FlyBosnia to restart operations with three jets
FlyBosnia will restore flights with the lease of three aircraft. The company’s owner, the Al Shiddi Group, confirmed the carrier had signed contracts for three Airbus A320 jets with the capacity to seat 180 passengers. The first of the aircraft is expected to arrive as early as this month, while the remaining two are due in April of next year. They have been contracted from lessor GE Telesis. One of the three jets, registered N419UA, is 26 years old and had previously operated for United Airlines. The airline has been without an aircraft since retiring its sole A319 this summer and laying off most of its flight staff. During the peak summer months, it wet-leased both equipment and crew from Lithuania in order to operate leisure flights from Sarajevo to Turkey.
FlyBosnia has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with its main markets closing down early on. The airline, which specialised in carrying tourists from Saudi Arabia to Bosnia and Herzegovina, was forced to suspend all operations to the Kingdom, which is not expected to allow scheduled international flights to resume until at least January 1, 2021. Similarly, Italy is still enforcing a ban on flights from Bosnia and Herzegovina due to the coronavirus pandemic. During the first wave of the virus in Europe, the airline operated a number of charters from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Slovenia to China, transporting medical supplies and equipment.
However, FlyBosnia was struggling even before the pandemic, with light loads on its European flights and issues with Sarajevo Airport. This culminated last week when Sarajevo Airport announced it would no longer handle FlyBosnia’s aircraft and terminated its contract with the company due to unpaid debt. The airport noted the airline was given sixty days from mid-September to settle its dues, but the airline made no payments despite negotiating a repayment plan. “Since FlyBosnia did not settle its debts within the sixty-day timeframe and did not accept our proposed repayment plan, the handling contract between Sarajevo Airport and FlyBosnia has been terminated since November 17, 2020”, the airport said. It added it would pursue legal action for the unpaid debt.
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.
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