Bumper year at nonexistent airport
The Minister for Transport and Infrastructure in the government of the Entity of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nedeljko Čubrilović, has announced that Trebinje Airport has recorded exceptional results in 2012, doubling its passenger numbers on the year before. However, the only problem is there is no airport in Trebinje. The gaffe made by the minister has become the talk of the town with one resident offering fake return first class tickets from Trebinje to Los Angeles on the Internet, with local food specialities and wine served on board.
Despite the bizarre statement made by Minister Čubrilović, over the past several years thousands of euros have been invested in the nonexistent airport in Trebinje. It remains unknown as to how this money has been spent. In 2008, Zoran Okilj was named as CEO of Trbinje Airport. Construction of the airport was first planned to begin in 2009. However, in 2010, Milorad Dodik, the President of Republika Srpska, said that a Chinese corporation, which has experience in building large capital projects, was interested in Trebinje Airport. “We will know more in a month or two. All necessary documentation has been sent to the company”, Mr. Dodik said at the time. The government of Republika Srpska spent 1.6 million Convertible Bosnian Marks (820.000 euros) for the Trebinje Airport project documentation.
Trebinje Airport was planned to open in 2011 with a 2.6 kilometre runway and a terminal capable of handling 260.000 passengers per year. The airport was meant to cater for low cost airlines. “Airport Consulting Vienna” carried out a feasibility study focusing on the economic viability of Trebinje Airport which is close to Dubrovnik and Tivat . The results of the study showed that Trebinje could become a major rival to the other two well established airports. The report also states that Trebinje should strive to attract low cost carriers but might not be able to turn a profit in the first few years of operation. For now, however, Trebinje Airport remains operational only in the mind of Minister Čubrilović in the hope he will shed light on 2013 passenger figures soon.
Lol! How very funny it is, except for the money being squandered on a non existent airport!
ReplyDeleteThis blog has turned into another forum.hr and sarajevo x. I feel sorry for the owner. Please disable the comments option. Please.
ReplyDeleteOMG they spent over a million euros in an airport that doesn’t exist. Corruption at its best. Welcome to the Balkans! Perhaps it would have been better if they used that money on BNX which is rotting without passengers.
ReplyDeleteDear God,as it has been said, comments for this better be blocked! This is not normal, simply too much.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is disgusting. This is a chronic problem for ALL Ex-Yu countries and I include Slovenia there as well.
ReplyDeleteThe last statement is gold :D "For now, however, Trebinje Airport remains operational only in the mind of Minister Čubrilović in the hope he will shed light on 2013 passenger figures soon." LOL
ReplyDeleteHe's not wrong. The numbers did double. I think the numbers will increase 10X this year. 10X0=0
DeleteOT....what decision has JAT made for its aircraft? Wasn't there supposed to be a decision made on Thursday regarding the aircraft? My feeling here is that this article was printed to take our minds off with what is happening with JAT.
ReplyDeleteThe meeting was postponed for today. The decisions made will be published on Monday.
DeleteYes, they decide who will pay for drinks! After long discussion.
DeleteExclusive news : JAT will open a hub in Trebinje airport with a A380 for long haul flights...
ReplyDeleteThe even better news is that Nigerian princes have already bought all the first class seats on the inaugural flight to Chicago.
Delete"2012
ReplyDeleteCroatia 7.00 Million Pax
CTN 1.95 Million Pax
Serbia 3.35 Million Pax.
Jat 0.75 Million Pax."
Why are you such a liar? I don't know how many millions of Germans flew to Croatia to dispute your 7m number but what i know for sure is that:
- OU handled 1.8 instead of 1.95 (not that important, OU is still the busiest, being the airline of a predominantly tourist country, that's fairly normal)
- BEG handled 3.37 instead or 3.35 (while you forgot to include that ZAG handled just 2.3) and (the biggest blunder)
- JU handled 1.3m instead of 0.95 as per your say.
So why you and other people from Croatia need to lie so much?
Croatia Airlines official passanger figure for 2012 is 1,951.501. Why do you have a problem with that?
DeleteJU did not reach 1 million passengers! Unless of course you were referring to those jat passengers being included from Trebinje International! LOL!
DeleteYes, it did. It handled around 1.3 million pax
Deletehttp://exyuaviation.blogspot.com/2012/12/jat-bounces-back-in-november.html
Such a shame how corrupt our governments are. BiH have already 4 airports and that itself is more than enough. No need to spend money in Trebinje for a new airport, rather money could be better spent on BNX which is barely keeping itself open, or OMO who is actually seeing growth and the improvment of facilities might actually attract more pax and airlines. SJJ could be upgraded itself as well, maybe better access roads to the city centre. Road signs to SJJ for example is almost non existant (or to what i noticed). How many more towns are they intending to build airports? Brcko? Zenica? Travnik? Bihac?
ReplyDeleteBiH has alot to offer for tourism, weekend get aways to stunning and quiet nature places, shame that money isnt better spent on this!
So how come that the main "hub" of such a mighty airline that handled 1.95 pax in 2012 barely stuggled to handle just over 2 million pax? Is it because OU has 95% market share at ZAG or simply because most of those people weren't going to Zagreb at all? Think about it.
ReplyDeleteand point is ???
DeleteWell if BEG airport has been able to grow, to handling over 3 million pax , why has JAT not been able to enjoy the growth. Instead the planes are being parked because they can't fly, and they are reducing flights. Someone for sure is filling their pockets with cash.
DeleteHis point is that ZAG really sucks, eventhough OU seems not to suck that much...
Deleteone day with EU and Adriatic-Ionian motorway and with DBV OMO TIV TGD basically serving the same area new airport in Trebinje is an insult to intelligence
ReplyDeleteMy major concern is that Star Alliance hasn't announced Trebinje as its newest hub...
ReplyDeleteSarcasm aside, a serious discussion should take place regarding the future of the airports in BiH. Assessing the current infrastructure and demand, and improving on this rather than building additional white elephant projects (look at TZL - empty!). Without turning this into a political discussion, many of the problems in BiH simply stem from excessive layers of government and lack of finances/investment.
As for all these ZAG vs BEG arguments from the last few days, grow up. Your childish behaviour and insulting remarks aren't actually contributing to the discussion (although read like a bipolar individual arguing with himself because none of you are smart enough to give yourselves a name/identity) - and provide a fascinating insight as to what people are really interested in on this forum... which doesn't seem to be discussing exYU aviation!
Between that and the 'advertisements' being uploaded onto the forum, Admin, I seriously think it's time to start registering users.
2012
ReplyDeleteMaximum number of served pax per day.
Split - 25 000
Dubrovnik - 25 000
BEG - 15 000
Jesus this still makes me laugh to this date :D
ReplyDelete