B&H Airlines d.o.o. was the flag carrier of Bosnia and Herzegovina with its headquarters in Sarajevo. It operated scheduled and charter passenger services as well as small parcels services from its base at Sarajevo International Airport. It ceased operations in June 2015. The air carrier had not an easy life because of the nation political situation. Flight operations were started two years later, on August 15, 1996, with ad hoc leased aircraft. Schedules were launched on February 19 of the following year and stabilized after the Paris political agreements in December.

In the month of September 2003, the airline ceased operations due to inability to repay its debt. It remained idle until May 2004, when the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina promised to revive it. In June 2005, it restarted operations operating a pair of leased ATR-72s aircraft. Schedules were restarted one month later.

Exactly a year later the corporate name was changed to B&H Airlines. In late 2007, the Bosnian government announced it was to sell shares in B&H Airlines. and on 30 March 2008, Croatia Airlines was also interested in a stake. The government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina also invited Comintel and MyAir (in addition to Turkish Airlines and Croatia Airlines) to recapitalise the airline.

Bids were received from Turkish Airlines, Malaysia's Comintel Corporation and a Jordanian consortium, which included Royal Jordanian. On 29 October 2008, the Bosnian government announced that Turkish Airlines had been picked as the best bidder in an auction for B&H Airlines shares. Turkish Airlines proposed to sub-lease B&H Airlines two Boeing aircraft, if requested by the airline, and in return for 49% of the shares of the company, covered the lease payments of the Boeing aircraft and participated in capital increase decisions. following which the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina gave the airline a cash injection of €3.5 million.

Developments since 2012

As of mid-2012, the airline was jointly owned by the government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (99.93%) and Energoinvest (0.07%), after the government's purchase of a former joint stake by Turkish Airlines (49%). B&H Airlines owed the airport of Sarajevo over 3,5 million Euros and the lessor of their aircraft over 7,5 million Euros. The total debt was over 17 million US-Dollars at the time of closure.

The airline flew its last commercial service on 11 June 2015. The company's Air operator's certificate was revoked on 2 July 2015.

Destinations

, B&H Airlines operated scheduled flights to the following destinations:

;Bosnia and Herzegowina

  • Sarajevo - Sarajevo International Airport base
  • Banja Luka - Banja Luka International Airport

;Switzerland

  • Zürich - Zürich Airport

Fleet

thumb|[[Airbus A320 family|Airbus A319-100]]

thumb|[[ATR 72-200]]

Previously, B&H Airlines operated the following aircraft:

  • Airbus A319-100
  • ATR 72-200
  • Boeing 737-200
  • Boeing 737-400
  • CASA C-212 Aviocar
  • Fokker 50
  • McDonnell Douglas MD-80
  • Yakovlev Yak-42

Statistics

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto;"

|+ Passenger numbers

|-

! 2005 !! 2006 !! 2007 !! 2008 !! 2009 !! 2010 !! 2011 !! 2012!!2013!!2014!!2015 Q1

|-

| 24,906 || 59,792 || 68,222 || 61,904 || 87,158 || 138,241 || 129,435 || 59,697 || 31,705 || 35,606 || 3,604

|-

| || 140.1% || 14.1% || 9.2% || 40.8% || 58.6% || 6.7% || 53.6% || 46.9%|| 12.3% || 42.3%

|}

See also

  • Sarajevo International Airport
  • Banja Luka International Airport
  • List of airports in Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Turkish Airlines

References

  • Official website (archive)