Low cost carrier easyJet has announced its expansion plans for the Croatian market in 2017. It involves the introduction of seven new routes and a considerable increase in capacity for next year, by over 23% versus 2016, meaning nearly one million seats will be on sale from and to Croatia. The airline will commence new seasonal flights from Dubrovnik to Belfast, Basel, Manchester and Naples. Last year, easyJet was Dubrovnik's second busiest carrier behind Croatia Airlines, handling 189.328 travellers. Furthermore, the budget airline will start services from Pula to Bristol and Berlin, as well as from Milan to Zadar, making it its fourth airport served in Croatia. The carrier estimates handling some 8.000 passengers on the Milan - Zadar service during its first year.
easyJet's Senior Route Manager, Dimitris Schoinas, said, "We are pleased to be announcing a significant investment in Croatia making nearly one million seats available to and from the country in 2017. We launch seven new routes and the brand new network point of Zadar. The new flights will offer more choice to European tourists to spend their holidays in the beautiful seaside resorts of Croatia, as well as to Croatian passengers to connect to Europe". He added, "I am sure the new flights to Zadar, where we expect to carry over 8.000 passengers in the first summer of operations, will soon prove popular with Italian holidaymakers".
easyJet handled over 600.000 passengers on its flights to and from Croatia last year. During the peak travel month of August, easyJet offers almost as many seats as Croatia Airlines from the country. As it continues to expand throughout Croatia, easyJet has stopped short of confirming a return to Zagreb. It discontinued its services from London Gatwick to the Croatian capital at the end of the 2014 summer season. In previous years it had also suspended flights from Paris and Dortmund to Zagreb. However, it is believed the airline could soon return to the Croatian capital. For its part, the budget carrier says it is assessing all opportunities on the basis of market research with business cases on several routes. "easyJet is always evaluating new options and opportunities to be more profitable and continue growing in Europe with the primary focus for the short term to thicken our presence in our core markets", the airline told EX-YU Aviation News.
| Route | Launch date |
|---|---|
| Belfast - Dubrovnik | 14.05.2017 |
| Bristol - Pula | 27.05.2017 |
| Naples - Dubrovnik | 26.06.2017 |
| Berlin - Pula | 27.06.2017 |
| Milan - Zadar | 27.06.2017 |
| Basel - Dubrovnik | 28.06.2017 |
| Manchester - Dubrovnik | 22.07.2017 |
wow that's a lot of growth. Croatia Airlines should be worried.
ReplyDeleteNot even one of these destinations is a destination OU flies to (except Milan and this is seasonally and from Zagreb), so how should they be worried about these new routes...
DeleteBecause these are ALL routes they should/could have operated. Others are stealing their lunch while OU is doing nothing.
DeleteCroatia is getting more and more popular each year
DeleteAnd OU is getting smaller and smaller... think about that.
DeleteSotheby's is opening their office in Split in 2017, they announced it a few days ago. Rich people coming to buy houses/villas.
DeleteGreat. But keep in mind that you have to offer a lot of things to rich people, not only sun and sea, and for sure avoid that attitude of working only a couple of months and pretend a lot of money out of it. This is what I noticed many times in Dalmatia. I'm from Istria, btw. Things are a bit better here in Pula.
DeletePula and Istra were always light years ahead of the rest of the country. ;)
DeleteThey should finally open a base in Dubrovnik. They offer so many flights now.
ReplyDeleteBecause Dubrovnik airport is expensive as hell and because they are probably not interested in subsidising airlines for basing an aircraft.
Deletesuper je kad netko da odgovor a nigdje pitanja.
DeleteDubrovnik is too expensive for LCC i think they will earlier base an aircraft in Zadar than in Dubrovnik
DeleteSplit isnt in this wave ?
ReplyDeleteThere is no more space at Split both capacity and slot wise on many days.
DeleteI think they started Zadar because they could not Split.
DeleteSplit has much higher potential than Zadar but their taxes and additional costs they charge are extremely high, esp. compared to ZAD - possibly U2 estimates still good enough sales due to lower total sales prices for customers at ZAD.
DeleteBut sure, capacity restrictions can also be an issue.
Split is full so they diverted to Zadar
DeleteHow much can Zadar actually accommodate before they need an expansion ?
DeleteI mean, once they hit the 1 mil. pax mark how further can they go with the existing terminal ?
