Thursday, February 26, 2015
The Federation government of Bosnia and Herzegovina has until tomorrow, Friday, February 27, to deposit just over 510.000 euros to the asset company HETA, from which B&H Airlines is financially leasing its fleet of two ATR 72 aircraft. The airline has outstanding debt of 8.1 million euros towards HETA. The asset company, which has frozen B&H’s accounts, has given the government until tomorrow to make a deposit in order to start talks on reprogramming B&H’s debt. However, the Federation government failed to discuss the issue at yesterday’s weekly meeting in Mostar. B&H’s ten-year financial lease of the two turboprops expires this May. Under the current circumstances, HETA and the other leasing party, the Hypo Alpe Adria Bank, are unlikely to extend the arrangement. One of B&H’s ATR 72 aircraft is currently grounded in Germany, where it underwent maintenance, but is unable to return to Sarajevo due to money owed to the maintenance company. The operating ATR is scheduled to undergo maintenance checks in late March, which could ground the airline if the other aircraft does not return to Sarajevo beforehand. The airline has already temporarily suspended flights to Belgrade and has been cancelling its services to Copenhagen, while flights to Zurich are still being maintained.
Who would say that a fleet of 2 Atr's could be something so complicated...
ReplyDeleteBH should have done the same as Montenegro is doing now with Etihad/Air Serbia deal.
ReplyDeleteI am all for strong Serbian carrier. But to be honest I wouldn't feel easy if Etihad through AirSERBIA got into most of the Balkans airlines.
DeleteAny monopoly is bad.
Even if you are Serbian, that should worry you as they won't give us a 50% discount if you show your Serbian passport.
I would rather have strong carrier competing with other airlines, small and large.
Just my thinking.
Cute thinking if you are running a charity, but airline business is a dog eat dog environment. It wouldn't be a monopoly just dominant player with other options available. It's too late now for dealmaking.
DeleteIts a thinking of a consumer... a user of their services.
DeleteI am not talking from a position of running these companies...like some people here do constantly.
99.99% of us here on this blog are just flying with them and yet lots of people are imagining they are big CEOs of the airline industry.
Anyway, I used word monopoly loosely, you know what I mean.
As soon as domination is properly established, prices will go up. Which private company wouldn't use that position to make more money? Its in their DNA to squeeze out everyone else.
And than all of 99.99% of us here will be crying that we can't afford to fly anywhere.
That's what I am scared of.
I don't see consumers complain in places with 100% monopoly like Tuzla and soon Nis. Even if Air Serbia and Montenegro "merge", prices will have to stay low enough to fill the planes. If you are worried BEG-TIV tickets would rise to 500EUR, then almost no one would fly, so it will not happen.
DeleteHahahaha, yes, monopoly in Nis or Tuzla is exactly the same as monopoly over the whole region.
DeleteNis and Tuzla are happy to get any flight, so of course they won't complain.
But thats not what I am talking about. What I am talking about is one carrier that will dominate the whole region, not one or two cities.
No, price to Tivat won't be 500EUR but it will be as high as they possibly push it.
Do you honestly think that any company wouldn't use their position to make profit?? Do you think they would make sure that you or I can afford it or they will do anything to make sure they earn as much as they can. Be honest.
I am not saying that is legitimate. Its not. Every business entity strives to become bigger and more profitable, but that can sometimes go against consumers. Thats what I am talking about.
And just to clarify, I am not saying that Etihad will ever manage to establish proper monopoly over Balkans. They won't. But they could manage to enter quite a few small to medium airlines and affect how much we pay for our flight on routes where there is no competition.