Maribor to get unusal Northern Cyprus link
Adria Airways will launch seasonal summer charters to the breakaway state of Northern Cyprus, in what will be a first for the airline, the “Finance” portal reports. In collaboration with the “Kompas” tour operator, Adria will operate services from Maribor to Ercan International Airport in Northern Nicosia. The airport is exclusively served by airlines from Turkey. Northern Cyprus declared independence from the Republic of Cyprus in 1983 after Turkish troops had to push back following their invasion of the island in 1974. It is recognised as an independent state only by Turkey. While the whole island of Cyprus is considered to be part of the European Union, EU laws and regulations are not enforced in the north.
The news will be warmly welcomed by Maribor Airport which hopes to turn its fortunes around this year following the opening of its brand new terminal. The airport, which has seen little traffic over the past few years, has also secured the arrival of Aegean Airlines which will operate seasonal services from the Greek island of Kos. Besides services to Northern Cyprus, Adria will also operate summer charters from Slovenia’s second largest city to holiday destinations in Greece and Turkey. Adria’s recent spike in charter flights has significantly boosted passenger numbers for the airline as it looks to claw back customers following two difficult years for the national carrier, during which it was forced to downsize its network.
Meanwhile, Adria will shake up its fleet as the airline looks to retire three out of its five Bombardier CRJ200s. The airline currently has a fleet of twelve aircraft, with a CRJ900 on order. Recent reports suggest that German based Intro Aviation is close to finalising a majority takeover of Adria Airways. The company is said to be negotiating a 74.8% stake in the airline.
Ex-Yu I would kindly ask you to change the capital N from northern Cyprus to a lower case one. It is not an independent state hence why it should be written as 'northern Cyprus'.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very important and it has caused problems in the past. I am sure you didn't know.
Best from Nicosia.
There is no way this flight can be operated directly. It has to stop somewhere in Turkey first. Pegasus operates flights from Ercan/Tymvou to London Stansted but they stop at SAW first. It is not permitted to fly directly because, as mentioned earlier, the whole occupied area is considered as a special case- it is not an independent state.
Also there is no such thing as Northern Nicosia. Nicosia is one city divided into two by the green line. Both claim that their part is called Nicosia.
DeleteThey will probably combine Antalya and Nicosia.
DeleteAs I know there will be a stop in Antalya before landing in Ercan
DeleteLOL is all I can say. I saw this a few days ago advertised on the kompas wesite and wondered how on earth will people get to the turkish part. Now i know
ReplyDeleteit's nothing new at all, exept now there will be flights to Ercan from MBX too.for the past few years Onur air operated LJU-Antalya-Ercan.Nortern Cyprus is not yet "polluted" like the southern part, so for some in deed more interesting to visit.besides that, from say Nicosia, Slovenians (and other people from EU countries) need just an ID card to visit southern Cyprus.
Deletei meant "polluted" by mass tourism :)
DeleteAt the moment north is doing better then the south.
ReplyDeleteNorth is doing 'better' because it is on life support provided by Ankara. Things are far from good up there.
DeleteYeah right... We r all witnessing how great the south is doing these days...
DeleteThe south will rebound because it has an economy and it is actually an internationally recognize country with a massive source of gas which will be exploited soon.
DeleteThe occupied north is a dark hole that survives on a casino economy by attracting mostly Greek-Cypriots.
Even Davutoglu was happy to use these problems in the south to push for a solution of the division. If the north was so great why would they do it?
And what economy does the south exactly have??
DeleteMoneylaundring sofar and it will stop or no more billions for support from brussels.besides that theres only tourism-so in summary no economy worth mentioning.
And if the gas fields are feasable to explore and when- nobody knows
I really advise you to research before you post on here.
DeleteCyprus is a major power when it comes to shipping and just last year, in the first nine months, they earned €2 billion from it.
The gas is very much viable, if it wasn't we would not have the Turkish political dogs barking for it every day. The installations have already begun and they are primary take care of by Total and some other major companies.
€2 billion is from tourism, not shipping. The numbers for shipping is much greater and so is the profit from their service industry.
Delete...and I advise you to read the newspapers.
