Croatia Airlines plans to maintain flights to 22 international destinations next summer season and operate 47 international routes, with four new ones to be added to the network. The carrier will introduce new seasonal flights from the coast. It will inaugurate operations from Split to both Skopje and Oslo, from Dubrovnik to Prague, as well as from Brač to Munich. The island will become the fifth point in Croatia the airline will link to the Bavarian capital with nonstop flights, and its second route from Brač, complementing operations to Zagreb. Services will run once per week. Overall, the company plans to maintain 17.000 flights next summer and offer 1.82 million seats between March 26 and October 28. These figures are still slightly below pre-pandemic 2019 levels but up 20% on this year.
Split will continue to gain importance in Croatia Airlines’ network over the summer with the carrier to restore all destinations it launched in 2022 and serve twenty European cities in total. It plans to run seventy weekly rotations or 140 weekly flights. Besides its newly planned services to Skopje and Oslo, its international network from Croatia’s second largest city will also include Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, Bucharest, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Lyon, Milan, Munich, Paris, Prague, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna, and Zurich. Previously, in 2015, the carrier briefly maintained operations between Split and Skopje, however, the service was discontinued after just two flights.
Croatia Airlines will maintain services to fifteen European destinations (excluding domestic routes) out of its main hub in Zagreb. A total of 120 weekly rotations are planned or 240 weekly flights. The airline does not plan to bring back destinations it discontinued from the Croatian capital during the Covid-19 pandemic such as Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Milan, Prague or Mostar. Instead, it will serve Amsterdam, Athens (via Dubrovnik), Barcelona, Brussels, Dublin, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, London Heathrow, Munich, Paris, Rome (via Split and via Dubrovnik), Sarajevo, Skopje, Vienna and Zurich.
From Dubrovnik, Croatia Airlines will maintain services to seven international European destinations. In additiom to the new service to Prague, they include Athens, Frankfurt, Munich, Paris and Rome. A total of 25 weekly rotations, or 52 weekly flights are planned. The carrier will continue to operate international services from Osijek and Rijeka to Munich over the coming summer. Croatia Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer, Slaven Žabo, said the carrier wants to provide strong support to the Croatian tourism industry next year by expanding its European network of destinations and increasing its total number of flights.
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OU's retreat from Zagreb continues.
ReplyDeleteU koje godišnje doba čedu bigi linije za Amsterdam ili Rotterdam?
DeleteZasto nema direkna veza sa USA ?
DeleteLet's see if Split-Ohrid works this time around. Hoping for the best.
ReplyDelete*Split-Skopje I mean.
DeleteOhrid? It's Skopje
DeleteLast time they really planned it poorly. They put tickets on sale shortly before route launched and fares were way high. Hopefully they plan it better this time around.
DeleteLet's see how it affects their ZAG-SKP!
Deleteif its a "charter" like flight then it wont at all
DeleteGood to see a couple of new routes although I'm disappointed there is nothing new from Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteAnd Dubrovnik again ignored. Why no new routes from DBV for years?
ReplyDeleteThe airport is expensive.
DeleteIt's not about the airport being expensive, it's about the county not wanting to give them money to fly out of Dubrovnik.
DeletePerhaps because there is no demand.
DeletePrague is a new route
DeleteMunich seems the go to destination for OU :D
ReplyDeleteBecause it feeds Lufthansa.
DeleteOU is a Lufthansa feeder airline
Deletewell half of Croatia lives in Bavaria ;)
DeleteSplit-Oslo should work well.
ReplyDeleteFocusing on Split this summer seems to have been the right decision. Not surprised by these new additions.
ReplyDeleteI agree. OU should have done that 10 years ago. Missed Split boom, see easyjet growth. Just like Zadar, where Ryanair has grown mega.
DeleteBrač Munich very well, there were no good transfer opportunities via ZG on Saturdays. ZG Rom via Split/Dubrovnik is nonsense.
Good to see Croatia Airlines adding new routes.
ReplyDeleteHow about JFK to Split??? Americans would love that route. No stopovers for 5 or 8 hours.
DeleteNot being above pre Covid levels for a European airline in 2023 is unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteIt's because they didn't restore the routes from Zagreb, otherwise they would be above 2019 levels since Split saw many new route additions
DeleteWell, not restoring ZAG pre-Covid routes in 2023 is unacceptable as well.
DeleteSeasonal and underwhelming
ReplyDeleteBravo OU!
