Sarajevo International Airport

Sarajevo International Airport Međunarodni aerodrom Sarajevo Međunarodna zračna luka Sarajevo Међународни аеродром Сарајево
IATA: SJJ – ICAO: LQSA
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Bosnia and Herzegovina Directorate of Civil Aviation (BHDCA)
Serves	Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Location	Butmir
Elevation AMSL	1,708 ft / 521 m
Coordinates	43°49′29″N 018°19′53″E / 43.82472°N 18.33139°ECoordinates: 43°49′29″N 018°19′53″E / 43.82472°N 18.33139°E
Website	sarajevo-airport.ba
Map
SJJ Location within Bosnia and Herzegovina
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 12/30 2,700 8,858 Asphalt
Statistics
Passengers 2015 772,904 Passengers 2014 709,901 Passengers 2013 665,638
Source (excluding statistics): Bosnian and Herzegovinian AIP at EUROCONTROL[1]

Sarajevo International Airport (IATA: SJJ, ICAO: LQSA), also known as Butmir Airport, is the main international airport in Bosnia and Herzegovina, serving Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located 3.3 NM (6.1 km; 3.8 mi) southwest of the Sarajevo railway station^[1] in the Ilidža municipality, suburb of Butmir. In 2014, 709,901 passengers traveled through the airport, compared to 25,000 in 1996.^[2]

History

Early years

First regular flights to Sarajevo using an airfield in the suburb of Butmir begin in 1930 when the domestic airliner Aeroput opened a regular route linking Belgrade to Podgorica through Sarajevo.^[3] A year later Aeroput opened a new route which linked Belgrade and Zagreb going through Sarajevo, Split and Rijeka. In 1935 Aeroput operated three times weekly the non-stop route Belgrade – Sarajevo, which was extended to Dubrovnik a year later. In 1937 Aeroput included regular flghts linking Sarajevo to Zagreb, and 1938 was the year when first international flights were introduced when Aeroput extended the route Dubrovnik – Sarajevo – Zagreb to Vienna, Brno and Prague.^[3][4]

The airfield in Butmir remained in use all the way until 1969. The need for a new airport in Sarajevo, with an asphalt-concrete runway, was acknowledged in the mid-1960s when JAT, Yugoslav national carrier at that time, began acquiring jet planes. The construction of the airport began in 1966 at its present location, not far from the old one.

Sarajevo Airport opened on 2 June 1969 for domestic traffic. In 1970 Frankfurt became the first international destination served. Most of the time the airport was a 'feeder' airport where passengers embarked for flights to Zagreb and Belgrade on their way to international destinations. Over time the traffic volume steadily grew from 70,000 to 600,000 passengers a year. The first renovation came for the 1984 Winter Olympic Games, when the runway was extended by 200 meters, the navigation system was improved, and a new terminal building was built, designed for 1 million passengers a year.

At the beginning of the Bosnian War the airport was put under control of Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). When the regular flights were stopped the JNA evacuated some 30,000 people, mostly women and children, who were fleeing clashes in Sarajevo; the first humanitarian aid from the US and France arrived in this period too.^[5] After JNA left, the airport was for a while under control of Bosnian Serb forces and in June 1992 they handed over the airport to the UN to use it for humanitarian purposes (UN Security Council Resolution 757). In the biggest humanitarian operation in history of the UN that followed, during the Bosnian war, some 13,000 flights were carried out and over 160,000 tons of international humanitarian aid was delivered to the besieged city of Sarajevo.^[5]

The airport re-opened to civilian air traffic on 16 August 1996 and has since been renovated and slowly returned to its former glory. Since the Dayton Accord in 1996, the airport has welcomed a thriving commercial flight business which includes Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Air Serbia, Croatia Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Germanwings and others.

