Air Canada has said it has “no immediate plans” to fly between Toronto and Zagreb, just under four years since its leisure subsidiary, Air Canada Rouge, operated its last seasonal service between the two cities. Air Canada has announced plans to grow its European network during the 2024 summer season with flights from Montreal to Madrid, as well as an increase in frequencies to several popular Mediterranean destinations and the earlier start-up of four seasonal European routes. Air Canada said its decision on adding new destinations to its network is dependent on demand and other market conditions. The airline noted it offers alternatives to Zagreb through its cooperation with Croatia Airlines, codesharing on the flag carrier’s flights from Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, London Heathrow, Munich and Zurich to the Croatian capital. Furthermore, it has its designator code and flight numbers on Lufthansa’s operations from Frankfurt and Munich to Zagreb.
Air Canada Rouge discontinued its flights between Toronto and Zagreb in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The airline no longer has equipment suitable to serve the Croatian capital after it retired its wide-body Boeing 767 jets during Covid. Air Canada planned to launch its own seasonal flights between Toronto and Zagreb in June 2022, however, ticket sales were discontinued after several weeks. Air Canada initially scheduled to operate three weekly flights between the two cities with its 297-seat Airbus A330-300 aircraft. The carrier planned to run a total of 54 flights each way with 32.076 seats on sale between the two cities.
Air Transat continues to maintain seasonal operations between Toronto and Zagreb. The Croatia - Canada market is large, comprising of a mix of leisure passengers, as well as those visiting friends and family. Services to Zagreb have been successful for both Rouge and Air Transat in the past. In 2019 they jointly handled 65.486 passengers. Last year, Air Transat welcomed 21.597 travellers on its Zagreb route, registering an average cabin load factor of 73.9% across its five and a half months of operations. As the 2023 summer season draws to a close, Air Transat has scheduled the same number of flights to the Croatian capital for next year.
Zagreb would benefit from Air Canada flights with many connections throughout Canada as well as the USA and the Caribbean. Hope they will come one day.
ReplyDelete73.9% LF is not great. Hope the yield was good
ReplyDeleteLike it was said many times. Load factors mean little.
DeleteAir Transat would not be flying the route since 2018 if they were not making money. So I think they know better.
DeleteObviously the demand is significantly reduced as AC decided not to return to ZAG.
DeleteAC has not flown to Zagreb since the early 1990s. Air Canada Rouge no longer has planes to fly the route.
Delete@9.15 are you suggesting Air Transat operates this route for the fun of it and to produce losses. They obviously make money, whether you like it or not.
Delete@Anonymous 9.15: Air Canada has not taken over any route from Rouge. Budapest and Bucharest have not been restored either.
DeleteAnon 09:27
DeleteIt did took over Air Transat's YYZ-ATH and YUL-ATH routes.
Where did I say Air Transat is producing losses?
DeleteThey fly only seasonally with low LF and AC plans no return. Not a very good picture.
Air Canada does not own Air Transat so it can't have taken Athens over.
DeleteAnon 09:42 +1
DeleteI meant to write Air Canada Rouge.
The problem with the flights is that there will be high LF of Ex-Yu folks flying one way to escape from Canada, it is not the same country as it was 20 years ago. Then there are the Ex-Yu folks retirees that went in the 90s moving back permanently. The only others would be those that fly from Zagreb in the winter, step outside the airport and get a whiff of -30c wind and they turn around and get back on the airplane.
DeleteYeah, the line for escaping Canada is huge, all tickets sold one way... No country is the same as it was 20 years ago but I'm afraid the lines are still bigger in front of Canada's embassies
DeleteWhich European routes does Air Canada operate seasonally in Europe?
ReplyDeleteGoogle is your friend.
DeleteWhat a useless comment anon 9:29.
Delete09:04 Athens comes to my mind and they operate ATH with B773!
DeleteI don't know anymore... AC said there are no immediate plans yet, JU said they are thinking about it but are undecided yet... Maybe times have changed indeed.. Maybe the numbers don't add up anymore.
ReplyDeleteDid AC take over Rouge's Budapest flights?
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteBucharest neither
DeleteAC was supposed to take over BUD flights in 2022, they were available to book, but after after the start of the war, these flights were cancelled
DeletePrague too.
DeleteIt will be interesting to see what comes of Zagreb's long haul flights next summer. For now Air Transat is confirmed for 2024.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's it.
