Early years

First regular flights to Sarajevo using an airfield in the suburb of Butmir begin in 1930 when the domestic airliner Aeroput opened a regular route linking Belgrade to Podgorica via Sarajevo.^[4] A year later, Aeroput opened a new route which linked Belgrade and Zagreb via Sarajevo, Split, and Rijeka. In 1935, Aeroput operated three times weekly the non-stop route Belgrade – Sarajevo, which was extended to Dubrovnik a year later. In 1937, Aeroput included regular flights linking Sarajevo to Zagreb, and 1938 was the year when first international flights were introduced when Aeroput extended the route Dubrovnik – Sarajevo – Zagreb to Vienna, Brno, and Prague.^[4][5]

The airfield in Butmir remained in use all the way until 1969. The need for a new airport in Sarajevo, with an asphalt-concrete runway, was acknowledged in the mid-1960s when JAT, Yugoslav national carrier at that time, began acquiring jet planes. The construction of the airport began in 1966 at its present location, not far from the old one.^{[citation needed]}

Sarajevo Airport opened on 2 June 1969 for domestic traffic. In 1970, Frankfurt became the first international destination served. Most of the time the airport was a 'feeder' airport where passengers embarked for flights to Zagreb and Belgrade on their way to international destinations. Over time, the traffic volume steadily grew from 70,000 to 600,000 passengers a year. The first renovation came for the 1984 Winter Olympics, when the runway was extended by 200 meters, the navigation system was improved, and a new terminal building was built, designed for 1 million passengers a year.^{[citation needed]}

At the beginning of the Bosnian War, the airport was put under control of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). When the regular flights were stopped, the JNA evacuated some 30,000 people, mostly women and children, who were spouses and children of JNA officers fleeing the siege of Sarajevo; the first humanitarian aid from the US and France arrived in this period too.^[6] After JNA left, the airport was for a while under control of Bosnian Serb forces and in June 1992, they handed over the airport to the UN to use it for humanitarian purposes (United Nations Security Council Resolution 757). In the biggest humanitarian operation in history of the UN that followed, during the Bosnian war, some 13,000 flights were carried out and over 160,000 tons of international humanitarian aid was delivered to the besieged city of Sarajevo.^[6]

The airport re-opened to civilian air traffic on 16 August 1996 and has since been renovated and slowly restored. Since the Dayton Agreement in 1995, the airport has a commercial flight business which includes Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Air Serbia, Croatia Airlines, Turkish Airlines, and others.

Development in the 2000s

On 18 October 2005, Paddy Ashdown, the High Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, suspended a decision by Bosnian authorities to name the airport after Alija Izetbegović, the first President of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The High Representative stated that such a renaming might undermine the reconciliation process by alienating non-Bosniak citizens.^[7] In 2005, the European branch of the Airports Council International awarded Sarajevo the award of Best Airport Under 1 Million Passengers.^[8]

In 2013, Sarajevo International Airport had 665,638 passengers which is more than all of the other airports in Bosnia and Herzegovina had together and a 14.7% increase from 2012, this is the highest number of passengers per year since the reopening of the airport. On 26 December 2014, the airport welcomed its 700,000th passenger on Austrian Airlines flight OS758 to Vienna.^[9]

In May 2015, work has started on expansion of Sarajevo International Airport. Current work is undergoing on expansion of arrival area, adding more passport control check stands and rearranging whole arrival area to make it more passenger friendly. Next to follow is expansion of check in area which will include three more check in counters making it total of 15 check in counters. By the end of the year the airport will begin with platform expansion and the construction of rapid exit taxiway with scheduled completion by mid of the next year. 2017 should be the year in which airport will enter into the reconstruction of the runway and the maneuvering areas. Expansion of the airport at the current level is financed by Sarajevo Airport own funds. On 6 June 2015, Pope Francis visited Sarajevo arriving on an Alitalia Airbus A320-200 from Rome. Welcome ceremony was held at Sarajevo International Airport.

