FlyBosnia retires sole aircraft, puts charters in focus

FlyBosnia is retiring its only aircraft, an Airbus A319 jet registered E7-FBA, and will put a greater focus on lucrative charter services in the coming months. According to the “Klix” portal, the A319 aircraft, which is seventeen years old, will be scrapped. It has been parked at Sarajevo Airport since June. The airline has instead resorted to wet-leasing equipment with crew. It is currently utilising an A320 jet from Lithuania’s GetJet Airlines, which is operating almost daily charters between Sarajevo and Antalya. The move has also enabled FlyBosnia to lay off some twenty of its employees, as it too deals with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

FlyBosnia recently concluded an agreement with one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s leading tour operators, Fibula Air Travel, to run charter services on behalf of the company. The carrier will be focusing on leisure flights until the 2021 summer season. Apart from serving Antalya over the past month, the airline has also operated repatriation services to Saudi Arabia, with the Kingdom still closed for scheduled traffic. It also plans two roundtrips to Kuwait City, next Saturday and on September 12. Even prior to the pandemic, FlyBosnia planned on putting a greater focus on charter services, many of which were to operate to and from Italy, Egypt and Tunisia, in addition to Turkey.

FlyBosnia recently named a new CEO, with Haris Čoloman now leading the company. Mr Čoloman had previously worked at FlyBosnia as an Executive Director but left the company in September of last year. He has also been involved with Bosnia Wand Airlines and Sky Bosnia and has some twenty years of experience in various roles. FlyBosnia has been set up by Saudi Arabia's Al Shiddi Group, which was founded in 1975 with interests in various fields, including construction, real estate, agriculture and tourism. The Saudi conglomerate has been operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2006.

EX-YU Aviation News

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