All Zagreb flights cancelled tomorrow
Zagreb Airport employees will begin the first of three rounds of industrial action on Thursday, November 21, beginning at 10.00 CET and lasting until midnight on Friday. Workers are unhappy with the concession agreement signed between the Croatian government and the airport’s future operator Zagreb Airport International Company. In addition, the union says the terms of the collective agreement are not being upheld and they are unhappy with their treatment on behalf of the Ministry for Sea, Transport and Infrastructure. The strike comes after several attempts at reconciliation between the union and the airport failed. The airport’s management has stated the industrial action is uncalled for.
The strike will see the cancellation of all flights to the Croatian capital. Croatia Airlines will divert many of its services to other airports in the country and offer bus transfers to Zagreb. Unofficially, employees will begin their second round of industrial action on November 25 at 23.00, ending it at the same time on November 28. A third round of work stoppage has been scheduled for December 1 and will last until the union’s demands are met. Tomorrow's strike is expected to impact the airport's passenger numbers, which have decreased by 1.4% in the first ten months of the year.
Previously, the union outlined seven conditions to its employer which include the immediate halt of the airport’s takeover, an investigation into the concession agreement, pay guarantees for employees in advance of one year and appropriate government measures against the airport’s management which the union says has “damaged the airport’s financial credibility and reputation”. The planned strike is the second to hit the Croatian aviation industry this year. In May, thousands of passengers were grounded when Croatia Airlines’ employees walked off the job for over a week. The original takeover of Zagreb Airport on behalf of the French led consortium was planned for early this year. Problems with the airport’s employees have delayed the start of construction of the airport’s new terminal which has now been postponed until the first quarter of 2014.
AIR SERBIA PLACED AN ORDER FOR 10 A320 NEO AT THE DUBAI AIR SHOW YESTERDAY!
ReplyDeleteThey will be delivered between 2018 and 2020!
Sorry to go OT again, but I've been wondering if the FAA had given Serbia category one rating yet? It was reported on February 12 that they were going to give Serbia category one, but I haven't been able to find anything about it anywhere, does anyone have any news? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAll OU flights will be diverted to SPU, and transfered to Zagreb by buses.
ReplyDeleteHow long is the bus ride?
DeleteAbout 5 hours... why not redirect to LJU?
DeleteWhy not pula and zadar combined, even chuck in osijek into it to handle the demand a little better. Split is so much further and inconvenient for the passengers.
DeleteSplit is 400km away from ZAG. Airports like Osijek may not be able to handle all OU flights from Zagreb, but OSI would be able to handle a great deal of it. And Pula and Zadar are around 280km away, way closer than Split.
DeleteI think they have decided to go for Split because of logistics. I suppose that due to their ok presence in summer and winter they do have a enough people and equipment there to handle the flights.
DeleteThey do not care about passangers. Who cares if flight from Munich should last 1h and something + transfer to bus in SPU + transfer to ZAG... at least 6 hour more... from ZHR to ZAG about 8 hours travel. My God????
DeleteI think that this will not be so bad for Croatia Airlines because it's the airport that's on strike so every one will be affected.
DeleteWhat about Qatar? Where will they land? Split as well? Maybe they will bus the passengers from Budapest. :D
Split is chosen because of highest number of OU staff and equipment present on SPU.
DeleteI know that Dubrovnik is far away and not really an option but I was wondering if they have more staff and equipment there than they do in Split?
DeleteBy the way, I saw that the strike ends at 23.00. Will some airlines just delay their flights and land once the strike is over? Zagreb is a 24 hour airport so it should not be a problem. OU could easily do that.
ZAD has ZRH and FRA diversions tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't Croatia Airlines just sue the airport union which is going on strike. They can claim that their actions have damaged the image of the airline. I know it's far fetched but if they have a good lawyer they can do it.
ReplyDeleteIt got me thinking. Etihad is attacking Lufthansa big time. They are launching daily flights to Zurich, purchase of Darwin, second daily flights between Abu Dhabi and Munich and so on...
ReplyDeleteWith Zagreb coming under their radar, I am wondering if Lufthansa might be interested in pushing Croatia Airlines to fight harder in reducing the effects of their entry. Maybe a purchase of 20% of the shares and so on. Another option is for Lufthansa to wait for Croatia Airlines to go bust and then open a Germanwings base in Zagreb. I just don't see Lufthansa giving up the Balkans without a fight, especially since its Austrian branch would be at a loss. The upcoming massacre in Switzerland will be interesting to follow.
There is snow in Zagreb already?
ReplyDeleteThere isn't any in Serbia and it's 14 degrees here so I think there shouldn't be any in Zagreb either- especially since both cities have more or less the same climate.
DeleteJust came from Zagreb. No. Weather is just as nice there as it is in Belgrade these days.
DeleteWhat the workers and union forget is that their jobs can be replaced. If they think they cannot be replaced, they should just look back at the Ronald Reagan years, where he fired all the air traffic controllers. Something which everyone would think is harder to replace than a regular airport worker.
ReplyDeleteGood to see OU preparing as much as possible for this jada.
