Low cost carrier Monarch Airlines will launch year-round flights to Zagreb from London Gatwick and Manchester next year. The carrier has confirmed it will operate three weekly services from Gatwick and two weekly from Manchester. Flights from the British capital will commence on April 28, 2017 and run each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while services from Manchester will be maintained each Monday and Saturday starting April 29. Tickets will go on sale at midday today. In a statement, the company said, "Monarch adds another capital city to its network with Zagreb, which has been growing in popularity over the last few years and the Croatian city makes an ideal city break destination". A mix of Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft will be used on both routes.
Monarch will compete against Croatia Airlines and British Airways on its flights to London, although the latter two companies maintain operations to and from Heathrow Airport, rather than Gatwick. Croatia Airlines discontinued flights from Zagreb to Gatwick in the summer of 2013 and late last year signalled it could sell some of its lucrative slots at Heathrow Airport. On the other hand, British Airways launched flights from Heathrow to the Croatian capital in December 2012. Monarch will face no competition on its flights from Manchester. Marjan Schoeke, Monarch’s Head of Network Development, says, “We are delighted to be announcing Zagreb to the Monarch network. Zagreb will operate all year round and we are sure that it will be a popular choice with our customers".
Monarch Airlines utilises a low cost operating model. It boasts a fleet of 34 aircraft, made up of A320s and A321s with the capacity to seat 180 and 214 passengers respectively. The A320s will be phased out with the introduction of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft from 2018 onwards. The company has been present on the Croatian market for some time with seasonal flights from Gatwick and Birmingham to Dubrovnik. Monarch offers several services to its passengers at an extra charge. This includes additional baggage, allocated seats, in-flight catering, as well as priority services. In 2014 it introduced non-reclining seats across its entire fleet after customer feedback. Low cost rival easyJet is reportedly looking to purchase a stake in the company.
Further flight details for the London Gatwick - Zagreb service can be found here, while additional information on the Manchester - Zagreb route can be viewed here.
Further flight details for the London Gatwick - Zagreb service can be found here, while additional information on the Manchester - Zagreb route can be viewed here.
Fantastic news!
ReplyDeleteSo, Zagrab is heading to the very right direction. It's always good to grow in a gradual way. It's time for Wizz to return and compete on the London route. Most CEE EU capitals such as OTP, SOF, ATH, BUD are connected to LHR, LGW, STN & LTN, so why not ZAG? Bravo Zaggy!
ReplyDeleteLJU isn't, ahahaha
DeleteFinally a LCC airline for Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteWell germanwings, Norwegian and Vueling also fly to ZAG!
Deleteand FlyDubai. With Monarch that would be 5 companies on 9 routes. Not enough, far away from there, but still one can not say there is no any LCC in ZAG.
DeleteBad news for OU and BA.
ReplyDeleteEspecially for OU. British will not be hurt much with this route, OU will.
DeleteYes they are gonna burst in tears!
DeleteTears of joy, laughter, happiness...
Delete"In 2014 it introduced non-reclining seats across its entire fleet" ouch!
ReplyDeletewell, I sincerely doubt people will look at that considering flight time (not long haul), low fares and aim is to sell point to point...so I don't think it is remotely negative factor in this case.
DeleteErmmm..Ever been on U2/FR/W6?
DeleteYes, but which one of those serves ZAG in this case? I said it is not ngative factor in this case.
DeleteI think BA888 was replying to Anon 09.37
DeleteOn flights below 3 hours I would pay extra if the person in front of me could not recline the seat. I wouldn't mind at all not being able to recline my own seat, I almost never do it unless flying long haul. On short haul flights it is a big advantage what Monarch is doing and I wish it was like that everywhere!!
DeleteIf you work on your laptop, the reclined seat in front of you makes it very difficult. My experience is that today most people do not recline their seats in the flights inside Europe.
DeleteThank god for non reclining seats, its so rude in airplanes of low budget carriers to use this. Unfortunately it happens almost everytime, which leaves me struggling where to put my legs.
DeleteMakes me wonder if MAN-ZAG will put an end to the seasonal LJU-MAN flights JP has been operating in the past; though I don't know if they flew the route this summer given their chaotic state.
ReplyDeleteMonarch has been experiencing some difficulties in the past years so let's hope this route helps them out financially. The O&D market is there, after all, British Airways did launch Zagreb primarily because of that market, not transfer passengers.
Is there a market between Manchester and Zagreb?
ReplyDeleteManchester is UK's second biggest city, so why not? Hoping to see more UK destinations out of ZAG: BHX, LPL, GLA, EDI. Otherwise, Monarch is quite decent as an airline. Meals affordable, punctual and not too bad a/c. They used to do charter and now transformed to a LCC.
