Zagreb Airport has said it is in contact with two carriers from North Africa and South East Asia over the introduction of summer charters to the Croatian capital. It noted that while the Covid-19 virus is starting to have an impact on its traffic, the situation is being monitored carefully. “We are in regular contact with all airlines which could review their summer schedule if the situation develops in an adverse way”. Tunis Air has scheduled regular one weekly charter flights between Monastir and Zagreb starting May 27, however, the airport did not reveal which other carriers from North Africa or Asia were considering services to the city.
A number of airlines have announced plans to increase their operations to or from Zagreb this summer. They include Croatia Airlines, which will launch two new routes, to Sofia and Podgorica, three times per week as of May. The carrier will also add an extra weekly service to Amsterdam for a total of eight. Furthermore, Windrose Airlines will introduce three weekly flights from Kiev starting this June. In terms of frequency growth, Air France will launch a second daily service from Paris in May, while British Airways will add four weekly flights from London Heathrow, for a total of eleven. Air Serbia will introduce an additional two rotations from Belgrade for a total of thirteen weekly flights, while Aegean Airlines will upgauge equipment on its Athens service from the Q400 turboprop to the Airbus A319 jet, thus doubling the number of available seats. Similarly, Croatia Airlines will increase seat capacity on services to Brussels, Skopje and Copenhagen by utilising more A319 jets instead of the CRJ1000.
On the other hand, Eurowings will discontinue flights from Berlin and Dusseldorf to the Croatian capital, while Swiss and Czech Airlines will not be resuming their seasonal services from Zurich and Prague, respectively. Despite the onset of the coronavirus, which has resulted in a marked decline in demand for air travel, Zagreb Airport said it has seen a strong start to the year. In February it handled 184.236 passengers, representing an increase of 1.7%. The number of aircraft movements grew 5.9% to 2.994. Overall, during the first two months of the year, Zagreb Airport welcomed 387.271 travellers through its doors, up 4%. It added an extra 14.920 travellers on 2019.
| Month | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| JAN | 203.035 | ▲ 6.2 |
| FEB | 184.236 | ▲ 1.7 |
Coronavirus aside, I’m really interested which of the two airlines could be from South East Asia?
ReplyDeletePerhaps Air Asia X? A few years ago they said they were interested in flying Bangkok – Zagreb.
DeleteMaybe Scoot from Singapore?
DeleteBut I don’t think any of these do charters.
DeleteAsiana or JAL look more logic.
DeleteAsiana will not do it. Asiana is focusing on regular flights and they have problem in their own house with finance and corona virus. For me, only choice is some Japanese airline, like years before.
DeleteAir Asia X flies charters from Bangkok to Tbilisi, so why not Zagreb?
DeleteWow did not know that! That's really interesting. Then Air Asia is a real possibility.
Delete@9.13 don't think Japan is in south east Asia.
DeleteIt will be Singapore, be a bit patient.
DeleteScoot or Singapore Airlines?
DeleteEither one would be impressive and I assume it would be used to trial potential scheduled flights in the future.
DeleteGaruda :-)
DeleteI'm not sure flights from Asia could work at the moment, because of the virus, of course.
DeleteYes but the important thing is that they will happen after the virus is contained.
DeleteGrowth is quite low in February. I don’t think corona had such an impact in Feb and the month was longer by a month compared to last year. I feel March may go into negative territory.
ReplyDeleteWell in the article you can see they warn it is having a negative impact on traffic. And a few days ago we had the article with the planned reductions.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/03/asian-carriers-reduce-zagreb-operations.html
Corno had no impact in FEB? Really- are you kidding? Yes Corona just began in March and today is the 5th.
DeleteI wonder what impact Korean pushing back flights will have. I'm also not sure they will start at the end of April either.
DeleteIn March? The Italian thing began February, 21st.
DeleteThen how come PRN and INI boomed in February? You can't blame everything on Corona. Also didn't people say how the presidency will bring massive numbers?
Delete@9.00
DeleteKorean might stick around in ZAG this winter via Budapest. If they reach a deal with the airport over costs.
