vaccines roll out and Covid cases under control in Bosnia, tourists from Gulf countries are returning in big numbers. Strong demand for vacationing in Bosnia has created many new flights between Gulf countries and Sarajevo.

From June 1^st FlyBosnia will fly two daily flights between Sarajevo and Riyadh. Flynas will maintain daily flights between two cities as well. During summer season Riyadh will have three daily flights from Sarajevo, making it most frequent route out of Sarajevo. Gulf destinations will definitely lead Sarajevo Airport to recovery from Covid-19 pandemic.

Two more airlines from Kuwait have applied for permit to operate flights from Kuwait City to Sarajevo, Kuwait Airways plans to introduce two weekly Kuwait–Sarajevo flights on June 07^th. Also, Jazeera Airways plans to launch Kuwait–Sarajevo flights on June 07^th with two weekly flights. Both airlines are waiting for approval from Kuwait Civil Aviation Authority for flight introduction. All Kuwait-Sarajevo flights are sold by the travel agencies with advanced bookings, even with approval coming late, the flights are already pre-booked.

Qatar Airways has postponed Sarajevo flight resumption until October, but this is a major mistake by the airline, since every single airline flying from that region is having remarkably successful summer.

The Gulf region-Sarajevo market is huge with solid growth year after year. The market has matured enough for Emirates to start its own flights, with two daily flights from Dubai in summer and at least 3 weekly flights during winter months.

Saudia Airlines is another strong contender for introduction of daily Sarajevo flights from Riyadh from March to October and 3 weekly flights during winter. Flights from Jeddah and Dammam could work as well.

In the future we will definitely see following airlines launching flights to Sarajevo: Gulf Air from Bahrain, Oman Air from Muscat, and Wizz Air from Abu Dhabi.

Source: Flying Bosnian