Ryanair is gearing up for its second round of expansion from Zagreb Airport next week when it stations a second aircraft from its Lauda Europe subsidiary, which will be followed by a third wave of new routes in December when it bases a third jet in the Croatian capital. By mid-December it will operate 24 routes out of Zagreb. The latest additions to its network will include Manchester, Malaga, Dublin, Paphos, Basel, Eindhoven, Thessaloniki, Malta and Naples. Almost all of the new services will be operated twice per week, while Dublin will run three times per week. Ryanair will not be competing directly on any of the new routes, with exception to the Irish capital where it will go head-to-head against Croatia Airlines during the summer months. The low cost airline will provide capacity on busy unserved routes and open up nonstop flights from Zagreb to two new markets which are currently unserved - Malta and Cyprus.
Out of the nine new routes to be introduced in December, Manchester is among Zagreb’s busiest currently lacking nonstop flights. Based on OAG data, in the pre-pandemic 2019, it was the fourth busiest unserved European destination from the Croatian capital with 8.825 indirect passengers. The citypair was previously served by Monarch Airlines, which initially planned to run seasonal summer flights but extended its operations into the winter due to strong demand. However, the low cost airline went bankrupt several months after inaugurating its Zagreb flights. On the other hand, Ryanair primarily serves Cyprus through Paphos Airport rather than the country’s main gateway of Larnaca. In 2019, Larnaca was Zagreb Airport’s tenth busiest unserved route in Europe with 6.017 indirect travellers.
Prior to the pandemic, a total of 3.989 passengers flew indirectly between Zagreb and Malta. Air Malta previously operated seasonal flights to the Croatian capital. Closely behind Malta was Malaga with 3.577 indirect travellers. Thessaloniki saw 3.350 travellers on connecting flights to and from Zagreb. The Croatian capital’s only destination in Greece is Athens, which is served seasonally by Croatia Airlines via Dubrovnik, while Aegean Airlines, which did not restore operations between the two following the start of the coronavirus pandemic, had previously downgraded the service from year-round to summer seasonal. Similarly, prior to Ryanair’s arrival this year, Zagreb’s only year-round destination in Italy was Rome via Dubrovnik or Split, operated by Croatia Airlines. The Croatian flag carrier served Milan on a seasonal basis, although the service was discontinued since the onset of the Covid pandemic. Ryanair has since launched operations from Zagreb to both Rome Ciampino and Bergamo, with Naples to become its third point in Italy. There were a total of 2.114 indirect passengers between Zagreb and Italy’s third largest city.
Will Paphos be able to attract all those passengers that fly to Larnaca?
ReplyDeleteThey are on other sides of the island but I'm assuming most of the traffic to Larnaca was also being generated by tourists?
DeleteThis will also be interesting to monitor how it does in winter time.
DeleteZAG-PFO case: 52 weeks x 2 times a week x a320(180 seats) x97% load factor pre pandemic= 18158 pax - 6017 pax= 12141 new pax FR needs in one direction. I don't understand it but if they can do it with LQA, SKG and NAP (10000 new pax) they are magicians. There is still enough of space for at least 25 new routes out of ZAG.
DeleteMalaga is the most interesting addition to me. I hope it works out but a bit odd to start it in the dead of winter.
ReplyDeleteMalaga is a year-round travel destination
DeleteI hope they will add more frequencies to Málaga, especially in summer.
Delete@9.05 the indirect demand isn't bad at all. Never would have thought,
DeleteMálaga is indeed a year-round destination and not only about the beach as it has many interesting sites in the surroundings itself. Sometimes weather is as high as 20C in winter. Tapas culture, city with metro and very friendly locals. Been there 3 times already.
DeleteSounds nice.
DeleteAnd the airport is right between Málaga on one side and Torremolinos on the other. Torremolinos is main gay resort in Andalusia, so there will be lot of fun around those flights. I hope Belgrade will get routes like this one soon.
DeleteYes, Torremolinos is a very famous gay resort. Don't forget about Granada and Ronda is an absolute must. The city of Antonio Banderas. I love Málaga.
DeleteGranada and La Alhambra (the most visited monument in Spain) are very worth a visit! It's only one hour by highway from Málaga. Also in Granada city and province you get the tapas (portion of meals) 100% for free, it comes included in the price of any drink you order (2 euros), so it's a bargain and beautiful place to visit!!! We can't forget Sierra Nevada, the highest mountains of Spain, a perfect place to ski, only 30 minutes ride from the Coast and the beaches. I recommend to visit Granada to everyone.
