Mostar Airport “close to deal” with Air Serbia

Mostar Airport and Air Serbia are negotiating over the potential introduction of flights from Belgrade with a deal reportedly within reach. “We are working on securing Belgrade flights with a high numbers of frequencies under favourable conditions. We are close to a deal, however, it all depends on available aircraft capacity. We are quite limited by who can fly to Mostar because the airport has a lot of restrictions when it comes to take offs and landings, so we can’t negotiate with everyone”, the General Manager of Mostar Airport, Marko Djuzel, said. Air Serbia currently maintains operations to both Sarajevo and Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Earlier this year, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said, “We already fly to fifteen destinations in the ex-Yugoslavia. That’s more than any other airline. And we will continue to add frequencies to all the countries since they also provide us with passenger flow for connecting flights, especially for our long-haul operations”. Croatia Airlines is currently the only carrier operating year-round flights to Mostar, restoring its Zagreb service earlier in 2023 after more than three years. Last week, Mostar Airport launched a tender for the provision of subsidies for the upkeep of the Zagreb service, with Croatia Airlines expected to be the soul bidder.

Scheduled flights between Belgrade and Mostar were first established on March 15, 1962 by JAT Yugoslav Airlines and operated off and on throughout the coming decades. The route initially served the local population but from the 1980s onwards became popular with transfer passengers traveling for religious purposes to visit the Medjugorje site. JAT itself sold special travel packages to Mostar for pilgrims in markets including the United States, the United Kingdom to as far afield as the Philippines. As Yugoslavia started to disintegrate, services were discontinued. JAT’s last flight on the route, which was also the final commercial flight between the two cities to date, took place on November 23, 1991. During the final summer season unaffected by the Yugoslav wars, in 1990, JAT operated eight weekly flights from Belgrade to Mostar.