Beijing Capital Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hainan Airlines, has announced plans to launch services from the Chinese capital to Zagreb next year. Flights will be inaugurated in June 2017 and will operate twice per week with its 222-seat Airbus A330-200 jet. On Monday, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) granted Beijing Capital Airlines a permit to operate services to the Croatian capital. It has not been specified whether the flights will run on a seasonal or year-long basis. Capital Airlines currently offers scheduled flights across China, as well as to Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Spain, the Maldives and Vietnam. It boasts a fleet of 57 aircraft, all of which are leased from its parent company Hainan Airlines. Next year, the carrier will expand into Europe with services to Helsinki, in addition to Zagreb.
Hainan Airlines, which is China's largest privately-owned carrier, has previously expressed interest in operating flights to Croatia. Last year, it held talks with Zadar Airport over possible charter services from Chongqing, in China's south-west. However, the flights never materialised. Furthermore, the airline has, in the past, been linked to a potential equity investment in Croatia Airlines. Zagreb is currently the only airport in the former Yugoslavia to be served by a carrier from the far East with Korean Airlines maintaining summer charters from Seoul. This year, the airline is operating a total of twelve flights with its Airbus A330 aircraft.
In 2015, over 203.000 Chinese tourists visited Croatia with 269.000 overnight stays registered. The figures represent a 36% increase in arrivals and 37% in overnights. This year over 300.000 visitors from China are expected to arrive in Croatia. The two countries signed an Air Service Agreement in June 2009, paving the way for flights between the two countries. Last year, the Croatian Tourism Ministry said, "China offers a big tourist potential and Croatia wants to attract as many visitors as possible from that market. We are willing to support Chinese tour operators who, when there is a critical mass of Chinese tourists, will connect China and Croatia witdirect flights".
wow this is great news! :)
ReplyDeleteYeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Go Zagreb!!!!
ReplyDeleteThey will make a nice addition to the new terminal.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear that they have been issued permits. Chinese bureaucracy is notoriously slow. Have there ever been flights between ZAG and PEK?
ReplyDeleteNo direct flights. However Chinese Premier and Chinese Presidents flew to Zagreb few times does that count :D, Chinese officials fly in a lot, Chinese government planes are frequent visitors to Zagreb airport, however no commercial flights ever.
DeleteIs this airline part of some alliance and will OU make codeshare agreement with them?
ReplyDeleteNot part of an alliance. Would be good if they codeshared on OU domestic routes. Could really benefit OU.
DeleteStar Alliance does NOT allow OU to make codeshares with airlines outside its alliance, so this won't help OU at all with any feed traffic
Deleteyeah right so how come Croatia Airlines have code share flights with KLM, Air France and Alitalia??
Deletehttp://www.croatiaairlines.com/About-us/Partners-alliances/code-share-partners
you should inform yourself a bit better before you post such a post
They are restricted to a total of 5% of their total ASKs, which they can codeshare with others. I'd say that they have already used that up.
DeleteYou should perhaps inform yourself MUCH better before you post a rebuttal to a post
Your initial post was misleading.
DeleteSome really exciting times coming for Zagreb. Excellent news.
ReplyDeleteThe real question is how did all these tourists come to Croatia in the past? Did they fly into ZAG on SU, TK, LH... or did they visit Croatia as part of a larger tour? Let's say they fly into Budapest or Vienna and then head down south to Croatia on a bus.
ReplyDeleteFrankfurt, Munich and Vienna were most commonly used by Chinese to come to Zagreb.
DeleteNumber of Chinese tourists in Croatia is up, 144000 in 2015, 200 000~ expected this year, this includes HK and Macao.
Ideally Croatia is looking at half a million Chinese visitors by 2020. Croatia is building strong presence in Asia and Japanese, Korean and Chinese tourists will only rise in coming years.
300 000 Koreans, 250 000 Japanese and at least 200 000 Chinese visitors are expected this year in Croatia, half of them visiting Zagreb.
We heard this story before, with Zadar. I'll believe it when I see it.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Zadar these guys have actually applied for a permit... and received it.
DeleteTwo things:
ReplyDeleteThis would majorly complicate any potential BEG-PEK flights for ASL.
I will believe it when tickets go on sale.
I don't see how it would complicate things for JU. Hainan would launch flights so as to cater for the Chinese tourists visiting Croatia.
DeleteAir Serbia on the other hand would rely on local traffic and connections from their regional network.
What BEG-PEK flights? Air Serbia will get second A330 to increase New York JFK to daily flights and start Chicago ORD with 3 flights per week from next summer.
