Air Canada Rouge has terminated its planned flights between Toronto and Zagreb, just days after its parent company Air Canada received government approval to take over leisure carrier Air Transat, which also maintains services to the Croatian capital. Ticket sales for Air Canada Rouge’s seasonal flights to Zagreb were removed this week. They did not operate in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic but were scheduled to be restored on May 6 and run four times per week until early October. A total of 140 operations were planned (both directions included). The leisure brand no longer has any widebody aircraft in its fleet after retiring the Boeing 767-300 jet last year, which used to be deployed on their Zagreb flights. The carrier has also terminated planned services to other Central and Eastern European cities in its network, including Warsaw and Bucharest.
Last week, the federal government approved Air Canada's purchase of competing airline Air Transat under a series of strict terms and conditions it said, "are in the interest of Canadians". It is believed Air Canada will now fold the Rouge brand into Air Transat. Chances of both Air Canada and Air Transat serving the Zagreb route under their own brands is unlikely and could raise competition concerns in Europe. The European Commission warned, “The Commission is concerned that the transaction could significantly reduce competition on 33 origin and destination (O&D) citypairs between the European Economic Area (EEA) and Canada. The Commission's preliminary market investigation revealed that Air Canada and Transat have been historically competing head-to-head for the passenger air transport services between the EEA and Canada”. It added, “In particular, Air Canada, with its Air Canada Rouge brand, developed a business model to address the lower-cost and leisure-oriented nature of the EEA-Canada passenger air transport markets, thus directly competing with Transat”.
The Croatian market has been successful for both Rouge and Air Transat. In 2019 they handled 65.486 passengers, a 14.6% increase on the year before. Air Transat has confirmed it plans to restore its seasonal flights between Toronto and Zagreb this summer. Services are scheduled to restart on May 11 and are to gradually grow to up to three per week during the peak summer months. The airline intends on operating a total of 114 flights (both directions included) and offering 36.660 seats on board its Airbus A330-200 jet. Air Transat’s service to Zagreb relies on a mix of leisure travellers and those visiting friends and family. However, all Canadian citizens are currently required to quarantine upon arrival back into their country for two weeks. Furthermore, entry for most foreign nationals is banned into Canada. Although the policy may change by May, these restrictions have been in place for almost a year and there is no indication they will be lifted any time soon.
Unfortunate
ReplyDeleteCanada is in a bad situation right now and they are struggling to find vaccines to revaccinate their patients. I don't think Transat will be back this year.
ReplyDeleteI also have a feeling we won't see Transat back this summer unfortunately.
DeleteI think Canadians are banned from the EU.
DeleteOne can only hope that travel restrictions will be significantly eased so that there is a chance for at least some long haul flights to YYZ this year.
DeleteCanada is really behind many other countries with initial vaccination, not to mention the second dose. Failing grade for Canadian government.
DeleteSo I doubt there will be any direct flights to Croatia this summer.
It's not just about being behind its that they purchased the most vaccines per capita. Double the amount they need so poorer countries now can't secure doses because of them.
DeleteOne other thing to consider is that all people arriving via air to Canada must quarantine in designated hotels for minimum of 3 days and undergo PCR testing. Ig negative, you can leave and go home into self isolation for another 11 days. The problem is that the cost of this ($2000) has to be paid by the traveler.
DeleteThis policy is starting Feb 22 and will run untill the end of April. Considering how slow the governments here are to bring in and to remove any measures I’m afraid it’s going to last litlle longer. On a vacine front, they are ramping up but massive vactinatin is inly expected to start in April. All in all I wouldn’t hope for any travel out of Canada for a foreseeable future.
Paging Mr OU.
ReplyDeleteThat shipped has sailed. Could have started long haul years ago. Being in Star Alliance, having a good domestic network all would have been an advantage but too late now.
Delete*ship
DeleteOuch
ReplyDeleteAir Transat will be back at least
ReplyDeleteHopefully. But Air Canada Rouge was more beneficial in terms of connections. It was considered an AC flight so you had Croatia Airlines as Star Alliance partner.