DeleteOpportunity for OU.
ReplyDeleteYes, with the A220s lol
DeleteBrand new shiny, you forgot 😃
DeleteAre the A220s still a thing? If so, where are they?
DeleteTheir delivery starts next year. Have you been living under a rock?
DeleteThe ship for OU to go long haul has sailed a long time ago.
DeleteStrongly disagree. Ship for OU to go long-haul is the only one which can keep them afloat and not sink, of course not with this people and in this circumstances. Croatia is the biggest ex-yu market for passengers from distant countries and other continents, and it's only political will and influence that is preventing the ship to sail
DeleteOU didn't have money back then for longhaul and you still think it's a good idea?
DeleteAre you telling me they have money for new A220, plus leaseback of A320F ? A330 lease and E175/195 lease, along with keeping current fleet, would be less expensive, would give more opportunities for network growth, regional and long haul, would get better fleet utilization, would get more higher yielding (long haul tourist) passengers, and would get much more income than feeding LH for peanuts and operate once weekly from the coast. So yes, I think not only it's good idea, but the only way for them to survive in not so distant future
DeleteOnly people who wish OU to bleed even more money wants it to launch longhaul flights.
DeleteExactly. And armchair CEOs who obviously know better
DeleteLong-haul is one of a very few ways OU can be profitable and it's sad that this legitimate strategy gets so poor reviews in this comment section. It's similar with JU/Serbia, except OU has much larger market to catch but also more competition to fight.
DeleteYes you proved everyone wrong with your utopian fantasies. If there was money on ZAG long haul flights someone else would have jumped in on the opportunity long ago. Be grateful for Air Transat operating for those 4 months.
DeleteIt is interesting how some people here, when asked question that prove them wrong, just remain silent.
DeleteAnd the same people, when given arguments and facts, start insulting and attacking, only in order to protect and advocate crime, corruption and incompetence in OU.
Cheers!
It is interesting that Zagreb also has a problem with Korean as Croatian capital is the only European destination where Korean did not return after pandemic.
ReplyDeleteAlso let's not forget Emirates, Brussels, Swiss and probably from next year Finnair, Iberia and Vueling who do not plan to operate flights to ZAG anymore.
"Finnair, Iberia and Vueling who do not plan to operate flights to ZAG anymore"
DeleteAny source for these plans?
Actually, Iberia is coming back in April 2024!
DeleteYes, you are right about Iberia.
DeleteStill big carriers like Vueling and Finnair do not have Zagreb in their offer although they already published their summer schedule.
He is going to be upset now
DeleteAegean too
DeleteWho said Aegean won't be flying to ZAG next year?
DeleteCould West Jet eventually start ZAG? It would be a better alternative to Rouge.
ReplyDeleteIt amazing how successful the Canada-Croatia flights have been. Both for Transat and Rouge. Hopefully it encourages Air Canada to launch flights.
ReplyDeleteIt really is considering two airlines could sustain traffic during the summer.
DeleteI wonder if these flights to Zagreb are more filled with tourists or diaspora.
ReplyDeleteIts overwhelmingly Canadian tourists.
DeleteLike in every AC destination in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece.
That means there is still a large untapped market for diaspora.
DeleteI'm sure diaspora will start travelling more often to the old country if there is a national carrier flying. Not!
DeleteThe thing is, Air Canada does well on the Croatian market even without flights. They are the number 1 airline from Croatia to Canada by number of handled passengers because they are being fed passengers from codeshare and Star Alliance partners.
ReplyDeletethat's primarily because they have great codeshare partnership with OU from almost all European cities that both fly to.
DeleteThis would be a good alternatives for Slovenians in Canada too. Rather than using LH.
ReplyDeleteWhat was Air Canada's planned scheduling for this route for summer 2022? Anyone remember?
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that they scheduled a rather long turn around for an A330.
DeleteGood luck to Zagreb. I hope they can secure more long hauls in the next couple of years.
ReplyDeleteWe have been listening about potential so long but still no single flight from Zagreb to USA or China...
DeleteYes, what do people mean exactly with all this “potential”?