5 years after they finish all these new terminals on the Adriatic, they will hit their max :)
DeleteAnd Split way before that lol
Zadar will probably get more than 600.000 passengers in 2017. I dont know what the maximum capacity is.
DeleteZadar probably is maximum capacity about 1 million if the growth continious they will be at the max in a couple of years
DeleteWe need them back in Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteWhy did they leave? High fees or low demand?
DeleteLow demand wasn't for sure.
DeleteMy guess was that the market was there but it wasn't willing to pay enough to fly so that the flights make enough money for the airline.
DeleteYesterday it was published here that DBV said no to Ryanair's conditions and I am glad they did. There are obviously plenty of other airlines that want to fly from Dubrovnik.
ReplyDeleteYeah, DBV has no problem either in attracting airlines or pax. And as the manager said, they have all the money they need
DeleteHopefully they will start Zagreb next year or in 2018.
ReplyDeleteThank god DBV will open another terminal by next summer
ReplyDeleteFlew (a few days ago) on DBV-ZAG-CDG route, passed through one part of the new terminal in Dubrovnik, easily the best looking terminal in Ex-Yu, looks amazing!
DeleteHow was the LF on both flights?
DeleteOk, so on the 27th of November I went DBV-ZAG (LF around 90%). The next day ZAG-CDG OU/codeshare AF (LF more than 90%) and then CDG-JFK with Air France (economy class almost 100% full, not sure about Business or Premium economy). On my way back, 10th/11th of December: JFK-CDG (also almost 100% full in economy class), CDG-ZAG with OU (LF around 90%, but only one person in business class), ZAG-DBV (LF 80-85%).
DeleteI wonder why OU doesn't add more flights to CDG if flights are always full.
DeleteCause Kresimir Kucko business genius and airline expert
DeleteDBV has and will have only one terminal.
DeleteNice. Easy Jet is by far the best budget airline. Much better service than Wizz, and miles better than Ryan.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't get is that this is an airline offering a million seats yet they don't fly to a single city through the whole year.
ReplyDeleteBecause the demand is really limited during the winter months. What surprises me is that they are ignoring ZAG, the biggest single market in the country!!
DeleteThat can only indicat high fees. And they will increase again from 1.3.17
DeleteDo you know by how they are increasing them?! But if the airport was already expensive before now it will become even more so.
DeleteWhat strikes me is that there is also considerable diaspora from Southern Bosnia and area around Split living in Germany, Austria and Scandinavia.
DeleteYet there are no services to both Split and Mostar in winter other than few OU/4U Germany feeder (FRA, MUC, CGN, STR). MUC is also served by LH in winter.
But nothing to Vienna, Berlin, Britain and whole Scandinavia. Whenever I am down there on the coast between SPU and DBV in winter, I come across lots of tourists compared to 10 years before - mainly older British tourists. How do they get there during OCT-APR? All via German hubs?
Also here from Vienna, you are forced driving 10 hours by car as air fares are mostly totally crazy (usually way above Kn 2000 return, mostly around Kn 2400-2800 if you want a quick connection during daytime) for two short flights of 50mins duration via ZAG.
Some winter LCC services will do wonders to SPU during off season. Can they not lower charges during this part of year only?
There is definately demand to serve main cities outside of ZAG and Germany.
@ AnonymousDecember 14, 2016 at 10:29 AM
Delete+2 euros per passanger for international flights
+0.5 for domestic
600k is really impressive on a seasonal basis.
ReplyDeleteAny information about other new routes they will fly to Zadar? I doubt they'll keep it just to this one?
ReplyDeleteeasyJet said they are sure this new route will become successful. If you read it between the lines they will probably open new routes from Zadar. Split is almoste full an Zadar has the space for growing.
DeleteZadar really misses a connection to the Netherlands hopefully transavia, easyjet or ryanair will start that route from Amsterdam, Rotterdam or Eindhoven.
ReplyDeleteThis is a perfect chance for Ryanair for opening a route from Eindhoven to Zadar since there's no direct connection between the Netherlands and Zadar.
DeleteI'm sure this route would be very profitable, if you keep in mind the region around Eindhoven has more than 2 million inhabitants.
I don't think easyJet will open routes from Eindhoven to Zadar, easyJet is concentrating it business in the Netherlands on Amsterdam.
DeleteI think this would be a perfect route for Ryanair or Transavia as both airlines have a base at Eindhoven.