DeleteYes, yes and YES!
ReplyDeleteGo, Croatia!
Great. Now all we need is flights to the US :)
ReplyDeleteNext year is a LONG WAY AWAY.....
ReplyDeleteInterkontinentalni letovi se sigurno ne najavljuju mjesec dana prije.
DeleteFunny, when JU announced flights to the US last Nov, many comments here on this blog said it would never happen; we believe it when see it, etc etc etc....
DeleteGuys you are starting to sound like people who were claiming flights between BEG and JFK would never happen.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad for Zagreb. Wish them luck.
BEGJFK flights are here because JU is having a very rich daddy. 5 years ago that was not predictable
Deletewith a rich daddy even AZ came to life again. Many dreams are possible with petro dollars..
But good for ZAG. 3rd long haul already. Lets hope that KE will turn their Charter into Scheduled Operations
@
DeleteJU520 BEGLAXJuly 8, 2016 at 10:05 AM
300 000 Koreans, 250 000 Japanese and at least 200 000 Chinese visitors are expected this year in Croatia, half of them visiting Zagreb.
I see great times ahead, I've said some weeks ago about Airport management securing flights with China, this is just a tip of the iceberg.
2017 will see a fair few airlines come to Zagreb.
SAS, Alitalia, Finnair, Agean (if they have spare planes), Iberia, Vueling and Norwegian going year round. Return of EasyJet. Aer Lingus has plans for Zagreb, no idea if in 2017 or 2018, Eurowings looking at setting up a base in Zagreb with one aircraft being placed in Zagreb offering 5-6 daily flights out of Zagreb for 5 German cities.
2017 should see Zgreb hit 3.0-3.2 million pax, after that skies are the limit, 5.0 million by 2020.
Opet ti vasi zanimljivi komentari i opet moje pitanje: vase spekulacije ili nesto drugo?
DeleteI hve no doubt that with the new terminal and the professional promotion of Croatia abroad, the tourist flow will continue. Of all ex YU nations, Croatia has by far the best tourist promotion abroad
Deleteha,ha,ha, good joke...
ReplyDeleteAnd yours' is lame.
DeleteSomeone here was also writing a few times in the comments that an airline would start flights from Beijing. Guess this was it. Great news.
ReplyDeleteWell there goes any chance of Ljubljana getting flights from PEK.
ReplyDeleteMaribor airport is in negotiations for a sale to the Chinese and flight to China, both passenger and freight :)
DeleteWith some phantom investors that announced several projects in Mb already ...
DeleteSo many comments on here; this and that is good or bad fir ASL...I mean who cares, the only question is what's good for consumers. I wouldn't mind if OU got completely privatized, and wouldn't give a damn if it went flop. What I sure as hell would not want is to be a Serbian taxpayer, financing Air Serbia
ReplyDeleteDa baš od tvojih para ovisi AS i njihov uspeh. Ajde molim te prestani da pišeš gluposti. Svaki dolazak novih avio kompanija na ex-yu prostor je super i neka ih dođe još veći broj od sledeće godine.
DeleteMichael, i have news for you ... the intelligent post you thought you made, didn't turn out to be quite so intelligent .... The Croatian taxpayer has been financing OU from day 1 and continues to do so even today - no different from JU - except that the Serbian taxpayer now only picks up 51%, while the Croatian taxpayer continues to pick up 100% of OU's costs
DeleteSo, Michael, your government spends your tax money 100% the way you would like it to be spent and they can't make a single expense without first checking whether you would like it or not?
DeleteBtw, Serbian taxpayers don't need your fake sympathies, you can trust me on that.
A) Croatian tax payers do not finance Croatia Airlines anymore.
DeleteB) I'm not a Croatian tax payer, as I live in Denmark
Wow fantastic and unexpected news. Looking forward to this.
ReplyDelete222 seats would indicate that they have a business class cabin too.
ReplyDeleteNot sure about the layout.
DeleteComments on their service somewhat mixed
http://www.airlinequality.com/airline-reviews/beijing-capital-airlines/
Hainan has 36 business seats and 186 economy seats on a330-200 so i believe its the same with this airline.
DeleteApparently, the JD A332 has same layout as the HU A332. Therefore there are 36 flat bed seats in Business class.
Deletehttp://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Hainan_Airlines/Hainan_Airlines_Airbus_A330-200.php
I hope that sales will be opened to all people not just Chinese booking holidays with tour operators.
ReplyDeleteZAG will see big growth next year.
ReplyDeleteI sure hope s0, although there are no major announcements as of yet...
