ROUTES WORLD IN BAHRAIN: NEW FLIGHTS TO THE BALKANS ON THE HORIZON

Airports across Europe are actively working on establishing new flights to the capitals of the former Yugoslavia as they prepare for the upcoming Routes World conference in Bahrain, where they will discuss the introduction of new routes with airlines and tourism authorities.

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The Berlin Airport has identified Sarajevo as an uncovered route with great potential. The two capitals were last connected briefly between June 2019 and January 2020, with flights operated by Germanwings. Sarajevo Airport has marked Berlin as a destination of strategic importance and hopes to secure flights to the German capital through the current tender for airline subsidies to introduce new routes, initiated by the tourist authorities of the Sarajevo Canton.

"Based on demand, there is definitely potential to expand our network by adding new destinations, especially to European cities such as Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Eindhoven, and Prague," said Alan Bajić, General Director of Sarajevo Airport, for EX-YU Aviation News earlier this month. The Berlin Brandenburg Airport, opened in 2020, has direct connections to over 180 destinations, collaborating with 86 airline partners.

The airport in Izmir, the third largest city in Turkey, has expressed hopes of establishing flights to Zagreb. Recent route expansions from Izmir have been successful in the Balkans, with new flights to cities such as Pristina, Sarajevo, Podgorica, Tirana, and Tivat. Wizz Air has also introduced a new seasonal route from Bucharest.

Both Izmir and Zagreb airports are partially or fully managed by the Turkish company TAV, further motivating the introduction of new flights. Earlier this year, Zagreb was connected with its second airport in Turkey – Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen – with flights by Pegasus Airlines, complementing Turkish Airlines flights from the main Istanbul airport, which have increased frequency this year.

The airport in Bordeaux, in southwestern France, and the Finnish capital Helsinki have shown interest in flights to Belgrade. The Serbian capital already has connections to Paris, Beauvais, Lyon, and Nice in France, and a route to Marseille was established last year. Bordeaux lacks connections to Eastern Europe and will soon be affected by Ryanair’s withdrawal, as it cancels forty routes from this French airport.

On the other hand, Air Serbia launched flights to Helsinki during the summer of 2019, but the service was suspended at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and was never resumed. Norwegian Air Shuttle, a Norwegian airline, applied for a weekly flight between the two capitals in 2021 but ultimately did not realize the route, reports Bankar.me.

Hermes Airports, the operator of airports in Larnaca and Paphos in Cyprus, has announced plans to target flights to Ljubljana, focusing on closing existing gaps in connectivity with European capitals. Marija Kouroupi, Director of Aviation Development, Marketing, and Communications at Hermes Airports, highlighted Ljubljana as a strategic goal. Slovenia last had flights to Cyprus in 2007 when Adria Airways conducted a total of seven return flights to Larnaca in July and August of that year with its Airbus A320 aircraft.

The airport in Lyon, located in France’s second-largest city and covering the country’s second-largest catchment area with eight million inhabitants, is seeking flights to Skopje or Pristina. Lyon Airport is part of a joint venture with the Turkish company Limak, which operates the airport in Pristina. Wizz Air is expanding its operations from Lyon, introducing flights to Sofia and Cluj this winter. The airport serves as a base for easyJet and Transavia France.

Among the airports and airlines from the former Yugoslavia, several will participate in the upcoming Routes World conference. These include Air Serbia, Croatia Airlines, and ETF Airways, as well as airports in Belgrade, Dubrovnik, Ohrid, Podgorica, Skopje, Tivat, Zadar, and Zagreb.