ReplyDeletePink glasses off, please
DeleteNew routes are bad? Since when? And we know the money is made on the coast...
DeleteNew routes are not bad. But they don't need 3 new routes, they need 30 new routes. Money is not made on the coast, especially not year round, money is made with good strategy, less costs and competent people, what they don't have. So once again, pink glasses off, please
DeleteReally no point in saying bravo.
DeleteNew routes aren’t bad but are supposed to be well thought through. How is exactly a one weekly OU flight to example Oslo, where SAS is quite dominant during SS, supposed to be competitive/profitable? Same thing with one weekly seasonal flight to Amsterdam (with KLMs now year round service), the ridiculous 1pw Prague flight (Smartwings) 1 Berlin flight (Lufthansa’s services via FRA MUC and even LCCs with more frequeinces during the week). Not to mention that half of these routes mentioned in the article aren’t even covered from the state capital! Isn’t it a bit embarassing that you can’t fly from Zagreb to Prague, Berlin, Stockholm or Bucharest without a layover let alone your national airlines? Pure sh*t if you ask me. OU’s management logic is extremely confusing. By introducing some of these routes out of ZAG and serving them year round, not even on a daily basis, I am 90% sure that demand would be sufficient and that there would be not just P2P passengers but layovers from Sarajevo, Skopje, Croatia’s coastal cities and vice versa. Thankfully diaspora and tourism are well known terms in this region. Also not to mention the obvius, that Ryanair and other carriers replaced OU on some of the routes that they used to fly out of ZAG. Why not just fill the void? Fly to Bucharest again? Introduce Prague flights? Put another Amsterdam frequency out of ZAG instead of SPU? Same thing with LHR. If the tourists are willing to pay for the flights then I’m sure that a layover in ZAG and then to SPU won’t be an issue. The one weekly flights out of Split are complete nonsence.
Because Split has 10 times as many destinations and fequencies compared to Zagreb during the summer season. So, why would a tourist transfer in Zagreb if they could just go to Split? I mean, tourists want to visit Split, not Zagreb. If OU would make the tourists transfer via Zagreb, they would be even less competitive since there are the same routes from SPU that don't have 1 stop in between. If there were more tourists visiting Zagreb, it would make sense. But, right now, it is just wasting recourses and time that could be spent flying elsewhere. And it is true, money is made on the coast. A fake hub won't make you money... They have had about 30 years to do so and are still losing money while having a hub in Zagreb and the majority of routes from there.
Delete@10:38 "Tourists want to visit Split, not Zagreb."
DeleteThe data suggests that's simply not true. Zagreb has far more tourists than Split.
"tourist"
DeleteAnyone know the dates when the routes from SPU are starting, and are there increases of routes compared to last summer?
ReplyDeleteI don't think frequencies will increase much. They will have the same number of aircraft next summer as this year. Well, there will be one additional aircraft but it is only being used as a reserve plane.
DeleteIt seems that the response to Ryanair in Zagreb will never come.
ReplyDeleteToo early
DeleteFlying to places like TIA, PRN, TGD, OTP and SOF from Zagreb would have come in handy now to get them some transfers, filling up western routes.
DeleteSomething OU should have tried to do 10 years ago or more was to try and position itself as a transfer airline from the region as they say they want to do now. But it's too late now.
DeleteAn airline still under the impression that there is an iron curtain. They could have attracted transit pax from the east before Air Serbia even showed up. Every western european airline has made the most out of the East Europe market.
Delete+1.000.000
DeleteNot to mention even better geographical position, diaspora, much more tourists, distant markets included, shortly, much much better starting position compared to JU. But Cartel had to be fed, and private pockets filled enough for 3 generations
"Slaven Žabo, said the carrier wants to provide strong support to the Croatian tourism industry next year."
ReplyDeleteYour task is to make your airline profitable at first, then increase the amount of business as well as quality of it. You are neither Croatia's minister of tourism nor head of HTZ. You receive your salary to run your core business effectively, not to support different business sectors of the country. There are other people being paid to do that.
OU wasn't set up to make a profit. It's purpose is to support the Tourism industry and connect Croatia to the world. So Skaven is correct in what he says
DeleteHe is not correct because Croatia Airlines has such a low market share that it cannot possibly claim for itself to be connecting Croatia to the world.
DeleteIt connects Croatia to the world through Star alliance!
