El Al begins Zagreb flights
El Al Israel Airlines has commenced 2 weekly flights to the Croatian capital Zagreb. The Israeli national carrier replaces its charter subsidiary, Sun d’Or International Airlines, on the route. The charter airline lost its operational license this month and all of its routes have been taken over by El Al. The airline operates 2 weekly flights from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport using a Boeing 757-200. The airline will be in direct competition with Croatia Airlines which operates 1 flight per week to Ben Gurion Airport.Meanwhile, Croatia and the United Arab Emirates have signed an open air services Memorandum of Understanding and initialled an Air Services Agreement. The two delegations agreed that any number of designated airlines of both parties will have the right to perform scheduled air services. The UAE delegation designated Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways, Air Arabia, RAK Airways and FlyDubai as UAE national airlines under the agreement. The Croatian delegation designated Croatia Airline, Dubrovnik Airline and Trade Air as its designated carriers. The agreements allow full flexibility on the routes, capacity, number of frequencies and types of aircraft, in any type of service (passenger or cargo). The signed memorandum also includes the exercise of fifth freedom traffic rights. In addition, both parties agreed to allow unrestricted non-scheduled operations between the two countries.
Ok, let the speculations of how Emirates can be successful in Zagreb start.
ReplyDelete^ Anonymous
ReplyDeleteNo, we now have confirmed where OU will be stopping on those long-promised flights to Australia!!
Jokes aside, OU really has to jump the gun here and launch flights to DXB before EK does, who would flood the market with daily 332s (incredibly, their smallest a/c). We know that the numbers stack in favour of 2-3 weekly A319 flights ZAG-DXB and an interline agreement could easily be reached...
Another rumour going around the traps is that EK is actually more interested in DBV. How would that play out for connectivity to exYU?
DBV would only serve a part of Bosnia, Montenegro and a part of Croatia. I do not think that someone from Skopje would go to Dubrovnik to catch a flight to Dubai.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I do not think that EK would launch Zagreb with the A330-200 but rather with FlyDubai and their B737-800. They could combine Zagreb and Ljubljana and in such a way reduce the impact of Turkish Airlines and their offer to Australia via Singapore.
cool.
ReplyDeleteI've looked at flights to Israel from the region before.
Sun d'or won't let you buy tickets from Zagreb to TLV, only flights originating in TLV. Hopefully this means you can originate in other location.
Please note that Tel Aviv is not the capital of Israel, as stated in your article. Jerusalem is.
ReplyDeleteWonderful, now not only we have Balkan nationalism but also Middle Eastern one.
ReplyDeleteIs this route for tourist groups or..?
Either Croatia has been underserving the route or El Al is putting too much capacity. Two times per week B757-200 is a lot when compared to what Croatia was offering until now.
Today Niki is to operate HG1910/1911 VIE-TIV-VIE. Is this a charter flight or something else? I think this is the first time this is happening:)
ReplyDelete"Either Croatia has been underserving the route or El Al is putting too much capacity. Two times per week B757-200 is a lot when compared to what Croatia was offering until now."
ReplyDeleteYou didn't read the article.
ElAl is replacing it's subsidiary, Sun D'or on the flights.
It whould be nice to see EK to ZAG , I think EK first will go ZAG then BEG , or maybe both linked together, 2-3 times per week will do the job. If the route is profitable they might delink one city and add SOF to the other city, since QR already starting the balkan market slowly EK and EY needs to be quicker and better competitive. I have a filling it will happen in the next 12 months or earlier.
ReplyDeleteEven if OU fly to DXB or AUH , I think ppl will use EK or EY cos they have larger airplanes, no one wants to be +6 hours on A319 or any B737 .
@ Anonymous between Shalom and JU500
ReplyDeleteJust to show how wrong you are in regards of what Croatia was offering until now, I will list Croatia to Israel and v.v. flights for this summer season -
1 weekly ZAG-TLV Croatia A320
2 weekly DBV-TLV Croatia A320
2 weekly ZAG-TLV El-Al B757
1 weekly RJK-TLV Arkia B757
2 weekly DBV-TLV Arkia B757
1 weekly PUY-TLV Dubrovnik MD80
1 weekly ZAG-DBV Dubrovnik MD80
1 weekly SPU-TLV Dubrovnik MD80
2 weekly DBV-TLV Dubrovnik MD80,
which is approximately 2 daily flights, on planes with capacity 150-200 seats.
Information can be checked on Aerocroatia site, Timetables section. Best regards and Shalom!
The El Al flights make sense, seeing as how the only operator for flights to Israel is not flying anymore. Although I am not sure how many Israelis travel to Croatia but Emirates is doing the same deal that it made with Serbia. The result will be the same as with Serbia...NOTHING.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous (#3)
ReplyDeleteSo travellers to ZAG should be denied the opportunity to fly a full-service airline, when nearby VIE, VCE etc gets that service? Very unlikely the cost would be lower to encourage people to use the service! Even more reason for OU to get in on the act quick smart...
Also, I think DBV is chosen not for neighbouring countries, but as a stand-alone tourist destination on the Adriatic...
@ Dreamliner
Yet QR is flying 320s and 319s to BUD, SOF... 5/6hr flights, with full service and personal TVs even in economy. If the short connection times and prices are encouraging, people will use them. EK is the only ME3 airline that has no narrowbodied planes in their fleet.