Ryanair has announced further growth out of its Zagreb base for the upcoming 2024/25 winter season, which begins on October 27 and runs until March 29 of next year. The airline now plans to operate some 3.030 Zagreb flights over the winter, up almost 20% on the 2023/24 season. Furthermore, it will increase capacity by 17% to just over 550.000 seats. Further changes to the winter network remain possible. Over the past week, Ryanair increased winter frequencies from the Croatian capital to Lanzarote from one to two weekly, as well as to Weeze from the initially planned three weekly to four weekly, which is up from last winter’s two weekly rotations.
The low cost carrier upgraded its recently launched services to Pisa and Alicante from seasonal to year-round operations, with flights to continue to run twice per week throughout the winter. In addition, the airline plans to reinstate operations to Memmingen, which were discontinued this summer, with three weekly services resuming on October 28. Ryanair will upgrade its seasonal Thessaloniki flights to year-round, with the airline to maintain two weekly rotations to Greece’s second largest city over the winter period.
The budget carrier also intends on growing frequencies on a number of routes compared to last winter, with an additional two weekly flights added to London Stansted, for a total of nine weekly rotations, Malta and Basel, increasing to five and four weekly respectively, as well as Weeze and Hahn, which will run four and three times per week respectively. On the other hand, services to Sandefjord and Naples, which were maintained twice per week last winter are yet to be scheduled. Overall, Ryanair currently has 68 weekly flights scheduled out of Zagreb for this coming winter season, up from 56 weekly.
The table below displays Ryanair’s planned weekly frequencies from its Zagreb base. The airline is prone to increasing operations from mid-December to early January for the Christmas and New Year holiday period when frequencies may differ.
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All leisure routes are working out really well for them.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see Lanzarote up too.
DeleteShh don't tell OU.
DeleteI could see them adding more Spanish leisure routes in the next year or two.
DeleteThe second Lanzarote flight is fantastic. One weekly flight was not enough for more flexible holiday schedules, and tickets were absurdly expensive. Hopefully it will be cheaper now.
Delete180euro for return tickets for flight of 4hr in 1way is all but expensive.
DeleteFor Ryanair, that's expensive. They sell Lanzarote-Luton flights for 20 euros.
DeleteAs long as somebody else is paying it's good...
DeleteThey are not in the passenger transport business their focus is somewhere else. Same with McDonald's for example, you think they are in the food business. No, they are in the real estate business.
For an LCC it absolutely is. I flew to Tenarife with Swiss for 160 last June and that included seat selection and 8kg luggage. This addition should help alleviate demand
DeleteWizz Air literally offers 40 euros round trip flight to Tenerife from Milan.
DeletePity Marseille and Palma are not year round
ReplyDeleteWho goes to either in winter?
DeleteI wouldn't say no one goes there in winter but both are highly seasonal. MRS didn't work out of BEG in winter either.
DeleteHonestly Alicante is a big surprise as year round. I would have thought it is a seasonal route. Or that they may extend Girona instead due to Barcelona demand. But still happy to see Alicante year round.
Delete09:25 Alicante has nice weather year round and is a really fun city, no surprises there.
DeleteMarseilles and Palma both have very poor weather in winter.
DeletePalma (Mallorca) has poor weather in winter? Joking, right? Full of cyclists and golf players in off season.
DeleteWow, people cycle and play golf in the winter! It must be 40 degrees.
DeleteAlicante is the 4th most populated area in Spain, with more than 2 million people living there, many tourists and many expats, is not a seasonal resort like Ibiza or Mikonos….
DeleteCould we see Ryanair base another plane in Zagreb next summer?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely
DeleteThat would be excellent. And in that case I guess we could see 4 new routes.
DeleteThey don't necessarily need to add an aircraft to launch new routes. They operate a few routes to ZAG with aircraft from other bases.
