Zagreb Airport is expected to see the addition of new routes as Croatia Airlines begins its refleeting drive this month with the arrival of the first Airbus A220-300 aircraft. The carrier has made no secrete it wants to launch new routes, noting that destinations south of Croatia, primarily serving leisure travellers, are being considered. The new strategy would help the company reduce seasonality. Furthermore, the carrier can also make use of Zagreb Airport’s Connecting Capital Cities Incentive Model. In order for it to utilise the incentives on offer, it must launch at least two weekly year-round flights to at least three of sixteen pre-selected destinations. They include Prague, Tallinn, Berlin, Budapest, Riga, Vilnius, Luxembourg, Stockholm (Arlanda or Skavsta airports), Tirana, Pristina, Reykjavik, Tbilisi, Kiev (upon the reopening of Ukrainian airspace), Chisinau and Yerevan. This year, Croatia Airlines commenced operations from Zagreb to Stockholm, Berlin, and Tirana.
Over the past two years, Ryanair has been successful in launching new leisure-oriented routes from Zagreb and operating them on a year-round basis. The budget carrier simply followed the list of busiest unserved destinations from the Croatian capital, commencing flights either directly to those cities or their nearby alternatives. This has reduced the number of underserved destinations in demand from Zagreb for Croatia Airlines, especially those in southern Europe. However, there are still a number of opportunities available on the continent. Based on indirect traffic flow, the busiest unserved destinations from Zagreb in Europe include Lisbon, Geneva, Porto, Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Bologna, Krakow, Hannover, Nice, Bilbao and Luxembourg. Regionally, Budapest and Pristina have the most indirect traffic, while Cairo leads in North Africa.
Commenting on the carrier’s potential network expansion, Croatia Airlines’ CEO, Jasmin Bajić, said, “The fifteen new A220 aircraft that will gradually enter Croatia Airlines’ fleet by the end of 2027 will open up additional business opportunities in terms of gradually expanding our network of flights to new destinations, and in terms of increasing frequencies on existing routes. Our flight network analysts don’t just monitor the desires and needs of our passengers and current trends in the aviation industry, they also continuously analyse some twenty or so new potential routes. Some are year-round from Zagreb, and some seasonal from the Adriatic coast”. Mr Bajić added, “All new potential destinations are primarily European and Mediterranean. It’s worth pointing out that Croatia Airlines is the only carrier that serves all eight airports in Croatia. This year we expanded our network of international services from Zagreb by introducing new nonstop flights to Berlin, Stockholm, and Tirana, as well as from Split to Istanbul”.
Lisbon is a no brainer
ReplyDeleteAm I right in assuming there are noumber of destinations that aren't taken by Ryan air but could be served by Croatian Airlines if they play fast?
DeletePrague, Tallinn, Budapest, Riga, Vilnius, Luxembourg, Pristina, Reykjavik, Tbilisi, Lisbon, Geneva, Porto, Bologna, Krakow, Hannover, Nice, Bilbao & Cairo. 18 additional destinations by OU would indeed be great start for new rejuvenated fleet, sadly management of the airline won't be. OU could eventually fly to 40-42 destinations and finally have some serious network of destinations.
Absolutely non substantive...
DeleteThe airplane, when it arrives, will NOT add to the total number of units. Remember they currently wet lease several low end companies to fly for them. They operate maybe four Airbuses.
It will take some more, more until they will be able to expand anything
Is there demand for places like Hurghada or Monastir? They could be potentially launched by OU. I don't think we will see Antalya considering the bilateral agreement between Turkey and Croatia is strict.
ReplyDeleteAround 20k PAX to each from LJU, so probs at least that much from ZAG as well
DeleteI don't think there is any demand for holidays to Antalya from Croatia where you can just drive to Dalmatia.
DeleteMany people thought there was no demand for holidays to Spain, Greecem Cyprus and Italy but Ryanair proved them wrong.
Deleteanon 9:25 Well, people want to change the beach sometimes, you don't choose your holiday destination just by distance to the nearest beach. Croatia has a beautiful coastline, but even so, sometimes a change is desired.
DeleteAnonymous 9:25, the world is not Dalmatia centric. There are plenty of destinations that people from Zagreb would like to see.
DeleteMaybe Dalmatia is getting too expensive and the quality on offer deteriorating with over-tourism (Croatian speaking from experience) so really not really offering that much more to someone who can go there whenever, so why wouldn't Croatian's want to experience something different?
DeleteWhat you all fail to realise is that the majority of Croats in Zagreb have a family house at the Adriatic Sea. It's not like in Spain or Italy where almost all of the continental locals have to pay for accommodation, so they don't care if they go to their own country or somewhere else.
DeleteRyanair managed to do something that everyone thought was impossible - year-round flights to Malaga, Malta and Cyprus. But Croatia Airlines could never do that because it will have prices set at 200 euros per ticket and not enough people are desperate enough to be ripped off like that.
