✈ Sarajevo Airport records over 1,8 million passengers in 2024

During last year Sarajevo Airport handled 1.821.762 passengers, representing an increase of 34%.The airport recorded 16.836 aircraft operations, representing an increase of 21%. Last year the airport handled 3.165 tons of cargo, representing an increase of  14%.

Last year Sarajevo Airport marked the arrival of Ryanair with six new routes, Scandinavian Airlines from Copenhagen, Aegean Airlines from Athens, SunExpress Airlines from Antalya and Izmir. Compared to the year before Sarajevo Airport added an additional 459.755 passengers. With announcement of new routes by Ryanair and increased frequencies by Eurowings, Lufthansa LOT Polish Airlines, Swiss Air Lines, Sarajevo Airport will break another record this year by handling over two million passengers.

Source: Zahid Krkić and Sarajevo Airport

✈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

✈ Swiss International Air Lines upgrade Zurich-Sarajevo service

Due to very successful summer season Swiss International Air Lines has upgraded its summer seasonal service between Zurich and Sarajevo to year-round operations. The airline initially scheduled two weekly flights at the beginning of summer season, increasing it to five flights per week at the peak summer season during the months of July and August.

✈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.

✈ Swiss to resume Zurich-Sarajevo flights

 

Swiss International Air Lines is resuming Zurich-Sarajevo flights from July 02. Flights are scheduled to operate twice weekly (Friday and Sunday) until the end of August. Flights are scheduled to operate with Airbus 220 aircraft. After Wizz Air has announced Sarajevo base, Lufthansa group has decided to step up its Sarajevo operations with launching flights from Frankfurt and reintroducing flights from Zurich. In upcoming summer season Lufthansa Group will operate flights from Sarajevo to Cologne, Frankfurt, Vienna and Zurich.

Source: Flying Bosnian

✈Sarajevo – Zurich route analysis

Indirect passengers are just one measurement of unmet demand and potential opportunities.  Yet it can be extremely helpful for future route development. Zurich- Sarajevo is the route with undoubted possibility, but due to high cost of airport taxes and aircraft handling fees at both Zurich and Sarajevo airports, this route is still served indirectly, mostly via Star Alliance and its hub airports in Munich and Vienna.

Indirect traffic between Sarajevo and Zurich in 2017 was 8.000 one-way passengers, in 2018 was 9.000 passengers and 10.000 in 2019. In the past this route was operated by Cross Air, Air Bosna, BH Airlines and Swiss Air. There is big opportunity for this route to be established again, with mix of VFR, business, and transfer passengers this route should be operated at least five times weekly (Monday-Friday) increasing to daily.

Swiss International Air Lines operated this route for short period of time but due to low frequency (only two weekly flights), the schedule that was not timed for connections onto Swiss network to North America and Asia and not having proper marketing campaign, the flights were discontinued after only one season. Even though Swiss International Air Lines in its fleet has a perfect aircraft for this route, an Airbus 220, unfortunately the airline gave up on this route for “more lucrative “ routes in wester Europe. With the pandemic getting under control the airlines will be looking for new (old) markets with high possibility of Swiss International Air Lines returning to Sarajevo again.

Source: Flying Bosnian

✈Lufthansa marks 20th anniversary of Sarajevo flights

Water salute to LH A320 celebrating 20 years of Munich-Sarajevo service 

German national airline and the largest airline in Europe Lufthansa has marked the 20th anniversary of its regular, direct flights Munich-Sarajevo-Munich. The event was marked at the Sarajevo International Airport on Thursday in presence of German Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Christiane Hohmann.

German Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Christiane Hohmann

General manager of Sarajevo International Airport Armin Kajmakovic stated on this occasion that Lufthansa was one of the first airline companies that started scheduled operations from Sarajevo after the end of the war, which significantly contributed to Sarajevo's connecting with Europe and the rest of the world, normalizing life in Bosnian capital and strengthening the economic image of the country.

Lufthansa crew with German ambassador and Sarajevo Airport general manager 

He also said that more than 10 million passengers have passed through the Sarajevo Airport since arrival of Lufthansa and that significant growth was recorder in 2017. "This year we expect our millionth passenger in one year", he added.

General manager of Sarajevo Airport Armin Kajmakovic

Ambassador Hohmann emphasized she was honored and privileged to attend the anniversary of Munich-Sarajevo-Munich line and of Lufthansa-Sarajevo Airport cooperation.German companies have invested 350 million Euros in Bosnia and Herzegovina over the past 20 years and they intend to stay here and strengthen business cooperation, she stressed, adding that Bosnia and Herzegovina export to Germany is recording solid increases year after year.