DeleteRyan Air plans to base 5 aircrafts in Zagreb, fly to around 50 destinations and they also plan to cater 2 million passengers on their flights out of Zagreb. If you search this blog you'll find Ryan Air plans for Zagreb, this blog posted them several years ago.
DeleteWas not expecting Alicante. Nice.
ReplyDeleteWhy? ALC weather is amazing in winter. It can sometimes reach 20ºC. There is plenty to see and do around Alicante as well.
DeleteJust thought Girona had a greater chance of going year round.
DeleteGirona itself is a very nice medieval town and you can easily reach Barcelona using the high-speed train in 35min.
DeleteHope they eventually extended it to year round service.
DeleteGoes to show that Memmingen was just suspended because they didn't have aircraft.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't eliminate the possibility that this route does well in winter but demand drops off in summer.
DeleteIt's just a classic Gatto route which has passengers but is not super profitable, so the aircraft is better used for flights to Palma, Alicante etc.
DeleteMemmingen is a gasterbaiter route, which means it'll always have stronger demand in winter, when there's less work and more holidays
DeleteOver half a million seats in winter. Impressive!
ReplyDeleteLiterally flying without any direct competition. Especially in winter when OU goes to sleep even though they are constantly saying how they are "combating seasonality".
DeleteThey actually compete directly on several routes against OU and indirectly on many more.
DeleteThey have 0 direct competition. Indirect competition is a different story. Croatia Airlines is useless. Thank God for Ryanair.
DeleteEvery time OU doesn't expand or cuts flights it's always "croats drive everywhere". This is what happens when a real airline is developing a market!
ReplyDeleteSame like saying Lidl is a real supermarket. They obtain loans at next to nothing interest rates in Germany and then use that cheap money to squeeze out competition. Ryan not only gets cheap money, they also buy equipment at one third of the price their competition has to pay. 5 years later, they sell the aircraft at a higher price. That is simply disloyal competition.
DeleteHow on earth is efficient business "disloyal competition"?? And what's stopping everyone else from getting cheap loans in Germany?
DeletePoor OU.
ReplyDeletePoor indeed, with a soon to arrive brand new fleet and a full financial backing by the GoC for the added value OU brings.
DeleteIs there any chance we might see a new route launched in winter? Like Lanzarote last year?
ReplyDeleteProbably no new routes this winter, but you never know with Ryanair...
DeleteWell you could say they have 2 new routes in winter since they will be flying Alicante and Pisa which were not there last winter.
DeleteI find it interesting how Ryanair launched flights from Zadar to Barcelona but from Zagreb they started Girona. Any particular reason?
ReplyDeleteBecause under the incentive scheme that they are using, a route can't qualify for incentives if it is being served or if it has been served in the past 2 years. Since OU flies to Barcelona in summer, they started Girona instead and qualified for incentives. That's most likely the reason.
DeleteAhh thanks, that makes sense actually. Smart of them.
DeleteGod forbid they launch something without incentives.
DeleteWhy would they launch a route without incentives? Why not make extra money by flying to Girona?
DeleteThey won't, that's not how Ryanair operates out of secondary airports
DeleteDublin is without incentives.
DeleteWhen Wizz Air launches some routes out of SKP everyone are like “You are paying for new routes, otherwise there is not demand to launch them”, but when FR uses incentives for new routes there goes all the support for it.
DeleteFR is killing it on the London route. And killing OU and BA in the process on that route.
ReplyDeleteMostly only transfers now use OU and BA on this route. p2p traffic taken over by Ryanair.
DeleteActually not totally true. When you calculate distance and price from Stansted to city centre, you will see that sometime its better to fly with OU or BA to LHR than FR. But the best thing for customers, that they are making good competition and increasing frequencies, adding more seats.
DeleteThe city centre is large. If you are going to Liverpool Street, which is also the city centre, it is quicker to fly to Stansted than Heathrow.