DeleteRyanair flights cancelled cost well over 200 euros once all their hidden extras are added on.
DeleteWhich extras are hidden please? Paying extra for a suitcase is "hidden"?
DeleteMajority of locals don't have a house by the sea, that's a privileged few and their friends
DeleteDalmatia is not the centre of the world. It's Istra!
DeleteFamilies have kids, and kids when they get older, like to explore.
Delete@Anonymous09:27
DeleteBefore Ryan air, it was hard to leave Croatian tourist destinations, now, many Croatian travellers use to travel to much cheaper destinations around the world, Tunisia has become very popular, Greece, Egypt, Spain and France. Croatian pays are growing fast and by this year's end will reach €1400 next year at least €1550 NET, this will allow for more Croatian's to travel abroad, especially places they only dreamt once.
easyjet should launch those Geneva flights.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe Croatia Airlines never considered Thessaloniki or Cyprus. Now it is too late.
ReplyDelete+1
Deleteat least they are trying to improve
DeleteWell they hardly bothered with Athens so why would they have bothered with those routes.
DeleteThey haven’t change their ATH route in so many years while Aegean improved even a little bit making it year round and added frequencies, although they’re facing aircraft problems I think in the future we can see Aegean thriving in ZAG-ATH
DeleteSo will the three new routes OU introduced this year be year-round?
ReplyDeleteThey are not on sale for summer, at least for now.
DeleteHow are those new routes performing?
DeleteSomeone said a few weeks back that Berlin was always full but the Euros I'm sure helped.
DeleteI think OU will start a route to the Caucuses.
ReplyDeleteFor whom?
DeleteThey should also look into demand from Slovenia since they can serve that market from Zagreb too.
ReplyDeleteFantastic news for Zagreb in any case.
ReplyDeleteDUS??
ReplyDeleteRyanair serves Weeze.
DeleteSo?
DeleteWeeze doesn't serve Dusseldorf lol
DeleteRyanair markets Weeze as Dusseldorf Weeze.
DeleteAnd people who want to get to Dusseldorf from anywhere else won't use Weeze, that airport is simply too far away and too poorly connected
Delete@10:02 Absolute rubbish. Why do you think Weeze has 20 flights a day? You think these are Weeze locals filling planes to Malaga, Alicante, Zakynthos??
DeleteEurowings serves Dusseldorf from Zagreb.
DeleteCongrats on the A220s and I really hope they try to explore some new regions with them.
ReplyDeleteHope - it's the best strategy
DeleteI'm wondering which are these 20 routes that they have in the pipeline. Any guesses?
ReplyDeleteHopefully Portugal. Even Porto has demand.
DeleteI don't think even Croatia Airlines knows. What a ridiculous statement that was: why do they have to continuously analyse 20 routes?? Why don't they start launching some?
DeleteLooking forward to the first A220.
ReplyDeleteHopefully arriving soon, but still no date.
DeleteIs the A220 scheduled already on ZAG-FRA?
DeleteNo, not yet.
DeleteYeah, that's gonna solve all the problems.
DeleteOU should really take some more risk and extend some of their seasonal flights from Zagreb to year round to begin with.
ReplyDeleteThey have been making steps in the right directions. Good to see growth is on the cards.
DeleteNot really, they are still showing do be a re-active airline compared to a pro-active one which is what they need to transition to, if they want to really be competitive and not continue to lose to Ryan Air.
Delete^ True
DeleteFlights from ZAG to Rome still going via Split. Will this ever change?
ReplyDeleteSame with Athens, via Dubrovnik.
DeleteIf they haven't changed this now that Ryanair offers nonstop flight to Rome, they never will.
DeleteLegacy from JAT days.
DeleteLet's see how this plays out.
ReplyDeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteThe smartest thing they could have done is get more turboprops, strengthen the regional network and get 2 wide bodies and launch long haul to US and Asia. With regional network + strong domestic network could have done well. Could have even flown sold out planes from Dubrovnik to US and Asia through tour operators. But they could not be bothered.
ReplyDeleteSo they are responding to Ryanair's Zagreb base after 4 years?
ReplyDeleteNo. Bajic says they will eventually launch new routes as all the A220s are delivered. I don't think they will be launching too many anytime soon.
DeleteSo they were unable to open any Euromed destination until they got the A220s? Give me a break.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts too
DeleteThey are so committed to opening new markets that thry are putting A220 om FRA route...
ReplyDeleteGive it time it is just one route on the A220. They will have 15 of the planes.
Deleteyeah in 2027 when Ryanair will have 8-10 in ZAG.
DeleteThey will never ever have, or to be more precise - operate,15 planes. Never. They are gonna downsize.
