Flydubai will reintroduce flights to Zagreb this weekend following a two-year hiatus, replacing its partner Emirates on the route until March 30, 2019. The hybrid carrier notes that this partnership will allow Emirates to better cope with the traditional drop in demand over the winter while reiterating that Croatia "remains an important market for Flydubai", as it also maintains seasonal summer flights to Dubrovnik. Emirates President, Tim Clark, noted that seasonal route swaps, such as the case with Zagreb, could become more common in the future, opening prospects for other markets in the former Yugoslavia as well. “Focusing the network according to two carriers playing their role is working well. We haven’t finished that exercise by any stretch of the imagination”, Mr Clark said in an interview earlier this month.
Flydubai will maintain daily services to Zagreb with its 166-seat Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. “The move will ensure that capacity is deployed to best serve customer demand by maximising the frequency for passengers during the winter season”, Flydubai said. Emirates currently operates the route mainly in a three-class configuration using a Boeing 777 aircraft. Last winter season, it maintained five weekly services between the two cities. The Flydubai flights will be codeshared by Emirates. They will depart from Emirates' Terminal 3 at Dubai Airport. “Now we have our commercial strategy, our network strategy and our fleet strategy more synergised”, Mr Clark said, referring to Flydubai.
The Croatian National Tourist Board is looking to contribute to the Dubai - Zagreb route by generating greater interest for point to point travel. "The Croatian National Tourist Board wants to create greater awareness of Croatia's unique attractions and offerings as a leisure and business travel destination for visitors from the United Arab Emirates", Karla Bronobić Vojvodić from the Board said. She added, "As part of our ongoing efforts to reach out, broaden and strengthen our connections with the UAE, we are seeking to develop new joint business opportunities, the creation of new holiday packages for UAE residents, and, going forward, increased visits from the market to Croatia".
Good luck Flydubai. I think this is actually a really smart move by EK/FZ and I hope we see more destinations in ex-Yu shared like this between the two airlines.
ReplyDeleteMe too. I think there is a chance for Belgrade and Sarajevo to be operated this way too.
Deletesadly Sarajevo intl. doesnt have enough maintenance space for such aircraft like 777
DeleteI hope Emirates does actually return from April.
ReplyDeleteThey will, don't worry.
DeleteEK usually never have seasonal routes...
DeleteRead more carefully the article about their new strategy in serving low demand markets in winter: FZ winter/EK summer.
DeleteMonth before announcing DXB-ZAG route they said they won't be flying to ex-Yu any time soon.
DeleteSo, I would not believe them at all.
Does anyone know how many passengers EK handled to/from ZAG this year?
ReplyDeleteDon't know about this year but in 2017 for 6 months they flew it was 98,301.
DeleteNemjee used to post some numbers for this year. I hope he can provide some.
DeleteThis is what I have:
Delete06.2017 - 12.975
06.2018 - 15.739
07.2017 - 17.479
07.2018 - 18.056
01.2018 - 8.175
02.2018 - 6.780
03.2018 - 9.442
04.2018 - 13.023
05.2018 - 12.606
Q1 2018: 24.368
Q2 2018: 41.368
Q2 2017: 12.975
Thank you Nemanja!
DeleteYou are welcome!
DeleteIf EK flew all 12 months, it would have had carried 157 000 pax this year. As is, the carrier will have around 147000 pax on the route.
DeleteLooked at numbers, and think EK should have gone December and November with 4 rotations per week, this would give EK 16 rotations in December and 22 in November, with November projected at 9500 and December at 9200, would have generated decent loads on the route.
DeleteFZ would then take over the route from the 1st of Jan to 30th of March. with 90 rotations and around 26000 pax on the route, generating around 145 pax per flight in either direction, or load factor of around 87%. With EK taking over in April, and with 4 rotations per day.
April 2018: 13023 - projected 2019: 14200 - 18 rotations - 395 pax per flight
May 2018: 12606 - projected 2019: 14500 - 15 rotations - 484 pax per flight
HM, in April, if I am not mistaken, EK will be sending B777 300 with 428 seats each time, to Zagreb.
