NEWS FLASH
Construction work on the inside of Zagreb Airport's new 313-million euro passenger terminal is entering its final phase. The 65.000 square metre facility features thirty check-in desks, three baggage carousels, eight air bridges, nine security checkpoints, twelve passport control booths and a car park with a capacity to accommodate 1.100 vehicles. The terminal will separate domestic and international passengers, with two air bridges to be dedicated for domestic services while the remaining six will be used for boarding international flights. Currently, over 99% of construction work has been completed and the terminal is on track to open its doors to the public in March 2017.
Fantastic piece of work, it will undoubtedly be the best airport in EX-YU, and it will not be long before it is by far the busiest.
ReplyDeleteI expect it will beat BEG for passenger numbers by 2018, and probably have double that by 2020. Being a final destination as well as a hub for flights from Asia and the Americas.
Nice work Zagreb! Bravo!
All praise to ZAG for the work on the new terminal, but your expectations are more than a bit unrealistic :)
DeleteIf your expectations were to come true
Delete- Zagreb would have to add 2.2 million passengers in 2017.
- Zagreb's new terminal would already be operating over capacity within 9 months of it opening
- Zagreb would have to add 5 million passengers in 3 years.
- Better stick to nationalism then pretend to know something about aviation.
The terminal is designed for 5 million pax, so how you figure that it will be over capacity in 9 months is beyond me.
DeleteBeing a final destination country, I don't see that 2.2 million increase in a year is unreachable, with 40 new hotels opening this year alone in Croatia the tourism industry is growing and the numbers will obviously follow. It makes sense that major carriers will route long haul flights via ZAG, and send passengers worldwide through there.
Nothing wrong with being proud of my country, if this comment was about BEG you would agree 100%.
Plus the numbers in ZAG are real, unlike those from BEG.
No if that sort of dream was about Belgrade I would not agree because I'm not a hateful nationalist which you proved with your last statement.
DeleteYou are claiming that ZAG will overtake BEG next year. BEG will have 5 million passengers at the end of this year, meaning that if it were to happen ZAG's new terminal would be operating over capacity within 9 months of opening.
"It makes sense that major carriers will route long haul flights via ZAG, and send passengers worldwide through there."
DeleteThat only makes sense if you know nothing about civil aviation.
There are tourist spots in Europe 10x bigger than any Croatian destination, yet no carrier is "routing their long-haul flights" through them.
Yes, Zagreb ce biti novi Frankfurt kao sto ce i Hrvatska kao drzava biti naj razvijenija i bogatija drzava na svijetu i SAD, Kina i Njemacka ce biti ko jedan golubic u Misisipi.
DeleteOU ce imati 250+ destinacija i bit ce najbolja kompanija u Evropi i u svijetu bit ce cijelo godisnji letova za SAD i Kanadu za svaki grad i gradic u tim drzavama. Korean Air ce letiti 5 puta dnevno za ZAG uporedeno sa sadasnjim nekoliko rotacija toku sezone.
ARN ovdje kod mene ce pasti na guzicu kao kad se veliki ZAG od 2,5 miliona putnika pretvori u najveci aerodrom u Evropi i krene ganjati Atlantu koju vjerujem da ce ZAG oboriti kad ta. ;-)
Dal sam ljubomoran? Ne, svako u Ex Yu i u svijetu zna da je ZAG Mekka aviona i te industrije.
Jesus, people. Are you really considering this post as a serious one? The guy likes to daydream and there's nothing wrong with that.
Delete@Elfrey/anonymous: ZAG will undoubtedly grow more aggressively, how much remains to be seen. It depends on a lot of factors: OU expansion strategy, ZAG airport's strategy in regards to LCC expansion. OU's traffic growth prospects will be influenced by the outcome relating to the ownership etc.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the tourism in Zagreb and in Croatia - I agree, there's a lot going on with hotels as well as the additional traveling motives. However, all this is dispersed onto several airports in Croatia. I honestly don't believe ZAG will reach 5 mil before 2020/21, but I'd sure be happy that I am wrong and this happens earlier. It all depends on the extent to which current infrastructure was "holding off" the companies that would otherwise already start their operations. In line with this theory, it is possible that ZAG's management has had talks and that most of the companies decided they are in no rush and would wait for the "D" day to expand. Perhaps these 8 new airlines that were brought by the French (ASL, FlyDubai, LOT, Swiss, KLM, Czech, Air Transat, Bruseles) were the easiest to "get" given the route maturity/readiness. Others might not be in such a great rush, so hence are waiting for the whole package...