DeleteSeems like Zagreb Airport is not interested in southern routes. They are giving incentives only to northern destinations.
ReplyDeleteIt has nothing to do about south or north. If you read carefully, incentives are about unserved capital cities out of ZAG.
DeleteJust talk from OU.
ReplyDeleteYes. And the brand new shiny A220s are also talk only. Remember, brand new and shiny!
DeleteWe'll see about that. Let's wait.
DeleteThey still haven't restored all their routes from 2019.
ReplyDeleteWhat have they still not resumed from ZAG?
DeleteHelsinki, Oslo, Milan, Bucharest, Dublin and saint Petersburg
DeleteRyanair now does Torp and Bergamo so Oslo and Malpensa are not coming back. Ryanair also does Dublin and Croatia Airlines will never return there. St Petersburg is not happening because of Russia invading Ukraine. So Croatia Airlines only had Bucharest left.
DeletePrague as well was not resumed out of ZAG
DeleteThose destinations obviously didn't work well, so why restore them?
DeleteOf course they didn't go well. They didn't fly every day it makes no sense. There are numerous reasons for that. Tariff policy to start with. Difficult to explain if the level of reasoning is; let's just fly to as many cities.
DeleteCan't wait to see what they launch.
ReplyDeleteThey should shock us and start BEG :)
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't that long ago that they flew SPU-BEG so who knows
DeleteThey can't compete against JU on Split route but they could open Brac-Belgrade. I think it would work with the Dash 8 once or twice per week in season.
DeleteThey had a chance to launch midday service before Air Serbia did. But they probably eventually will start a 2 or 3 weekly service.
DeleteZAG-BEG and SPU-BEG would be great on an A220
Delete@anon 14:39
DeleteSending A220 on a route where JU could hardly fill 72 seater with all those transfer options for a fraction of OU's price is very optimistic.
Great! Go, go, go, Zagreb!
ReplyDeleteGood to see they’re considering PRN again.
ReplyDeletePRN route will most like be resumed, and has a good chance to be successful. But only if it's outside the control of the SKP-based crooks, who kept pushing ZAG-PRN traffic through ZAG-SKP.
DeletePretty sure airBaltic will take this subsidy call for Riga (maybe even Vilnius or Tallinn later on). Sarajevo should do the same
ReplyDeleteBut the condition is you must launch at least 3 routes at once.
DeleteI dont understand. They will get those 15 A220s to replace the current A320 family jets and the Q400s. So at the end, they will still have the same number of fleet, right? How this makes more space for them to launch new routes? Can someone explain?
ReplyDeleteBasically the same size fleet since the late 90s.... that's how they roll.
DeleteAnon 12:08
DeleteUse logic.
I don't think the Caucasus will be successful. There are already established players like TK, PC, LO, BT, LH, OS for transfer. p2p is now normal Wizz, Transavia, FlyOne. SJJ and LJU for example are entirely in Europe and next door to the West they have few connections with Europe, but then there is FRA or Muscat.
ReplyDeleteSome new holiday destinations would be great. Greece is undiscovered from ZAG. Big potential to HER, RHO, JTR, JMK, CHQ etc.
ReplyDeleteYes, Croats really want to take a beach holiday in Greece.
DeleteAnd Greenlanders want to see the ice in Iceland!
DeleteAnon 14:49 , I don't understand what's the strange about that ??? I'm Greek and have gone on summer holidays to Malta , Sardegnia , Cyprus and the Dalmatian coast . A traveler wants to see as many places as he can get .
DeleteOUch
ReplyDeleteI was surprise about Spanish city Bilbao is the first Spanish city without directs flights
ReplyDeleteIt would be difficult to fill a 150 seater flying with low weekly frequency between many of those cities and Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteIt could make much ore sense with 80-130 seat EJet, assuming minimum 1 daily flight (3-4 days weekly in the morning + 3-4 days weekly in the afternoon/evening) connecting to exYu destinations operated on daily basis both midday as well as a night flight.
The perfect strategy would be to utilize small turboprops on domestic routes and maximize frequency. Run triple daily's on certain ones if possible.
ReplyDeleteThis includes
ZAG - SJJ 21x
ZAG - SKP 14x
ZAG - TIA 14x
ZAG - BEG 7x
ZAG - PRN 7x
Then use these passengers and fuel them into morning departing flights across Europe. Air Serbia has been doing this for some time now, and with ZAG's central position in Europe and the new refreshed fleet of planes, this should be a piece of cake.
You are suggesting 21 weekly to SJJ while here on this forum we are reading how low their LF is on those flights, even lower then SKP which as you suggested would have had 7 weekly flights less then SJJ.
DeleteSPU-MLA would do 1x
ReplyDeleteIndirect traffic to/from Budapest? Interesting... who wants to fly over an other airport between Zagreb and Budapest? 4 hours by car...
ReplyDelete