Croatia Airlines says coastal focus unrelated to Ryanair’s Zagreb base

Croatia Airlines has said its continued focus on expanding its route network from the country’s coastal airports is unrelated to Ryanair, which in 2021 opened a base in Zagreb and now accounts for over 30% of all traffic from the capital. Croatia Airlines has not introduced any new destinations from Zagreb since 2019 and, so far, has not scheduled any new routes from its main hub. Instead, the carrier will introduce new flights from Split to Skopje and Oslo this summer, from Brač to Munich, as well as from Dubrovnik to Prague. Last year, the airline launched seasonal operations from Split to Amsterdam, Bucharest, Dublin, Milan, and Stockholm and based an Airbus A319 and a Dash 8 aircraft in Croatia’s second largest city, enabling it to increase frequencies to a number of destinations. For this summer, it is yet to schedule the resumption of flights from Split to Bucharest and Milan but has increased planned frequencies to Prague from one to two weekly.

The airline’s greater focus on Croatia’s coast since last year has coincided with the opening of Ryanair’s base in Zagreb and its launch of over twenty new routes from the city. “Croatia Airlines has faced strong competition since 2006, when the liberalisation of the Croatian market began. During the last sixteen years, all major legacy and low cost carriers have been present in Croatia, especially during the summer season, and Croatia Airlines has learned to deal with the competition, and, as a member of the Star Alliance, to cooperate with competitors”, the company said. It added, “Croatia Airlines provides passengers a high-quality legacy carrier service, offering flights to main European gateways and connecting flights to over 150 destinations around the world. The business relationship we have with Zagreb Airport, our home airport, reflects our traffic volume, and related commercial conditions”.

Commenting on its focus on the coast, Croatia Airlines said that the new destinations introduced last year performed in line with expectations and that leisure travel has recovered significantly faster from the Covid-19 pandemic than business travel, which is more prevalent from Zagreb. “We have tried to tailor our flight network to our passengers’ needs and in support of Croatia’s tourism. The company sees room for improvement and innovative steps in strategic positioning. Our summer 2023 timetable will strongly contribute to Croatia’s position on the global tourism map. During the coming summer season, we’re planning to connect Croatia with 22 international destinations by operating flights on 47 international routes. Specifically, we are planning to operate 17.000 flights, and offer over 1.820.000 seats”, the airline said.