NEWS FLASH
Zagreb Airport handled 399.730 passengers in May, marking its busiest month on record. The figure represents an increase of 21.3% on 2023. The growth comes on the back of a 12.7% increase in the number of operated flights, which totalled 4.511 for the month. During the January - May period, Zagreb Airport welcomed 1.564.786 travellers through its doors, up 16.2% on last year, or an additional 218.293 customers. Strong growth is expected to continue into June, with scheduled seat capacity up 18.5%.
Zagreb’s largest airlines by scheduled seat capacity, May 2024
400.000 for a month. Very nice.
ReplyDeleteAir Serbia in May 372.000....everybody is winning now!
DeleteOvo kad napišeš na nekom drugom portalu, odmah ti obrišu.
DeleteValjda izgleda loše po njihovim merilima
From this data we can make conclusion LF is quite higher than last year. Very good news!
ReplyDeleteIt is mostly because Ryanair flies the A320 and Croatia Airlines the Dash or the A319, plus Croatia Airlines has a terrible load factor. So Croatia Airlines needs two or three Dash flights to match the passenger numbers of a single Lauda A320 in Zagreb.
DeleteAverage load factor for May 2024 was 88, in 2023 it was 82, assuming this for rest of the year, Airport will probably pass 4.3 million with relative ease, 4.4 million now seems likely. We need to see noumber of seats for June, July, August, September and October, these are very busy months at Zagreb airport. So my prediction are noumbers will be roughly ~ : June 420k, July 440k, August 455k, September 440k, October 420k, November 325k, December 335k for grand total 4.4 million. But then again, this is highly speculative atm, it all depends on seats for remaining months.
DeleteI am still sticking to 4.3 million to be on the safe side, June, July, August, September, October = remove 20k per month from above prediction for 4.4 million and you'll get rough lower estimate of 4.3 million.
Split however, noumbers aren't great, I am bit disappointed, we'll need to wait for Split Airport to publish their data, but I got few hints that noumber isn't as great. Same goes for Pula and Rijeka, which are stagnating, no idea why, but they're stagnating for some time now, Rijeka airport is managed badly, so that is core of the problem there, but Pula airport was one of the busiest airports in Croatia, with noumbers stagnating now for a while. I mean it doesn't help the fact that region is right next to largest tourist emitting markets to Croatia, Italy, Slovenia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland. They tend to drive, but I know Benelux and Scandinavia are massive markets that for some reason avoid Istria???
Pula lost all Russians and Ukrainians, that's why.
DeleteHm, how come you haven't commented on ZAD?
DeletePula is also badly managed. The numbers started declining when the old CEO left and the new CEO came in.
DeleteBut Rijeka management is much MUCH worse.
Yes
Delete@Anonymous16:24
DeleteHm, how come you haven't commented on ZAD?
Made comment about Zadar yesterday, it had 105% growth on last year, two moths in the row, That is crazy growth if you ask me, not sure reason for that, but would certainly explain why Split Airport is stagnating if traffic is moving to Zadar. I said, Zadar might reach 1.6 million passengers this year or even more if this trend continues. Dubrovnik and Zadar airports are having their best time yet and same trend will continue in 2025. So what to say, other than Zadar is doing really really well.
There is no commercial sense to have PUY, RJK, ZAD and SPU so close to each other. Keeping PUY and SPU is more than enough.
DeleteZadar is home to a large Croatian air force and NATO air force base and has part of the base used by the airport. So Zadar is logically served by an airport. Also not forgetting tourist who use the airport, at least 1 million tourist visited Zadar this way. Also, Zadar really lacks proper rail connection, there's a railway terminal and line but not used for passenger traffic only cargo. People can drive to Zadar, only 2-3 hour drive from Zagreb via motorway, but still want to have additional transport links, ideally air and rail.
DeleteWith Italy just across the sea there is no need for a NATO military base in ZAD. Better to invest in a new airport that would cover all these markets than to have so many airports that struggle as soon as tourists go back home. Start with building one common airport for SPU and ZAD.
DeleteWhy don't you send an email to jens.stoltenberg@nato.org I am sure they are desperate for advices regarding geographical organization of their bases.
Delete@Anonymous09:20
DeleteWhere would you put that airport ???? You look on Google Earth, Zadar is 117km, away from Split as crow flies. So you'd build an airport where, Sibenik ? Near Vodice??? 60km as crow flies, ~85km by motorway or 95km by state road from either cities. Makes no sense. By your logic there shouldn't be Dubrovnik airport either, as there's Split Airport and one airport is enough for all of southern Croatia?!!
Also, fyi, Zadar Airport is also Zadar Airbase, over 50 Aircraft and Helicopters of Croatian AF is there, 1200 Croatian Armed Forces personnel are permanently based there, further 320 NATO personnel. Also, during Yugoslavia, Zadar was main Air Force base and advanced pilot Academy in the country.
FR has completely rejuvenated ZAG, and that's with P2P traffic only. Imagine if there was a half-decent hub carrier based at ZAG, we'd have 5-6 million easily.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Cannot agree more with you.
