What Happened To B&H Airlines

The carrier was operational for around two decades, albeit with a short hiatus midway through.

The country of Bosnia and Herzegovina is presently without a flag carrier, and, in fact, is now home to just two registered airlines. Nonetheless, it did previously have a national carrier in the form of B&H Airlines. Initially known as Air Bosna, this operator served the country as recently as 2015. Let's take a look back at its history.

First period of operations

When B&H Airlines initially came into existence, it didn't do so under this name. Instead, it was formed as Air Bosna, with this foundation taking place in August 1994. Headquartered in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this city was also home to the carrier's primary operating base: Sarajevo International.

The airline was active in this form until the fall of 2003, and exact details about the nature of its fleet during this period are tricky to pin down. However, looking at data from ATDB.aero, we can see that it included certain designs from the ATR 42, Fokker 50, McDonnell Douglas MD-80, and Yakovlev Yak-42 aircraft families.

In Air Bosna's nine years of operations, it ended up accruing significant debts that it was ultimately unable to pay back. This forced it to temporarily cease operations in 2003, with this hiatus lasting almost two years. It would be June 2005 before the carrier was back in the skies. Once it was, it flew under a different name.

Back in the air as B&H Airlines

With the support of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Federal Government, Air Bosna was able to be revived under the new identity of B&H Airlines. It ceased to be defunct in May 2004, but didn't hit the skies again until over a year later, in June 2005. Initially, the reformed national airline flew a pair of ATR 72 turboprops on its routes.

Despite initially being a state-owned enterprise, the government decided to start selling shares in the carrier in 2007. A year later, this resulted in Turkish Airlines acquiring 49% of B&H Airlines. The carrier was selected from a pool of operators, which reportedly also included the likes of Croatia Airlines, Comintel, and MyAir.

As part of the deal, Turkish Airlines sub-leased Boeing aircraft (such as the 737 in the photograph at the top of the article) to B&H Airlines. However, its involvement with the carrier ultimately lasted less than four years, and it withdrew from the joint venture in June 2012. To help keep B&H Airlines afloat in Turkish Airlines' absence, the government provided the carrier with a €3.5 million cash injection.

Consigned to history

After Turkish Airlines pulled out, the government bought back its stake, and subsequently owned 99.93% of B&H Airlines. The remaining 0.07% was in the hands of Energoinvest. Relying once again on a pair of ATR 72 turboprops, the carrier ran into difficulty in April 2013 when both aircraft were grounded for maintenance.

Two years later, in June 2015, the government decided that it was of interest to liquidate the struggling carrier, whose best option was to declare bankruptcy. With total debts amounting to more than $17 million, B&H Airlines' last flight operated on June 11th. The following month, its AOC was revoked, bringing the story to an end.

Source " Simpleflying "