Strong start for Ryanair's Banja Luka operations
Ryanair has recorded solid passenger numbers across its three new routes to and from Banja Luka, which were launched last month. The carrier registered an average cabin load factor of 94% on its services from Charleroi, Memmigen and Stockholm Skavsta to Bosnia and Herzegovina's second largest city, with flights from the Swedish capital proving most popular with travellers. Since entering the Bosnian market on October 30, the no frills airline has sold an additional 8.225 tickets for the three routes. "If these trends continue, we will end 2018 with a total of over 25.000 passengers, while we anticipate over 100.000 travellers in 2019", Banja Luka Airport's General Manager, Duško Kovačević, said.
Ryanair recently noted, "Even though we do not analyse our performance purely on a route-by-route basis, we are very pleased with the overall interest and a record number of advanced bookings". A number of Banja Luka-bound flights around the New Year holidays are sold out. During the January - October period, Banja Luka Airport welcomed 19.643 travellers through its doors, up 4.8% on the same period in 2017. This year is expected to become its busiest since 2014, while 2019 is likely to be its busiest on record.
Mr Kovačević noted that talks with Ryanair over the launch of additional new routes are ongoing. He added that the airport is targeting flights to either Vienna or Bratislava. "We have made some suggestions and the result of these discussions should be known around the New Year", Mr Kovačević said. In addition to Ryanair, Air Serbia's dedicated charter brand Aviolet and tour operator KonTiki Travel will introduce new charter flights between Banja Luka and Athens next summer season. Services will run between June 20 and September 8, 2019. It comes following the successful partnership between the two companies this year, which saw Aviolet run leisure flights between Banja Luka and Antalya in Turkey, which are set to resume next summer season. Mr Kovačević previously noted that the airport was in talks with a further two well-established carriers over the introduction of new routes but refused to reveal their names as the negotiating process was ongoing.
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