DeleteState Carrier is run by an apparatchik, totally clueless and politically appointed. I can't see much changing at the airline, the good thing is, Croatia Airlines is getting 15 new A220s and current general manager is old and will be hitting the retirement time very soon. So younger blood will come in, and as Croatia is fast becoming very attractive location to live and visit, we might get someone who isn't from these shores... fingers crossed, someone that is smart and knows how to run an airline. I know wishful thinking...
DeleteNo chance with HDZ ruling yet again
DeleteThe CEO is better then any other ex yu Airline CEO!
DeleteSome time ago, DBV didnt want any budget carriers landing there
Deleteand there was this troll posting here that ZAG was some sort of an elite airport and doesnt need Ryanair and co
I guess times have changed :)
Those 3 weekly OU flights to Berlin must be going off off!!
ReplyDeleteThey are! I flew on them four times in the past month and they were always full!
DeleteI think the biggest contributors to this growth were Ryanair, Lufthansa's overnight A321 to Munich, Turkish's boosting of frequencies and the arrival of T'way. Croatia Airlines is almost useless as usual.
ReplyDeleteCroatia Airlines is on the first place as you can see.
Delete^ yes by capacity but their load factor is barely 60% FR has more passengers without doubt.
DeleteBLAH BLAH BLAH Zagreb reached a milestone that’s all that matters!
DeleteI started tearing up reading this. My dear Zagreb! I am so happy! Next stop flights to New York.
ReplyDeleteDramatic much?
DeleteI do not care call me dramatic! My Zagreb!
DeleteWhat'll you do when Airport his ~450000 passengers in August or next year when 500 000 is achieved in July and August, lol.
DeleteI will have a party
DeleteThe positivity that we need here!
DeleteZagreb has a great geographical location. 1-2-3 hours you have sea, islands, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, BiH, Serbia etc.
ReplyDelete...by car.
DeleteWhen flying, Zagreb - Vienna flight lasts just 30 minutes.
ZAG was one of the two worst in the world yesterday based on delays and disruptions according to flightradar24. There were no weather issues. Does this airport is not able to cope with mean huge growth? Should we expect meltdown in July and August?
ReplyDeleteAirport operator didn't prepare on time for such an increase in traffic. It will get worse as we get closer to the busy period of the year.
DeleteReally?? I didn't hear anything in the news.
DeleteYou didn't hear as analiticar bans comments about those delays.
DeleteWould dnevnik HRT report it ? or RTL at least? I heard nothing ?
Delete^ no mainstream media in Croatia cares about aviation.
DeleteDepends on the day. Some days delays start from the morning and on others they start later. Today only OU to MUC was delayed and the flight to SPU later on is cancelled.
DeleteIt will only get worse during the next 2 and a half years, especially in the busiest April to October periods, as the "new" terminal approaches its full capacity of 5 million. The airport will likely hit 5 million passengers in 2026. meaning the operator will have to execute the second phase and upgrade the terminal to a capacity of 8 million that year. This will necessarily include the apron extension as well.
DeleteWhat I don't understand is why isn't the old terminal, with a 2 million passenger capacity being used? They've had more than enough time - 6 years, to adapt it for Schengen and non- Schengen travelers and besides the planes regularly get parked in front of it, as there's simply not enough gates in front of the main terminal. Instead of being bused to the main terminal, 3 kilometers away (I've experienced that on multiple occasions), the passengers could easily be directed through the old terminal. It has 3 smaller parking lots and is equally well connected to the city via the southwestern entrance, through New Zagreb.
@Michael,
DeleteAs things stand Airport will hit 5.0 million next year. In 2026 they'll expand for 8 million as they planned to that anyways, it was 2025 or 5.0 million which ever comes first. I think few delays were mostly organizational in nature, as is the case across the industry. I understand major tour operator went bust and there's loads of delays and cancellations across Europe as a result, I wouldn't worry too much about cancellations atm, if they become chronic and there are a lot more of these I'd worry. What Airport desperately needs is new air traffic control tower and latest tech, atm Airport is using 60 year old control tower and 25 year old tech. There bounds to be issues when traffic suddenly goes up.
Presume June will be huge as well - I flew from ZAG on Tuesday and have never parked so far away from the terminal; the parking lot was packed.
ReplyDeleteYes indications are the rest of the year will be very busy as Ryan Air's increases start to impact overall traffic at the airport. 2025 will be even busier as Ryan air plans to expand further, their aim is to base 5 aircraft @Zagreb, 5 aircraft means roughly 45-50 destinations out of Zagreb base. Now it is not clear when all 5 aircraft and when 50 destinations target will be reached, but considering in 2023 they had 25 destinations and now they have 32 destinations, you can assume next year they'll have at least 40. So, yeah it'll become very busy in coming few years,. If anything look at Ryan Air at Krakow or other similar sized airports and this is where Zagreb airport will be in 5-6 years time. So rapidly growing passenger noumbers for foreseeable future. I only hope this brings even more carriers in and we genuinely see more choice of destinations at Zagreb airport. BTW I do wonder if Zagreb Airport will hit 5.0 million passengers next year, at this rate, quite possible?
DeleteOU's first A220 was painted last Friday. Where are the pics?
ReplyDelete