DeleteNow that AC and Transat will become one company it would be logical to assume that Transat flights will also be SA flights. Therefore theoretically and if AC is smart enough, you should be able to book combos with AC legacy and transfers via YYZ or via ZAG on the other end (e.g. with OU to DBV, SJJ, SKP etc)
DeleteI guess it will be the same now since AC owns Transat.
DeleteI guess that Rouge will go considering AC bought TS. Makes no sense to have two leisure companies doing the same.
Delete"In 2019 they handled 65.486 passengers, a 14.6% increase on the year before."
ReplyDeleteNot bad at all. Shame about this termination.
Wonder which did better. Rouge or Transat.
DeleteI would assume most likely Transat as they were more established, should have had lower costs, additional cross revenue/profit from package tour ops and pax for routes like ZAG and parts of the planes were chartered with risk being taken over by several tour operators.
DeleteI doubt there will be any direct flights to Canada this year.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope Air Canada takes the route for itself and does not leave it to Transat.
ReplyDeleteYields are not there for AC. It will be Transat.
DeleteThis route is leisure so i dont think that we will see Air Canada in ZAG any time soon.
DeleteThis is getting depressing.
ReplyDeleteThe European Commission constantly seems to be complaining about something.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIt's a distraction from the vaccine chaos they created.
DeleteThey complained, raised concerns, bla bla bla. And in the end, nothing, Canada still did what they wanted. The only thing EU could do is to ban AC/Transat from flying into EU airports which they obviously will not do since that would mean Canada would disallow EU carriers to fly into Canada.
DeleteNot only that but it would affect precious LH since they have a JV with them. Lufthansa actually cares more about AC than OS. They kicked OS out of Toronto so that AC can take over YYZ-VIE. They immediately increased from B788 to B789.
Delete@9.55 svasta procitas. OS is 100% in LH ownership. OS in return launched YUL and stil earns on AC's YYz route because of the JV.
DeleteAnon 10.50 you have to be familiar with the actual situation before making such comments. They left YYZ which is a much larger and more lucrative market for YUL where they could barely fill a three weekly B767.
DeleteThen there is the whole story of OS long-haul fleet which is 30 years old. LH Group has constantly refused to get new aircraft because they thought OS is not profitable enough. In many ways OS was the stepchild of the LH Group. YYZ is just one of many examples.
This is sad. Transat is now the only long haul wide body flight left.
ReplyDeleteTransat belongs to AC now. They will take over the frequencies from Rouge. So in the future there might be daily TS flights to ZAG.
DeleteCould West Jet have interest in replacing Rouge on this route due to EC statements?
ReplyDeleteDo they have aircraft that can reach ZAG?
DeleteYes they have Dreamliners
DeleteWould be nice if they came. Do they fly anywhere in Europe?
DeleteYes before Covid they flew to London, Paris, Dublin and Barcelona.
DeleteZero chance of that happening any time soon. Their widebody fleet is still relatively small and there are many other poonts they need to cover first. Which is shame cause they have better service than AC in my opinion.
DeleteIt amazing how successful the Canada-Croatia flights have been. Both for Transat and Rouge. This is a shame though.
ReplyDeleteIt really is considering two airlines can sustain traffic during the summer.
DeleteIn high season, there is enough pax for both. In year-round case, winter could work maybe 2-3pw.
DeleteThis route is HIGHLY seasonal, like all flights to North America though Canada even more. There is no demand for these flights in winter and diaspora can't sustain the flights alone, except around Christmas.
DeleteAir Transat rarely flies any European route year-round. Much bigger cities than Zagreb are served only seasonally in their network.
DeleteCorrect. They shift most of their summer European flying to winter destination in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America.
DeleteI wonder if their flights to Zagreb are more filled with tourists or diaspora.
ReplyDeleteTourists for sure.
DeleteMy guess is Rouge got more diaspora traffic and Transat gets leisure. Transat is a travel company. They sell holiday packages to Croatia.
DeleteIts all about tourists.
Deleteno it isnt. Canada has a huge ExYu diaspora
DeleteThis was expected. Because of the buyout it was likely one had to give up on the route.