Hope so
DeleteNot really, Korean will not fly to Zagreb via Budapest this winter. Budapest is seasonal station with no plans for passenger flights during the winter. Zagreb is now in the same box, also seasonal. Someone read Purger's post and now spreading wrong info which is not ok.
DeleteMaybe Royal Air Maroc is the other airline from North Africa?
ReplyDeleteOr Egypt Air. There are not many airlines in North Africa so the possibilities are limited.
DeleteDoesn't Egypt Air already fly seasonal flights to Zagreb?
DeleteNo they don't.
DeleteWell I'm glad they are upbeat that covid will be over by summer and some airlines will fly charters. In my opinion, even if it all blows over in a month, Asian carriers will have a lot of rebuilding to do and launching new routes won't be a high priority in the short terms.
ReplyDeleteWe are talking about charters here. Not scheduled flights.
DeleteThese charters could be performed in August or September. That's half a year away.
DeleteIs this the big news someone said in the comments would be coming for ZAG?
ReplyDeleteI was hoping it would have more to do with flights to the US.
DeleteDoubt it will happen.
ReplyDeleteIf the Coronavirus situation gets under control, summer is looking quite good. The frequency growth planned by all airlines should offset the loss of CSA and Swiss.
ReplyDeleteAnd DUS
DeleteAnd TXL
Actually not that good
Good luck.
ReplyDeleteZAG needs to do more to attract LCCs not Asia charters.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteLCCs in ZAG would kill OU. That's why the airport isn't doing more to attract them.
Deletewhat's the point of protecting them?
DeleteAnonymus 8:55, who doesn't?
DeleteI still don't understand why there is no LCC in ZAG!
DeleteBecause the airport is expensive. LCCs said it themselves multiple times.
Delete@Anonymous 10.16: what are you talking about. There is Norwegian and Eurowings flying to Zagreb.
DeleteI really hope we will get more LCC opportunities in near future. It is super nice to have flight to Seoul but what people really need is cheap tickets to European destinations.
DeleteLCCs are for budget restricted pax. It should be a last resort when it comes to airport development.
DeleteYeah right
DeleteGood work ZAG
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see Croatia Airlines growing in the Balkans. Hopefully the new routes will generate more transfer passengers.
ReplyDeleteGiven the bad connectivity I wouldn't hold my breath.
DeleteTaking in consideration the choice of destinations they made I am really surprised they didn't introduce TGD-DBV this summer.
DeleteSeasonal. 3 pw.
Why not?
OU should really try and promote ZAG as a transfer point and use its position to shuttle passengers from the region to western Europe.
DeleteWould be interesting to know which airlines they are negotiating with.
ReplyDeleteAt least they are negotiating, hope something comes out of it!
DeleteSame!
DeleteUsually there was talk about possible flights from China or Japan to Zagreb. This is new. Hope it happens.
ReplyDeleteUS too.
DeleteForget about China. The days Chinese airlines flew unprofitable empty routes across Europe is gone. When the virus is over there will be huge consolidation on Chinese market. All Budapest flights will be terminated too.
DeleteFlight to US have been coming to ZAG for a decade but not arrived yet
DeleteBut they will come eventually. Nobody expected American flying to Dubrovnik, and now we are waiting for their second announcement for 2021...
DeleteTrue. But to me it seems American is focused on DBV and they will probably introduce a second route there in 2021/2022. United would be a good fit for Zagreb and it would really help Croatia Airlines as it would benefit from regional transfer traffic (both airlines are Star Alliance).
DeleteI think there are a few more European airlines that could start flights to Zagreb
ReplyDeleteA year round connection with Stockholm would be good.
DeleteIf there is no demand for year round route to Stockholm why would there be one?
DeleteSAS would be a good option.
DeleteDidn't SAS used to fly to Zagreb in the past?
DeleteYes it did.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to the JAL charters to ZAG? Used to operate for years.
ReplyDeleteJAL at one time flew to Zagreb with 8-12 seasonal flights during summers for number of years, for some reason they stopped.
DeleteHope we get at least one from.each region.
ReplyDeleteTunisair is already confirmed.
