TAV interested in financing Zagreb’s new terminal, according to PM
The construction of Zagreb’s long awaited new terminal hasn’t begun yet as the Croatian Government looks for private investors. The government wants to share costs for the terminal’s construction through a public private partnership. According to the Croatian Prime Minister, Jadranka Kosor, the Turkish airport operator TAV has expressed interest in the venture. The news comes after Kosor presented plans to stimulate the Croatian economy at a business forum in Istanbul. TAV is present in the region and runs both Skopje and Ohrid airports.However, over the past few months, media reports have stated that a Chinese consortium and several other European airports are interested in partially financing the construction of Zagreb’s new terminal. In return, they would run the airport for several decades.
Construction of the constantly delayed project is now scheduled to begin sometime next year, at best. The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by 2015. The current terminal has reached its maximum capacity and can no longer handle the volume of passengers or aircraft using Croatia’s main airport.
Can someone please tell me what did Zagreb airport look like in Yugoslavia? Like what airlines flew there and what kind of service it had?
ReplyDeleteThanks
Dear Anonymous 1,
ReplyDeleteI'm 45 years old and work in aviation, and remember very well how did ZAG look like in Yugoslavia;
unfortunatelly, the airport as an object-terminal building, apron, runway, tower, auxiliary objects- in size remained the sime.
In quality, there are some improvements, as equipment was installed 5-6 years ago for cat III operations (very bad weather), and terminal building had some interior improvements. But nothing really dramatic.
The biggest difference in pre-war and today ZAG is traffic, and that, too, not by volume and numbers, but by quality - simply, some 20 years ago, ZAG was HUB which collected traffic from DBV, SPU, PUY, ZAD, SKP, SJJ, OMO to disperse it to JFK, ORD, CLE, DTW, YMX, YYZ.
ZAG was hub for ex-JAT long-haul flights, which were: 3 times weekly to JFK, 3 times weekly to YMX-YYZ, 2 times weekly to ORD, 1 weekla to CLE/DTW.
In addition to that, ex-PAN AM had 4 weekly frequencies non-stop ZAG to JFK, on A310, and Air Canada 3 weekly non-stops to YYZ on B767/L1015.
ZAG was hub for Adria (JP), too, where traffic was collected from previously mentioned "domestic" flights, and dispersed to STU, FRA, HAM, HAJ, DUS, CGN, SXF.
Airlines which flew from/to ZAG (speaking, of course, of regular services only, not charters), in addition to already mentioned JU, JP, PA, AC, were following:
-EL AL
-British Airways
-Air France
-Austrian Airlines
-Air France
-Aeroflot
-LOT
-CSA
-ex-Interflug (East Germany)
-Lufthansa
-SAS
-Swissair
-Pan Adria/Transadria (Croatian)
Hope you'll find these information useful,
best regards!
Just forgot to mention KLM.
ReplyDelete@ex-yu aviation
ReplyDeleteI would like to know why is my post which preceded "just forgot to mention KLM", erased, without trace it's been posted (twice)?
I only listed facts there, no politics, no bad words...
Please answer me. Thanks!
^ It was automatically deleted by the website because it thinks its spam. Sorry for the inconvenience, I have managed to repost it.
ReplyDelete@ex-yu avation
ReplyDeleteNo problem, no need for excuses, thanks for reposting and explaining!
I wonder whether it is a good deal to allow a foreign company or airport run the terminal for the next couple of years? It is no longer in Croatia's hands if they go ahead with this deal. And I assumed that Zagreb Airport had enough money to finance a new terminal? I was under the impression that they were doing well.
ReplyDeleteOn a somewhat unrelated note, I'm hearing rumors that Belgrade is planning to completely expand and refurbish Terminal 1 as well as create a new runway and upgrade the existing one and traffic network. Is this true?
Pozdrav iz Rijeke,
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for the info. I was always wondering what kind of service other ex-Yu airports had.
Such a shame thta the terminal is still the same as back then, it looks quite...well, disgusting and outdated. In terms of overall quality it must rank pretty low. Soon even Sarajevo might have a more modern terminal than Zagreb... shame.
So I suppose that Jat had at least 2-3 planes based in Zagreb?
Regards from Belgrade
I don t know many JU aircrafts were based in Zagreb as many longhaul flights were routed BEG-ZAG-JFK or BEG-ZAG-ORD or BEG-LJU-CLE. Of course there were also flights such as BEG-ORD-LAX
ReplyDeleteAlso Swissair flew daily to Yugoslavia with SR 456 ZRH-ZAG-BEG. During Holidays and Summer months even with the Airbus A310-200 or 300. Also JU operated for years ZRH-ZAG-BEG
ZAG airport def needs a facelift and upgrade. And who will manage the airport at all, is not sometihng we should worry about. Important is the product and the quality. And I rather see some professionals coming from Turkey or Germany,Switzerland or elsewhere to run this airport they way it should have been since 30 years already
@Anonymous 1
ReplyDeleteex-JAT (I always stress "ex", as what is called JAT today is BIG NOTHING compared to what JAT Yugoslav Airlines, 20-30 years ago, used to be; just for example-it was much bigger, stronger, more important and better organized airline with wider route network, and better fleet and staff, then THY, Austrian or Finnair of that time, not to mention Malev, CSA, and other east-block airlines).
ex-JAT medium-haul non-stop destinations from/to ZAG were:
Beograd
Nis
Skopje
Podgorica(Titograd)
Sarajevo
Mostar
Pula
Zadar
Split
Dubrovnik
Osijek
Istanbul
Athens
Cairo
Algiers
London
Paris
Lyon
Barcelona
Madrid
Zurich
Dusseldorf
Hamburg
Stuttgart
Frankfurt
Munchen
Copenhagen
Gothenburg
Stockholm
Milano
Prague
Berlin(East-SXF)
Amsterdam
Brussels
I completely agree with you it's shame ZAG is still today as it used to be 30 years ago. Let's hope it will be changed in course of the next few years.
@ JU 520 BEGLAX
It's true SR operated ZRH-ZAG-BEG v.v.for decades, some summers even on A310. However, last 6-7 years before ex-Yu had fallen apart, SR operated separate daily flights ZRH-ZAG and ZRH-BEG, on DC9/MD80.
Concerning the second part of your post, about ZAG future, I agree 100%.
Hello!
ReplyDeleteWhat about flights between two biggest EX-YU republics??!!
I think there is big interest in direct flights from Belgrade to Split and Zagreb and vice-versa.
How many decades more people have to wait or travel throug Bosnia and Lika for 13 and more hours by bus.
If Jat or CA do not find interest??! what about foreign companies?
Thanx