The airport served as the home base for the country's flag carrier, B&H Airlines, until July 2015 when the airline ceased operations.^[10] During December 2015, Sarajevo Airport experienced very low visibility and fog. About 40% of flights were canceled which impacted passengers growth and financial loss to the airport. Airport handled only 28,167 passengers of 50,000 planned (last year in December 43,079 passengers were handled). For Sarajevo International Airport one of major restrictions is a mountain terrain that requires a high approach precision and a big inclination angle in a procedure of unsuccessful approach and landing. Vlado Jurić, Head of the Office for aviation safety at Bosnia and Herzegovina Air Navigation Services Agency (BHANSA), presented the information about problems caused by reduced minimums at Sarajevo Airport. For the implementation of ILS categories (CAT II or CAT III), the terrain in front of the runway start should be free of obstacles for at least 1,000 metres. It means that the RWY 12 threshold should be moved for additional 200 metres which would reduce the runway length and as such is unacceptable. From the point of view of procedure design, the reduction of minimums is not an option and therefore it is necessary to find other solutions for improvement of landing conditions at Sarajevo Airport. The biggest problem at Sarajevo Airport is fog. The representative of Sarajevo Airport, Mr Nermin Zijadić informed that there is a relevant plan regarding this problem. He also presented the information about future projects of Sarajevo Airport among which the most important one is a reconstruction of the runway including its lighting system.^[11]

In 2016, Qatar Airways announced a new route from Doha to Sarajevo. However, the start of this service was first postponed and then moved to 10 October 2017. with four weekly flights.^[12] On 5 December 2016, the airport welcomed its 800,000th passenger on Air Serbia flight JU113 to Belgrade.^[13]

In 2017, Sarajevo International Airport welcomed six new airlines and seven destinations: AtlasGlobal (Istanbul), Wizz Air (Budapest), Wataniya Airways (Kuwait City), Nesma Airlines (Riyadh), TUI fly Belgium (Charleroi), flydubai (Dubai), Qatar Airways (Doha).^[14]

On 28 November 2017, Sarajevo International Airport received its 900,000th passenger of the year, representing a record number of passengers in one calendar year. On 5 December 2018, Sarajevo International Airport welcomed for the first time its millionth passenger of the year.^[15]

On 3 May 2017, the airport announced a major terminal expansion. The project is worth 20 million Euros and scheduled to be completed in 2020. A new, 10,000 sqm building on four levels will be built as an addition to the current terminal building. The new terminal will have capacity to handle 2 million passengers per year and will be equipped with three jet bridges.^[16] On 9 April 2019, the airport announced expansion of the VIP area into a new VIP building as part of the expansion project for the new main terminal with a separate check-in, customs and arrival section for VIP travellers.^[17] During June–July 2019, the airport saw its largest destination expansion. A total of 10 new destinations were added. FlyBosnia started flights from Sarajevo to Riyadh, Kuwait, Jeddah, Gassim and Bahrain. Flynas started flights from Riyadh and Jeddah. Norwegian started flights from Göteborg, while Eurowings started flights from Berlin Tegel Airport. In October and November 2019, FlyBosnia started flights to London Luton and Rome Fiumicino Airport.

2020s

On 17 November 2020, Sarajevo International Airport terminated its contract with FlyBosnia after the company failed to repay its debts within 60 days.^[18]

On 3 February 2021, Wizz Air announced the opening of its second base in Bosnia and Herzegovina, after Tuzla; the airline will open a base at Sarajevo with one Airbus A320. The airline announced nine new European destinations from Sarajevo with 21 weekly departures.^[19] On 12 August 2021, Wizz Air has subsequently announced that it will base its second aircraft at Sarajevo International Airport. It is planned to launch 7 new routes from December 2021.^[20] Also, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi plans to introduce direct routes between Sarajevo and Abu Dhabi in October 2021.^[21] However, in September 2022, Wizz Air announced it would close its base at the airport, ending all routes except those to London and Abu Dhabi.^[22]

During 2024, Ryanair will introduce six routes from Sarajevo to: Bergamo, Charleroi, Gothenburg, London–Stansted, Memmingen and Thessaloniki^[23][24]

Passenger

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Sarajevo International Airport:^[25]

Cargo

Traffic figures

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Annual passenger traffic at SJJ airport. See Wikidata query.

More information Year/Month, January ...