DeleteThe country (the southern part of it to be more precise) is on a brink of Bankruptcy
Oh please stop this greek propaganda!! At least no such discussion with Balkan people..We all know how 'good and functional' are economies of Greece and Southern Cyprus. The truth is that although Northern Cyprus lives on the infusion of Ankara, Greece and Cyprus are living on the back of EU, IMF, World Bank for centuries. It was almost the 13th bankruptcy of Greece in history.
DeleteAnd about JP a very good decision to retire 3 planes-they actually don't need more than 7 planes according to me if they want to stretch it profitably. Tuned about the deal with Intro Aviation..
Sounds like many of the ex-yu discussions on here. Welcome.
DeleteOT: Zagreb airport figures for March: 175.384, +11%
ReplyDeleteActually it is 12,7% (155.672 to 175.384)
DeleteSince Drljaca change Peovic as ZAG CEO number of passengers increased rapidly
2012. January-October -0,6% (Peovic was replaced on 24th October)
2012. November +5,1%
2012. December +4,1%
2013. January +4,7%
2013. February +7,3%
2013. March +12,7%
Thank for the correction. How do you suspect that the change in CEO's could so quickly create an effect on pax numbers ?
DeleteI don't understand, but would appreciate your input as I am myself curious.
Nonetheless I am happy about this growth and hope for a yearly total growth of at least 7%, enough to reach 2,5 mil at last...
Who is the main driving force behind this growth? Is it OU or some other carriers?
DeleteWell I do have some inside information, but as this is very unofficial and just personal opinions, for sure, it is not for publish in public media.
DeleteFrom April growth will not be so big because of cuts from Croatia Airlines in summer time-table which is mostly forced in ZAG. Turkish will start 2nd daily flight but from June, for sure LF will be much bigger in all other flights because of bigger demand, and for sure there will be reactions from some other companies during summer, as we can already notice bigger planes flying to ZAG instead of planed. Also some newcomers like British will benefit from CTN cuts. But, without doubt, CTN will generate at least 4-5% growth reduction. For sure we will continue steady growth, but not as big as it could be if CTN did not force this urgent and unplanned reduction in capacity.
Wow,
DeleteThis is an impressive increase of nearly 20,000 more pax!
Could this be linked to the match Croatia vs Serbia?
naa, 6 flights hardly account for 20 000 passengers, April will also be good, i predict 5.5% increase on 20012.
Delete2,55 million for 2013 is what i predict, anything better would be outstanding in my book.
2014 will see 3.0 million passengers, benefit of the EU membership should come in to full force with much of the EU coming out of the recession and Zagreb becoming major City brake destination popular among West Europeans and increase in number of flights by likes of Air France, British Airways, Easy Jet and German Wings in 2014 and arrival of KLM, SAS and return some of the older customers such as CSA,LOT and Iberia (if they find way out of financial difficulties by than) Zagreb airport could see massive increase in passengers in 2015 and onwards.
With new terminal opening in 2016 Zagreb airport will truly dominate the region and who knows how good the numbers can get, perhaps 7 million by 2020, although 5,0 million is my conservative estimate.
another one with a crystal ball...
DeleteAs far as I know the situation of the island, Adria nor any other foreign carrier is not allowed to land on Turkish side using on call sign and flight numbers. It is against ICAO??
ReplyDeleteSorry own call sign and flight numbers...
ReplyDeleteHmmm...Adria seems to be obsessed with breakaway countries !
ReplyDeleteWould anyone fly to northern Cyprus is my question?
ReplyDelete80% Slovenes spend their holidays in Croatia, 20% go to Italy, Spain and France. Not sure how profitable is for Adria airways starting flights to northern Cyprus via turkey mind you, and hope to make any profit in doing do??
go somewhere new.
Deletego somewhere where you haven't been on 80% of your vacations
go somewhere where you get better value for your money
go somewhere where you get better service compared to Croatia.
I can think of many reasons.
I do agree, though, that I'd be surprised if this route were successful.
If i would go somewhere new,
ReplyDeletesomewhere 90% of people never were or never would go,
then i would end up in a country like Serbia or at least Belgrade!
I always hear from people who went there that it is awesome,
although they before had only very low expections.
Nice! I was just looking to go to holidays to N. Cyprus, maybe this will be a nice option...
