Konakovic Blocks Macut's Flight to Banja Luka
Bosnian Foreign Minister Elmedin Konakovic denied Serbian Prime Minister Djuro Macut's plane permission to fly to Banja Luka, and Belgrade and Sarajevo now dispute when the request was filed.
Serbian Prime Minister Djuro Macut, who is serving in a technical mandate, was denied permission to fly over Bosnia and Herzegovina’s airspace after Bosnian Foreign Minister Elmedin Konakovic rejected the flyover request for the plane that was meant to carry Macut to Banja Luka on September 14. He was due to attend the commemoration of the Day of Serbian Unity, Freedom and the National Flag and to meet with Republika Srpska Prime Minister Sava Minic, and when the flight fell through, he made the trip by car instead. The dispute has since turned into a question of who is telling the truth, since Konakovic and the Serbian government give entirely different accounts of when the flyover request actually reached the Bosnian ministry.
Serbia and Republika Srpska have jointly marked the Day of Serbian Unity, Freedom and the National Flag every September 15 since 2020, commemorating the 1918 breakthrough of the Thessaloniki front. This year’s commemoration came at a moment when relations between official Sarajevo and the Serbian side had already cooled further, after part of Serbia’s state leadership recently attended the funeral of war criminal Ratko Mladic in Belgrade, held with military honors. Srpske novine had reported earlier that day that Macut would attend the Banja Luka commemoration, before the flight ban became known.
Request at 3:05 PM, or on September 11
Konakovic explained his decision to Klix.ba, saying the Serbian embassy in Sarajevo sent the flyover request at 3:05 PM that day, five minutes after the plane, according to the request itself, was supposed to take off from Belgrade at 3 PM. Jutarnji.ba reported the same version of the departure time from Konakovic, while Klix.ba, in a separate piece, said the plane was scheduled to land in Bosnia and Herzegovina at 3:30 PM, citing the same 3:05 PM time for when the request was received. The minister cited a breach of the 72 hour pre flight notice deadline as the reason for the rejection.
“The procedures are known, and they know them well. They know very well that the deadline to send the request is 72 hours in advance, and they didn’t respect that. When they start respecting the state and its institutions, we will respect them too,” Konakovic said.
The Serbian government rejected these claims in a separate statement, saying the Serbian embassy in Sarajevo had forwarded the flyover request to the Bosnian Foreign Ministry as early as September 11, more than 72 hours before the planned flight. The statement came with the embassy’s letter of September 11 attached, containing the full flight details: according to that document, departure from Belgrade was planned for 5 PM, with exact takeoff and return times from Banja Luka.
“The Government of the Republic of Serbia considers Minister Konakovic’s claims to be untrue and thoroughly malicious, and believes they do nothing to advance good neighborly relations and cooperation in the region,” the Serbian government’s statement said.
The gap between the two Bosnian media accounts is not trivial: Jutarnji.ba reported that the request listed a 3 PM departure from Belgrade, while Klix.ba, in its separate report, cited a 3:30 PM landing time in Bosnia. Still, both reports agree on one point: in Konakovic’s version, the request itself reached the ministry at 3:05 PM, on the very day the flight was planned, not on September 11 as Belgrade claims.
Dodik: They Have Gone Too Far
SNSD leader Milorad Dodik was the first to report the flight ban, posting on X and calling the move by Bosniak officials “political madness and an outpouring of hatred.” He added that the decision has no constitutional basis and violates the principle of the constituent status of the three peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“They have no right to make such a decision. It isn’t constitutional,” Dodik wrote, adding: “By unilaterally banning Serbian Prime Minister Djuro Macut from flying over, they have gone too far.”
Macut reacted more calmly to the ban, saying it would not stop him from reaching the commemoration in Banja Luka. “If I couldn’t go by plane, I’ll go by car. It matters to me to be with our people and to mark the Day of Serbian Unity, Freedom and the National Flag together, with dignity and in peace,” Macut said, adding that Serbia would not respond by raising tensions and would keep extending a “hand of cooperation” while upholding the standards of freedom of movement and good neighborly relations.
The dispute over the timing of the request remains unresolved, and for now it is one ministry’s word against the other government’s, with no independent confirmation to settle the two accounts. Whether the incident leaves a mark on further protocol contacts between Belgrade and Sarajevo will depend on concrete steps from both sides in the coming days, none of which have been announced so far.
