Bosnia's National Airline Awaits Imminent Closure

BH Airlines, which suspended all its flights at the beginning of June, could be shut down completely by the end of this year, the union representing the company's workers told BIRN on Monday.

"The government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina [one of the country's two entities], which is formally BH Airlines' owner, confirmed that there is no possibility of saving the company," said union representative Elvis Ziga.

Around 80 workers are currently employed by BH Airlines, and while some of them will find new jobs at Sarajevo airport, the future of 50 of them remains unclear.

"We'll probably end up in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's employment bureau, waiting for a new job," said Ziga.

"We haven't received our salary for the past nine months. We're just calling on the government of the Federation to officially start the liquidation of the company," he said.

The workers hope that they finally will get their unpaid wages as part of the liquidation process.

The company has a total debt of 35 million Bosnian marks (17.5 million euro), the prime minister of the Federation, Fadil Novalic, said this summer.

Despite the airline's problems, the Federation's Ministry of Transport and Communications told BIRN that the entity's authorities still haven't fixed a precise date for a decision on the liquidation of the company.

"We currently don't know when this issue will be addressed by the government," said ministry spokesperson Amila Coralic.

BH Airlines began to operate in 1994 under the name Air Bosna as the national carrier for Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was declared bankrupt in 2003 and started operating again in 2005 under its current name.

It used to fly to seven international destinations....