DeleteFor heaven's sake, Lufthansa, Air Canada, United, Swiss, Austrian, SAS, TAP, THY, Air India, Singapore, Thai, ANA, and much more Star Alliance companies connect Croatia to the World and Croatia Airlines is their humiliated servant and pathetic feeder, no matter how much you want to show it the other way round. And that's exactly what I have been talking for decades, and what makes me sad, upset and angry.
DeleteTo be fair OU connects Croatia with Munich, not world.
DeleteWhat a statement of an airline CCO, as being PR of Ministry or Tourist Association branch office. Very disappointing and again feeling sad and frustrating about the future of OU. Pozdrav not always my favourite member but obviously he or she is right. There are no more people at OU who have capacity to run it professionally and successfully. Waste of money and time and effort and so on.
DeleteThey should have brought back more routes from Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteWoeful
ReplyDeleteGood luck
ReplyDeleteMost airlines in Europe are adding 5+ routes next summer. I expected more from OU and especially for their Zagreb base operations.
ReplyDeleteAt least OU is growing, which is more than one can expect from them.
Deletewell summer in Croatia is all about the coast
DeleteI think around noon is POZDRAV time !
ReplyDeleteWe all know what he's going to write, boring
DeleteVery good you are not boring spitting at me and diferrent every time 😃. Btw I have every right to criticize the airline which lost all chances and opportunities and continues operating as humiliated servant and insignificant feeder. But you don't comment or praise or criticize aviation stuff, what is the purpose of this site, but me personally. What's the reason of your obsession with me, and your need or task to negate everything I write, I will let other people conclude.
DeleteIf you post something publicly, you have to live with criticism. Like me. Why they always feel the need to react to this, I leave that to the opinion here. Why you comment almost exclusively when it comes to croatia and almost never when it comes to other topics could also point to an obsession. I also never wrote that you are wrong about Croatia, on the contrary, most of it is correct. But your criticism is too superficial and one-sided for me.
DeletePiR: I just like your style of writing and how upset you are about Croatia and the governing party. And that you always take the time to answer in detail. Your way of writing reminds me of my old homeland and the strong emotions of the balkan people
Delete@10,56
DeleteSome people perhaps have more of an opinion on certain topics. Nothing wrong with that. Many here do.
Criticism should be given where it should be given and praise when there is reason for it. This announcement above is definitely not for praise.
You need to understand that we do have a couple of people here commenting that grew up when Yugoslav air travel really developed, 2 Yugoslav carriers operated long haul, even airports such as OHD had long haul flights (YYZ in this example), Croatian coast linked with 3 carriers to all corners of Europe, not to mention the domestic routes and the capacity and frequencies and the list goes on. One would think better progress would of been made 30 years on.
60 years ago SKP wasn't just liked with ZAG and SPU in Croatia, but DBV as well. In the 1980's SKP was linked with SPU and DBV on the Croatian coast, not with Dash 8's but B727, DC9's and B737's just with JAT alone. Really read into the history of our aviation and compare it with today. I'm sure you'll be just as disappointed.
Oh dear, you do know times have changed?
Delete@14,45
DeleteSure, times have changed, but in good advantage for OU.
- Firstly, the new long haul demand that has opened, especially to Asia. That wasn't there 30 years ago.
- 2 major airlines during the Yugoslav days have gone bankrupt (Aviogenex and Adria).
- Lower wages in Croatia compared to other EU members.
- EU membership that allows it to operate outside of its borders.
- Increased travel demand across Europe.
- Belgrade was basically useless for transfer traffic for 20 years due to the political situation in Serbia.
- Stable domestic currency.
What happened with TGD and SOF which were supposed to start in 2020 from Zagreb? Why didn't they start them next year?
ReplyDeleteThey have removed more than 10 former routes from ZAG and you expect them to start those they haven't even launched?
DeleteWith exception of Dublin an Barcelona, every single route they introduced from Zageb in the last 6 years has been cancelled.
DeleteWonder if Dublin will also operate from Zagreb just at the start and end of the summer season, while there are no flights during high season.
DeleteYes, it will be the same as this year. During peak summer flights will operate from Split.
DeleteWhat happened with TGD and SOF? Nothing, Ryanair launched it while OU was sitting on its hands.
DeleteI wonder if LJU will do something regarding this. LJU-SOF went surprisingly quite well when Adria was operating it. TGD also needs more European connections.