Delete@anon 09:34
DeleteSince FR started flying between ZAG a d STN, I haven't flown with either BA or OU. When you can fly for a fraction of a legacy carrier price, it makes absiolutely zero sense to use both OU or BA. And from Heathrow you need to pay for Elizabeth Line or Heathrow Express, and even Picadilly Line. The National Express bus between Stansted and Stratford costs less than £15 return fare.
If you leave it until very late, Croatia Airlines remains the best option. They have the lowest loads and their last-minute prices are always cheaper than Ryanair's. I flew Croatia Airlines Zagreb-Heathrow on a UK National holiday because Ryanair was 200 euros and Croatia Airlines was 110. British Airways was 370!!
DeleteYou just cherry picked one example among hundreds of opposing ones. OU and BA are in 95% more expensive than FR. Period.
DeleteNational express takes about 2 hours from Standsted to Victoria. Also, FR tickets are only sometimes cheap, most of the time's they're around €100 for the return ticket. BA is competitive if you can get €120 return ticket which you can often if you book well in advance.
DeleteNational Express takes 45 mins to Stratford, an hour to Liverpool Street. Those same tickets you mention for OU and BA are mentioning are the basic fares that only include the carry on. Just did the random, same dates for all 3 in early August and the fares are: BA 360EUR, OU 431EU, FR 153EU - including the carry on; 100EUR without the carry on, but only personal small bag, which was always enough for me for 4-5 days trip.
DeleteSometimes?
That is not true Frishki, Carry on luggage with BA is included, not sure about check in luggage as I never travel with one of these, I use my farpoint Osprey backpack to travel, fits everything in, 15,6 or 17in laptop + clothes for 3 weeks. I just booked return flight to Zagreb for Christmas for £128, no idea where your prices are coming from, but skyscaner is the website to find and book all your flights. Loads of cheap flights. For price you mentioned @frishki11:03 you can fly to Taipei, return. Yes with China Southern, but you get to enjoy Shanghai for 36 hours, visa free. I have no idea where you find your ticket prices and why would anyone want to pay such extortionate prices.
DeleteI found them on their respective websites, what do you think where I found them? These are the fares for early August, the same dates for all the airlines. I don't think it's that difficult to do the research on your own.
DeleteThose frequencies are quite good for an LCC. Many destination with more than 2 flights per week.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteEspecially London at 9 weekly!
DeleteShows how underserved this route was. Remember that almost 10 years ago Monarch started flying London with A321s and they were packed until they went bankrupt.
DeleteLCC operator was badly needed on the route.
DeleteI'm surprised easyjet didn't see the opportunity for so many years before FR came along.
DeleteThey used to fly to Zagreb years ago.
DeleteDo you maybe remember which routes?
DeleteLondon Gatwick, Dortmund and Paris
DeleteBack then, Zagreb Airport was run by the state and the government exerted pressure on the Airport to protect Croatia Airlines and chase away easyJet.
DeleteI would love them to start domestic flights in Croatia.
ReplyDeleteNot gonna happen.
DeleteZagreb-Dubrovnik twice daily would be AMAZING.
DeleteThat would be an ultimate death sentence for Croatia airlines
DeleteWhat a great year for ZAG.
ReplyDeleteYes. Strong passenger growth will continue in winter.
DeleteI just think how many lost opportunities for Croatia Airlines with these routes...
ReplyDeleteExactly, especially with leisure destinations which they didn't think to develop at any point int heir 35 years history.
DeleteThey finally realized that and said last week they will start some leisure routes from Zagreb with A220s. We will see what since there is not a lot of space for them to move around due to Ryanair.
DeleteThere are still many leisure destinations unserved from Zagreb. All north Africa destinations especially Egypt and Morocco, more Greek islands, Tenerife...
DeleteI think Egypt will likely be something OU will launch and maybe Tunisia.
DeleteCroatia Airlines is always late. Always.