ReplyDeleteNice! I am looking for visiting North Korea with Adria Airways...
ReplyDeleteWhen will start the flights from Prishtina to Pyeongyang?
on the very same day Jat will start flying from Belgrade to Pristina and Greece will allow Macedonia to use its name
Deletewell, maybe it will be sucessfull.surely there is demand because Onur air had those charters to LJU for some years now (a combo of Antalya and Ercan).otherwise i agree, many destinations are a better money value then croatia.
ReplyDeleteAt least 12 million people and counting tend to not agree.
Deleteand many do.
DeleteI travelled with friends from Canada and the USA both to Croatia and Turkey last summer. It was everyone's opinion that Turkey was a far better bang for your buck.
Croatia is a place where a lot of people will visit only once.
Too expensive for what's offered and too 'Balkans' service. Better than Montenegro, but not as superior as Croatians like to think
Maybe, but I find it funny how just tonight I had dinner with 2 people I never met and all they talked about was how they are looking forward to there Holiday in Croatia. I met another girl 2 months back who did a European holiday last year and she told me that she already booked to go to Europe again this year. Where is she going.....? London and Croatia, no where else and yes she went to Croatia last year too. I have Australian friends who live and work in London. One is going back to Croatia for his third consecutive year. So maybe Croatia is a bit more popular than you think. But I will agree with you that the service can improve as well as the infrastructure such as casinos and golf courses. So the only way here is up for Croatia.
ReplyDeletenobody said that there are no peole wanting to visit Croatia..some have, and have not been impressed, some have and have been impressed..it all depends what they are looking for.however, what was the point in previous comments, is, that, considering the standard of croatian tourist product, it is too expencive, that's all.and yes, there's a lot of room for improvement!not just golf courses, etc.why not start with basic infrastructure, public transport, behaviour of tourist workers and so on?!
Deleteya no kidding. LOL.
Deleteor being able to pay with your credit card at the bus stations/ferry terminals.
Your point kind of illustrates the issue. Ex-yu people are fundamentally arrogant and think way too highly of themselves. In Croatia, this manifests itself in this attitude, "we have a beautiful shoreline. lots of people come here. give me your money and take off" (lol @ casinos!).
As an outsider who's in the region who wants the best for everyone here (I'm not making my comments through the prism of balkans ethnic BS), I see Croatia levelling off. It's too crowded already. It's too expensive for what you're getting and most of the people's attitude sucks after you've already given them your money.
Most of my company found Croatia to be a strange country of reluctant hoteliers.
Also, if a ferry doesn't run every day, it might be a good idea for the workers to get on board and tell people the right days on the phone so you don't find yourself stranded at the terminal. I would work on that before casinos and golf courses.
DeleteWhatever!
ReplyDeleteI have been to over 20 different countries and the only one where I can remember not experiencing 'bad service' is Thailand but maybe I was just lucky on that occasion. (And every Singapore Airlines flight buts a different story.)
If occasional bad service dictated the tourism industries of every country, than Paris and Italy would have long fallen of the tourist map by now.
Truth is that majority of tourist in Croatia are satisfied and impressed with what they get and there is no evidence that Croatia is becoming unpopular, in fact it is becoming more popular and 'trendy' with the young and rich. This is why it is important in my opinion to ensure there are substantial opportunities for this type of tourist and why I gave the example of both golf course and Casino. Did you know that there is a 1 billion dollar golf course set to be built near Dubrovnik? I believe a large casino should also be built in the new town. Like it or not, Casinos and Golf courses bring high spending tourist and not just during the warmer months. If you want the tourist economy to not be seasonal based than these are the type of projects that really need to be considered. So I don't know why you find it funny. You don't have to agree, that's fine but finding it funny shows a real lack of knowledge from your behalf.
Of course there is always people who are not satisfied but clearly they along with you Doot, when it comes to Croatian tourism are in the clear minority.
ha ha ok then. I really don't give a flying crap about whether Croatia does fantastically or goes bust but your attitude is a great example of why I think it will level off.
DeleteParis is Paris. Croatia? what you get there can be had for cheaper and better in Turkey.
As for Casinos, they tend to be a 0-sum proposition. People lose money at the casino that they would have spent elsewhere in the local economy.