Croatia Airlines plans to make minor changes to its winter operations this year, despite the country assuming the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from January 1. The carrier will add an additional weekly flight from Zagreb to Brussels this coming winter, for a total of twelve per week, and has partially upgraded its seasonal Dublin service, which will run until January 26, 2020. On the other hand, flights to Lisbon, which were maintained for part of the winter last year, will end in late October and resume during the 2020 summer season.
The carrier’s international operations from other Croatian cities will remain unchanged this winter. They will include nonstop flights from Split to Frankfurt, Munich and Rome, as well as services from Dubrovnik to Frankfurt and from Rijeka to Munich. Domestic operations will also remain unchanged during the coming winter period. Croatia Airlines has dropped previous plans to extend the wet-lease for one of Air Nostrum's Bombardier CRJ1000 jets into the winter months. This would have enabled the carrier to prolong some of its seasonal services. Currently, the airline maintains twelve routes out of Zagreb exclusively during the summer season.
Croatia Airlines expects to see a 5% increase in passenger numbers by the end of the year and is holding off on any major changes to its route network prior to the conclusion of its ongoing privatisation process. The national carrier handled 960.620 travellers on board its aircraft during the January - June period, representing an increase of 1.2% on 2018. The Croatian Minister for Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butković, previously said the airline’s privatisation process should be completed by the end of the year. “I believe we will deliver within the set timeframe", the Minister added at the time. A consortium made of the Privredna banka Zagreb and Germany's DVB Bank are acting as advisors in the process.
Reshuffling without any real growth.
ReplyDeleteBravo Hrvatska! xD
DeleteBravo Hrvatska - boooooringgggg
DeleteSame old same old from Croatia Airlines.
DeleteWhere is the reshuffle? No changes except one new weekly frequency.
DeleteDoes anyone know if Aegean will have flights to Germany from the coast this winter too like last year?
ReplyDeleteI can not understand how they are able to operate them profitably while basing Greek crews and aircraft to Dalmatia and OU can not.
SMFH
They probably work with those same tour operators to bring tourists to Greece. Plus OU doesn't care so it's a free lunch.
DeleteWeren't those charter flights?
DeleteLooking at pax profile you could clearly see that mostly elderly people and groups were traveling.
Yes they are charters.
DeleteI think this year too Aegean will be operating those flights.
DeleteIf OU was smart it would have extended the lease of that Air Nostrum CRJ1000 with crew and based it Ljubljana. Opened say 3 routes to begin with and challanged Adria which is falling apart.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, just maybe the market is not big enough in LJU to warrant the opening of a second base, new crew base, catering base and so on.
DeleteSlovenia is a small market, OU needs to focus on Croatia.
First they need to fix things at home before venturing into other markets.
DeleteThey need to fix things at home? 20 + years was not enough I guess. LOL! We both know OU is "izgubljen slucaj" and let's not pretend or hope they can fix anything anywhere
DeleteSo, no concrete news about privatization process?
Deletekostic se raspituje za kompaniju.
DeleteWhich airline is bigger, OU or Adria?
DeleteЈР is.
DeleteDepends if you look at fleet size or number of yearly pax (makes more sense) or other KPIs
DeleteBy number of CRJs they are biggest in Exyu and even in CEE
So in the first six months they had 1.2% more passengers yet they hope to have 5% by the end of the year without adding more planes or frequencies? Nice to see they are living in La La Land.
ReplyDeleteThe third quarter is key. That's when they have the most passengers. We will see how they performed soon enough.
DeleteE.g. 5% growth in 3rd quarter equals like 4% growth for the year
DeleteSo basically they have done absolutely nothing. They will end Lisbon early, so they can operate Dublin a bit longer. And they will add one Brussels. Great growth strategy.
ReplyDeleteOU is what you see when you look up laziness in the dictionary.
DeleteOU is extremely lucky not to have much competition in winter period and no major LCC challenge in ZAG.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteMuch to the disadvantage of local people.
DeleteAnon 09.09 +10000
DeleteI wouldn't call it luck but protection
DeleteZAG airport is just as open to low cost carriers as BEG is.
DeleteIn fact it is probably more open because of EU open skies polity.
Yeah ... the EU Open Skies 'polity' makes no difference since BEG is home to an EU LCC while ZAG is chasing away anyone that approaches them.
DeleteBut in BEG you have U2 and W6 which were flying to ZAG in the past but left.
DeleteEven Norwegian does not fly to ZAG during the winter anymore.