Development since the 2000s

• In February 2002 directors of sitcom What I Like About You flew to New York from Sarajevo in leased Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737 registered as TC-API.
• On 18 October 2005, Paddy Ashdown, the High Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, suspended a decision by Bosnian authorities to name the airport after Alija Izetbegović, the first President of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The High Representative stated that such a renaming might undermine the reconciliation process by alienating non-Bosniak citizens.^[6]
• In 2005, the European branch of the Airports Council International awarded Sarajevo the award of Best Airport Under 1 Million Passengers.^[7]
• In 2013, Sarajevo International Airport had 665,638 passengers which is more than all of the other airports in Bosnia-Herzegovina had together and a 14.7% increase from 2012, this is the highest number of passengers per year since the reopening of the airport. On 26 December 2014, The airport welcomed its 700,000th passenger on Austrian Airlines flight OS758 to Vienna.^[8]
• In May 2015 work has started on expansion of Sarajevo International Airport. Current work is undergoing on expansion of arrival area, adding more passport control check stands and rearranging whole arrival area to make it more passenger friendly. Next to follow is expansion of check in area which will include three more check in counters making it total of 15 check in counters. By the end of the year the airport will begin with platform expansion and the construction of rapid exit taxiway with scheduled completion by mid of the next year. 2017 should be the year in which airport will enter into the reconstruction of the runway and the maneuvering areas. Expansion of the airport at the current level is financed by Sarajevo Airport own funds.^[9]
• On 6 June 2015 Pope Francis visited Sarajevo arriving on an Alitalia Airbus A320-200 from Rome Fiumicino Airport.^[10] Welcome ceremony was held at Sarajevo International Airport.^[11]
• The airport served as the home base for the country's flag carrier, B&H Airlines, until July 2015 when the airline ceased operations.^[12]
• First scheduled wide body aircraft with cargo flights to Sarajevo. May 22. 2015. Turkish Airlines started scheduled cargo flights from Sarajevo International Airport to Istanbul Atatürk Airport with an Airbus A330 freighter.^[13]

• December 2015. During this month Sarajevo Airport experienced very low visibility and fog. About 40% of flights were canceled which impacted passengers growth and financial loss to the airport. Airport handled only 28.167 passengers of 50.000 planned (last year in December 43.079 passengers were handled). For Sarajevo International Airport one of major restrictions is a mountain terrain that requires a high approach precision and a big inclination angle in a procedure of unsuccessful approach and landing.

Mr Vlado Jurić, Head of the Office for aviation safety, presented the information about problems caused by reduced minimums at Sarajevo Airport.For the implementation of ILS categories (CAT II or CAT III), the terrain in front of the runway start should be free of obstacles for at least 1000 meters. It means that the RWY 12 threshold should be moved for additional 200 meters which would reduce the runway length and as such is unacceptable. From the point of view of procedure design, the reduction of minimums is not an option and therefor it is necessary to find other solutions for improvement of landing conditions at Sarajevo Airport. The biggest problem at Sarajevo Airport is fog. The representative of Sarajevo Airport, Mr Nermin Zijadić informed that there is a relevant plan regarding this problem. He also presented the information about future projects of Sarajevo Airport among which the most important one is a reconstruction of the runway including its lighting system.^[14]

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Main building

Former B&H Airlines fleet

Check-in hall

Apron view and control tower

Airlines	Destinations
Adria Airways	Ljubljana
Air Arabia	Sharjah
Air Serbia	Belgrade
AtlasGlobal	Hajj charter: Jeddah, Medina
Austrian Airlines	Vienna
Borajet	Summer charter: Antalya
Corendon Airlines	Summer charter: Antalya
Croatia Airlines	Zagreb
flydubai	Dubai-International
Germanwings	Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart
Global Aviation	Summer charter: Kuwait
Lufthansa	Munich
Norwegian Air Shuttle	Oslo-Gardermoen, Stockholm-Arlanda Summer seasonal: Copenhagen
Onur Air	Summer charter: Antalya
Pegasus Airlines	Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen
Qatar Airways	Doha (begins 2 November 2016)[15]
Swiss International Air Lines	Zürich
Swiss International Air Lines operated by Helvetic Airways	Zürich
Turkish Airlines	Istanbul-Atatürk

