B&H farewells Frankfurt and Vienna
B&H Airlines has issued a press release saying it will suspend services to Vienna and Frankfurt, leaving the national carrier with only 6 routes. The news comes after this blog reported the airline is gearing up to sell one of its ATRs, which will be made possible with the suspension of these routes. B&H Airlines says that the two services were no longer profitable as both were reporting dwindling passenger figures. Prior to the 2011 summer season, EX-YU aviation news was told by officials from the airline that Vienna would get another chance to prove itself. However, B&H Airlines failed to attract any significant passenger numbers on the route since then.Services to Vienna have been suspended as of immediately while the final service between Sarajevo and Frankfurt will be operated on May 23. All passengers that have booked tickets on these flights will be refunded or, if they wish, transferred onto other flights.
Austrian Airlines now becomes the sole carrier offering flights from Sarajevo to Vienna. Passengers to Frankfurt will have to make a stopover if they wish to travel from Sarajevo as there are no longer nonstop flights between the two cities.
One would think Frankfurt and Vienna would have huge potentials, especially in terms of business, no? This looks dire for the company but more so for the country. Does B&H not have anything to offer?
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling we are seeing another MAT
ReplyDeleteHey I never saw this coming at all, well I think it's safe to say most carriers could make Frankfurt and Vienna work in terms of pax demand etc. Although taking into consideration their fleet shortages one could say it is just a measure taken to ensure possible expansion in a later period pending delivery of say another one or two Airbus A319 frames.
ReplyDeleteAdria will replace probably just the profitable and by public money suported flights and after a certain period Turkish will buy Adria. ;)
ReplyDeleteIt is obviously that they want to take company to bankrupt. Frankfurt and Vienna are profitable routes for every airline company in Europe. Disgusting! Everybody who thinks that Sarajevo-Frankfurt with ATR cant be profitable need a doctor!
ReplyDeleteBoth JA services - VIE and FRA are point-to-point services only and not OS/LH feeder flights. That's the main reason for their failure.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, OS already operates two convenient daily flights to VIE from SJJ.
no surprise
ReplyDeletepeople travel vienna-bih by bus
As JA management is not able to understand simple concepts as code share agreements and scheduling it is not surprising that FRA & VIE are not profitable.
ReplyDeleteThus JA becomes carrier that is only suitable for budget turists and diaspora travelers. As they are targeting budget travelers VIE route is additionally hit by poor communication inside Bosnia and by relative closeness of Vienna.
I would like to know what is JAT results from 1991 to 2011 or (1990-2010). I know we had sanctions but I am interested to know how many passengers went true JAT for the last 20 years. Approximately 12-13 mil more or less. What is your guess???
ReplyDeleteFinally the Turks will be in charge so there still might be hope for JA
ReplyDeletehttp://ekapija.ba/website/bih/page/432126
This is because the airline is un heard of, there is no media investment, half the people in RS and Fbih dont even know that BH airlines exists.
ReplyDeleteHey people whats going on with bosnian aviation industry?!?
ReplyDeleteEvery single country of the ex-yu experienced huge pax and network growth after the visa liberalisation and BiH experinces a downward shift..
I am really confused.SJJ has almost no growth, BiH Airlines suspends such strategic destinations like VIE and FRA.After all there is so huge diaspora in Austria and Germany, how cant they manage to fill 60 seats on such flights..Half of Vienna is Bosnian, you hear bosnian everywhere.Besides the competition from OS on SJJ-VIE shuld not be taken seriously.OS charges 380Euros for point-to-point flights.For example on VIE-SKP leg you see transit pax from all over the world except from VIE cause flying JP or OU instead of OS costs the half price..To me looks like the MAT situation 6 months before grounding.
In my opinion, this has not much to do with the return of 1 ATR-72.
ReplyDeleteBecause the ATR that stays will now only operate ZRH. It could perfectly operate FRA and VIE every other day, which would still mean only 2 rotations a day.
Occassionaly it could take over an AMS or IST flight, when the 319 is on C or D checks..
Just my 2cts
Pozz,
Bo
I do not think that the Atr has the range to do Sarajevo to Amsterdam. I remember I flew on Jat's Atr from Belgrade to Munich and that was already three hours. It was NOT funny!
ReplyDeleteSo besides Zurich, where else does this Atr fly to? Why don't they add something decent not so far away from Sarajevo like Milano or Rome? I am sure that there is enough demand to fly a three times per week Atr, not to mention that they could attract tourists.
Again, this is the *wrong* move for the airline, and highlights how not allowing airline professionals in to run the business has caused this sudden demise.
ReplyDeleteJA has to ask itself some tough questions, the first being what it sees its future as. Flying daily to IST isn't a career path for the airline, but it seems many running the show still don't quite grasp that fundamental point...
The airline needs to work out what can be achieved with its current planes, and the contingency plan when one cannot fly. But I don't believe they are even looking that far ahead - it is suddenly now day to day existence. And has any help been provided by parent TK?
Will we see the 'big 3' (OU, JU, JP) step up to better serve SJJ? OU has already increased its capacity (2 daily 42-seat AT4s to 2 daily 76-seat Q400s) and serves those destinations lost with good connections, JU needs to get its AT7s back to double daily to match OU, and JP could even look at doing another PRN and basing a plane at SJJ if it results in profitability.
JAs future and BNXs future are incredibly linked: if the two cannot work together, then unfortunately both will collapse. BNX needs to allow the JA feeder service, JA needs those pax to keep flying. Perhaps now that the airline is no longer owned by the FBiH govt this situation could work better?