It looks like there are other ways of protecting OU in ZAG
I used to work for Transavia, which had talks with ZAG and was chased away , as well as many others. They wanted to start ZAG as well when they started LJU, BEG and SOF. That much about the "polity"
DeleteBut who chased them away? OU? ZAG? Government?
DeleteI think they were chased away by high fares. I think ZAG would be more successful for them than KL because they have lower cost.
Delete@An.11.10
DeleteAll 3 together. Mafia style.
Missed opportunity not to use EU presidency to advantage.
ReplyDeleteTheir LF is hovering around the 70% capacity and in winter much lower so they have more than enough empty capacity which could result in growth.
DeleteYeah great that temporary presidency will bring like what 5000 more pax that year so like 1% more LF, at most.
DeleteThis is not just OU, it's all of continental Croatia that needs to re-think their approach to aviation. OSI as an airport has failed. ZAG is slowly starting to stagnate without any positive outlook this winter and OU is being OU, like a ship that's aimlessly sailing without a captain.
ReplyDeleteThis announcement by OU is a pure and utter disaster. Their fleet is the main issue, they need a plane like the CRJ to keep on operating profitably in winter to most destinations.
What will they do when winter comes? How will they survive until February/March when spring and summer bookings start to arrive?
Agree.
DeleteTherefore it is absolutely inacceptable air traffic in countries with sea coast to be compared with landlocked countries.
It simply does not provide real picture.
You forget that seaside countries also have an interior. Let's just compare Greece (A3) and Croatia (OU).
DeleteInterior Greek airports barely see any traffic though that's also because coastal airports are so close.
DeleteWhich interior Greek airports are you talking about?
DeleteI think almost all of their airport are coastal
So wrong to compare it to Greece.
DeleteTo almost every island there people travel almost exclusively by plane.
Plus much more tourism potential as vast sandy beaches, much larger islands, warmer and more steady climate, etc
Greece has an extensive ferry system, people who don't want to fly can sail.
DeleteThey should have extended flights to Helsinki, Barcelona, Lisbon, Milan and Prague at least this winter during the presidency.
ReplyDeleteIt would be a good way to test the market for winter flights with decreased risk,.
DeleteThey really do not fly during winter to BCN, PRG or MXP?
DeleteWow
No they don't. Barcelona is operated until 12th of January. The rest end in October.
DeleteDidn’t CSA also cancel ZAG-PRG in winter too?
DeleteYes it did.
DeleteOnly positive things this winter are Aegean which is keeping third until January and Iberia which is boosting its flights as well.
DeleteNegative are flydubai reducing flights, KE downgrading to A332 and OU being a mess that's incapable of growing no matter what.
Thank you for your reply.
DeleteI was really surprised OU does not fly to all these cities during winter. I mean how come that BEG, SOF and LJU could have year round flights to PRG for example and ZAG can't?
The same goes wth BCN - even SKP has year round flights to Barcelona.
"even SKP"? What do you mean by this?
DeleteI would guess that BEG and SOF are larger markets than ZAG.
DeleteKind of but not really.
DeleteKind of but not really??? Look it up, both other cities are at least 40 to 60 percent bigger than Zagreb.
DeleteI'm surprised Lisbon is being shortened. I thought it was doing well. Especially with TAP out of the picture.
ReplyDeleteDemand is probably limited in winter. Didn't TAP fly to ZAG via Bologna in winter time?
DeleteI also think there is just very little demand in winter, but OU could fly a few routes like BCN and LIS at least 1 weekly also in the dead season.
DeleteI fear that in a year we might see OU in the same state as JP especially since the list of assets grows thin. :/
ReplyDeleteOU is still state owned. The government would never let OU get into the state as JP. And despite all its problem, I still think OU management has more sense then that of the current JP management.
DeleteAnd how can the government do anything? It's not like they can just pump money into the airline.
DeleteThere are ways. For example next year they will increase PSO funding.
DeleteSadly the airline is hopeless but still a few years away from being at JP status.
DeleteYes but thanks to OU incompetence the bill will get bigger and bigger because their losses won't be improving.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIs it possible OU to get some money from "udruzeno oglasavanje" fund?
DeleteThe government will pump money one way or the other.
DeleteThe bill though would still be much smaller for the Croatian taxpayers than JU's bill for the Serbian taxpayers.
Doubt it, considering that OU has been around for 30 years, most of those spent as a massive lossmaker.