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
Arcus-Air	Munich
Icar Air	Ancona
Solinair	Belgrade, Ljubljana
Trade Air	Zagreb
Turkish Airlines	Istanbul-Atatürk

Destinations map

Europe destinations map
Sarajevo Stockholm Cologne/Bonn Munich Belgrade Copenhagen Stuttgart Zürich Vienna Zagreb Antalya Oslo Ljubljana Istanbul IST Istanbul SAW Ancona Destinations in Europe

Asia destinations map
Kuwait Dubai Medina Jeddah Sharjah Doha Destinations in Asia

Panoramic view of Sarajevo International Airport and airplane hangars.

Statistics

Passenger numbers^[16][17]

Year/Month	January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December	Year total	Change
2016	41,208	42,567	53,438	68,085	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	205,298	+4,24%
2015	43,700	39,908	50,273	63,064	80,143	74,855	89,319	101,307	79,120	71,255	51,793	28,167	772,904	+8,87%
2014	36,114	35,435	45,789	56,611	71,513	74,976	74,948	88,591	71,168	64,844	46,833	43,079	709,901	+ 6,64%
2013	33,437	30,399	44,631	56,918	65,495	72,949	69,699	79,796	66,721	64,387	44,446	36,760	665,638	+14.75%
2012	33,247	26,278	36,765	49,709	55,107	62,491	69,346	60,787	60,323	52,115	38,612	35,278	580,058	– 3.32%
2011	30,484	34,148	40,803	49,489	56,812	62,994	81,042	59,042	59,074	52,957	39,785	33,348	599,978	+ 6.5%
2010	+	+	+	+	51,398	59,636	72,615	60,475	54,753	51,137	40,912	–	563,266	+ 6.2%
2009	+	+	87,257	+	+	143,906	+	+	177,762	+	+	121,427	530,391	+ 4.7%
2008	23,909	27,121	34,896	38,052	46,974	55,391	62,524	61,560	42,752	46,094	34,089	32,913	506,398	+ 0.2%
2007	32,235	28,028	35,168	42,297	43,633	53,281	59,436	57,381	45,113	43,980	31,952	32,735	505,269	+ 8.4%

Top 5 busiest routes at Sarajevo International Airport

City	Airport(s)	Weekly departures (Summer 2016)	Airlines	Passengers (2015)
Istanbul	Atatürk Airport and Sabiha Gökçen Airport	28	Turkish Airlines, Pegasus Airlines
Dubai	Dubai International Airport and Sharjah International Airport	18	flydubai and Air Arabia
Vienna	Schwechat Airport	14	Austrian Airlines	115.938[18]Data for 2014
Zagreb	Zagreb Airport	13	Croatia Airlines	59.497[19]
Munich	Munich Airport	7	Lufthansa	75.841[20]

