The initial destinations the newly established airline ‘FlyBosnia’ will provide flights to are London and Frankfurt, and the company aims to later add Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Riyadh and Jeddah when it acquires more aeroplanes, CEO of the company, Chris Gabriel, told N1 on Tuesday.

The airline was established by Abdullah Al Shiddi, the director of the Al Shiddi Group from Saudi Arabia, one of the biggest investors in the country, and company representative Nudzejma Skenderovic.

FlyBosnia had its first technical flight from Sofia to Sarajevo last month.

“Part of the process of getting the air operator’s certificate was doing a series of tests flights, which we have now completed,” he said, adding that the company has acquired its air operator's certificate.

“We are putting the final touches on our schedule, and we are in the process of securing the slots in the various destination airports,” he said. “Once they confirm our slots, we will then announce our schedule to the public.”

“London and Frankfurt are the initial destinations, and as we get more aircraft capacity, we’ll include Rome, Paris, Barcelona,” he said, adding that there will eventually also be flights to the Middle East, Riyadh and Jeddah, as well as Kuwait and Beirut.

Gabriel said the airline is expecting to acquire its second aircraft mid-year and then another one by the end of 2019.

“Within a five-year period we aim to have a fleet of eight aircraft, and direct flights to destinations according to demand,” he said, adding that the company aims to provide “reliable, affordable services to our customers via direct flights.”

He explained that many factors must be taken into account when setting prices of the flights.

“You’ve got to look at affordability from the customer’s perspective, you’ve got to look at what’s happening with the competition in the marketplace, and you’ve also got to look at what we need as an organisation to be sustainable (…) but also looking at the fact that we are providing direct flights to Sarajevo, which is much more convenient,” he said, adding that the prices should be “very very affordable to people in Bosnia.”

He did not want to announce any prices at this point.

“There is no airline in Bosnia, and we took the national status by getting the first AOC and making the first flight, and that comes as part of the air operating licence. The name is something that we registered as a private company does, and we went through the normal process in compliance with the Bosnian law,” he explained.

The only plane the airline currently owns, the Airbus 319, named ‘Sarajevo’, was bought from the Bulgarian ‘Balkan Holiday Air’, and Gabriel said it was fully refurbished and passed all the safety checks.