DeleteI think ZAG next year will record much bigger growth than BEG.
DeleteTourist growth in Croatia both beach and city break is huge.
The troubles in Turkey, Egypt and North Africa send a lot of tourists to safer destinations.
OT
ReplyDeleteToday, July 8, Russian carrier S7 bought the rights to the Cyprus Airways name and logo from the Cypriot government. They are planning on basing two A320 on the island with flights to be launched by the end of the year. They will fly to the UK, Greece and Russia.
Cyprus Airways is coming back. <3
Why spend money on buying 'Cyprus Airways' brand when it would be probably cheaper to create a new brand, such as Cypriot Airlines, from scratch? Any insight into this?
DeleteAlso, more importantly, will this be a completely private enterprise of a private-public venture? If the former, how can they operate between Cyprus and UK/Greece/EU?
Interesting nonetheless.
What does this have to do with the topic or ex-yu in general? There are other aviation forums which deal with a broader geographical area. This one has nothing to do with this website.
DeleteStrangerThingsHaveHappened
DeleteActually it's a business partnership between S7 and a group of Cypriot investors. S7 paid €2 million to the government to get the name and the logo. They could use it for a decade with an option to extend it for another five years.
My guess is that they wanted the name so as to bring back a national symbol as a way to appeal to the Cypriots. We'll see how successful they will be.
Anonymous at 2:13 PM
DeleteWhat exactly is your issue?
This is an aviation blog that allows us to get informed by members who know a lot of things about aviation.
The Cyprus Airways 2.0 story is interesting for various reasons.
A lot of Serbs leave in Cyprus.
During Summer both JU and W6 fly there.
The resurrection of a former state airline is interesting to see and look how it is done for all ex-Yu countries.
If despite all that Nemjee's post somehow bored you or harm you please expel that memory from your brain.
But let the rest of us appreciate it.
Thank you.
Petar +1000
DeleteDon't understand why some people complain on here when discussion is normal.
Following Petar's logic:
DeleteA lot of Serbs, Croats etc live in the USA/Canada
During Summer AT and all year JU fly to USA/Canada
Airlines in Canada/USA went bankrupt (United, American etc) and were resurrected by US govt laws like Chapter 11...
...so it must be interesting for ex-Yu readers to OT about AA/US merger, Virgin/Alaska merger and thousands of other airline news...
Why not? I am interested.
Deletethen visit other places not ex yu
DeleteBut we are not breaking any rules so what's the problem? Go to the bottom of this page and tell me where does it write that non-ex-YU topics are not allowed?
DeleteAdmin set the scope of this place right on the top of this page: Aviation news from the world of the former Yugoslavia. For aviation news in Australia, please go to some australian blog. For aviation in Cyprus, there must be another site for aviation fans. Visitors don't come here because they have interest in reading aviation news from Japan or any other non ex Yu area as there are other places for that.
DeleteExcellent :)
ReplyDeleteOT JU stats for H1 2016 :
ReplyDelete1,092 mill. passengers (down 3% in comparison with H1 2015)
14.900 commercial flights (down 2,3% yoy)
66,8% passenger load factor (up 0,9% yoy)
Not very good results when you consider that the aviation sector in the whole of Europe has a great year so far.
DeleteAnd even more so in southern and eastern Europe.
So if they have 2,3% less flights and 3% less passengers than there was no effect of downsizing to make LF better. Even more how can LF be beter 0,9% if they have 3% less passengers wiht 2,3% less flights. That means plane were smaller? How?They use less A319 and 737 and more ATR 72?
DeleteWasn't winter cutting only purpose to make LF much better. And 0,9% is nothing.
Kondic said recently in an interview the most important thing is for an airline (Air Serbia) to be profitable. If they are not making money they will have to make changes until they are. Their mandate is not to increase passenger numbers at any cost.
DeleteOT: Is Elevate Play available on A330 for those who prefer to watch on their mobile devices? Thanks
ReplyDeleteI tried to use it on my iphone, but it didn't work. Though it was on promo flight BEG-BNX-BEG.
DeleteVidecemo dali su letovi sigurni i dali ce i dalje biti aktuelno ako bi jedan od Ex Yu poceo sa tim letovima.
ReplyDeleteINN-NS
Pocece ASL, i to iz Nisa. Promotivni let 31.4.2017.-te
DeleteDon't be fooled. Another scam.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to buy a ticket for fixed days on the route Zagreb - Seoul - Zagreb (Korean Air) for individual traveler? Anyone knows where to buy it?
ReplyDelete