ReplyDeleteReally unfortunate but long haul flights that depend mostly on tourists are the one most affected by this crisis. That why Korean has also terminated ZAG this year.
ReplyDeleteWhat a disappointment
ReplyDeleteGood luck to Zagreb. I hope they can secure more long hauls in the next couple of years.
ReplyDeleteTransat could fly daily to Zagreb with the AC deal. Of course not this year but hopefully next as air travel recovers somewhat.
ReplyDeleteThis is no news. It was clear since last autumn when AC Rouge got rid of all of their long haul aircraft. Or did really anyone believe they would fly to ZAG with a stop over at Narsarsuaq or Keflavik?
ReplyDeleteWell they were selling tickets to Zagreb until yesterday.
DeleteThen it's also the fault of each person who actually bought a ticket there since last fall. They have no planes for such route! Crazy that they didn't remove ticket sales then. And we thought only JP was capable of something like this :)
DeleteOS is also selling VIE-ZAG five daily for this summer but I doubt it will stay like that
DeleteThat is correct but OS has wodebody aircrafts and Rouge has none since last year . Canada has really bad air passenger rights and airlines are able to manipulate as much as they want to due to luck of bad gouvermant in that country. Airtransat has old wodebody fleet, in my opinion they are going to do Carribbean and Mexico only in the near future . They are not going to be flying to any part of Eastern Europe. Might do LGW and DUB with A321.
DeleteSame aircraft type and average same age of 330 in both Air Serbia and Transat fleet. Approximately the same number of passengers on both routes, BEG-JFK, and ZAG-YYZ. Yet, the first one presented by the same poster as stellar achievement with no way to be stopped, and the second one as disaster and mission impossible resulting in termination. Very interesting criteria, especially coming from someone spelling "gouvermant" and "luck" (lack). Really hoping wodebody being typo.
DeleteBEG-JFK is year-round, ZAG-YYZ isn't. That's one major difference right there.
DeleteBEG-JFK survived covid, ZAG-YYZ looks like it might not. Also airlines flying between these cities do not offer a similar product. Air Canada and Transat are LCCs while JU isn't. JU was also one of the most successful foreign airlines in JFK in October last year.
So in what way isn't BEG-JFK a success?
In which way they don't offer similar product? Both Canadian operators have premium class. AC offer more transfer possibilities than OU within the network. Both offer in flight service and free baggage. Fleet used is same or similar. And actually being year-round making BEG-JFK less profitable, or at the moment not profitable yet, because of high seasonality. But I was not talking about those things at all. Reasons why ZAG-YYZ temporarily stopped are Corona and fleet change in AC and Transat take over, so it has absolutely nothing to do with ZAG-YYZ being unprofitable or unsuccessful. And if someone is trying to make it look that way, and saying route will not be flown again, it is mean and malicious. So if you didn't understand my message, now I explained it.
DeleteAnd Air Canada and Transat LCC - for that I can only say some people really shouldn't be placing comments here
DeleteAnd more transfer possibilities than JU, typo
DeleteI hope this is it as far as terminations for this year go at ZAG.
ReplyDeleteWhat have been the terminations so far?
DeleteThis is bad news for us Slovenians in Canada too. Back to LH .
ReplyDeleteDid Slovenians really use Rouge from Zagreb that much?
DeleteOr book with Transat to ZAG - should they fly this year...
DeleteThis comes as no surprise. You have the Air Transat deal plus long haul routes are being most affected by the crisis.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteGood news for Croatia Airlines and Lufthansa.
ReplyDeleteBut wouldn't Rouge which is basically AC (it's just a separate brand) feed OU domestic flights?
DeleteThey can feed domestic routes the same way as from Frankfurt with Air Canada flight from Toronto.
DeleteWhen I was looking at flights in the past, fastest and cheapest flights to the coast were via LH and not OU. Don't know why.
DeleteWow :(
ReplyDeleteSituation is still catastrophic guys. It will get much worse before it gets better. In ZAG today there are only 8 flights out of which 4 are PSO. There are simply no passengers.