ZAG certainly hit the proper timing - this can only help OU and their prospective partner/airline buyer to position themselves well in the region.
As it's already been talked about on this blog, there will be a lot of changes and developments with airlies and airports - Croatia has luckily prepared its infrastructure (ZAG, DBV and SPU in 2 years), which is helpful.
ZAG's lucky moment is in the fact that Ljubljana is falling apart and is able to "suck" out some of the traffic from the catchment area in Slovenia.
My conclusion: ZAG will grow, but is uncertain as to how much and how fast...
Here's the irony ...
DeleteZAG has an airport which is doing all the right things and making the right moves to position itself for growth. Unfortunately, it has a national carrier which is doing absolutely nothing to take advantage of having such fantastic infrastructure.
BEG on the other hand, has an airline which is doing all the right things and making the right moves to position itself for growth. BEG airport however, is doing nothing to enable the national carrier to continue on its growth trajectory and will in time inhibit its growth...
Now imagine the impossible - Air Serbia and the new ZAG terminal teaming up together ?
From a business view, I don't see why ASL couldn't open a secondary base in ZAG. Perhaps not on a large scale, but let's say that ASL decides that there are some routes to the Western Europe that are struggling with loads and makes a proposal to fly with a one stop at ZAG - it's worth considering... ZAG can then see how many of these would be least hurtful for the national carrier OU and say ok out of let's say 10 routes, we'll give you these 5... On top of that connecting ZAG on the flights to U.S. would ensure ASL's and BEG's long term success to do daily frequencies to several cities year-round. The prerequisite would be to sort out the freedoms of the air first, and strike a financal package/deal to bring the landing costs down...ZAG's new terminal would ensure a nice and smooth 50 min. stopover.
DeleteZagreb Airport's new terminal is designed for 5,5 million pax at the end of this first phase and the expansion will begin only once the new terminal itself (not the entire airport with two terminals) reaches 3,5 mill pax,which is predicted to happen by the end of 2018. The old terminal in the meantime, I would assume, will go back to 2,5 mill pax, which is its full capacity (at the moment it is working beyond its full capacity). So by the end of 2018. the entire airport (2 terminals) will have around 6 mill pax, meaning it is very possible that it in fact will at least catch up to BEG in the next 2 & a half years, if not surpass it. Depending on how fast BEG will grow. I predict the two ex Yu airports will be at around the same number by then.
ReplyDeleteNot sure, I looked at this with a great detail, and I can presume there'll be loads of carriers coming to Zagreb, SAS, Alitalia, Finnair, Agean, Iberia - year round, Norwegian - year round, Aer Lingus, return ot TAP, Korean Air, re turn of EasyJet with 7 weekly flights, and if you add all the seasonal flights and add 10% growth to these flights and number of carriers, you'd still struggle to get numbers you're talking about.
DeleteZagreb will hit 8 million pax by 2025, I am not doubting that, however new terminal won't be expanded before that date. There are plans to expand terminal from present 67000sqm to 127000sqm in final stage, however this won't happen before 2025, I predict 2028 at the earliest we might see terminal expanded to its full potential.
Full potential is 16 passenger boarding bridges with two slots for wide body aircraft, main terminal expanded to 87000sqm (adding 10 000sqm to each side of the terminal and extending piers from present 325m to 720m~.
This would increase the capacity of Zagreb airport to around 15 million pax, these numbers i predict won't be reached before 2050.
My projection.
5.0 million - 2020
7.5 million - 2025
9.0 million - 2030
12.0 million - 2040
15.0 million - 2050.
