Air Bosna is tripling its fleet for its summer schedule with the lease of a Boeing MD-82 and a Fokker 50. The Bosnia-Herzegovina state airline's general manager Enes Becirevic told local press that the new aircraft, along with its existing leased Yakovlev Yak-42, will enable Air Bosna to operate 45 weekly flights this summer. It currently flies four a week with the Yak-42.
Becirevic says that destinations most likely to be operated out of Sarajevo are domestic points Banja Luka and Mostar, and eight international destinations: Amsterdam, Belgrade, Dubrovnik, Dusseldorf, Gothenburg, Istanbul, Rome and Tivat. Approval is still pending for services to Frankfurt, Pristina, Skopje and Zurich.
A twice-weekly Mostar-Dublin "scheduled charter" will also be operated. Meanwhile, a codeshare agreement has been signed with Malév on the Hungarian carrier's services between Budapest and Sarajevo.
Air Bosna is also working to return $2.8 million that the government invested in an aborted acquisition of Airbus A319s and a planned lease of second-hand ATR 72s. Next month, the majority state-owned airline is expected to begin the process for privatisation.
Source: Flight International