Based on this, projections are now:
April: 14200 pax - 92.2% lf
May: 12840 pax - 100% lf
Possibly, and this isn't certain by any stretch of the imagination, EK could send A380 in May to Zagreb, otherwise they'll have to turn passengers away from its flights to Zagreb and even with A380, the load factor would be over 91%, if we assume my projections for May 2019 are correct. So far I have been relatively accurate with my projections.
A380 can't land in ZAG
DeleteThey will probably increase the fares to ZAG to improve the yields.
DeleteCan anyone explain why A380 wouldn’t be able to land in ZAG though? I know there aren’t gates that can handle A380 yet, but why wouldn’t A380 be able to land at all? Surely if the runway is long/strong/wide enough for An-225 and its wings and engines it is also long/strong/wide enough for an A380. Same goes for taxiways and apron...
Deletehttps://www.airbus.com/aircraft/passenger-aircraft/a380/airlines-destinations/airport-compatibility.html
DeleteAn airport consists of runway(s) , taxiways, apron, terminal building(s), parking and auxiliary building and facilities. A380 CAN LAND AND TAKE-OFF @ZAG. It cannot be connected to terminal building with jetbridge, for few more months.
DeleteIt's not like that at all. For an A380 to land the airport must be certified by Airbus which Zagreb is not. It is not at all related just to runway, taxiway or gate connection, it is about having fire trucks certified for handling A380 in case of emergency, having A380 enabled catering trucks and equipment, having deicing trucks capable of handling A380. Zagreb has none of this. Please stop dreaming. The airport could not handle an A319 past midnight because there was no emergency services available. There is a reason airports that handle A380s invested millions in their equipment and facilities.
DeleteAre any other cities in EX-YU besides Zagreb and Belgrade moving to T3 in Dubai next week?
ReplyDeleteJust those two for now.
DeleteCould that mean that they are preparing the same combination for BEG?
DeleteNo, they are just aware that most people from BEG transfer onto EK flights and that it's much easier to do when you land in T3.
DeleteLet's wait and see.
DeleteI wouldn't be surprised to see a similar arrangement in Sarajevo with Emirates during summer and Flydubai during winter. Flights to Dubai from Sarajevo are insane in summer months :)
DeleteIt would be a bit difficult for them in Belgrade in summer with daily Qatar and double daily Etihad.
DeleteWell, I wouldn't say they do not consider Belgrade.
Delete"Emirates President, Tim Clark, noted that seasonal route swaps, such as the case with Zagreb, could become more common in the future, opening prospects for other markets in the former Yugoslavia as well"
He surely speaks here about Belgrade.
I think it's SJJ actually
DeleteSame. Flydubai had triple daily flights to Sarajevo in high season.
DeleteWell, it means actually only 2 months in a year (July and August).
DeleteIs it possible for B777 to land in SJJ?
It is but I'm not sure about other infrastructure - catering, handling etc.
DeleteI don't think 777 can land in SSJ
DeleteMe neither. It practically means that SJJ is out of the game for EK and I am sure Mr. Clark knows it.
DeleteTherefore there is no other destination in ex Yugoslavia except Belgrade
EK flights from Zagreb have been quite irregular lately. They fly anywhere between 3-5 flights per week to Zagreb depending on the week since winter started. One week they had just 3 flights, one week 4, one week 5.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean?! They are flying daily what are you writing?
DeleteDaily flights ended at the end of summer.
DeleteAre you sure about that?
DeleteNo, he is not sure. Baca informacije rekla kazala. End of summer? So you are saying that EK was not flying daily to ZAG from September, 21st?
DeleteEnd of summer means end of SUTT in aviation. So he's saying that in November the flights haven't been daily.
DeleteSo he is saying that they fly one week 3 times, another 5, than 4? Really???
DeleteYes. It happened so far during winter. They had irregular service. That's how it was scheduled.
DeleteDo you have any link showing it?
DeleteYou can check flighradar history for last month. But I have to note that on numerous times they sent their two class B777-300ER which has over 420 seats. So loads must have been good.