Accidents and incidents

• 18 January 1977: Džemal Bijedić, then prime minister of Yugoslavia, and his wife were among the eight people killed when their Learjet 25 crashed on the Inač mountain near Kreševo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The plane took off from Batajnica Air Base in Belgrade and was en route to Sarajevo when it crashed, ostensibly due to poor weather conditions. Conspiracy theorists have suggested that the crash was not an accident but rather the result of foul play at the hands of his Serbian rivals.
• 31 December 1994: Belair cargo plane Ilyushin 76TD, registration EW-76836 was operating flight from Luxembourg to Sarajevo on behalf of the United Nations. At the time of landing Sarajevo airport runway was flooded and the aircraft overran runway and struck a ditch with the nose gear. There were no fatalities in crash-landing but the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.^[21]
• 23 December 2001: A Crossair Avro RJ, registration HB-IXH, skidded 100 meters off the runway when it tried to land at Sarajevo airport under snowy conditions. Nobody was injured in the accident, nor was there any damage. By next Monday afternoon, the aircraft had been recovered and was parked on the apron. The French Air Detachment (DETAIR) and local aeronautical authorities have opened an investigation to determine the cause of the accident. It was snowing on the afternoon of 23 Dec.. The airport snow plough had just cleared the runway, a 20-minute job, when an HB-IXH from Zürich requested authorization to land." In those circumstances, the air traffic controller cannot give authorization. He only informs the pilot and the pilot is the one who has the responsibility to take the decision to land," said Maj. Olivier Mrowiki, air deputy commander. "The pilot (captain) decided to land and began the IFR approach procedure. The maneuver was correct and the touch down (landing) was perfect. The problem arose when the aircraft did not stop on the runway and went beyond it and stopped just in front of the ILS (instrumental landing system) antennas more than 100 meters beyond the end of the runway,"^[22]
• 3 June 2015: A Turkish Airlines 737-800 registration TC-JFH, bursted two rear tires as it was landing at Sarajevo Airport on the flight from Istanbul Atatürk Airport. The incident happened at 19:10 as flight was scheduled to land. Luckily no passengers reported any injuries, nor the damage to the plane. The departure scheduled for 20:35 was delayed due to tires replacement, the flight departed next day.

Panoramic view of Sarajevo International Airport apron.

See also

• List of airports in Bosnia and Herzegovina

References

1. "EAD Basic - Error Page". Retrieved 6 June 2015.
2. Statistic data for Sarajevo Airport
3. Drustvo za Vazdusni Saobracaj A D – Aeroput (1927–1948) at europeanairlines.n
4. Aeroput, the First Airline that Landed in Sarajevo at sarajevotimes.com, 21-4-2014, retrieved 19-7-2014
6. High Representative Suspends Decision Renaming Sarajevo International Airport
7. Excellence in airport operations: 1st ACI Europe Best Airport Awards, 29 June 2005.
8. "Sarajevo-Airport.ba - Međunarodni aerodrom Sarajevo". Retrieved 6 June 2015.
9. http://flyingbosnian.blogspot.com/2015/05/expansion-of-sarajevo-international.html
10. http://flyingbosnian.blogspot.com/2015/06/pope-francis-visit-to-bosnia-and.html
11. http://flyingbosnian.blogspot.com/2015/06/pope-francis-airplane-at-sarajevo.html
12. ch-aviation.com - Sarajevo to shut down B&H Airlines citing mounting debts 1 July 2015
13. http://flyingbosnian.blogspot.com/2015/05/turkish-airlines-cargo-flights-from.html
14. http://www.sarajevo-airport.ba/vijest.php?id=426&lang=eng
15. http://www.qatarairways.com/us/en/press-release.page?pr_id=pressrelease_itbpressconf
16. http://flyingbosnian.blogspot.com/2016/02/sarajevo-international-airport.html
17. "Sarajevo-Airport.ba - Međunarodni aerodrom Sarajevo". Retrieved 6 June 2015.
18. http://flyingbosnian.blogspot.com/2015/09/sarajevo-vienna-sarajevo-air-traffic_29.html
19. http://flyingbosnian.blogspot.com/2016/04/croatia-airlines-performance-at.html
20. http://flyingbosnian.blogspot.com/2016/04/lufthansa-performance-at-sarajevo.html#more
21. Harro Ranter (31 December 1994). "ASN Aircraft accident Ilyushin 76TD EW-76836 Sarajevo Airport (SJJ)". Retrieved 6 June 2015.
22. "Crossair aircraft has slid off the runway of Sarajevo airport". Retrieved 6 June 2015.

External links

Media related to Sarajevo International Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Sarajevo International Airport upgrade 2010
• Current weather for LQSA at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for SJJ at Aviation Safety Network