Bosnia's only airline, BH Airlines, resumed flying on yesterday after a bank unblocked its accounts, frozen in February due to outstanding debts, "Our accounts were unblocked yesterday, and we are resuming flights today" Goran Jovanovic, the president of BH Airlines' supervisory board stated.
The carrier, owned by the Bosnian Federation, was grounded last week as the Bosnian arm of Austria's Hypo Alpe Adria Bank called-in a debt of Bm7m ($4.72m) on an unpaid leasing loan of Bm5.5m for two ATR 72s and a Bm1.5m rehabilitation loan.
The Bosnian Federation ministry for transport and communications offered to repay the debt from the sale of the two aircraft, with a further $550,000 from the government. The bank accepted the deal.
In June last year, Turkish Airlines pulled out of a joint venture with BH Airlines and handed its 49% stake back to the government.
The scale of the Bosnian diaspora in surrounding countries following the war in the 1990s should have by now secured the airline but many see routes to the UK and France as being key for the airline’s future.
BH Airlines back in the air
