Croatia Airlines intends on launching services between Zagreb and Dublin this summer season as part of a wider expansion of its network. The Irish Embassy in Croatia said it was looking forward to increased cooperation between Croatia Airlines and the airports in Zagreb and Dublin following talks between the carrier's CEO and Ambassador Olive Hempenstall last week. For its part, Dublin Airport noted it is in negotiations with a number of carriers but would not comment on individual talks. Croatia Airlines plans to unveil its summer expansion plans in full during February or early March. So far, the company has announced the introduction of new seasonal services between Dubrovnik and Munich, as well as Split and Copenhagen. It will also boost frequencies from Zagreb to Rome, Skopje, St Petersburg and Tel Aviv.
Croatia Airlines initially outlined Dublin in a list of potential destinations to be introduced from Zagreb last summer season, after completing a feasibility study into the route's viability. During the 2016/2017 Christmas holiday period, the Croatian carrier operated several charter flights between Osijek and Dublin. Ireland has become the fastest growing diaspora community for Croatians over the past few years. In addition, there is a significant number of Irish tourists visiting the Croatian coast. Croatia Airlines plans to wet-lease capacity this summer and will free up one of its Airbus jets for a significant block of hours as it terminates five of its nine weekly flights between Zagreb and London Heathrow, which will allow for the carrier to increase frequencies on existing services and launch new routes. The airline has added new destinations to its network each summer for the past two years.
There are currently no scheduled flights between Zagreb and Dublin. Ireland's national airline, Aer Lingus, maintains seasonal services to Dubrovnik, Split and Pula. The Irish carrier will add an extra flight from Dublin to Dubrovnik this summer, resulting in daily operations, while services to both Split and Pula will also be increased by one additional service for a total of three and four per week respectively. "We are delighted to announce the further strengthening of our network to Croatia with these additional flights. The extra frequencies to Dubrovnik, Split and Pula will allow us to continue offering the choice, service and value that delivered our Skytrax four-star accreditation and we look forward to welcoming guests on board these services to Croatia in 2018", the airline said. Asked whether it could add Zagreb to its network in the foreseeable future, the Irish carrier noted, "Flights could be introduced if we determine that this route matches our customers’ needs, is economically viable and makes a positive financial contribution to our business as a whole".
UPDATE: Croatia Airlines has now scheduled its new Zagreb - Dublin service. Further details are available here.
UPDATE: Croatia Airlines has now scheduled its new Zagreb - Dublin service. Further details are available here.
WE WANT FR NOT OU!
ReplyDelete+1000
DeleteWoW, then send caps lock email to FR:) You can always continue traveling as you do now and avoid OU...people are usually happy with any additional choice, but obviously metrics are different in this case.
Deleteentire summer timetable, march to october there are 3 weekly Zadar-Dublin, in june and july 4 weekly, by FR. And ZAD is very easily accesible from entire HR, few hours drive on modern highway from practically every corner of HR. So, I don't see any drama in OU opening DUB from its base/hub ZAG
DeleteExcellent, finally! What about other routes?
ReplyDeleteI think this is a good addition to the network. Will be interesting to see how many times per week it will operate.
ReplyDeleteI assume it will operate at times the Heathrow flights operates. So maybe 4x per week?
DeleteFour would be an overkill. It will be two weekly.
DeleteGreat. I hope travel times and frequency will be suitable for business travel. I'm getting sick of FRA/MUC. During summer they will probably catch also quite some passengers from SLO (I'm also from SLO).
DeleteThis is also lost opportunity for Adria IMHO, JP could easily fill CR9 three times per week during summer season.
Long overdue. Considering how many people have moved to Ireland there will be diaspora and leisure traffic.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteHope they have a good connection to Osijek on these flights. Half of Slavonia has moved to Ireland.
Well OSI DUB was not such a success.
DeleteOh Slavonia seem to be very small then ;)
DeleteIt was not successful primarily because tickets were sold through a tour operator and because fares were crazy expensive.
DeleteFrom what I remember a return fare was €200 which is not bad.
DeleteGood decision.
ReplyDeleteEspecially that they got in before Aer Lingus.
DeleteI can guarantee 100% that it will be seasonal. I don't get that OU has not been able to sustain a single new route year long for the last 2 years.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that on one hand pilots at OU are complaining that the situation at the company is dire and on the other they are opening new routes and leasing planes.