DeletePeople mean that combination of Croatian diaspora, Balkan diaspora, North American tourists coming both to ZAG and the coast, Asian and Australian tourists coming to ZAG, croatian coast and wider region, geographical location of ZAG, visa free regime with all of the mentioned, and EU open sky agreements give ideal potential for OU to start long-haul flights with minimum 3 aircraft and have much bigger and better organized domestic and regional network to feed it. That is potential people talk about, which is not used and taken advantage of because of political influence, crime and corruption in OU which is forced to remain LH asskisser
DeleteStart longhaul from where exactly? ZAG? SPU? DBV?
DeleteWay too decentralized and way too seasonal.
Croatia is the largest exyu market but it is split between 6 airports and the market is only active for about 4 months per year. Not something that is ideal for longhaul at all.
Everything is written above. If you don't understand it, sorry, I have no intention to explain again
DeleteClassic pozdrav
DeleteShould try with LJU once per week, why not it could work with dreamliner or A330
ReplyDeleteyeah that really makes sense....
DeleteNo sensible airline would fly once weekly. What do you do with the crew, unless spending a huge amount of tarmac time whole the crew rest.
DeleteI'm quite surprised by the number of routes AC serves in Europe, especially the number of seasonal routes. Quite a lot for a North American airline.
ReplyDeleteZAG should look into getting a second Canadian destination in my opinion. Better than having two airlines fly the same route.
ReplyDeleteYUL
DeleteZAG has no direct connection to Berlin, Prague, Stockholm or Lisbon and you are dreaming about second Canadian destination....
DeleteVancouver would be great but don't if it possible
DeleteIn my opinion YVR is possible. In case of operations by croatian carrier. Not year-round but summer season only, and with codeshares from YVR on to the US West coast (SFO, PDX, LAX, SAN).
DeleteThink it also might be possible seasonally if operated by canadian carrier. For example, if, just if and many ifs, if AC returns to ZAG one day with 3 weekly as planned, TS could reduce its 3 weekly from YYZ to 2 or 1, and add 1 each from YUL and YVR.
" YVR is possible. In case of operations by croatian carrier."
DeleteETF? In cooperation with tour operators.
I doubt ETF or Trade Air would ever try long-haul, especially scheduled one. Too big bite for small companies operating ACMI only and without own network. I was referring to what OU could do, if sometime in future they are freed of political influence and uhljebs, provided with competent and professional management, corruption level lowered to acceptable level or even better non existent, excessive administrative work force out, work productivity level up, fleet reconfigured, own domestic and regional feed network grown, long haul type introduced, multiple new codeshares on both sides concluded, marketing, now almost nonexistent, significantly improved, current alliance membership evaluated and possibly changed, and so on and so on
DeleteShame that Transat does not want to try year-round flights.
ReplyDeleteDuring winter they fly to the Caribbean.
DeleteTrue that
DeleteAC has been an absolute nightmare this summer. It's good that they didn't start the planned Zagreb flights.
ReplyDeleteHahaha, is that the way how you comfort yourself?
DeleteI have nothing to comfort myself about. I'm not from Croatia but I am based in Canada. Their operations this year and last year have been criminal.
DeleteSo, should they cease the operations fully? 🤣
DeleteFor all the trouble they caused, I wouldn't be upset about it.
DeleteYeah, sure.
DeleteZagreb problem is that Split and Dubrovnik are well conceted with London, Amsterdam and Frankfurt so there is no need for flights to Zagreb from North America.
ReplyDeleteZagreb already has flights to North America. And Dubrovnik does too.
DeleteNot by domestic carrier and in minimum triple less numbers than potential is
DeleteWhat a shame :(
ReplyDeleteHow many weekly flights did Air Canada have to Zagreb last time it flew there (and I don't mean Air Canada Rouge, I mean Air Canada)
ReplyDeleteIt was 3 weekly, at the same time JAT had 3 weekly as well, so it was 6 weekly, and not seasonally, but year-round (5 in winter, JAT had 2 weekly in winter). Market ZAG to Canada, and even more to the US, way always big, and it's shame and treason Kradeze ruined OU and made it feeder for Cartel, just for few persons personal benefits
DeleteBut those flights were with BEG, no?!
DeleteYes, JAT operated BEG-ZAG-YMX-YYZ and AC YYZ-ZRH-ZAG or YYZ-ZAG-ATH. But you should bear in mind that it was 40 years ago and that volumes of traffic grew immensly and had multiplied several times on global level, which makes today's situation even more miserable
DeleteWould be nice to see AC in Zagreb. Hope it happens
ReplyDelete