DeleteWell.Zagreb did have scheduled flights from Kuala Lumpur with Malaysia Airlines. So it's possible.
ReplyDeleteDid those operate Vienna each way or was it a triangle? KUL-VIE-ZAG-KUL?
DeleteThat was a great route. Croatia Airlines and Lauda both codeshared on VIE sector. OU had 60 seats on each B777.
DeleteRoute was discontinued because Vienna was cancelled as part of their cost cutting measures.
Deletemany australian croats on those flights back in the day.
Delete@ 5. III 9,29
DeletePlease stop perpetuating this lie made up by incompetent ZAG management back then. Truth is that only VIE-ZAG leg got axed. KUL-VIE was discontinued much later.
No Problem
Would have been a great year if it wasn't for the damn virus. I hope this can still materialize.
ReplyDeleteCroatia needs to stop relying on tourism!
DeleteDisastrous performance in February especially as there is no Adria this year.
ReplyDeleteFebruary 2020
ReplyDelete184.236
Average pax per day: 184.236 : 29 = 6.353 pax
184.236 - 6.353 = 177.883 for 28 days
February 2019 (28 days)
181.154
ZAG is -1.8%
Not great
DeleteAs long as the virus runs it will be this way.
DeleteI expect decrease in April and May. Hopefully things will get better from June.
DeleteVirus has nothing to do with ZAG in February
DeleteLove the photo of ZAG in the article!
ReplyDeleteNice lineup of planes and airlines at ZAG :)
DeleteInteresting. I hope there is a possibility that this becomes a reality. Flights from Singapore have been rumored for a very long time. Charters would be a good start.
ReplyDeleteSingapore Airlines would be a great addition. They are Star Alliance so they could codeshare and transfer passengers with OU. At the same time this would serve tourists across Asia, Australia, add well as the Croatian diaspora in Australia & New Zealand
DeleteGood luck, I hope we get a surprise soon
ReplyDeleteI hope IF these flights happen it is connected with OU new strategic partner.
ReplyDeleteI don't think any Asian airline interested in acquiring Croatia Airlines.
DeleteGaruda was at one point.
DeleteIt would be nice to see (at least charters) Singapore airlines or Cathay Pacific, but that's almost impossible.
ReplyDeleteCathay Pacific has bigger problems than opening ZAG route at the moment.
DeleteHighly doubt there is much demand between Hong Kong and Zagreb. Apart from struggling with the virus, the ate daily violent demonstrations in HK at the moment. It's just that the media isn't reporting on it much.
DeleteWell done Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteProbably the worst time to be negotiating flights to Asia.
ReplyDeleteIt's the same situation as negotiating any new route at the moment.
DeleteMalaysia Airlines ??
ReplyDeleteHaving such a huge Croat diaspora in Australia and Argentina, why doesn't the airport management look into this? QF will look into Europe starting 2023 with Paris and Frankfurt already in the list.
ReplyDeleteZAG can try negotiating 789 service SYD-ZAG. 3 weekly.
The same with Argentina. DY launched LGW but can expand eastwards, too. Again 788 EZE-ZAG is doable twice weekly.
Norwegian is having a great time lately. I am sure that EZE-ZAG is high on their priority list
Delete"QF will look into Europe starting 2023 with Paris and Frankfurt already in the list. ZAG can try negotiating 789 service SYD-ZAG. 3 weekly."
DeleteFirst of all, yes, Zagreb is almost as attractive as CDG or FRA. Yep.
Second, QF doesn't currently have an aircraft that would able to do ZAG-SYD. They can barely do LHR-PER, which is around 1500km shorter.
Some people here do need a reality check.
1.7 je jako lose s obzirom da je februar ove godine imao 1 dan vise u odnosu na proslu godinu.
ReplyDeleteFind calculation above in the comments
DeleteBilo bi odlicno kad bi CTN poceo letove za neke africke gradove i da koriste ZAG kao prekretnicu za neke evropske destinacije.
ReplyDeleteINN-NS
I am eyeing that lottery jackpot, but it eludes me. Alas! (Semi off-topic)
ReplyDelete