ReplyDeletePurger on Croatian TV the other night talking about this. I would add that there is a worldwide pilot shortage at the moment, especially for captains and many Asian airlines are offering very tempting pay and conditions. This could be a contributor too. But I do agree that its pretty hopeless form by OU that they have not agreed to or even started negotiating (correct me if I'm wrong) a new collective agreement as they promised they would to stop the crew from striking. This puts the summer season at major risk of a strike this year.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdyfd0Qi5pc&t=3s
Purger also said that nobody is in position to negotiate new contracts and that OU is in privileged position at Croatian Airports. Well we have seen that when the DBV flight has landed in Rome this summer.
DeletePurger also said that nobody is in position to negotiate new contracts and that OU is in privileged position at Croatian Airports. Well we have seen that when the DBV flight has landed in Rome this summer.
DeletePurger also said that nobody is in position to negotiate new contracts and that OU is in privileged position at Croatian Airports. Well we have seen that when the DBV flight has landed in Rome this summer.
DeleteOU is way too expensive. They need to lower their fares. I am sure Dublin won't be cheaper than €250.
ReplyDeleteAlso good they will be increasing all those cities from ZAG. Will they finally start Rome nonstop?
ReplyDelete*Rome nonstop from ZAG I mean.
DeleteDoubt it. If the market was that big Vueling would have launched ZAG from FCO.
DeleteIt's sad that OU is basically an airline that lives from May to September.
ReplyDeleteThey need to start thinking outside of the box and address winter month operations when they loose the most money.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteGreat to see OU adding new routes. Anyone know which other ones we could see from ZAG?
ReplyDeleteThere were some rumors they might return to Istanbul.
DeleteSomeone posted this list a couple of days ago, but I find it hard to believe this is correct
DeleteDublin 5pw
Hamburg 3pw
Sofia 3pw
Tirana 3pw
Podgorica 3pw
Mostar 3pw
and St.Petersburg from 2 to 3pw
I can tell you at least it's not correct for Sofia. They have asked for no slots and no talks have taken place.
DeleteDublin only 2pw —-4–7
DeleteWhich airline did people fly with the most to get to Dublin from Zagreb. Luftahnsa I assume?
ReplyDeleteLH for sure.
Deletealso Ryanair from Budapest
Deletemaybe from BUD in winter, but in summer it's for sure from Zadar, march to october
DeleteHope the fares will be reasonably priced.
ReplyDeleteGood luck.
ReplyDeleteHappy to see new flights coming.
ReplyDeleteIs true they will wet lease 2 CRJ100s and 1 A321?
ReplyDeleteIf they do where would they deploy the A321?
DeleteSome popular domestic routes over summe. Zagreb-Split or Zagreb-Dubrovnik?
DeleteSomeone mentioned Zagreb-Split with A321.
DeleteAMS and CDG are usually with best LF, sometimes 100% in summer. They might deploy 321 to LHR as well, in order to compensate for fewer LHR slots/flights. SPU and DBV with 5 daily frequencies, probably only here and there, or when 321 is continuing from SPU or DBV to AMS/CDG/FRA/LGW
DeleteAnother seasonal route for tourists... I hope this year at least Oslo will go year round.
ReplyDeleteDon't count on it.
DeleteBut aren't the tourists well served by Aer Lingus with flights to Pula, Split and Dubrovnik?
DeleteIf they want to decrease seasonality like they have said, they will have to keep some routes on board for winter too.
DeleteIt will be a fantastic year for Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteI surely wouldn't call it a fantastic.
DeleteIt is interesting that Aer Lingus for example has quite a few transfer passengers on flights to Dubrovnik.
ReplyDeleteIs there any chance they will keep this route during winter?
ReplyDeleteUnlikely because they will return both CRJ1000s at the end of October like last year.
DeleteCongrats to Croatia Airlines! They now have a good choice of destinations.
ReplyDeleteI heard OU will start OMO flights...unoficially they won the tender procedure opened by OMO for the flights from OMO to ZAG...but yet again it is just a rumor
ReplyDeleteThe tender was opened targeting OU as the operator, so it's highly likely they won it. Hopefully they'll have early morning departure from OMO for good connectivity.
DeleteI belive OMO flight will be operated by TDR, similar as OSI-ZAG and OSI-RJK-SPU-DBV
Delete