DeleteThey could always operate flights to Monastir and Hurghada during winter to combat seasonality or whatever do they say every other month
DeleteAll those leisure destinations can be reached via Star hubs..... (OU bot)
DeleteBad news for OU.
ReplyDeleteI see them launching Birmingham, Valencia, Bari and Tel Aviv is definitely missing!
ReplyDeleteI think Valencia and Birmingham may be next and launched next summer. Those two make complete sense. TLV probably too when things settle.
DeleteProbably they will launch Gdansk, Krakow, Katowice or some destination in Baltic countries as well.
DeleteMorocco flights would be nice in the future
DeleteAgree. Wonder if there is demand for Morocco though.
DeleteAbsolutely zero chance of Birmingham. Bari is also not happening because they had Brindisi and it didn't work out so well. What is much more likely is Bucharest, Krakow, Prague, Nuremberg, Porto, Valencia, Madrid, another Greek island etc
DeleteTheir number of destinations from Zagreb in winter is almost double that of Croatia Airlines (and that includes their PSO domestic routes)
ReplyDeleteBut I don't think they have more capacity than Croatia Airlines in winter.
DeleteThey might have more destinations but they have significantly less frequnecies.
DeleteCroatia Airlines has fewer passengers
DeleteAre all of ZAG's FR flights ooerated by Launda or do they use planes from their other subsidiaries too?
ReplyDelete*operated and *Lauda. Sorry
DeleteSome flights are operated with 737 from other subsidaries, Girona, Lanzarote...
DeleteThanks
DeleteLauda is definitely the best of the lot.
DeleteTrue
DeleteLanzarote, Kos, Corfu and Bergamo are often Malta Air. Dublin is sometimes Ryanair itself.
DeleteIn Dubrovnik they fly mostly Buzz but also Lauda, and Pula gets Lauda, Buzz, Ryanair UK, Ryanair and Malta Air.
Good work Ryanair
ReplyDeleteand ZAG,
DeleteHow long is the Lanzarote flight time wise?
ReplyDeleteAlmost 5 hours (4:45 in average).
DeleteWow that's long for a Ryanair flight.
DeleteExcellent news. They have established a very respectable network out of Zagreb for such a short period of time.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to know the percentage of traffic used by Slovenes in ZAG.
ReplyDelete90%
Delete0%
DeleteNot that much, and less than people speculate here. Slovenes prefer to fly out of Ts or Tv.
DeleteDon't forget Marco Polo.
DeleteSlovenes do not travel. In LJU there are far more Croats than Slovenes.
DeleteWow! Go, Zagreb, go!
ReplyDeleteIt would be so great to see an Edinburgh route appear. There's not many options for getting to Croatia in the winter, unless we travel to London at the moment. And I'm sure EDI - ZAG would be a popular route for all parties involved. We always see same people traveling on multiple flights to get to ZAG.
ReplyDeleteEdinburgh-Amsterdam-Zagreb and Edinburgh-Frankfurt-Zagreb work at least twice a day all winter.
DeleteI would love to see a direct flight to Edinburgh! I did visit the city very briefly a long, long time ago but have always remembered how charming it was. Lisbon and Edinburgh are probably the two European cities that surprised me the most with their unique, intricate beauty, and in a way I hadn't expected upfront. Likewise, in both cities I only spent a few short hours, as I was merely passing through.
DeleteWill definitely go back for a proper visit regardless, but a direct flight would be nice!
So much about the seasonality used as an excuse by OU.
ReplyDeleteGreat job, but I'm quite surprised by discontinuing route to Naples. Does anyone knows what are the reasons for this?
ReplyDeleteNot discontinuing, it becomes seasonal route at the moment.
DeleteIt doesn't work so well in the winter. And that makes sense because it's so close to Rome which is already served.
DeleteI was surprised as I have friend that have family in Naples and they told me that during Christmass holidays it was full and quite expensive. That's why I was thinking that rout is going well. But probably january and February are problem.
Delete