Lufthansa group operate following flights to/from Sarajevo

(Lufthansa Group) Airlines	Destination	Number of weekly flights (one way)	Number of weekly seats   (round-trip)
Austrian Airlines	Vienna	14	4.284
Eurowings	Cologne	3	864
Eurowings	Stuttgart	2	576
Lufthansa	Munich	7	2.352
Swiss Air Lines	Zurich	3	600
4 airlines	5 destinations	29 weekly flights	8.676

Source: Flying Bosnian and Sarajevo Airport

✈ Lufthansa performance at Sarajevo International Airport in 2015.

Lufthansa and its daughter companies (Austrian Airlines, Germanwings and Swiss Int. Airlines) are holding big market share at Sarajevo International Airport and dominating in transfer passengers to North America via Munich, Vienna and Zurich. Lufthansa is offering one daily flight to Munich, while Germanwings is connecting Sarajevo with Cologne with three weekly flights and one weekly to Stuttgart. Austrian Airlines is offering two daily flights from Vienna, and latest addition is Swiss with three weekly flights to Zurich. During summer Lufthansa is operating flights with Airbus 319/320/321 aircraft depending on demand, offering connections from its hub in Munich to Lufthansa’s worldwide network. During Winter timetable flights are operated by Lufthansa City Line with Embraer 190 aircraft.

✈Bigger airplanes are daily sight at Sarajevo International Airport

Swiss Airbus 320 HB-IJF on todays flight Zurich-Sarajevo

Don’t be surprised if you see Turkish Airlines wide body aircraft operating flights between Istanbul and Sarajevo this summer. With beginning of summer schedule Sarajevo International Airport is seeing increase in usage of larger aircraft serving the airport. Turkish Airlines is sending Airbus 321 almost daily on one of its three daily flights from Istanbul. On some days all three flights are operated with Airbus 321 (largest narrow body aircraft in airlines fleet with seating capacity up to 194 passengers). Austrian Airlines is another airline using larger aircraft this summer. In the past years most of the flights were operated once daily with Airbus 319 and once daily with Fokker 100. As of beginning of summer timetable Austrian Airlines is operating twice daily flights from Vienna with Airbus 320 featuring 168 seats and on some days Airbus 321 with 200 seats. Lufthansa is using Airbus 320 on its flights from Munich and some days Airbus 321. Today’s flight from Zurich with Swiss International Airlines was operated with Airbus 320 which has almost double the capacity of the scheduled Avro RJ. This summer Air Serbia is using ATR-72 with 66 seats instead of much larger Airbus 319. Last summer season Air Serbia was operating mix of ATR-72, Boeing 737-300 and Airbus 319 on flights from Belgrade. Main reason for Air Serbia not using larger aircraft is shortage in fleet during busy summer season for the airline. Pegasus, Norwegian and Flydubai all fly to Sarajevo with Boeing 737-800 with 189 seats. Germanwings is using Airbus 319 with 144 seats and as of this year for the first time on some days Germanwings is using Airbus 320 on flights to Stuttgart and Cologne. With usage of larger aircraft Sarajevo International Airport is well on the way to reach 800.000 passengers this year.

Source: FlyingBosnian

✈Sarajevo airport continues strong growth in April

Last month Sarajevo airport has recorded 63.064 passengers going through its doors marking it the best April on the record. Growth is fueled by arrival of Swiss Air Lines with one weekly flight to Geneva, Norwegian Air one weekly flight to Oslo, and with great loads on Turkish Airlines flights to Istanbul. Turkish Airlines is using Airbus 321 with capacity of 180 seats almost daily on flights from Istanbul, on some days 3 daily flights are all operated with Airbus 321.

	2014	2015	Change %	+/-
January	36.114	43.700	+21,00%	+7.586
February	35.435	39.908	+12,62%	+4.473
March	45.789	50.273	+9,79%	+4.484
April	56.611	63.064	+11,39%	+6.453
Total	173.949	196.945	+13,21%	+22.996

Source: FlyingBosnian and Sarajevo International Airport

✈Swiss International Air Lines launched two weekly flights from Geneva to Sarajevo

Swiss International Airlines first flight from Geneva has landed today at Sarajevo International Airport connecting two cities for the first time. Swiss will start flights from Zurich to Sarajevo next month with three weekly flights, bringing total number of flights between Switzerland and Bosnia and Herzegovina to five weekly. Both flights are scheduled as year around. Flights to Zurich will gradually increase to daily.

Flight LX1406 GVA-SJJ
Flight LX1407 SJJ-GVA

Swiss Avro RJ-100 at Sarajevo Int. Airport 04/04/15. 
photos by Sarajevo International Airport