ReplyDeleteWhen you take into account all the legal requirements into consideration and the airports handling abilities than Split is really the only choice OU have to divert all their flights too.
Since OU does not fly into Ljubljana on RPT ops basis, than a regular flight, not charter would have to have regulatory approval which would still cover these types of 'diverted' flights. It would be a better option in terms of both flight time and travel bus time to Zagreb but not a realistic option.
Also,
If this is not over quickly, it would be interesting to see how it effects Splits year ending passenger numbers in terms on taking third busiest airports in the former Yugo.
They can strike as much as they want, we can't continue growth with airport like this... Also, they signed agreement that there will be no demission of work force for 5 years...
ReplyDeleteWorst thing of all is that 'cause of this Zagreb Airport strike shit Croatia Airlines will suffer the most, people are already started the "I hate CA" campaing over newspapers...
People can be such retards at times. This has nothing to do with Croatia Airlines, why is it so hard for them to understand that?! That's why idiots such as these ones can get away with it.
DeleteThis is all just a huge mess and in the year we entered the EU
ReplyDeleteThis has been ongoing....Sorry to say, Zagreb should have had a new terminal a long time ago. Secondly, my feeling is if the union gets what they are seeking, Zagreb won't see a new terminal for another 20 years. The processs will stall completely.
DeleteDoes anyone know if the government has come forward with some proposal or negotiation attempts with these people?
ReplyDeleteThis is really bad publicity for Croatia which needs foreign investment now... and it needs it badly.
+ 1
DeleteAt a time when people all around the word are discovering Croatia in a real positive way. Croatia should be taking full advantage of this good reputation and secure as much foreign investment as possible. instead it is almost impossible to invest into Croatia. Very very bad and extremely stupid, corrupt and selfish from Croatia's politicians.
They really have no idea!
Its not a big deal, strikes happened everywhere, this not being any different than the other, problem is that numbers for Zagreb will plummet, just as airport has started to recover, problem is the militant union.
DeleteI'd fire every single person who went on strike, every single one, and if they don't like it, good, let them find another job elsewhere with same benefits and pay. And I can tell you now, with 350 000 unemployed in Croatia, there's plenty of people who would love to come and work for 6-7000 kuna per month, these cunts are getting paid 9-10 000 kuna per months.
I'd fire every single one of them, on a spot, let them challenge government all they want, and let them go and cry how their families will starve this xmas.
some of these union heads are so fat they never done an honest day of work in their entire lives, I'd have these fired for being fat, for they eat for 5 other saff members /rant
on more serious note, all who want to strike can go on strike and be given a month's notice, they can strike for whole month if they want. airport management should hire new staff, train them them and replace all who got fired!
I'd do that like immediately, and have all fired loose their rights to any benefits or compensation, as they are fired they have no rights to these anyways.
And if they wish to vote for HDZ come the elections next time in 2016, sure let them, it was HDZ who put them in this position in a first place, for they privatized the airport, current government must fulfill the agreed.
They can land in Rijeka
ReplyDeleteWhat negotiations?! They will get new airport, hire up new people, it will be a huge investment that whole region will benefit from it but what happens?! Couple of office "drkadžije" started strike so they can get severance PLUS job in new ZAIC company... HOW YES NO...
ReplyDeleteYou know who will suffer the most? Low rank employees such as baggage handlers and check in personel...
I have to say that it's been pretty uneventful year for the Croatian Aviation. First, the airline staff goes on strike for almost a week and as a result they get nothing. Secondly, the airline was all over the news about technical issues with some of its airplanes, of which one landed with no landing gear. As this wasn't enough, the new airport terminal construction has been delayed several times and we still don't know if it's going to even happen. To make things even more complicated, now, the airport employees are unhappy and have unreal demands which will just further worsen the overall situation and scare potential investors. I understand that the economic conditions in the country are tough, but if no change is done, ZAG Airport in the current condition as it is will deteriorate even further and fail far behind other ex YU Airports.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't agree the the year has been uneventful just nothing positive has happened. All bad news apart from the good growth at Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar and Croatia Airlines becoming profitable again.
DeleteSwiss uvodi još jedan let nedeljno na liniji GVA-BEG-GVA nedeljom, od 12.januara. Odgovor konkurenciji?
ReplyDeleteDo pre mesec dana smo se čudili i pitali zašto još uvek nema direktnih letova na pomenutoj liniji, a od maja sledeće godine ćemo imati 3 avio prevoznika na toj istoj liniji sa ppopriličim brojem frekvencija ukupno.
Btw - ažurnost osobe koja uređuje stranicu BEGa je upitna. Dodatni LX let je momentalno ubacen, dok se U2 i dalje ne nalazi u redu letenja. Da ne govorim o codeshare letovima JU i ostalih. Jedino sto je ostalo su stari letovi LH grupe.
Pogledaj malo bolje. Ubačena je nedelja, a izbačen je utorak. Od 7. januara ga nema više! Nedelja nije novi let, već promena planiranog reda letenja.
DeleteУх када би кренули да тркељамо све запослене на аеродрому Београд... где би нам био крај. Г17 је запосли све своје тамо, толико о томе.