DeleteMAN is not the country's second largest city, Birmingham is. However, Manchester urban area ranks second, right behind the London one.
DeleteBirmingham is the second biggest City but Manchester has more bigger cities in closer area
DeleteVery interesting ZAG didn't go for the usual suspects like FR,W6 or U2.
ReplyDeleteSome of them tried and failed.
DeleteSo we will see the prices at 12 o'clock.
ReplyDeleteNice to see new carrier coming to Zagreb, just wondering why there are no direct flights from Zagreb to Oslo/Stockholm?
ReplyDeleteSAS stopped flights to Zagreb, nobody took over, not even Norwegian. But SAS is coming back to Zagreb next year I think, so they'll be connection with Stockholm at least. Copenhagen and Oslo might be covered by Norwegian.
DeleteThe response - BA reduces Zagreb to 4p/w during winter.
ReplyDeleteHope they won't cancel it, since Zagreb is the only Ex-Yu city with BA year round flight. I often fly to London (with OU or BA) and flights have great loads.
DeleteBA will reduce flights to 4 p/w only in January and February, the rest will stay on daily throughout the winter. No response to Monarch at all because the company starts with the new flights in the end of April.
DeleteWell it's no response, it is just commonsense. Demand across Europe is significantly lower during winter, and it is perfectly fine to reduce flight ops during that time. As there is less demand, it wont affect passenger count at all. The frequencies will just go down. It is commercially a decent decision.
DeleteSo basically OU will outperform BA to LHR. Nice. :)
DeleteWell, offering more seats on the route does not always mean outperform someone. We don't know if BA makes more money (or losses less) on the route compared to OU. Making higher profit would be more like outperforming someone I guess.
DeleteTrue, BA reduced to 4pw, but only for January and February (November, December, March stay the same 7pw). Perphaps just a rationalization - hopefully they add 2pw in the summer...demand in 01 and 02 are low...
ReplyDeleteA321 shown in the seatmap to LGW! Very nice :)
ReplyDeletesame for MAN, A321
DeleteLowest fees: 86 EUR round-trip ZAG-LGW
ReplyDelete80 EUR round-trip ZAG-MAN
Very competitive prices...
With or without luggage?
DeleteWill they use the new air bridges at Zagreb's terminal?
ReplyDeleteDoubt it since it's a LCC, although Wizz Air does use air bridges at BEG so who knows.
DeleteNice work for Zagreb Airport management.
ReplyDeleteGreat job, no one even mentioned Monarch. I think many great surprises are yet to come when the new terminal opens!
DeleteThe most important thing for me here is that they will fly all year round, which is excellent.
ReplyDeleteEasyJet is in final stage in negotiation to buy Monarch. In air business circles deal is as good as finished. On that way easyJet will come to Zagreb again.
ReplyDeleteI hope they open a base in ZAG and launch
DeleteZAG-ORY/BRU/LGW/DBV/SPU/HAM/CPH
That would be great!
DeleteE to ce tek da zaboli OU.
DeleteOU had its chance and they blew it. Time to move on.
DeleteI'm expecting for many more announcements to come in the near future for Zagreb :)
ReplyDeleteThis one was a bit out of the blue though.
Delete+1
DeleteDid they give an estimate how many passengers the expect to carry during the first year?
ReplyDeleteNice addition for Zagreb. Is Zagreb the only ex-yu city directly connected to Manchester?
ReplyDeleteYes. I think Adria use to fly some charters there at one point.
DeleteLJU is being connected by JP for many years ...2W flights on seasonal basis
Deletescheduled 2w ops LJU-MAN in SUTT,
Deletein SUTT there are also a lot of scheduled ops MAN-coast airports
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DeleteThomson, Ryanair, easyJet and Jet2 to DBV, PUY, SPU and ZAD
DeleteOT: LJU flights to London Gatwick with EasyJet 4pw, starting December 5th!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zurnal24.si/easyjet-nov-linija-gatwick-ljubljana-brnik-london-letalo-clanek-277789
That is good news for LJU. I wonder how this will influence frequencies to STN.
DeleteI remember flying to LHR with JP back in the 90's ... since there's so much capacity with LCC from LJU to LON, I guess there's enough demand, funny how JP apparently can't make flights to LHR work.
To AnonymousSeptember 15, 2016 at 5:32 PM
ReplyDeleteThere is also EasyJet MAN - TIV, since march, seasonal one
OT eurowings europe to begin twice weekly flights ex Salzburg to Split and Dubrovnik
ReplyDeleteGreat news!
DeleteOvo su dobre vesti za ZAG da su pridobili jos jedan LCC .
ReplyDeleteBice zanimljivo kako ce se snaci CTN sa ovim.
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