NEWS FLASH
Croatia Airlines has discontinued flights between Pula and Amsterdam which were operated once per week on a seasonal summer basis. Services will not resume during 2020, however, capacity will be shifted over to Zagreb from which the airline will increase frequencies to Amsterdam from seven to eight weekly flights. The additional service will run each Tuesday from April 28 until September 29. The nonstop flight between Pula and Amsterdam originated in Dubrovnik. In 2019, low cost carrier easyJet inaugurated services from the Dutch capital to Pula.
So is OU suspending this route because of competition? Increasing ZAG-AMS is a move in the right direction as it will improve connectivity to OU's growing regional network. That said, this is bad news for KL which seems to struggle in ZAG.
ReplyDeleteOU growing regional network?
DeleteTGD and SOF are being added and TIA will follow shortly. OU is finally waking up. ZAG has one of the most modern terminals in Europe and it's a shame not to use it more.
DeleteWhy is KL struggling in ZAG? Which planes do they use?
DeleteIt's not only that they reduced it from B737 to Embraer but that this winter they flew six weekly from the start in stead of daily. Last year they reduced it to six in the second half of January.
DeleteOU's A319 is much more comfortable than the regional jet KL uses.
They use the E90. In summer, when no one is in the City (all at the coast) to which KL flies double daily with 737 on its own plus numerous Transavia flights to SPU/DBV/ZAD and PUY the reduce to E75 which is 30 less seats.
DeleteActually I just checked their website, ZAG was further reduced and right now it operates five times per week with the Embraer. Sixth flight only comes back at the end of February. I guess OU is managing to stay on top in this market. In the 2020 summer season they plan 7 weekly flights with the E90.
DeleteAnon 11.06 well that's when Croatian diaspora returns home and ZAG is a convenient airport for those staying in Slavonia or going to northern Republika Srpska or Slovenia. So there should be a market for them during the summer month. That's how LH manages to send the A321 to ZAG in that period. KL just wasn't very successful in continental Croatia.
Delete@ Anon 11.08.
DeleteObviously either Slavonian diaspora is not returning home, or not by plane. Otherwise there would be flights ;)
Slovenes have more options now when flying back home.
DeleteGood for TIA since Transavia is discontinuing it’s Amsterdam-Tirana flight from 30 March. They can connect via ZAG.
ReplyDeleteNo official confirmations yet about TGD, SOF and TIA.
ReplyDeleteWe had also earlier rumours that OU will open the bases in TIA, PRN etc.
Rumours remained to be nothing more than rumours - nothing happened
It wasn't a rumour about bases it was announced by their CEO at the time at a press conference. The fact they didn't follow through with it is a different thing but it was never a rumour.
DeleteAlso new routes to Podgorica and Sofia are not rumours either. It was announced by their board president.
DeleteCan they be booked?
DeleteDear all - KL is not struggling in ZAG. KL is doing very well on the route, however a large portion of their pax to ZAG were connecting to SPU anyway. Instead of increasing ZAG capacity, KL focused heavily on SPU during the summer peak months. That is why you have 2 x daily with 737/8) to SPU in July and August. As for the winter, KL has flown 6 x times a week (all days except Saturdays) ever since it started the route in May, 2014. February was also often "downgraded" to 5 x weekly, as it's the month with lowest number of pax. Many companies do that: BA has been cutting the route in this "dead" period too (this year for some reason they are flying 8 to 9 x week in January and February). So, there is nothing new. Stop trolling please.
ReplyDeleteAs for the frequency increase, KL lacks machines and has other priorities. Their partner AF has done the increase, which will also help fill connections to AMS via CDG. So, KL is all set for now.
Stop trolling.
Dear Petar. you are absolutely right. What you forget to mention however is that KL´s Dutch subsidairy Transavia offers the following flights in summer in addition to their own 3 daily.
DeleteRTM-PUY 6weekly
RTM-EIN 4weekly
RTM-ZAD 3weekly
RTM-SPU 8weekly
RTM-DBV 3weekly
So considering Easyjet flies to 4 Croatian destiantions ex AMS I would say that the group is doing more than well in Croatia. Rynair and Croatia also fly + numerous charters.
So KLM is doing well in ZAG despite sending a smaller plane and reducing frequencies? Strange logic.
DeleteAbsolutely not true, KL launched ZAG as daily year-round, winter included. Then January came and it was reduced to six weekly. I don't understand why some people on here have the need to make things up, as if it's impossible for anyone to do badly in ZAG. Jesus.
DeleteTrue, KL decreased to 6 x times a week in winter. But my point is, this "reduction" has happened already in W2014/15, so this is nothing new. Therefore, the winter time table has nothing to do with lower demand.