DeleteDuring tha past 30, years OU's losses probably pale in comparison to JU's.
DeleteJust my2cents
Yet JU managed to get Etihad to restart its business which brought them back on their feet. Today JU is not in danger of shutting down, OU on the other hand...
DeleteNo international route can be sustained from Pula in winter?
ReplyDeleteCroatia Airlines can’t sustain international routes from Pula in winter, but others can.
DeleteWhat others?? There are no year round international flights from PUY to my knowledge.
DeleteThey should do what RJK did and pay JU to fly there.
DeleteWhat about last winter? Did they add any new routes.
ReplyDeleteOnly the two weekly flights to Mostar were new.
DeleteBasically since last winter there has not been much growth. Until then they used to add new routes each summer for a few years.
DeleteAny plans for charters this winter?
ReplyDeleteCharter business is one area Croatia Airlines could really improve on. I don't understand why it does not fly more charters, especially in summer. It is easy money.
DeleteA3 eats their lunch for charter traffic from the coast during the winter.
DeleteI find it crazy that the Greeks have lower costs than OU and are able to make these flights work for them.
Does OU use its entire fleet during winter? Or are some aircraft parked?
ReplyDeleteIf they were thinking of wetleasing an CRJ100 I would assume the entire fleet is used?
DeleteI think one Airbus is parked in winter. They were thinking of CRJ because it is much better suited for them with less capacity. Excellent aircraft for OU. Just what it is missing in its own fleet.
DeleteThey tried leasing out some Airbuses over winter several times but no luck.
DeleteThe issue with OU and winter is their fleet. They urgently need 100 seaters. The Airbuses are completely unsuitable for their winter ops. Too large for 98% of the routes.
DeleteThey could be doing more out of DBV
ReplyDeleteI'm certain OU had a bigger network from Dubrovnik before during winter. Didn't they fly to Paris and Zurich as well plus Rome?
DeleteYeah, years ago. But that was before restructuring process.
DeleteThey were much more competitive when Dubrovnik Airline was around.
DeleteThe current fleet has been the thorn in OU's side for years and years and there seems to be no real plan to address this. NEO's great plane but not for OU. They need to change the order to 6 or 8 A220s maybe reduce the Q400 fleet to 4 and keep the current A319/A320 fleet for high density charter and seasonal summer coastal services.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Hope the NEO order gets renegotiated, especially now that Airbus owns the C-series program.
DeleteIt makes you wonder what are they going to do with the neos then in the winter when they arrive. Especially since they have more seats that the A319/320 ceos.
Delete320 Neos don't have more seats than A320 Ceos, at leasnt not in default configuration. OU might choose to change their seating configuration in their NEOs to increase the number of seats if they wanted though.
DeleteNo decreases. That's important.
ReplyDeleteGood to seem them being stable in their ops with no cuts.
DeleteWhat an uninspiring winter.
ReplyDeleteI agree considering the whole potential of the Croatian market.
DeleteGreat photo admin!
ReplyDeleteOU's deep winter sleep :-)
Photo is winter but deep sleep is both summer and winter
DeleteYou are right as always PIR, but people dont want to hear the truth.
DeleteFor them you are just another party crasher .
This is the maximum that OU can provide at the moment. Other companies will fill the gaps.
ReplyDeleteKeeping the status quo.
ReplyDeleteNot great but not a disaster either.
DeleteIt has been a really quiet year at OU.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good thing :D
DeleteAt least no threats of strike and bad press like last year.
DeleteThat picture of OU aircraft is really depressive.
ReplyDeleteParkiran avion. Nema tu nista depresivno trebaju sa jos jednim ili dva to da urade ne isplati se leteti svaki dan na linijama.
DeleteHibernation depression. Indicative of their intransigence.
DeleteSeriously I think Croatia as a country has much more flight potential over winter then the network Croatia Airlines puts out.
ReplyDeleteRemember, Croatia is a very seasonal market.
DeletePrivatisation process should be completed by the end of the year. Is it possible for 4K to buy OU? Imagine the possibilities for combined JP+OU airline.
ReplyDeleteHello to all of you guys! Just a clarifcation please. OU wet leases two crj 1000 for the 2019 summer operation right? From the above mentioned article they say that they will not keep the one for the winter 2019 /2020 operations. Does that means they will keep the other one?
ReplyDeleteNo, they said early this year they might keep one of the two in winter and they even scheduled a CRJ1000 on some routes in winter but that's not happening anymore. They have removed the CRJ from all flights.
Delete