Old terminal 1 by this time would be knocked down, and everything adjacent to it, new terminal will be built in its place, albeit slightly further away from the runway (50-70m) around 2045. New Terminal 1 will be about the same size as Terminal 2 and have capacity of around 15 million increasing Airport's maximum capacity to 30-32 million. Figure i Expect will be reached by 2100.
Wow, absolutely stunning! Just curious, what facilities and services will be situated in the new terminal?
ReplyDeleteIf you ever passed through Vienna airport, there's a hint. Duty free shop might not be as big though, i think Duty Free shop at Zagreb airport will be around 4500-5000sqm. One at Vienna is bit bigger, I think it is around 10000sqm.
DeleteI thought more about new stores, fast food restaurants and caffe bars.
Delete@AnonymousJune 17, 2016 at 6:27 PM
DeleteYes, same stuff you see at Vienna, typical stuff you see at central European airports, Sturf*cks,McPoison.... You might have few decent places to seat here and there, but all overpriced junk food portals you've come to love or hate as it is in my case.
They'll have around 5000sqm of shops and restaurants at the terminal, and about the same in duty free shop area beyond customs/passport control.
Original plans envisaged round 20 000sqm of shopping space, however original size was bit bigger than current 67000sqm design. Original design was around 87500sqm.
Regarding shops and restaurants, according to ex-yu
Delete"Aelia Duty Free has confirmed it will open a large 600 square metre store".
http://www.exyuaviation.com/2015/10/development-of-zagrebs-new-terminal.html
Why Vienna? I don't think that new Vienna terminal is the best model for Zagreb. I find the Vienna new terminal aesthetically pleasing but perplexing and somewhat dysfunctional, particularly when you are arriving. I don't think that the architect had passengers on mind when he designed it.
ReplyDeleteStupid situation now in the Balkans -
ReplyDeleteThe only real airports that deserve this name are in Skopje and Zagreb.
Despite of this the only competent airline with best connections is based in Belgrade.
Belgrade airport is quite fine. It needs more capacity and more stores, but these are good problems.
DeletePristina, Ljubljana and Dubrovnik all have nice terminals soon Split as well.
DeleteTerminal size:
Zagreb - 67500sqm (5 million pax projected traffic by 2020)
Skopje - 40000sqm (2.5 million pax projected traffic by 2020)
Pristina - 38000sqm~ (2.5 million pax projected traffic by 2020)
Dubrovnik - 36500sqm (2.5 million pax projected traffic by 2020)
Belgrade - 33000 sqm to epand to 49000sqm (6.5 million pax projected traffic by 2020)
Split - 12500sqm + 25500sqm - Split yet to build 25500sqm terminal on top of current 12500sqm. (3.0 million pax projected traffic by 2020)
All decent sized airports.
Looks nice. Pity they didn't go for glass bridges though.
ReplyDeleteOnce they expand the terminal in 2025/7 They can add glass bridges, replace old bridges with new ones, although this is purely aesthetics issue, I don't see the need for glass air bridges, most passengers won't use the air bridge for more than a 50 seconds.
DeleteAnd you can see the plane out of the waiting area just fine.
Of course it's aesthetic and it just looks so much better, mate.
DeleteCan someone tell them that they need to cover those ugly big columns in the claim baggage area with color, ads or whatever? Thanks. Other than that, everything else looks nice. Well done Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteU mean structural columns that support entire building ???
DeleteYou do understand they are still working on the interior ????
they'll most likely tile these columns and add something to them, like lights and 60 inch LCD displays for passengers to know where to pick up their luggage.
Sorry don't mean tiled but forgot what it is called but they add metallic like thing that goes around the concrete structure, to make it more aesthetically pleasing, but also has structural support element to it without compromising the load baring walls or columns .
this sort of thing
http://atwonline.com/site-files/atwonline.com/files/gallery_images/T2-Baggage-claim-KH.jpg?1401392405
http://your.heathrow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/CHE17248d.jpg