Zagreb Airport expects to handle a total of three million passengers this year, or around 88% of its pre-pandemic traffic. It reached 87% of its pre-Covid passenger figures during the January - August period, with last month proving to be its busiest since the start of the global health emergency. In August alone, the airport welcomed 348.381 travellers, down 7.4% on 2019. The number of aircraft movements stood at 4.061, representing a decrease of 7.7%. Overall, during the first eight months of the year, Zagreb Airport welcomed 1.976.818 passengers through its doors, down 13.1% on the pre-pandemic 2019. Croatia Airlines and Ryanair now account for 60% of the airport’s traffic.
Zagreb Airport’s recovery has in large part been fuelled by Ryanair, which opened a base in the Croatian capital last year and has since launched over twenty routes and based three aircraft. In August, the budget airline restored its entire network out of its Zagreb base following several months of route suspensions and frequency cuts. Other foreign carriers have also steadily increased their operations to the Croatian capital. This summer saw the resumption of Lufthansa’s service from Munich, Air Transat’s from Toronto and Norwegian Air Shuttle’s from Copenhagen, although the latter discontinued its flights to Zagreb prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, Finnair introduced a new seasonal service from Helsinki, however, it was halted earlier than planned.
Zagreb Airport has said it is in constant contact with carriers across the world to negotiate and reach an agreement to increase traffic. Korean low cost carrier T’Way Air has said it plans to commence services between Seoul and the Croatian capital, however, no firm timeframe has been set for the launch after it was initially planned for this year. Korean Air is yet to make a decision on whether it will return to the Croatian capital in 2023, while Emirates has said it hopes to restore flights to Zagreb when it is “commercially and operationally feasible to do so in the future”. It added, “We will make a formal announcement if there are any developments in this regard”. On the other hand, Air Canada is yet to make a decision whether it will commence seasonal operations between Toronto and Zagreb next summer season after cancelling plans to do so this year.
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Not bad but with Ryanair, I was expecting them to be at 2019 levels.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder what the result would be without FR. Seems the airport management made the right decision
DeleteOr the pax just moved from others to FR
DeleteIt's just a question was it the right decision from a financial point of view
DeleteIt is called monopsony... No sensible enterprise should allow one client to become dominant
DeleteLuckily Ryan does not account for the same share of revnue
DeleteWhat happened with Ryanair's grand plans of basing 5 planes in Zagreb in the first year? FR is the one that disappointed me the most this year.
ReplyDeleteWell Croatia Airlines did nothing at ZAG this year. No new routes, no restored routes from pre Covid era. It's like they just gave up.
DeleteSo @anonymous 07:33 and Air serbia that opened 12 new routes in BEG didn't increase the airport's passenger numbers in ratio of 2019 !
DeleteUnlike ZAG, BEG was heavily restricted by entry requirements up until June. This summer numbers reached 2019 numbers even without Russian flights. Also China has not opened up yet so that was another limiting factor. ZAG did not face such restrictions, we are also forgetting that the visa requirement for Croats traveling to the US was removed. This had no effect on overall demand.
Delete@10.13 BEG will likely be at over 90% of 2019 traffic. Not to mention that Ryanair has 25 routes from Zagreb.
DeleteCroats don't travel abroad unless they are working abroad, accept it as it is a reality.
DeleteI've mentioned this thousands of times that Croats don't travel. I end up getting shot down in flames, usually by a guy in Rijeka telling me this is nonsense.
DeletePlease link your study concluding that.
DeleteTravel by plane vs travel by car or bus.
DeleteRyanair CEO said most of their demand for Zagreb flights is being generated from outside of Croatia.
DeleteCroats really travel a lot in comparasion to Serbs and Slovenians.
DeleteOf course. Those Ryanair flights are full of Croats exploring Europe.
DeleteIf that's the best you can do in response to my post, I accept it with pleasure. Just proves how right I am
DeleteIt's very simple. Compare the passenger numbers of zagreb with a comparable city of about 1 million inhabitants with a city in western and southern Europe. This also applies to Ljubljana or Sarajevo...
DeleteA u Zagreb nikad veci broj bekpekera i šortbrejkera. Stoje u redu ispred aviona Ryanaira.