Deletedeep hibernation in ZAG but happy to see them adding new routes from Split. Hope they work on making some of those year-round.
ReplyDeleteCroatia Airlines needs to be privatized ASAP
ReplyDeleteTo who?
DeleteWhy?
DeleteHow?
DeleteNot bad
ReplyDeleteOU needs to get rid of 500 staff, all the hangers on related to government cronies.
ReplyDeleteDisappointing when compared to what other European airlines are doing.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree. But their goals are not to grow and earn money. They goals are to feed Cartel and be Uhljeb sanctuary
DeleteSame old same old from them.
ReplyDeleteHow when they are introducing 3 new routes?
DeleteThey already fly or flew to these 3 destinations. Frequencies are symbolic. No real growth, no changes. No strategy. With Buzin full of Uhljebs, with enormous losses, continuing feeding LH. Same old same old. Iz supljeg u prazno.
Delete@09,55
Delete3 semi new routes with symbolic frequencies (SPU-SKP is a route returning, so not new). Absolutely revolutionary.
Well done Croatia Airlines. :)
ReplyDeleteThey should bring back Split-Nice.
ReplyDeleteThey have a lot more opportunities at airports on the coast
ReplyDeleteMulti-hubbing is very inefficient.
ReplyDeleteEfficiency seems to be one of the last things this company considers.
Deletenice one. I hope they announce SPU-SKP early and get in touch with macedonian tourist agencies to ditch their bus packages to HR in favor or air packages. They had 90k Antalya pax this year. a 2 weekly shouldnt be a problem to fill this way
ReplyDeleteI have to say that for an airline, the size of OU, the summer network coverage is more than decent.
ReplyDeleteAre you for real? Btw they had potential to have both fleet and network at least triple bigger than it is, and to do business at least at positive zero, if not with profits. But.....
DeleteWhen will they start ticket sales?
ReplyDeleteIt seems the route from Split to Bucharest was a success last year if it will return next summer.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, OU!
ReplyDeleteThey should fly to Tirana, Sofia, resume Pristina and Podgorica too from Zagreb. Get more links and transfer passengers from the region.
ReplyDeleteThat ship has sailed.
DeleteTGD and SOF are more O&D destinations from ZAG and Ryanair proved it. Was surprised that there was a Croatian documentary about Sofia:
Deletehttps://youtu.be/_kTwI2LT9TE
Expected more tbh
ReplyDeleteIs SKP-SPU subsided? Is there honestly any demand on this destination? Zero logic.
ReplyDeleteCome on OU, focus on bigger markets such as Poland.
+1
DeleteThere is tourism and there is workforce working in Split and area. I don't think it's bad decission.
Deleteplus the gelato diaspora. theres 30k MK tourists on the HR coast with no real transport connections. You cant compete with the LOTs, Wizz's and Ryan's for Poland. There is a reason why OU flyes to SKP and not WAW
DeleteGroundbreaking...
ReplyDeleteI don't understand OU sometimes. When they had plans expanding in LJU following the JP demise. It was a great idea.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't they do it? Why not take the huge advantage of the EU passporting and the easy part of having rights to operate to many parts of the continent?
Make LJU your second base. Launch routes to UK, Spain or other Balkan capitals.
Mommy Luftika thinks otherwise...
DeleteI hope OU will fly Brač Munich more times a week
ReplyDeleteOU is increasing profit with (almost) each new flight during season. We saw their Q3 result and it is not bad. Right now, until they figure the strategy, they should do exactly this - coast, Q2&Q3 focus, make profit at least then to finance inability to come up with better strategy.
ReplyDeleteIncreasing profit? Are you aware they posted multi million euros loss after the peak season? Are you aware they have been making fat losses for 30 years now? And they will figure the srategy now? With 2 weekly new Dash flights compared to 9 daily to MUC and FRA feeding LH? Which parallel Universe you live in? Or you just have task/directive to deliberately lie in order to advocate all their mistakes and all crime, corruption and incompetence?
DeleteZadar doesn't exist for CTN. Shame. Why don't we take our tax money for Croatia airlines and HŽ. We don't use them anyway!!!
ReplyDeleteBravo OU, Bravo Hrvatska? For what? For generating losses for 30 years? For feeding stupid and egoistic maniacs in headquarters. Balkan mentality can't allow changes and it struggles to make improvements to make Company profitable and competitive. Herceg Purger rules!
ReplyDelete