Passenger numbers^[47]

Year/Month	January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December	Year total	Change
2024	77,454	75,112	82,926										235,492	21.2%
2023	61,068	56,979	76,193	89,580	115,976	133,945	196,195	208,570	144,013	119,458	83,139	76,891	1,362,007	1.1%
2022	56,521	50,475	70,292	94,690	132,590	154,887	210,954	217,253	143,824	110,580	68,243	67,039	1,377,348	79.5%
2021	13,239	10,836	18,115	17,106	31,925	71,985	136,017	151,309	99,950	84,462	61,989	70,200	767,133	207.2%
2020	58,397	51,969	28,249	929	367	3,629	13,345	22,014	21,011	21,416	14,949	13,367	249,642	78.2%
2019	53,485	53,130	67,893	89,843	74,178	119,205	180,929	178,943	105,370	95,628	67,358	57,718	1,143,680	9.3%
2018	54,113	48,986	65,991	86,995	81,026	92,997	159,380	159,506	98,227	83,660	62,253	53,417	1,046,635	9.2%
2017	43,377	41,122	57,381	79,796	84,137	78,170	140,025	144,330	100,923	80,769	57,887	50,218	957,971	14.2%
2016	41,208	42,567	53,438	68,085	85,738	66,429	109,141	118,350	91,123	71,360	47,352	44,183	838,968	8.5%
2015	43,700	39,908	50,273	63,064	80,143	74,855	89,319	101,307	79,120	71,255	51,793	28,167	772,904	8.8%
2014	36,114	35,435	45,789	56,611	71,513	74,976	74,948	88,591	71,168	64,844	46,833	43,079	709,901	6.6%
2013	33,437	30,399	44,631	56,918	65,495	72,949	69,699	79,796	66,721	64,387	44,446	36,760	665,638	14.7%
2012	33,247	26,278	36,765	49,709	55,107	62,491	69,346	60,787	60,323	52,115	38,612	35,278	580,058	3.3%
2011	30,484	34,148	40,803	49,489	56,812	62,994	81,042	59,042	59,074	52,957	39,785	33,348	599,978	6.5%
2010	31,746	28,850	37,657	39,907	51,398	59,636	72,615	60,475	54,753	51,137	40,912	34,180	563,266	6.2%
2009	28,117	27,266	33,909	41,390	45,921	57,588	+	+	177,762	+	+	121,427	530,391	4.7%
2008	23,909	27,121	34,896	38,052	46,974	55,391	62,524	61,560	42,752	46,094	34,089	32,913	506,398	0.2%
2007	32,235	28,028	35,168	42,297	43,633	53,281	59,436	57,381	45,113	43,980	31,952	32,735	505,269	8.4%

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Passengers, cargo and movements

More information Year, Passengers ...

Year	Passengers	Change	Cargo (t)	Change	Aircraft movements	Change
2002	310.126	4,1%	7.401	%	1.686	%
2003	364.512	17,5%	9.877	33,4%	1.648	2,2%
2004	399.607	11%	9.982	1,0%	N/A	N/A
2005	433.222	8,4%	11.309	13,2%	N/A	N/A
2006	455.626	5,1%	13.433	18,7%	N/A	N/A
2007	496.756	9,0%	13.891	3,4%	N/A	N/A
2008	510.396	2,7%	13.599	2,1%	1.837	N/A
2009	533.915	4,7%	13.824	1,6%	1.815	1,1%
2010	563.266	6,2%	13.347	3,4%	1.753	3,4%
2011	599.978	6,5%	11.633	12,8%	1.607	8,3%
2012	580.058	3,3%	10.635	8,5%	1.526	5,0%
2013	665.638	14,7%	11.026	3,6%	1.603	5,0%
2014	709.901	6,6%	12.074	9,5%	2.060	28,5%
2015	772.904	8,8%	11.107	8,0%	4.235	105,5%
2016	838.966	8,5%	11.399	2,6%	2.865	32,3%
2017	957.971	14,2%	12.773	12,0%	2.957	3,2%
2018	1.046.635	9,2%	13.432	5,1%	2.508	15,1%
2019	1.143.680	9.3%	13.671	1,8%	2.523	0,6%
2020	249.642	78,1%	5.896	56,8%	2.461	2,4%
2021	767.133	207,2%	11.467	94,4%	2.249	8,7%
Source:[48]

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By car

Sarajevo Airport is connected to the Sarajevo–Zenica–Mostar highway (A1) via nearby Stup Interchange and Brijesce Interchange.

By bus

Centrotrans Eurolines, in cooperation with Sarajevo International Airport, provide a bus service Airport – Baščaršija City Center – Airport. The bus stand is just outside of the arrivals area in the main terminal. The price of a one-way ticket is €2.50. WiFi internet is available on board.^[49]

By trolleybus

The airport is connected with Sarajevo's city center with trolleybus number 103, operated by the GRAS transport company.^[50]