DeleteAbsolutely agreed! ZAG-AGP will be a successful route, for sure.
DeleteZAG is finally going to be connected to most European markets.
ReplyDeleteDo you mean most or many?
DeleteMore or less most.
DeleteMany routes Croatia Airlines could have introduced.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Zagreb finally getting some much needed routes ignored by Croatia Airlines for years. Well done.
DeleteThey could have at least done SKG with Dash.
DeleteInteresting that Manchester is the busiest out of the lot.
ReplyDeleteThat part of England is quite densely populated. Don't forget that Liverpool is not far away.
DeleteThere are lots of Croats living in Manchester, even before Croatia joined the EU.
DeleteWould be interesting also to analyze the demand from Ljubljana to these places as I'm sure they will contribute to Ryanair's flights.
ReplyDeleteThere will be a lot of them.
DeleteCan it be determined where someone is originally from when they fly from ZAG?
DeleteNot really. But you can determine by the amount of passports being processed from Slovenia.
DeleteImagined they built a high speed rail between Zagreb and Ljubljana.
Delete*imagine
DeleteI can't believe Croatia Airlines never considered Thessaloniki or Cyprus.
ReplyDeleteOr that they are still ending Dublin over the winter even though Ryanair is starting it.
DeleteMark my words, they will discontinue it completely by next summer.
DeleteI'm referring to OU above.
DeleteHow do we mark your words when you are anonymous?
DeleteA new era for Zagreb. Thanks FR
ReplyDeleteNew era for ZAG but also for Croatia Airlines. Unfortunately for them don't think it will be so good.
DeleteCA had it coming with their greedy, low quality high price and unprofessional ways
DeleteTheir pace of growth from ZAG has been amazing
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it's all just to demand or do they really want to kill off Croatia Airlines ASAP.
DeleteI don't think they need to kill OU. It doesn't represent a big issue for them.
DeleteAs the famous meme goes, why not both?
DeleteLCCs are ruthless
DeleteGood to see they have a mix of gasto and tourist routes.
ReplyDeleteAll these routes will take a way a lot of passengers from Croatia Airlines, particularly on their feeder German routes.
ReplyDeleteNot on their feeder German transfers to North America.
DeleteUnited or Delta will soon take care of those as well, the way Air Canada and Transat have been doing for a while already
DeleteWhat other destinations could we see Ryanair add in the future? Next summer for example.
ReplyDeleteHope they will consider Athens
DeleteThey won't because it's already served from Zagreb. Dublin is the only exception where they compete since its Ryanair's birthplace
DeleteAnd HQ.
DeleteI think in future they can add OPO, KRK, WMI, BOD, MRS, EDI
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteStill waiting for OU to respond.
ReplyDeleteYou will be waiting a while.
DeleteIt's game over for Croatia Airlines.
DeleteCom'n guys, don't be so harsh to OU - aren't day after all very important company with excellent fleet and decent network led by top profesionals and industry experts. I remember reading posts like that here, and recently LOL
DeleteOU can only respond once BCG finish their network/market review. No hurry though, as long as they finish this before Winter 2022/23, they should be ok ... :)
DeleteThessaloniki in winter still remains a mystery, unless there is huge demand. City itself is nice for a city break. Sofia, at least you can go skiing in Bansko (full of Brits) or Pamporovo, Malta is kinda year-round similar to Málaga and Pogorica in winter... unsure about it. Maybe they are experimenting and promoting it for summer 2022.
ReplyDelete* Podgorica
DeleteI am wandering the same, Croats are not traveling a lot, most of the are happy with own coast, so I am not sure if all the tourist routes like Thessaloniki, Malta, Málaga etc. will survive.
DeleteProximity of Slovenia which seams to be bigger tourist outbound destination.
Anyway, fingers crossed for Ryan.
A big part of passengers to these tourist destinations will be Slovenians.
DeleteGood point. I completely forgot about Slovenia. Sadly, LJU will not have such a diversity in destinations. Do you know if there is a direct transport from ZAG's airport to LJU or you have to take it from the city centre?
Delete... how could you forgot about sLOVEnia ...
DeleteZAG was a great chance for transfer pax like LJU. This is bad news for Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia is not even close to being the top transfer airline at ZAG, but don't let facts spoil your party. If anyone suffers other than OU it will be LH.
DeleteVlad is completely correct. Some people here obsessed how everything is bad for JU, yet for example airlines like OU and LH will be magically unaffected.
DeleteHow are their current routes performing?
