The British-registered start-up airline Pragusa.One plans to launch operations this June with bases in Prague and Dubrovnik, offering flights to far-away destinations both in the east and west. Based on the carrier’s ambitious plans, which are questionable due to a number of markets it intends to serve being closed for international travel due to the coronavirus pandemic, Pragusa.One will link Dubrovnik with New York, Los Angeles, Johannesburg, Beijing, Chengdu, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. It is unclear whether all these routes would be launched at once or would be introduced over several years. The airline said it would offer “premium travel packages lasting seven and fourteen days with scheduled direct flights”.
Pragusa.One, named after Prague and Ragusa, the latter being the historic name of the city of Dubrovnik, plans to operate a fleet of Airbus A330-300s and A350-900 aircraft. According to the “Simple Flying” portal, the airline will wet-lease the jets with two of each type to be stationed in both Prague and Dubrovnik. By 2024, the airline hopes to have a permanent fleet of four A350-900s operating in an all premium economy layout. Based on reports, the carrier will apply for an Air Operator’s Certificate in April and has secured incentives from both airports. At this point, the only two markets to be served by Pragusa.One that permit their local population to conduct international travel are the United States and South Africa.
Speaking to EX-YU Aviation News in late December, the General Manager of Dubrovnik Airport, Frano Luetić, said long haul flights would not be restored from the city in 2021. “Unfortunately, for next year, we will be unable to restore intercontinental flights, of course because of the pandemic. However, we are in constant contact with airlines which used to fly to Dubrovnik before the crisis. A decision about the resumption of flights will be made once circumstances permit”, Mr Luetić said at the time. Dubrovnik Airport used to be served by American Airlines on a seasonal summer basis from Philadelphia before the global health emergency began but has since terminated the route.
Sounds like a wish list. Doubt it will happen.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is lol.
ReplyDeleteThis could maybe, just maybe, worked before the pandemic. Now no chance.
ReplyDeleteWhy
DeleteI really hope the airport didn't give it incentives. Looks like a scam to me.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWhere are they going to find A350s for wet lease?
ReplyDeleteThat can be easily arranged. Airlines have excess capacity. Getting someone to pay their crew and aircraft is doable.
DeleteVery few airlines have parked the A350s and the B787, as they are the most fuel efficient aircraft on the market by far, so I doubt there will be many aircraft lying around post pandemic.
DeleteDid they make that livery in Microsoft Paint?
ReplyDeleteSo this is the second start up after ETF that plans to have a base in Dubrovnik this summer.
ReplyDeleteNeither of which will become reality....
DeleteAnd the next one will be WTF
DeleteWTF
DeleteHahahahahahahahah
Good luck with that
ReplyDeleteNew York, LA, Beijing and Tokyo could all work, if only there wasn't a global pandemic.
ReplyDeleteAll of the routes could work, except maybe Johannesburg in pre pandemic times.
DeleteIf they could, why no one launched them?
DeleteNY, LA was catered by AA on a daily PHL flight, while Flydubai, Turkish and the planned daily flight to DOH did for Asia. Or who do you think flew on them/would have flown.
DeleteThose flights are plannes 2 times a week.
I asked why none started nonatop flights to tgese markets?
DeleteToo good to be true.
ReplyDeleteThis would be fantastic. But somehow I doubt it will happen.
ReplyDeleteHope it is not another money laundering opportunity for some investors in UK...
ReplyDeleteJudging by who is behind it, I believe it's exactly that.
DeleteWho is behind it?
DeleteYeah, who is?
DeleteKresimir Budinski
DeleteIs he Croatian?
DeleteThis is crazy. The government should step in and stop these Ponzi schemes in order to protect the integrity of the Republic.
ReplyDeleteFully agree!
DeleteI would agree if I knew which Republic.
DeleteWell I think he meant Republic of Croatia.
DeleteGood name. However Pragnik or Dubrogue would have been better.
ReplyDeleteDubrouge :D
DeleteThis won't work
ReplyDeleteNo Seoul?
ReplyDeleteSeoul pax can transfer in PEK. Or some korean airline can start flights to DBV
DeleteVaccinations will be a major element in getting us travelling again. Huge pent-up demand. Hope this works.
ReplyDeleteNo can travel in or out from these Asian markets. Even the Japanese government plans to have no international spectators at the Olympics which are in July.
ReplyDelete*no one
DeleteWouldn't rush to book with them that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteI really really hope DBV hasn't committed any funds to this.
ReplyDeleteKnowing the management and how professional they have been, I doubt they would make any risky move like this.
DeleteThey are gonna serve exactly the same cities from DBV and PRG?
ReplyDeleteWould these be nonstop or Dubrovnik via Prague to the west and Prague via Dubrovnik to the east?
DeleteI think what ever you imagine and (literally) dream about! :D
DeleteAmbitious.
ReplyDeleteUnrealistic, there fixed it for you.
