FlyBosnia plans 100% growth per year
FlyBosnia anticipates recording annual passenger growth of 100% for the next three years but warns the lack of support from the government and other stakeholders is hindering its development. The carrier’s CEO, Tarik Bilalbegović, said recently, “We will have annual growth of 100% for the next three years. I see us handling up to half a million passengers per year within the next three years. We feel very good. Progress is there and the trajectory is very steady. We already have endless charter requests for the high season. However, we need a partner airline because with three aircraft we can’t serve every segment”. FlyBosnia, which is currently operating a single Airbus A319 in its fleet, plans to add another two aircraft of the same type in April.
The hybrid carrier notes it has no government support and little understanding from the authorities. “Bosnia is still a developing country. Despite its beauty, the government’s attitude is stuck in the 1990s. We are actually doing everything on our own and that is really difficult. Unfortunately, we have problems that other airlines don’t have to focus on”, Mr Bilalbegović said. He added, “As an airline, we need the support of the government and that is something we are really struggling with. For example, after we carried 40.000 passengers to Sarajevo within three months, the head of Sarajevo Airport said to us, ‘That’s great but because of you I had to hire four more customs officers’. So, there is a disconnect to what we bring and what the airport should do to support us. Every other airport we go to, such as Luton, Fiumicino etc. are very welcoming to us. So that mindset must change”. Furthermore, he said, “The biggest challenge I have is management and people. We are operating in a market where there were two former state-owned airlines and they collapsed. Therefore, I make an effort not to hire anyone from state-owned airlines”.
Commenting on upcoming new routes, FlyBosnia’s CEO noted the carrier will soon introduce flights between Tuzla and London following the introduction of services between Mostar and Rome last month. “We have a fundamental problem or challenge when introducing a whole new destination. I don’t have a database that I can look into and compare load factors from other airlines. We are starting from scratch. As a result, our growth is enormous, but the challenges are huge as well”, Mr Bilalbegović said. “We tried to examine certain routes and destinations and we looked at what other airlines are doing that are flying to Bosnia, such as Wizz Air and Ryanair. We cannot compete with them. Obviously, it is a matter of economies of scale. For us, 90% of our travellers are foreigners and tourists. We recently signed a charter contract for up to thirty flights to Bahrain. Same thing with Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon… Next summer we will bring passengers from Paris and London to Sarajevo and then connect them to our GCC [Gulf] destinations. It’s a niche market that we think can work. We are not going to do anything exotic, because we can’t afford it. We will try to keep it simple”, he noted. FlyBosnia previously said it plans to launch services from Sarajevo to Paris and Barcelona next summer.
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