Delete@ 20.40 It's very simple in your dreams only. Actually it's much more complex
Delete@ 20.41 Yeah, it's only in Zagreb
What is complex about numbers and comparing them? Numbers are numbers, everything else is just guesswork. Does Zagreb (and the other ExYu capitals) have fewer, more or the same number of passengers as comparable cities in Western and Southern Europe?
DeleteUnfortunate about AC.
ReplyDeleteWill be interesting to see if Split wpuld stay in front of Zagreb this year.
ReplyDeleteOh and also will Pristina stay in front of ZAG.
DeletePRN will definitely be in front based on current numbers. Not so sure about Split.
DeleteAhead, not in front.
DeleteNot bad
ReplyDeleteGreat work. Ryanair is paying off.
ReplyDeleteWhat is ZAG's busiest route?
ReplyDeleteFrankfurt
DeleteAny new announcements for next year?
ReplyDeleteHopefully there will finally be direct flights to the US next year.
DeleteI hope Transavia considers some routes to ZAG.
DeleteWill probably not happen from Amsterdam, since KLM is already flying to Zagreb. But Zag-Ams could definitely use a lcc carrier. I think if easyjet would open the route they would be very successful
DeleteEasyjet or Transavia should definitely start Zagreb.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteHad VINCI took over the airport management, they would made wonders in ZAG. On top of that, Croatian government should help OU to find a candidate for a strategic partnership.
ReplyDeleteThanks to VINCI + JU Belgrade has advanced so much, but Zagreb would've advanced even further, simply because they have different passenger structure. Lots of tourists from all around the world will eventually return to Croatia as Covid restrictions are easing.
Nonsense. Vinci is successful in Belgrade because there is growing local demand which is filling our flights like crazy. There is a reason why this November LH plans FRA-BEG as 14 weekly with A320/321 while ZAG is planned as 12 weekly on the CRJ.
DeleteAegean Airlines will increase ATH-ZAG for 2023 to 3 flights a week from 2 this year. They are counting for a big jump in traffic in western Balkans since they increased TGD capacity from a Q400 to A320 and also launched LJU, 2 weekly also on A320.
ReplyDeleteAegean also increased BEG this winter.
DeleteHoping for, or counting on.
DeleteThey have loaded flights to their system. Hopefully that doesn't upset you too much.
DeleteI wonder why ZAG was not included in the recent Wizzair expansion of EU capitals and cities to Saudi Arabia. Riyadh is a good example. Many people are sceptical about Saudi Arabia but it indeed looks like a pretty modern place and not so polluted and overpopulated similar to Egypt.
ReplyDeleteTrue dat, especially considering that they are starting Dammam-Tirana flights.
DeleteI would guess it is the same reasoning behind all the flights between KSA, Bosnia and Kosovo. Affordable for and easy access due to no visa requirements.
Balkans have demand for Saudi tourists. TIA will have 3 destinations from Saudi Arabia next year plus 2 from UAE.
DeleteTIA, SJJ and PRN together could have more than a hundred flights a week to Middle East in 5 to 10 years.
DeleteAny plans yet with the old terminal? It been 5 years since they stopped using it.
ReplyDeleteIt is available to lease. Rimac was considering using it as a production facility but they ended up renovating an old shopping centre instead.
DeleteInteresting. Didn't know that, Thanks for the info
DeleteNot bad at all
ReplyDeleteAre you for real?
DeleteWhy? Rate of recovery is above EU average.
DeleteHe's deluded
DeleteNot speaking of recovery rate, but of overall and general numbers, which should be triple, for the capitol of an EU country, with perfect geographical position, huge diaspora and tourist mecca
DeleteVery bad results having on mind that Ryanair started flying! Actually extremely bad results! Many airports in Europe have either approached or surpassed 2019 even with more or less same airlines that they had before the pandemic! And Zagreb Airport gets Ryanair and is still lagging behind... very very bad... pity... This airport does not have big potentials... If it reached 5 million by 2030, it will be a miracle. And 5 million is peanuts for an urban area of 1 million...
ReplyDeleteHowever, in a list of new routes for 2023 published by the Canadian carrier this week, Zagreb has been omitted
ReplyDeleteThat was not a list of brand new routes, just northern summer 2023 equipment and frequency adjustments. AC is still making minor corrections to winter schedule.
They announced Toronto - Brussels brand new route from March 2023.
DeleteNot this week, that was known back in April:
Deletehttps://europe-cities.com/2022/04/05/air-canada-will-finally-start-with-brussels-toronto-route-in-2023/