Sarajevo Airport has announced plans to demolish its old Terminal A building to make way for the multi million euro expansion of its Terminal B facility.
Tender procedures for the demolition of the A building, used for commercial traffic between 1969 until the outbreak of war in 1992, have begun, with the process expected to be completed by June 14.
“The old terminal will be demolished to allow for the expansion of the existing Terminal B. As a result, the terminal will have seven instead of four gates, as well as 28 check-in desks, up from the current seventeen”, an airport spokeswoman said. She added, “The departure lounge will also be expanded, as well as commercial and retail space”.
Work on the expansion of the Terminal B building is set to commence during the last quarter of the year. Upon completion, the facility will have the capacity to handle two million passengers per year, up from the current one million. Previously, the airport planned to covert the A building into a low cost terminal. By using the older facility, the airport anticipated reducing service charges and luring more budget airlines.
However, these plans were shelved last year with a change in management. The planned demolition of the old terminal and the expansion of the facility currently in use is valued at twenty million euros.
Sarajevo Airport handled 84.137 passengers in May, representing a decrease of 1.9% compared to the same month last year. The softer results were recorded despite an increase in the number of aircraft movements this May which stood at 1.156, up from 1.034, or 11.8%.
During the first five months of the year, Sarajevo Airport welcomed 305.813 travellers through its doors, an increase of 5.1% on 2016. The number of flights operations also grew, from 4.221 last year to 4.672, up 10.7%.
Exyuaviation.com