DeleteIf this was announced 2 years ago, I would tend to believe it. But now...
ReplyDelete9A reg...? :)
ReplyDeleteWith every passing announcment these start ups sound more and more unrealistic.
ReplyDeleteCroatia has been a magnet for these start up ideas
DeleteAnon 09:54
DeleteBecause Croatian tourist boards are well known to throw away handfuls of money to the airlines in exchange of connectivity to the coastal cities.
Yeah, right, 100+ airlines operating to the coast are all fatly paid to fly there and all 11 million air passengers came only and exclusively because of the money given in exchange for connectivity. Bravo! Thanks God there is Tourist Board, otherwise the coast would be completely empty LOL
Delete11 million? Slightly over 2 million last year. Compared to, let's say, 19.7 in Greece.
DeleteBoth Greece and Croatia had 7,5 mil tourists last year. Greece had around 4 million foreign and around 3,5 mil domestic tourists, Croatia had around 5 mil foreign and around 2 mil domestic. Not to mention need to discuss pandemic year as something regular. But I am not surprised with deliberate lies placed here daily. What I still can't understand is desperation and hate which make people write such lies
DeleteLies? I was talking about pax. Croatian data from this blog, Greek from the Hellenic Civil Air something something. So official x2.
DeleteWhen I make mistake, I am willng to admit it, and I apologize for mixing up tourists and air passengers, which I did. But it still does not change the fact that you take last year as an example as we all know what happened last year and it cannot be taken as relevant for anything. Also you cannot compare Greece where air traffic is basically the only way to come from most of the emitive markets, and Croatia, reachable by car in few hours. Also, Tourist Board with its incentives contributes to maximum 10 percent of air passengers, and much less tourists, and all this combined shows you were not writing in good will and good spirit. I apologize for saying you deliberately wrote lies, but still think you manipulated with data with intention to create false picture, and all of these only if you are the same An. who started discussion on Tourist Board. Also I would like to ask once again @ex-yu aviation to discontinue possibility for Anonymouses to write here because it often creates mess
DeleteBut why the "one" in the name?
ReplyDeleteBecause there will be a Pragusa Two :D
DeleteWill they seek AOC from Czech Republic or Croatia?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter, both are in the EU.
DeleteHow doesnt it? its a UK registered company
DeleteAnd they claim they will fly to places that might not accept a pan-European airline in their bilateral agreements. And they can forget all about Russian overflight rights.
DeleteThis sounds so far fetched I can't even.
ReplyDeleteDubrovnik is the center of world's tourism, just people have not noticed it yet. I trust this airline will bring Dubrovnik to where it really belongs!
ReplyDeletelmao
DeleteIs anyone involved in the project familiar with at least the basics of the airline industry? For the Asian routes, do they expect to get Russian overflight rights that established airlines have failed with?
ReplyDeleteWhich established airline failed with "Russian overflight rights" recently? Some 30-40 years ago, during cold war, yes, it was the problem, but today, I don't know of any such case. But maybe I just lack information
DeleteThe liberalisation that happened in the 80s was only partial in that it started to become possible to pay Aeroflot compensation to fly across Siberia rather than not being allowed to fly that way at all, as was the case before, but it is all still regulated and the money still goes to Aeroflot, not some government agency.
DeleteNorwegian would be the most publicised example since they openly complained that they were unable to secure any Siberian overflight rights at all.
Also, many Asian carriers have already reached their quotas and are not able to expand more to Europe across Siberia. For example, that's partly why Korean Air leases an A330 to Czech Airlines, so that the Czechs can fly PRG-ICN since Korean Air has maxed out on overflight rights.
I doubt there is room in the agreement with Russia for a second Czech airline, but either way, they need to make up their mind if they are Czech or Croat since Russia doesn't care about EU status and would never approve them to fly from both.
Thanks for info. Didn't know that, thought was fully liberalised
DeleteNothing to South America?
ReplyDeleteI can't believe how unserious this company is.
There must be something left for the second phase of development and growth. Probably South America will be in the second phase :)
DeleteIts a scam my dudes, be careful
ReplyDeleteAlways nice to start one's Friday off with a lighthearted joke.
ReplyDeleteA plane in completely premium economy set up. That will be successful, not.
ReplyDeleteI am the one who strongly believe in potentials of Croatia in air traffic and tourism, especially from distant markets, and always critical about OU which with its inertness and, incompetence and mismanagement missed that opportunity. And I like this idea, destinations are the ones where most of the tourists come from, my interpretation of of fleet idea is starting with 330 and later on adding 350 and than finally switching to 350, the time to prepare the business now is ideal with prices for aircraft and everything else including workforce on lowest levels, and if only they declared they expected to start 2022 I would say yes, that's it. But starting in couple of months, that's what made even me thinking nothing would come out of it.
ReplyDeleteYou see potential in this plan? Nothing weird, you are the same person who said how OU should try Cairova for transfers and daily flights to Bangkok.