DeleteWell flightradar shows only last 7 days and we have here informatiion about the whole month
DeleteIf you have Gold subscription you can see flight history up to a year back. The original poster is somewhat right. On some weeks in November EK had only 4 flights to ZAG, and on some weeks they had daily flights, the same as in summer. This is all according to Flightradar24 anyways, it sometimes provides erroneous data for flights. Sometimes flights aren't shown and are being flown and sometimes it shows flights as being flown when in reality there are no such flights. I once saw a China Southern 788 just bouncing back and forth between Reading and Windsor on an apparent approach to Heathrow, where in reality there was no such flight at that time.
DeleteHow many weekly flights will Emirates have to Zagreb next year when the runway reconstruction begins in Dubai?
ReplyDelete4 weekly.
DeleteWhat period is this?
Delete16 April - 30 May.
DeleteThanks.
DeleteLast week I flew this Fly Dubai - Emirates combination and I'm not overly impressed. I was flying BEG-DXB-PER and since I purchased it on an Emirates ticket I had complimentary food. The meal was tiny, and I mean tiny. Much smaller than the stuff they actually sell on board. Also the entertainment doesn't seem to be included since the crew told me I had to pay to turn on the TV even though I was on an EK ticket. But the baggage came through. The terminal Fly Dubai uses in Dubai is also quite horrible. Good that they are at least moving the flights to the EK terminal. Anyway that was my experience with this Fly Dubai - Emirates combination.
ReplyDeleteThis is the downside of this route swap. Their service, cabin product and airplane quality (wide body vs narrow body) and image all differ.
DeleteObviously remarkable downgrade
DeleteI think T2 in DXB is pretty good with all amenities one needs.
DeleteThe only downside i find is that its not that accessible from Dubai city with the metro.
Could Korean Air's flights have had an impact on Emirates?
ReplyDeleteVery likely. Especially in low season when lots of Koreans travel. Besides it was reported here a few weeks ago that Korean said they have managed to attract passengers which used to fly with other airlines and that Korean generally prefer flying with their own carriers.
DeleteI think this is the first route in Emirates' history that is operating seasonally with their equipment.
ReplyDeleteEmirates is restructuring and starting to utilize Flydubai equipment on routes subject to seasonality. Zagreb is the first, but won't be the last. Other destinations will follow in 2019.
Delete@Anonymous29 November 2018 at 08:54
DeleteThey have few destinations they are done in such way, however Zagreb is only European destination so far. Larnaca in Cyprus is another in EU that has similar arrangements if I am not mistaken. Emirates has no plans for any other destination in the region. Zagreb is it.
Flydubai should really consider starting Split as well seasonally during the summer.
ReplyDeleteOr Dubrovnik year round.
DeleteTK and BA have reduces Dubrovnik this winter so I doubt we will see Flydubai there outside summer.
DeleteSame story for years. When all services are offered free of charge and tourist board provides additional financial support, airlines think they may carry at least 40-50 passengers to/from Dubrovnik during winter season. Then they wake up from their dreams when only 3 passengers are booked for a A320.
Delete@anon 9.05: TK and BA reduced DBV this winter because of runway reconstruction, they'll be back. And I guess Turkish turned out to be too big of a competitor for flydubai, while TK is still adding flights and going 14pw, FZ is reducing to just 3pw next summer, so I doubt we'll be seeing them year round anytime soon.
DeleteThis is probably the reason FZ gave up on the idea of launching LJU this winter.
ReplyDelete:(
DeleteI guess they won't come to LJU at all…
DeleteLjubljana just can't catch a break with these flights. First Qatar gave up on the idea, now Flydubai.
DeleteQatar will come eventually.
DeleteMaybe Adria will launch Dubai with the Sukhois :)
DeleteI don't really care if EY, FZ or QR come to LJU, as long as one does. The only reason I want to see them here is for competition. As soon as one arrives, TK will lower prices. And people can already fly to basically anywhere with TK with only one stop, with exception of a few places. So we're good at LJU with an ME airline that offers one stop connection to basically anywhere, we just need competition to lower their prices a bit.
DeleteIs TK expensive in Ljubljana? They are usually the cheapest transfer option from other ex-Yu airports.
DeleteMuch more expensive than ZAG. Check the comparison below ...
