Marking the 17th anniversary of postwar re-opening of Sarajevo International Airport

After almost being destroyed during the war, the Sarajevo Airport was re-opened for the international civil ait traffic on 15 August 1996. Consequently, today we are marking the seventeenth anniversary of that ceremony.
Former Yugoslav National Army seized the Airport in the night between 4 and 5 April 1992. After the Airport was plundered, devastated and destroyed, all civil flights were stopped. Those were difficult and uncertain days for the Airport that required total renovation before being re-opened for air traffic operations.
Reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Sarajevo International Airport has been so far one of the biggest projects in BiH. In spite of numerous hardships and obstacles, the Airport was reconstructed due to enthusiasm and selflessness of all employees, and for years now has been scoring great business success.
„Since 1996 till today, the Airport has registered over 7 million passengers and 82.000 air traffic operations. Our goal in 2013 is to realize 20% increase compared to 2011 results, when was registered a record of 600.000 passengers, and also to continue taking care of quality of services and satisfaction of both passengers and employees.“- says the General Manager of Sarajevo International Airport, Mr. Ivan Veličan.
The Executive Manager of Sarajevo International Airport, Mr. Elveding Begić, on this occasion is reminded of the very beginning of re-opening:
„If I think back to the period of 17 years ago when we started rehabilitation of devastated and demolished airport, literally from the ashes, both in terms of infrastructure and personnel, building it brick by brick and training the staff employee by employee, then I can proudly say that we have done almost the impossible.
However, the success was not achieved overnight. It is a result of enormous effort, work and investment of the Management but also of all employees whose efforts contributed to the image of Sarajevo International Airport as an airport recognizable by quality of its services, most sophisticated equipment and highly trained personnel that can proudly stand together with other airports not only in the region but more broadly.“
The fact that Sarajevo International Airport has been running successful busines for years and that such a trend has been continued through 2013 is visible from the six-month business report figures. Namely, the number of passengers in the first half of the current year is 303.829, what is 15% more that in the same period last year, while the number of air traffic operations of 2.603, is 2% bigger in comparison to the first half of last year.
Croatia Airlnes, the Croatian national Carrier and member of the Star Aliance association, joined us in marking of the 17th anniversary of re-opening of Sarajevo International Airport, and on that occasion awarded Mr.Muharem Šeper with a return ticket to one of airlines' destinations in Europe, by the passenger's choice.
„Croatia Airlines and Sarajevo International Airport share common history because of all aircraft the one of Croatia Airlines was the first to land on the runway of rehabilitated Sarajevo Airport in August 1996 and thus re-opened it for regular civil air traffic“.- says the Manager of Croatia Airlines station in BiH.