Delete6:20 ujutru iz Zeneve je jako glupo vreme za nedeljni let...
DeleteIzgleda da prodaja ne ide bas sjajno, mogu da se nadju karte po 42CHF u jednom pravcu za dosta datuma ove zime (februar/mart)...
Nadajmo se da ce se Etihad regional imati bolje frekvencije od LX I U2...
Mozda je ipak u pitanju konkurencija? Ipak su nove linije a i imaju popust koj im je dao aerodrom, tako da nije kao da ne mogu da snize cene... barem u prvih sest meseci.
DeleteWhy are they on strike? Unsatisfied? The country has more than 30% unemployment. As a foreigner and investor I give several people work. But these small things are really annoying and not necessary in a country that has so much to lose and there is still so much to do.
ReplyDeleteIt's even worse if we look at youth unemployment in Croatia- it's over 50% now! Fire these people and give a job to the ones who really need it.
Delete-its not 30% nowhere near 30%, its around 15% but many many of these 350 000 unemployed have jobs just that firms they work for don't have them on books to minimize tax burden on firms.
Deleteof 350 000 "unemployed", at least 120 000 are "employed" but are registered as unemployed.
In Croatia today at least 400 000 jobs aren't registered with the employment department, only true picture of employment statistics you get when you look at national employment contribution (tax) where some 2.1 million individuals are paying these taxes and only 120 000 are receiving benefits, for total of 2.2 million individuals.
Indicating that at least 400 000 are not paying their fair share. Social/state Pension tax is their for when people retire so they can draw their state pension retirements.
Current SDP government has plans to tackle this problem, but as it is a recession there are other priorities, but fiskalizacija should sort many firms who do not pay their fair of tax.
In Croatia Grey Economy currently stands at 30% of GDP or around 110 billion kuna.
You know why are they on strike?
ReplyDeleteThey want to get "otpremnine" for Zračna Luka Zagreb d.o.o., and after 5 seconds they want to be transfered to Zagreb Airport International Company (ZAIC) d.o.o....
They want extra money PLUS full time job...
So now you get the picture why no one, in their right mind, supports them (i'm not counting sindicate leaders, bloodsuckers, not to say co**suckers).
Estimated loss is €130.000. Good job, idiots.
ReplyDeleteThat's the loss of Zagreb Airport only... PLUS Croatia Airlines, PLUS INA,.. Etc, etc...
ReplyDeleteWhen Croatia Airlines was on strike they were the first to spit on CA... They have double or more salary than CA plus they live from Croatia Airlines.
Uncalled-for or not, the industrial dispute's going to happen in the close future.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, nobody counts on BNX to give any hand to ZAG regarding this event even though there is a distance of only 150km from BNX to ZAG by a freeway.
BNX or LJU are not Croatia Airlines base (they don't have technical support there, at least not their own).
ReplyDeleteSplit/Dubrovnik are domestic, BNX/LJU are not domestic airports... It's not that simple as it sounds, trust me.
Off topic:
ReplyDeleteHere is a picture of the cargo B747-400F that visited Belgrade yesterday. It was there to take weapons to Afghanistan. It's not that rare to see this bird in Belgrade.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/1415175_703885762955819_2060155492_o.jpg
Comments <3
ReplyDeletehttp://www.index.hr/indexforum/postovi/108199/-gospodo-ne-bu-islo-od-sutra-u-10-sati-prekid-svih-komercijalnih-letova-/1
It seems that Etihad has placed an order for 16 Atr 72-600. I wonder if some of those will go to Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteAt least we know what they will operate with from Rome to Zagreb.
It would be fair to assume that 6 atr will go to air serbia and other 10 to etihad regional
DeleteHogan mentioned at one point that Air Serbia needs 8 turboprop aircraft. Maybe half will go to JU and half to EY Regional?
DeleteTalking of JU, they sent their Atr to STR this morning. I wonder why- that must be one long and uncomfortable flight.
I needed to fly out tomorrow and arrive in ZG on Friday. I am so pissed. I have a wedding to go to and I am bringing so many things for the wedding. This is so annoying and has caused me so much stress trying to find a new flight. And to top it off, the third round is scheduled to begin the day before I'm suppose to leave to come back to the states. Now I have tomorrow and try and see if I can plan ahead of time or change anything to avoid problems before hand.
ReplyDeleteGreat. -_-
Maybe JP codeshares with the airline you are flying on from the States. You could maybe switch from Zagreb to Ljubljana?
DeleteDo EU passenger rights apply for compensation in such scenario?
ReplyDeleteNo because the strike was previously announced. Compensation is usually allowed when there is a long delay or a cancellation. Neither happened in this case.
DeleteBy the way, if someone was flying into Zagreb but was going to let's say Pula by car later on. Can they disembark in Split and then go straight to their final destination or do they still have to be taken to the capital by bus? I am asking this because I remember a few times when there was nasty fog in Belgrade we were forced to divert to either Budapest or Nis. Neither Jat or Lufthansa allowed us to go home from there- this was especially stupid as there were some people who were from Nis.
ReplyDeleteSeek asylum in Serbia :)
ReplyDelete