DeleteRazvrsti po:
Najboljši leti
Cena
Čas odhoda
Čas prihoda
Trajanje
20:00 – 14:50+1
Turkish Airlines
12 h in 50 min
ZAG–BKK
1 postanek
1 h in 40 min IST
559 €
povratni let
20:00 – 10:05+2
Turkish Airlines
32 h in 5 min
ZAG–BKK
1 postanek
20 h in 45 min IST
660 €
povratni let
19:55 – 14:50+1
Turkish Airlines
12 h in 55 min
LJU–BKK
1 postanek
1 h in 35 min IST
1.004 €
povratni let
19:55 – 10:05+2
Turkish Airlines
32 h in 10 min
LJU–BKK
1 postanek
20 h in 40 min IST
1.004 €
povratni let
Wow I see what you mean. They definitely need competition for transfer passengers then.
DeleteTheir planes are fuller in LJU
DeleteTK LJU and TK ZAG use same fares for 99% of their destinations.. if the loads in LJU are better, that means that ZAG is cheaper..but it's also the other way around. Saying that TK ZAG is much much cheaper means nothing else but bullsh**t.
DeleteI was observing the same with the FZ, QR and TK in SKP.
DeleteWhen it was only TK they also had ridicilous prices. Once FZ and especially QR came, prices were lowered.
At least for (South-east) Asia, TK now has lowest fares, then its QR and FZ. It was actually the other way around with FZ being the cheapest, but once they started code-sharing with EK, i couldn't find any good prices with them anymore.
Nevertheless, I still prefer QR and FZ because TK has evening flights to Asia and whenever i can, i always avoid sleeping in an airplane.
That price difference is ridiculous!
DeleteHope Ljubljana does finally get another middle eastern airline, preferably one from the Gulf. It would be good for LJU passangers as the competition between the carriers would drive the prices down, and it would be good for ZAG as well, in terms of the competition between the airports, which I feel is definitely needed at ZAG. LJU is the only serious competition to ZAG within 200km.
Seems like a logical choice for Emirates subsidiary to take the winter months with a smaller B737.
ReplyDeleteFlyDubai not an Emirates subsidiary.
DeleteOnly on paper.
DeleteThere are clear downsides to this arrangement. Now would be a good time for QR to react and possibly increase capacity.
ReplyDeleteThey have two daily flights. That is already an advantage for them compared to EK.
DeleteAgree. Better two daily on narrow body then 1 daily on big plane. More connections can be made this way.
DeleteLogican potez.
ReplyDeleteTreba nahraniti te zedne motore na 777
....a to poluprazan avion ne moze.
The problem is that Croatia depends on inbound traffic too heavily and there are too little outbound traffic. So hopefully these measures from the tourist board bring some results.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWith less seats to DXB, what growth can we expect at Zagreb this winter?
ReplyDeleteI think growth will be steady. There are new KE flights plus OU has Mostar.
DeleteMostar is twice weekly with 15 passengers on avarage. I hardly think it will contribute greately to numbers.
DeleteThat said I do wish ZAG continued growth in winter, so you don't think otherwise.
DeleteEK’s reduction of capacity won’t negatively impact ZAG growth as the new, lesser, capacity is still larger than the number of passengers that flew on EK during winter last year. If you take last winter’s numbers and apply them to the new capacity the LF would be around 70%, up from around 60% last winter, but still with plenty of room for growth. In fact, since more frequencies are offered, this is expected to stimulate growth, not hinder it. It would have hindered growth only if the number of passengers brought by new frequencies accounted for 40% of total number of passengers, bit this is highly unlikely.
DeleteOU’s OMO flights won’t positively impact Zagreb growth in any statistically significant manner. That’s a political route.
@Anonymous29 November 2018 at 09:51
DeleteActually based on last winter's performance, i.e early 2018, the load factor will be around 85-95% on FZ flights. FZ offers around 10 000 seats per month.
Emirates fleet is so inflexible. I can't believe the airline brought itself to have only A380s and B777s. Better planning was needed and the B787 can't come soon enough. They are very lucky Flydubai is around to help.
ReplyDeleteWhen do the Dreamliners start arriving?
Delete2022!