DeleteKL's initial plan - if you want to argue - was to fly 4 x a week with F70, then it got upgraded to daily with E190. Soon, it went up to daily 737/8/9, then due to launching SPU - it got back to E190 daily in summer. And the winter stayed the same. AF, which is their partner airline, has just doubled the daily connection CDG-ZAG-CDG. KL is offering these flights too, so after E190 get filled up, KL will get pax from this new daily connection through CDG.
Point remains that KL struggles in ZAG as it experienced falling numbers because of which it adjusted the offer. It doesn't matter where the passengers went, point is that they didn't compensate the loss of those with some other ones.
DeleteI wouldn’t say KL is struggling so much on the ZAG route. Remember that when KL started flying on ZAG, OU had monopoly on this route. Since then OU reduced their prices significantly, and since a few years also codeshares their flights with KL (read: sells their tickets cheap to KL).
DeleteKL is more struggling with slot restrictions in AMS, and therefore gives priority to more profitable routes.
I use the KLs ZAG flights once a month. The morning/early afternoon flights to ZAG are always packed, mostly with US transfer passengers. Afternoon flights back to AMS are less full, as these are too late for most US connecting flights. My feeling is that KL is using OUs morning flight to AMS for their connecting passengers.
As for comfort in the E90, the seats are pretty comfortable. On these short flights I even prefer a 2-2 seating, and above all I prefer KLs cabin crew over OUs.
My crazy idea is that AFKL group might force KL to move their transfer passengers from CA to AF new morning flight.
last anonymous@19:20- exactly. AMS is a slot restricted airport, and the route's yields are decent. That is why KL does not want Transavia to get anywhere near to ZAG - I know this information for a fact. I also talk to people who privately shared KL's LFs, and in deed these flights are doing well.
DeleteNumbers on ZAG-AMS dropped significantly once Transavia launched LJU flights. Furthermore, if slots were an issue then KL would have increased capacity to ZAG, not reduced it- from what I read here from B737 to E90.
DeleteZAG-AMS
2017: 168.404
2018: 167.469
2019: 156.889
First 8 months:
2018: 104.863
2019: 103.523
So it's only in 2019 that numbers started to stabilize indicating that the market has started to adapt to new realities: more Transavia flights to Ljubljana, more flights to the coast...
These figures are totals for the route ZAG-AMS, so both for OU as KL.
DeleteIt doesn’t say which carrier is losing pax.
Besides that, KL decreased capacity in late 2015 already, as soon as they started codesharing OUs flights, and long before HV started LJU flights. Since then KL capacity didn’t change much.
HV flights to LJU can indeed have some impact on point to point pax, and indeed KLs summer flights to SPU can also impact their ZAG numbers. I remember flying with KL to SPU in 2017 already, which in my opinion doesn’t explain the decrease in 2018 & 2019 figures.
What I meant with slot issues is that KL has a lot of other destination options which are more profitable, and they choose to increase capacity on these. Also since they are codesharing OUs flights, they are operating flights later in the afternoon, where they used to fly in the mornings to catch transfer pax. I’m sure that when more slots will come available, KL will consider a similar move as AF and introduce a second flight and have their plane overnight in ZAG to steal the lucrative transfer pax from Star Alliance.
Fact remains that no one does well if numbers are collapsing. You can't put a positive spin on this.
DeleteWhat is most important it does not say anything about capacity. In 2017 Ou had an A320 on the route. In 2018 an A319. So this is exactly the difference Nemjee is posting. nothing else.
DeleteExactly and the drop in capacity is because of a drop in passenger numbers.
Delete@Aon 9:23. OU is using both A319 and A320 on this route for many many years, and is still using both.
Delete@Anon 9:42: There is no significant drop in 2018, neither is there in the first 8 months of 2019. Btw. HV AMS flights to LJU started in summer 2017 already.
I'm just wondering what caused the huge decrease in 2019 winter months. Are these figures accurate? A decrease in four months from 63k to 53k is huge for this route, and is equal to 83 full planes (based on 120 seats per flight, mix of E90 and A319).
@ Nemjee. Your statistics are not accurate. Earlier this year you stated that 2018 AMS-ZAG was 157k. And now suddenly its 10k higher? It makes no sense to comment on your statistics.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/07/trip-report-croatia-airlines-zagreb.html
Nemjee every half year making the same false claim. So let's close the topic. AMS-ZAG figures, are very stable around 165-168k a year for 2016-2019. Small decrease could have been expected, I would say mainly due to direct flights from Canada to Croatia, thus less transfers through Amsterdam, and direct flights from AMS to SPU. Decrease however is very small, so it seems both carriers are doing well at this route.
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