ReplyDeleteFebruary is generally the worst month in aviation. Now with the virus as well it is dire.
DeleteZagreb will be hurt with long haul flights cancellations for this year
ReplyDeleteIt would be great if Air Canada considered this route. They have opened a few new international routes since the pandemic began.
ReplyDeleteDoha and Cairo I believe.
DeleteDoha seems like a very odd choice.
DeleteNot really. Qatar Airways wanted to fly to Toronto. But Canada has extremely protectionist policies and tries to protect Air Canada from all sorts of competition. So a compromise was reached for Air Canada to fly to Doha and QR and AC signed a codeshare.
DeleteI'm surprised the Canadian government has such protectionist policies.
DeleteThey really do, contrary to a popular belief at this portal. They had to abendon their military supply base in UAE becouse they wouldn’t allow additional EK flights a few years ago.
DeleteNot surprising at all.
ReplyDeleteAnyone flown AC Rouge or Air Transat on this route? Can you share your experience?
ReplyDeleteI remember there being a trip report here on Rouge.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/11/trip-report-air-canada-rouge-toronto.html
DeleteThanks!
DeleteI think this was to be expected with the merger. The question now is if Transat will be back this year or it will have to postpone until 2022.
ReplyDeleteAir Transat has suspended all flights until April 30, so it's not looking good.
DeleteAC Rouge as well.
DeleteWhy??
DeleteBecause travelling to Caribbean destinations has been banned by Canadian government.
DeleteOh I see. Crazy that two major airlines are grounded.
DeleteSmall correction, international travel to and from Canada wasn’t banned but federal government instituted mandatory 3 day hotel quarantine that traveler has to pay for ($2000). Airlines than cancelled all those leisure type routes untill Apr 30 at least.
DeleteInteresting statement sent out by Transat an hour ago
ReplyDeleteTransat A.T. Inc. (“Transat” or the “Corporation“) wishes to communicate a status update regarding its contemplated arrangement with Air Canada (the “Arrangement“) under the revised arrangement agreement between Transat and Air Canada dated October 9, 2020 (the “Arrangement Agreement“).
As announced on February 11, 2021, although the Canadian government has approved the Arrangement, the Arrangement must still receive the approval of the European Commission (the “Commission“). The Commission has requested additional information from the parties and its decision is now expected to be rendered only in the first half of 2021.
As indicated previously, the outside date for the consummation of the Arrangement under the Arrangement Agreement (the “Outside Date“) was set at February 15, 2021 and has now passed. As a result of the occurrence of the Outside Date without the prior receipt of required approval from the Commission, each of Air Canada and Transat are currently entitled, at any time, to terminate the Arrangement Agreement upon notice to the other party. Until terminated or amended by the parties, the Arrangement Agreement remains in effect in accordance with all of its terms.
Transat and Air Canada are continuing their discussions regarding potential amendments to the Arrangement Agreement that may be required. In the context of such discussions, Transat has been informed by Air Canada that Air Canada will not agree to an extension of the current Outside Date. In such case, even if the Arrangement Agreement is amended, Air Canada and Transat would retain the ability to terminate the agreement at any time. There can be no assurance that an agreement on any such amendments will be reached, or that Air Canada or Transat will not terminate the Arrangement Agreement if the relevant circumstances so warrant.
So EU will decide whether a merger in Canada will go ahead??
DeleteAir Transat doesn't sound too thrilled that they are being taken over by Air Canada lol
DeleteMy thoughts too
DeleteProblem is the price. Previous agreement they reached prior to COVID was much more generous to AIr Transat’s shareholders.
DeleteThis is fine. Either Transat will stay daily flights once things calm down or Westjet might start flights.
ReplyDelete** start daily flights
DeleteWhat were the fares like on this route? Who was cheaper?
ReplyDeleteI mean Transat or Rouge?
DeleteTransat
DeleteБахатост ЕК ће послужити Ер Канади да се извуче из овог дила са Трансатом. Све што им треба могу сада да набаве на тржишту за мање пара и без услова и уцена.
ReplyDelete