DeleteEmirates was a victim of themselves. What they could not plan on was increased competition from Etihad and Qatar basically copying their business model which made their original plan to fly large aircraft only from the Middle East to the world quickly redundant.
DeleteThere's a saying which goes something like this:
One of the biggest dangers to a good business idea is a good business idea.
Would be interesting if Kresimir got Gulf Air to start flights to Zagreb. Then we would have a real battle between the middle east airlines :D
ReplyDeleteYes because Bahrain-Zagreb demand is great...
DeleteUmm transfers and they can fly the route with A320.
DeleteUnlike other middle east airlines, Gulf Air does not focus heavily on transfers and does not have a big network. Kucko said he will try to change this but Zagreb surely is not on his radar for the time being.
DeleteMorat cu malo popricat s imenjakom.....mozda ga ufatim u JJ veceras.....
DeletePrenesi nam utiske :)
DeleteBut Gulf Air is interested in Sarajevo.
DeleteSJJ mi nikako ne pase.....
DeleteWho is gonna transfer via Bahrain with Qatar, Turkish, and EK/FZ available as alternatives, don't be ridiculous.
DeleteMa koga briga....to je Kuckova briga
DeleteWelcome back!
ReplyDeleteDoes FZ uses air bridges or they use remote stands?
ReplyDeleteIn Dubai the remote stands as their terminal does not have airbridges. But in BEG for example they always use air bridge. I'm sure the same will be in Zagreb, especially since this is a replacement for Emirates.
DeleteThis is not just a downgrade in capacity. FlyDubai has 10 bussiness clas seats in 737 MAX 8 and 162 economy seats (according to SeatGuru) while Emirates offered 12 first class, 42 bussiness class and 310 economy class seats. Could this mean that Emirates could not fill bussiness and first class seats to/from Zagreb?
ReplyDeleteDidn't they say they were very happy with their premium loads?
DeleteProbably in summer they are but in winter no.
DeleteKoreans are big on showing they have cash. My mate wanted to buy his with a Kia (thought she would be happy since it was a Korean car) but her and 'here family' would settle for anything less than a Mercedes SUV lol!! True story!
DeleteSo I would say a lot of this premium demand Emirates got in Winter was from Korea.
*wife
Delete**her family
DeleteJebemti!! One more
Delete***wouldn't
I know the EK Group has 80% financial losses but it seemS FZ too.
ReplyDeleteEK downgraded ZAG probably because they don't have enough money during winter.
BEG is being reduced to 4 weekly this spring so the chances of seeing EK in ZAG again are maybe getting lower, given the current financial situation.
BEG is 4 weekly in spring because of runway work in Dubai. All destinations are being reduced.
DeleteSame reason why ZAG will be 4 weekly next spring.
DeleteRunway Work @Dubai international. Many destinations out of Dubai are being reduced in April and May next year.
Deleteit seems that VELIKI ISKORAK has took a small step back
ReplyDeleteLove the look of those engines on the MAX.
ReplyDeleteAnd AoA sensors on MAX are great too...when they work properly.
DeleteI hope Emirates considers other ex-Yu markets. This cooperation with Flydubai gives them the chance to make these work on a year round basis.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great thing. We get to keep Emirates in Zagreb for most of the year while also keeping Dubai flights on year round basis.
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't Croatia Airlines codeshare on the Zagreb - Dubai flights?
ReplyDeleteLufthansa probably does not let them.
DeleteThey have interline.
DeleteOn 25th November 2018 Emirates flight Zagreb-Dubai had around 100 passengers on board.
ReplyDeleteThat is poor, really poor
DeleteLF 30%?
DeleteI have no idea on overall EK loads on ZAG, but you cannot make assumptions based on one day operations during realistically extra low season. You must be aware that not only EK, but QR, LH, OU and others etc sometimes do flights with 10%. Not every day or frequency is busy, plus there may have been 30% outbound and 90% inbound. That really is not bad overall, far from it. Jedna lasta ne čini proljeće, ni kada je 20%, ni kada je 100%, ali nivo ovog foruma se srozava svakog dana, samo sencacionalizam i opsjednutost popunjenošću zrakoplova.
Delete