People should avoid easy at all cost
ReplyDeleteYeah I also wonder what's the reason for your comment. Out the big 3 LCCs, they are the best. Much better than Wizz and Ryan. Not to mention they fly to primary airports.
DeleteOT: Turkish to increase Dubrovnik-Istanbul from the beginning of the summer timetable to daily.
ReplyDeleteStrange. They increase DBV to daily while ZAG gets reduced to 10 weekly.
DeleteThey flew daily during this summer.
DeleteExcellent news for DBV. What are the passenger estimates for next year?
ReplyDelete2,4m, 20pc up.
DeleteNew routes and increases in 2017. at DBV, not just easy.
DeleteProbably between 15 and 25 percent growth
So in 2018 we can expect close to 3 million passengers in DBV!
DeleteAbout 2,5 mil! 3 mil is too much.
DeleteI was talking about 2018, not 2017.
DeleteSvejedno, 3 mil mozda tek 2019., tesko prije.
DeleteChova je napisao: close to 3 million. :)
DeleteA ta tri meleona ce da spava gde?
Deletepa majku mu valjda ce prosiriti kapacitet... neka putuju severnije od grada.
DeleteDubrovnik might hit 2.3 million next year, if all goes well. Anything over 2.3 million would be a major success.
DeleteCroatia's Airport next year.
Zagreb: 3 070 000 (3.25 million if things really go well)
Split: 2 570 000 (2.7 million possible)
Dubrovnik: 2 300 000 (2.4 million possible)
Zadar: 575 000 (625 000 possible)
Pula: 475 000 (500 000 possible)
Rijeka: 175 000 (200 000 possible)
Osijek: 40 000
Total: ~9.2 million (~9.7 million if all goes well)
Just to add, did some projections for Croatia by 2020.
DeleteCroatia's Airport next year.
Zagreb: 4 500 000 (5.0 million if 30 foreign Carriers)
Split: 3 250 000 (4.0 million possible)
Dubrovnik: 3 000 000 (3.5 million possible)
Zadar: 800 000 (875 000 possible)
Pula: 720 000 (800 000 possible)
Rijeka: 375 000 (500 000 possible)
Osijek: ~80 000
Total: ~12.7 million (~14.7 million if all goes well)
^^
DeleteSlight error, meant to say
Croatia's Airport year 2020.
Zagreb: 3 070 000 (3.25 million if things really go well)
Split: 2 570 000 (2.7 million possible)
Dubrovnik: 2 300 000 (2.4 million possible)
Zadar: 575 000 (625 000 possible)
Pula: 475 000 (500 000 possible)
Rijeka: 175 000 (200 000 possible)
Osijek: 40 000
Total: ~9.2 million (~9.7 million if all goes well)
Brac airport is in the middle of an upgrade of its runway. Mali Losinj is also to expand.
DeleteCurrently they both handle about 10k
OT:
ReplyDeleteW6 to open a base at VAR starting from July 2017
INI is next
Deleteis easy jet the busiest foreign airline in Croatia?
ReplyDeleteNo, I think it's Lufthansa.
DeleteZAG needs new routes that can be served by airlines like U2. They should covert the current terminal for LCCs when the new one opens.
ReplyDeleteNot gonna happen... the French need everyone to move to the new terminal so that they can get their return on investment.
DeleteI think they should start flights from Zagreb to Düsseldorf
DeleteOU 367 14.12.2016
ReplyDeleteWe were not more than 15 pax.
The other day I was at Zag airport and the flight to SKP seemed totally packed, while the flight to SJJ was about 50% LF
DeleteThis was the 'night' flight back. Was yours in the afternoon?
DeleteYes it was the afternoon flight for both skp and sjj
DeleteOT
ReplyDeleteAnyone know if some of the JU planes went for C checks?
YU-AND is flying the whole day today
BEG-CPH-BEG
BEG-SJJ-BEG
BEG-ZRH-BEG
YU-ANI today
BEG-DUS-BEG
BEG-SKP-BEG
Also, seems like LO has upgraded BEG to an E75 destination (88 seats) up from the E70 (70 seats). Last week it even sent its E95 with a capacity of 112 seats!
DeleteLet's see what they have in store for summer!
Odlicno je sto pregovaraju sa U2 .
ReplyDeleteNadam se da ce i INI uspeti da privuce U2 da leti za INI i otvori nove Destinacije sto bi donelo vise putnika INI.
INN-NS
Bravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDelete