Low cost carrier Wizz Air is said to be in talks with Zagreb Airport over its potential return to the Croatian capital after ten years. Local media reports that Wizz is in advanced talks with Croatia’s busiest airport over the launch of several routes. It comes just a week after Ryanair announced it would open a base in the city this September by stationing two aircraft and launching twelve new destinations. Wizz Air used to maintain services to Zagreb from Dortmund and London but terminated its operations to the city in 2011. It has since primarily focused on Split in Croatia, to which it will launch six new seasonal routes this summer.
Wizz Air’s CEO, Jozsef Varadi, previously said Zagreb Airport was too expensive for the airline. “Zagreb is a high-priced airport environment with fluctuating demand. If Zagreb Airport becomes more reasonable, we will certainly consider that airport as an opportunity for expanding our network", Mr Varadi said at the time. Zagreb Airport recently launched a new subsidy scheme to stimulate the arrival of new airlines and the launch of new routes. The discounts include an 80% reduction in the passenger service charge that amounts to 17.5 euros. However, in order to qualify, an airline must launch services from the Croatian capital to destinations that were not previously served in either the pre-pandemic 2019 or in 2020. The carrier must also maintain operations throughout the year.
Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O'Leary, said last week the airline would welcome Wizz Air’s presence at Zagreb Airport and would be ready to compete against its low cost rival. On the other hand, Croatia Airlines said it would adapt its business to new circumstances on the market as much as possible. Wizz Air is continuing to expand its presence in the former Yugoslavia this summer with the launch of nineteen new routes from the region, including a new base in Sarajevo. The carrier will introduce nine new routes from Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital, six from Split and four from Belgrade (one of which has already been inaugurated).
That was quick. Ryan is in for a fight.
ReplyDeleteIt seems we will have a SOF style gunfight at ZAG.
DeleteBTW, who won that fight in SOF?
DeleteSofia passengers 2020
Delete>>33% wiz -22% rayan -19 bulgarian air
https://www.sofia-airport.bg/en/content/statistics
FR won on several occasions such as the Rome and Birmingham routes and now they launched 4 new routes to Italy and Budapest and the same ones in BOJ. W6 are still more dominant but lost some routes. FR simply have much more aircraft, but W6 have bigger A321s which I predict might happen in ZAG and might be deployed on the London and Swedish routes.
DeleteBye OU.
ReplyDeleteAgree, this is not looking good for them.
DeleteRIP OU.
DeleteThis should have happened long time before. We've lost millions in potential inbound revenue to Zagreb and beyond and tax payers money wasted to save OU.
ZAG is really going to boom
ReplyDeleteThis is a huge change in approach from the airport management. But great news for consumers.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised as to what brought this on. I realize corona but they seemed to go along with safeguarding Croatia Airlines until now. What changed?
DeleteZAG probably lost their patience with OU.
DeleteI think they know OU wont make it in the sense of how it is right now, it will become a charter Airline for the coast in the end. So the zagreb management is doing what needs to be done
DeleteSo maybe LH group airlines will fill the void to LH hubs when OU begins to decline.
DeleteDoubt LH Group will do anything. FR announced CRL and SN suspends BRU.
DeleteLet's see what happens with Munich once FMM starts.
DeleteWithout Wizz it would be only half the fun ...
ReplyDeleteIt would be funny if Wizz Air beat Ryanait to it in opening a base and does it in July or August :D
ReplyDeleteNo base is mentioned in the article. Just possible return of Wizz to ZAG. Of course, anything is possible, but I think there will be no Wizz base in ZAG, at least not that soon, maybe few services for the beginning. And I wouldn't mind the base, the more the merrier, but don't see it happening.
DeleteI see LTN ZAG flights with Wizz
DeleteWell from a traditional business model perspecive ZAG would be more Wizz turf than Rynair. So time to fight.
ReplyDeleteWould you mind explaining why you think Wizz is more suitable for ZAG than Ryan? In my opinion, it's quite opposite Wizz serves (at least in our region) predominantly ethnic/gasto traffic, while Ryain focuses more on tourist/city break/some business, with gasto part as well. And I see ZAG more as a combination of all those passengers than 90%gasto. Of course I might be wrong but would like to hear why you are in favour of Wizz
DeleteBNX and INI are two airports that do well for FR and I guess it's mostly gasto traffic.
DeleteI never said FR operates no gasto traffic. I said "gasto part as well". Both BNX and INI are included in this "part". But my question remains unanswered.
DeleteWould they open similar routes to Ryanair or completely different?
ReplyDeleteBoth .
DeleteI do not see how OU could possibly survive this. End of the story.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they will finally start focusing more on the coast.
DeleteRyanair is there as well
DeleteGrowth, new markets, transfers, long-haul, in order to do it competent management which will fire half of excess administrative employees - uhljebs, inrease work productivity and cut corruptive acts. Freed of lethal political influence and theft, it wouldn't be so hard to find investor. The will is the only thing needed. So far there was no will to change anything. Maybe the time has finally come to "drain the swamp"
DeleteOU is a dead horse .
DeleteTime to change it with something that is moving ...
Wizz will come and pull the plug on the corpse OU that's on life support.
DeleteRe. pozdrav:
DeleteGrowth, new markets -> even on established markets like FRA or CDG you see very low numbers of O&D LEGACY pax from ZAG, what do you expect on new markets?
Transfers -> means even lower yielding pax; transfers means only volume
Long-hauls ->
- no money to start that
- seasonality
- virtually no business traffic, only lower yielding tourists and VFRs that are primarily good to fill the back of the plane for other airlines (LH) after these airlines have sold more expensive business or economy tickets to their O&D travellers
- sales heavily on the foreign side and not in Croatia
- no ability to transfer pax at the other end of the route (no chance for a REAL cooperation on that with any of the star alliance partners)
- with one or two long haul planes, totally ineffective on the cost side
So stop blaming an airline for an objective reality.
You are totally entitled to your opinion and you will never make me change mine. Fullstop.
DeleteYes. I am fully aware that no argument can make you change your mind. And of course you are totally entitled to your opinion, however baseless.
DeleteI wouldn't call my opinion baseless and I explained here several times why it is not baseless, so I will do it once again. Very briefly, if there was no corruption, theft, non-transparency and over over over excessive administration, as well as decisive political influence, it wouldn't be difficult to find investor and start long-haul, especially now when lease prices are dirty cheap and when some of the airlines previously operating to Croatia quit operations due to covid, or their transformation. Seasonality could be dealt with, in different ways. Lower yielding tourists good to fill back of the LH planes is firstly disastrous insulting statement, and secondly absolutely not true. Tourists coming from distant markets to Croatia are in over 70%not travelling on budget. They just need to be given an option. Business traffic is not non-existent, but modest, that part I agree, but could be improved by attracting transfers from larger markets, which is also not mission impossible, and could additionally improve yields, opposite to what you think about transfers, but requires some work and some marketing activity. As long as there are sales, it is more or less irrelevant which "side" they are done. Also, if there is no will to be real partner in Star, why not going out, joining the other one, or simply choose partners on the"other side"to cooperate with. Also, I never suggested one or two planes. Well yes, of course, for the beginning, but I am pretty much sure 4 or 5 long-haul planes in 2 or 3 years could work just fine. But if your conclusion is me "stopping blaming airline", which had 30 years to do something and did nothing and is on the way to disappear after it had sucked billions of our money, which is deeply rotten and corrupt, and mismanaged, then it's pretty much clear why are you so willing to accept "objective reality"
DeleteContrary to what you seem to think, I am not and were not part of OU management. I just don't like all this bashing you do here.
DeleteStarting operations means thinking about their viability for many years to come and not just this year or next year. Airlines dropped/reduced routes to Croatia for a reason. It is not like they can make tonnes of money, but they don't want to. Unless you think all airline management teams are stupid.
Lease prices to be paid in a third+ year of lease already include the expected upturn in the market, even if you sign now and get the first two years of the lease relatively cheap. You won't enjoy it forever, so you have to put this into your calculation.
You have no idea how to deal with seasonality, except for trying to sub-lease planes during winter, when supply of the planes is already much bigger than demand. This means limiting losses, but still losses during winter will be heavy.
I am not saying that all tourists that come to Croatia are on budget. It is very far from the truth. Still tourists and VFRs are more price sensitive than people travelling on business (whether in a business class or in economy), simply because the latter don't pay out of their own pocket. You don't have the opportunity to squeeze tourists/VFRs for last minute expensive tickets, higher airfare classes etc.
Sad to say that but business travel long haul to Croatia is virtually non existent (at least if you think about it in the context of making a multimillion dollar investment in aviation). Croatian export to US is about 0,5 bln USD and to Canada some 80 mln USD per year. That will not make air links workable.
Attracting business travelers from other markets is hard to imagine. Flying south would mean a significant detour. You would also have a difficulty to propose a business traveller decent frequencies, specially year round.
Transfers means lower yield, because of the competition. How do you make somebody from lets say Hungary to transfer in ZAG rather than in lets say VIE or FRA, other than based on price (especially that VIE and FRA would offer him more flexibility with higher frequences)? Sorry you have to fill your plane with O&D travellers at high prices, or it won't work (and pls don't tell me here about middle east carriers).
There will be no sales. Most tourists that come from the US to Croatia do it because there is an air link on AA. They just check what is on offer by AA and pick from it. That is the easiest thing for them to do. Outside of VFRs market recognition of OU is minimal and will take long time to establish.
AA can easily fill a plane to Croatia with pax from the likes of CLE or PIT. OU, flying to lets say NYE, cannot do it, because AA will not be interested in doing the OU's job and filling OU's long haul planes with pax from around US. In fact nobody will be interested in doing that. You may change the alliances but it will not change. Other airlines want to fly their pax over the pond themselves and not give them away for nothing to OU.
4-5 planes of the same type is still much below the level where economy of scale works for you. And this applies also to long-haul planes. With two-three planes it would most probably be more cost effective to wet lease a plane rather than fly it yourself.
This is objective reality and not dreams. Pls stop bashing.
Anon 17:20
Delete+1000
When I speak of theft, corruption, political influence and low work productivity, only that is OBJECTIVE REALITY for OU. It is not bashing, it is objective reality. So, please don't make me have my mouth shut about that reality because you don't like it and you call it bashing.
DeleteEverything else you wrote is acceptable as a theory but you gave no single proof that theory and only that theory is the one that can function in praxis. No studies, no numbers, no feasibility data, no detailed analysis. Without all of those, just theory and empty words.
And I find those two deeply correlated.
Common sense from Anon at 17:20
DeleteAnon 17:20
Delete+2000
Pozdrav is living in fantasy world
No, pozdrav is facing OU aparatchik who, hiding under Anonymous, is giving himself +1000's and +2000's, and will therefore stop wasting his time here. Cheers!
Delete*Btw im not an anon who had an argument with pozdrav iz rijeke*
DeletePozdrav iz rijeke, of course you reply that, i expected that. As ususal, when someone shows you a constructive arguments against your theory you argument is "coruption" or "existence of uhljebs". You simply dont have any arguments.
And why do you want "proof" now when you basicly never showed us any?
re. pozdrav:
DeleteI am as anonymous as you are, unless you want to tell me that "pozdrav iz Rijeke" are your first and last name like for example Erasmus of Rotterdam or Thomas of Acquino.
I cannot confirm or deny what you say about theft, corruption etc., because, as already mentioned, I have never been part of OU organisation. But if you believe that it actually did change something with regard to feasibility of what you propose, I disagree.
And yes, I have no studies etc. to prove that persons travelling on business are less price sensitive and that you need a large chunk of high paying customers to be able to sell the rest of the tickets to more price sensitive pax and still make money overall, or to prove that having four planes of the same type (whether turboprops, regional jets or long haul planes) is insufficient for economy of scale. Either it sounds logical to you or not.
Anon 13:59/17:20
Uhljebi na aparatima :) :) :) :) :)
DeleteMa naravno da smo uhljebi ako ne vjerujemo u ogromni superiorni potencijal za long haul iz Zagreba prema Japanu sa A350!!! Ili ogromni potencijal poslovnih putnika prema Kanadi!!! Svaka čast, uhvatio si nas u uhljebništvu i prezentirao tvoj očito jedini protuargument!!!! Bravo!!!
DeleteFinally! Way to go, ZAG!
ReplyDeleteGreat news for Zagreb residents :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, and all people who use the airport.
DeleteLjubljana too :D
DeleteMaribor as well
DeleteRijeka naturally. Will gladly switch to ZAG instead Treviso which was the case so far
DeleteZagreb is far away from treviso at the moment ...
DeleteBecause it is just the beginning. Ryan functions that way. I am pretty much sure ZAG will have at least equal number of operations from ZAG as from Treviso. Maybe even more. Market is not small, and not really poor. So yes, in couple of years I expect Malta, and Tenerife, and Burgas, and Xania, and many others
DeleteYou just compared one of the richest region with one of the poorest in EU lol. If you think Ryanair will have 50 destinations out of Zagreb you are naive. And yes this is how they work - if they make profit (which is mostly based on airport discounts). Let's just wait and see how things go and how many flights will actually materialize this year. And how far airport will go to support them.
DeleteCroatia is one of the poorest EU countries, statistically, but also the one with highest regional differences, so no, Zagreb region is not one of the poorest, if you look by regions. Second, Venice and Treviso are less then 100.000 population each, ZAG is 8 times more. Also, competition is much stronger in Veneto than in Zagreb. And finally, proximity of entire Slovenia and Rijeka and entire continental Croatia, all these make me just a little bit less naive than you think :) And of course nobody cannot guarantee anything until covid scam is over, but once it is over I guarantee FR will be pretty much successful and pretty much big in ZAG
DeleteGuys, let's wait and see what ends up being launched in September, autumn is not around the corner.
Deletenoone said they wont do well. all i am saying is it wont be that easy to reach Treviso levels. And saying Zagreb is 8 times bigger is nonsense- just Veneto region is bigger than Croatia (4,8 MIO people, GDP 163 billion - Croatia 4MIO, 53 billion) so don't compare them. and treviso is dirty cheap and in schengen so many slovenians will still use that airport (if you live in Koper or Nova Gorica is easier and faster to reach treviso). They will do well, they will grow if the airport will support them but in my opinion we won't see 50 destinations out of Zagreb with Ryanair - 40 of them year round. and additional 10+ destinations with wizzair).
DeleteOU will move to LJU. OK, OK I will see myself out.
ReplyDeleteHaha that's an interesting take, honestly I even think it would work. But no one will even propose that.
Delete:-)))
Deleteno worries, OK went bankrupt already
How will this affect Zagreb South East Airport?
ReplyDeleteWe were convinced here so often there was never coleration between these 2 airports so I do not see why it would be the case now.
DeleteThere is no correlation between the two airports.
DeleteWhat's the Zagreb South East Airport
DeleteBanja Luka bro.
DeleteLOL, this sounds like Ryanair Marketing Department. Are we talking about Banja Luka?
DeleteZagreb NorthWest Airport would be Ljubljana
Banja Luka waited too long ...
DeleteWishing All the best to ZAG, but LJU please wake up, I really don't want to drive to nearby airports whenever I want to fly.
ReplyDeleteIs it too late for LJU to become a LCC base at this point?
DeleteIts over for LJU and MBX. They had their chances to become LCC alternative to ZAG, they had more than 10 years to do that, now its too late.
DeleteNot really ten years. I mean Adria only died two years ago.
Deletemost of the LCC destinations in Zagreb are not interested for slovenians at the moment.
DeleteYeah but wait a few months, it will get a lot more interesting.
Deletenot if there are same limits as they are now (discounts only for new routes). It will get interested after Croatian Airlines is gone. than LJU airport will struggle a lot if LCC will have no limits in Zagreb. but i think what airport management will try to do is keeping Croatian Airlines alive together with LCC ... and believe me in a few months we can also see also Ryanair postponing base - don't forget pandemic is still here. hope not but lets see.
DeleteI hope for Madrid, Barcelona and Lissabon !
ReplyDeleteYou're the Iberian peninsula guy, right?
DeleteThe guy who always asks for these cities.
Yeah
DeleteIs it going to be just good apples with Wizz?
ReplyDeleteWhat ever fruit is in season.
DeleteOU na aparatima ...
ReplyDeleteCan we just build a high speed rail from Ljubljana to ZAG and call it quits?
ReplyDelete30m transit time between the two cities.
And you will be able to ride on brand new stadler trains. Also Skobir should include all passengers traveling by this rail to ZAG into LJU statistics, to see how many passengers could fly from/to LJU but dont because of his incompetence :)
DeleteWha, and then just close down LJU???
Deletemaybe after croatia enters schengen ...
Deletei think high-speed to Venice would be better.
