Three out of five carriers that responded to a public call for the launch of new routes from Sarajevo Airport in return for subsidies have met the specified conditions, the Committee for the Expert Evaluation of Applications has disclosed.

Low-cost carriers Ryanair, Wizz Air and SunExpress are all eligible for financial support, with additional details regarding routes and launch dates to be announced in due course.

LOT Polish Airlines and TUI Airways, which also applied, did not meet the requirements. On the other hand, Norwegian Air Shuttle submitted its bid after the set deadline and, as a result, its application was not taken into consideration, according to the Ex-Yu Aviation web portal.

The Sarajevo International Airport confirmed last week that the public call issued by the Sarajevo Canton Tourist Board was closed, and that it was aimed at the tourism development, establishing of new routes and increasing the number of passengers.

The public call targeted airlines to either launch operations or establish a base in Sarajevo, offering funds to carriers introducing flights from unserved destinations in the past twelve months, starting services to strategically important destinations, stationing an aircraft in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital, or commencing flights longer than six hours.

The value of the subsidies has not been made public. Routes deemed to be of strategic importance from Sarajevo are Berlin, Memmingen, Malmo, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Paris, Basel, Amsterdam, Eindhoven, London, Brussels, Rome, Milan, Budapest, Prague, Barcelona, Girona, Madrid, Geneva, Bari, Stockholm, Oslo, Dusseldorf, Athens, Tirana, Skopje, Izmir, Antalya, Podgorica, Abu Dhabi, Warsaw, any point in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Indonesia, Jordan, Japan, Lebanon, India, Israel, and Malaysia, as well as any destination in North America.

Ryanair and SunExpress, which have applied for the subsidies, do not operate flights to Sarajevo Airport, whereas Wizz Air recently launched subsidised services from London Luton. It’s Emirati subsidiary maintains seasonal operations from Abu Dhabi to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital.

Some airlines have already announced new services to Sarajevo for next year, including Pegasus Airlines from Antalya and Air Arabia from Sharjah, with the latter being restored after almost two years. Based on indirect traffic flows, Sarajevo Airport’s busiest unserved route in Europe (including Turkey) is Ankara. It is followed by Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, Adana, Prague, Milan, Trabzon, and Barcelona, the Ex-Yu Aviation reported.