ReplyDeleteTwo are being increased
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2021/08/ryanair-to-boost-zagreb-operations.html
Good sign
DeleteAlthough Sofia decreased to one weekly in November
DeleteInteresting to see these numbers. Didn't expect to be that much demand for Thessaloniki. Wishing them good luck on the new routes.
ReplyDeleteI love that all of these Ryanair routes are year round
ReplyDeleteFor now
DeleteThis is something Croatia Airlines has not done in years. All of their new routes in past 5 years were seasonal.
DeleteGreat, this will generate a new type of passengers and will definitely mean a lot of passenger growth for ZAG.
ReplyDeleteSo what routes is FR competing directly against OU?
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't mean alternative airports, I mean head to head
DeleteOnly Dublin
DeleteThey have avoided competed head to head against anyone because they would not be eligible for incentives. They must start a route not operated from ZAG in the last two years.
DeleteGot it, thanks
DeleteThey will cover whole of Europe
ReplyDeleteFantastic news for Zagreb
ReplyDeleteI wonder which of their current or planned Zagreb routes is performing best. Anyone know or any guesses?
ReplyDeleteThe ones with the most frequencies.
DeleteI'm uncertain about the sucsess of some of these routes. Malaga, Naples, Podgorica, Podgorica... not sure.
ReplyDeleteMalaga and Naples will be full of Slovenian holidaymakers, and route to Podgorica will take passengers from Montenegro-Slovenia market.
DeleteRyanair's cheap fares will change attitudes towards air travel. I am certain it will finally generate more interest for Croats to travel and they will do more weekend city breaks.
ReplyDeleteGEA plans to open special line for hipsters from BEG for Malaga.
DeleteI'm from Manchester and have friends in Zagreb, the new route is going to be a godsend for me, no more changing planes👍 Zagreb should do well for Ryanair, Monarch was always near enough full when they briefly flew the direct route. On a plus side for people traveling from Zagreb, the north of England is a beautiful place once you get away from the city's. The Lake district, the pennies, North Yorkshire moors etc, all lovely places to visit. Of course if you want the buzz of the city's, Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield are all less than an hour away by train from Manchester airport, mostly direct trains as well.
DeleteAnother bonus for me is i can now meet my friends from Zagreb in Malaga, we've been lucky enough to have dirt cheap flights to Malaga for years, wonderful city.
But you are originally from Croatia, right?
DeleteNow it would be interesting to see which airlines were primarily used to reach these cities from/to Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming LH was used for many.
DeleteAlong with OU which transported them to Germany first.
DeleteFrom Manchester the Lufthansa group will be the biggest loser, they always had the cheapest tickets. When i say cheap, anything from £150+. You've got to remember though, Ryanair are only cheap when they're trying to fill the plane, supply and demand. Sometimes legacy airlines work out cheaper.
ReplyDeleteWhat I like most about this Ryanair ZAG expansion is a very good mix of leisure, gasto and even regional underserved Balkan cities. It reminds a bit when they suddenly based 3 aircraft in Sofia, in 2016. Finally, ZAG will become a decent EU capital with easier and cheaper access. The next step, on my opinion, is definitely linking BCN and MAD, LIS, EDI, PRG and definitely considering domestic flights similar to Romania & Bulgaria.
ReplyDeleteOf course, until then we don't know if Wizzair will jump in. I don't think they will allow Ryanair to dominate in a EU capital. They are rivals in almost all of them even in TLL.
I have been a lot of times in Malaga through connecting flights and it is great that this route is finally active. Beautiful city, beaches, weather during winter and summer is pleasurable. During winter - warm, during summer - not too hot because of the beautiful coast. I would recommend everyone to come to see Malaga, they would return again for sure!
ReplyDeleteActually thats also good news for Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteIndirect travel between Manchester and Belgrade i read somewhere is 5000 pax a year.
JU could thus easily open that route with two weekly flights.
There are many unserved routes with yearly indirect pax of 4000 people.
Malaga twice a week would also be a perfect addition.
For JU it even could become a second Oslo.
In short: everything that works for Zagreb will also work out in Belgrade.
The positive thing about Ryanairs Zagreb base is that it will attract also a lot of pax from neighbouring Slovenia and Serbia.
DeleteThese both markets have a strong demand for outbound travel something that Croatia alone not so much has.
Budapest is 100 km closer. Forget it
DeleteThe customer himself decides ..
DeleteBasically Ryan went down the list of top unnerved routes from ZAG and launched them.
ReplyDelete