DeleteAt least I don't spit on others as nameless Anonymous. And no, you will not provoke me once again to discuss with you all missed croatian chances and all unused potentials. Cheers!
DeleteHahahahahha of course. Because there is a great chanse in daily flights to Bangkok from ZAG, flights to Cairova or Philadelphia out of ZAG by OU. All missed potentials. Oh i forgot 3 daily flights to TGD which would replace 3 daily to FRA. Because TGD=great rich market with huge potential and FRA= non existent potentia..
DeleteIznenađen sam ovolikom količinom glupošću.
ReplyDeleteOsoba koja govori o necijoj gluposti kao dokaz svoje sposobnosti za procjenu tudje vrijednosti, morala bi biti barem donekle pismena. A i u hrvatskoj i u srpskoj varijanti zajednickog nam jezika, moze se biti iznenadjen samo kolicinom gluposti, nikako kolicinom gluposcu. Zato ja nikako nisam iznanadjen kolicinom "pismenoscu " procjenitelja
DeleteAnother new Balkan airline: A US DoT document confirms that Gullivair has the right to launch flights from Bulgaria to the USA, as a registered airline of a EU member state. The airline has 3 A330-200s and 3 ATR72-600s. GullivAir's feeder network in the region sustains its transatlantic flights JFK, Toronto, Delhi from it's Sofia and Bucuresti bases.
ReplyDeleteHorrible name and horrific logo. Why not just use something more neutral?
ReplyDeleteHow come JNB possibly work as well..
South African out of business. Huge country with big population, and part of population very rich. And, check the stats for SA tourists in CZ and HR. Decent. Also some diaspora from the region. Even JAT operated briefly JNB before ex-yu desintegrated
DeleteAre you serious? I thought you understand aviation because of your OU criticism, but you obviously dont.
DeleteIf you read the article carefully, you should have spotted the sentence "premium travel packages". Majority of long-haul flights are suspended, lot of them will never be in air again. South African will not operate to Europe any more. Globally, new trend of P2P long-haul routes is foreseen as partial compensation for loss of pre-pandemic hub&spoke services, Once situation is back to normal, there will be place for tourists from South Africa to come to their European holiday destinations. I don't think the route map presented is route map of scheduled flights but all flights, including charter. Opposite hemisphere is not disadvantage as well, on the contrary. And as I said, definitely not June 2021 and if 2021 at all, maybe just JFK and one of Chinese destinations. At the end, if you choose to think I know nothing about aviation, it is your right, just would like to remind that on many occasions thinking out of the box and courage gave results despite they looked impossible in the beginning
DeleteDo you understand that they dont have in mind operating intra european flights so these are just p2p routes. And market between Dubrovnik and South Africa is not large at all.
DeleteP2P is exactly what I said. Charters always are. 22.000 tourists from South Africa in 2019. Will not say anything more.
Deletegde nadju Johannesburg
ReplyDeleteI'm also baffled by the choice of Johanesburg.
ReplyDeleteThe fact nobody is commenting is information they plan to have premium economy configuration and product, which is in my opinion very important, and good choice, because usually tourists from distant markets are not on budget, and can pay more for better service and comfort which could contribute to yields and profitability.
ReplyDeletejust have a look at the so called company registered in London..scam or joke? would be nice if i am wrong.
ReplyDeleteWith founding capital of 100 GBP
Delete10 min google search shows that the man behind is mr. Kresimir Budinski.
ReplyDelete(owner/founder of Paulane, Aeromobile, ATA.one ....)
so imho: scam
Nemojte ljudi biti toliko brzi da kritikujete ideju koja sa dobrom finansijom i pametnom vodjom i moze da se realizuje. Istoricki aerolinije koje su namenjene samo bogatima slabo uspevaju ali uvek ima izuzetaka.
ReplyDeleteTotally and utterly ridiculous
ReplyDeleteIs it April 1st already?
ReplyDeleteAir Croatia was the only one that made sense and that had any potential. Even OU copied the routes they shortly operated adn the ones they planned to. All these nonsense airlines are just there to scam people.
ReplyDeleteWTF? Waste of money. Not gonna work + livery looks like kids draw it
ReplyDeleteWon't happen.
ReplyDeleteHis last project ata.one is an app for last minute booking.
But nowhere available
Not on their website or play store.
Wow so many naysayers here. Look, no money has changed hands yet. It's an announcement. If and when the EU sets guidelines and Croatia announces what incoming international tourists need to stay here it's just plans. As a travel industry veteran for many decades I don't see anything peculiar here. Wet lease of course since buying as a new airline is not the way to go. Premium economy on a 9 hour flight also makes sense. Conclusion...wait and see and stop trashing the idea
ReplyDeleteDemand is there in the summer. How will they fill those planes to Dubrovnik in February or November?
ReplyDeleteNovember is still ok in Dubrovnik, but February is another story. I wish the guys behind this were serious but I don't believe one bit that they are
Delete