DeleteOr maybe a canal. ;-)
DeleteLot of people here who are critical about Yugoslavia as a country and JAT as its flag carrier, and trying to convince us it was loss making state run company which was not market oriented, should be aware that JAT, simultaneously with LH's train Frankfurt-Bonn-Cologne-Dusseldorf, and AZ's Milano-Torino, started its own train service, twice daily both directions, Ljubljana-Zagreb, "zeleni vlak", most modern in that time, journey time 1.30 h. This is my comment on original poster's suggestion of train link, and clear sign where we were 30 years ago and where are we now. Danke Deutschland!
Deletepozdrav iz Rijeke14:05
DeleteOU Management is not adaptive to change. No vision, no creativity, no innovation, no agility. They are there to run a clock . Also in today's society and not just in Croatia everything is political. Not just in aviation, but in music, in sport. So there are political constraints as well.
And what does that, what I btw fully agree, has to do with EX-JAT and train Ljubljana-Zagreb?
DeleteBecause "Cause and effect" is a relationship between events or things, where one is the result of the other or others.
DeleteThere is a reason no train Ljubljana Zagreb: maybe it is a 2 different countries, maybe it is political, maybe it is economic turf protection, maybe OU management is not independent.
For example why there is not Sputnik or Sinopharm vaccine in Croatia but is available in Hungary, EU country? I honestly don't know. So something is causing this effect, hence "cause & effect" relationship is there.
and it is the same in all other fields.
Recent developments at Wizz: audio of a meeting last year about the "principles" to choose the 250 redundant pilots (among 1000 employees in total) leaked. No seniority, real performance or any objective metric used other than personal liking of base captains ("bad apples" to be fired). As a result the chief pilot and all remaining base captains "resigned" (you know what that means). New base captains are responsible for 3-5 bases instead of the previous one. The three regional management pilots (second line of management below the chief pilot) replaced with female flight attendands. As you can image the pilots are rather unhappy.
ReplyDeleteDoes it make a difference whether flight attendants are female or male?
DeleteDon't know. It's a mere fact.
Delete@Anonymous 1o:2o, it does-they didn't choose female flight attendants for these roles due to quality but to fulfill female % quota... they will do anything for PR including selection of people based on gender rather than quality. Unfortunately it already happened on pilot selections in the past and will happen more often in the future.
Delete@anon 10:00:
DeleteJust heard the audio. Disgusting. Apparently, there is also a video.
@Anon 20.30., where is that link , please ?
DeleteFantastic news for Zagreb
ReplyDeleteLet's hope they reach a deal
ReplyDeleteFunny, how I dont see anymore comments that these airlines are "gastos" and "diaspora" routes, and how ZAG is above all that?
ReplyDeleteDon't be petty bro. No reason for it.
DeleteVery correct, anon 10:10
DeleteI still think it is too early for OU to react.
ReplyDeleteOf course it is.
DeleteIf W6 returns to ZAG, they will certainly launch LTN. Here are other possible predictions:
ReplyDeleteBER, BCN, HAM, LCA, TLV, BGY, FCO, NYO, TIV.
You forgot EIN
DeleteMaybe ZAG-BEG :D
DeleteI hope they don't go head to head with Ryanair on certain routes. They will just canabilise each other. I would rather they launch unserved routes.
ReplyDeleteThey will both canabilise OU
ReplyDeleteI don't think you know the meaning of the word "canabilise"
DeletePojesce je zivu majstore
DeleteNah lol
DeleteOvo su sjajne vijesti za zagrebački aerodrom, ali ne i za Croatia Airlines
ReplyDeleteAUH-ZAG on Wizz when?
ReplyDeleteNot impossible but highly unlikely, even when covid is over
DeleteGuys the announcement is great but let's see what happens in September. a long list of airlines have suspended Zagreb over the summer. I think FR will hurt others more than it will create a new market. I mean who would go to ZAG for holidays in September when vaccination is still uncertain.
ReplyDeleteI must say - congratulations Zagreb!
ReplyDeleteGetting Ryanair was good news but getting both Ryanair and Wizzair would be outstanding. Congrats!
DeleteAnd in two days we will read here that Easy Jet will open a Zagreb base too ...!
Delete; )
That would be priceless. :-)
DeleteI hope they are going to connect Zagreb and Budapest
ReplyDelete