Big passenger slump

That empty feeling ... Croatia Airlines
Croatia Airline started the year off with a big slump in passenger numbers. It took the Association of European Airlines (AEA) to reveal Croatia Airlines’ figures. In the first month of the year, January, Croatia Airlines reported a 10.9% passenger decrease. This is a big slump for the leading carrier in the EX-YU region and the airline which seemed to sale through the global financial crisis mostly unharmed in comparison to other European airlines. In January, Croatia Airlines had 91.100 passengers and its load factor stood at 51.5%.

Meanwhile, Adria Airways was breakeven in January, neither recording an increase or decrease. Its cabin occupancy index stands at 57.7% and is the highest out of the 3 leading EX-YU airlines.

In sudden reversal of events, Jat Airways, which has for month’s been reporting a big passenger decline, has managed to become the only major EX-YU carrier to report growth in January. The growth has continued throughout February and results for March are expected to be announced in 2 weeks. Jat carried some 4.000 passengers more than Adria in January but still trails Croatia Airlines by a hefty 23.000 passengers.

Comments

  1. According to seasonal flight schedule at www.beg.aero, it seems that Wind Jet in addition to FRL-INI-FRL frequency increase, introduces PMO-BEG-PMO route once per week on day 2.
    It's scheduled to arrive at BEG airport at 19.25h (IV360) and to depart to PMO at 20.15h (IV361).
    It would be nice to see direct flights to Sicily after many years. :)

    Someone should check if this information is correct. ;)

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  2. Anonymous11:11

    Belgrade is not loaded into their system so I suppose it might be just a charter... Belgrade airport tends to do that.
    I am sure you won't be able to get on the Pegasus flight to Belgrade

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  3. frequentflyer11:21

    Despite the fact load factors are only one of many indicators showing operations and success of an airline, this article's not really comparing apples with apples here, is it??

    Let's start with OU, who added 2 76-seat planes to their fleet which weren't there against last year's figures.

    OU JAN 2009: 1336 seats, 10 planes
    OU JAN 2010: 1488 seats, 12 planes

    That's a 10%+ increase in seats, not counting extra flights operated etc. And there was the Handball competition during Jan which *supposedly* didn't skew the figures...

    And then there's JP, who eliminated 2 162-seat A320s from the fleet since last year's figures:

    JP JAN 2009: 1168 seats, 14 planes
    JP JAN 2010: 844 seats, 12 planes

    Thats a ~30% change in seats available, which would obviously boost load factors when downsizing aircraft.

    Finally, we know how much of JUs fleet isn't flying - would this have something to do with their great numbers? Or perhaps that they're now facing some real competition and forced to bring down fares??

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  4. Maybe it's a charter...
    They added that flight to the timetable couple of hours ago, so it will take some time for Wind Jet to get it into their system, if it's not a charter one.
    (I don't think that Palermo is such a popular holiday destination for Serbians, so that surely could be just a regular flight :) )

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  5. Anonymous12:03

    @ frequentflyer - I agree with you about OU and Adria. As for JU half of their fleet was grounded last year as well. I think their numbers are good because they had that big sale and promotion in December as a result of visa liberalisation and it was for travel in January. So, their numbers increased both in JAN and FEB but it will be really interesting to see what happens in March, plus their numbers were pretty low last year so an increase is not that difficult.

    I hope that all that strike talk didn’t affect OU’s numbers in FEB too much.

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  6. Anonymous13:59

    Yes, Windjet is introducing weekly flights between Palermo and Belgrade from end of June, although they will only be seasonal flights, and the service will end late September.

    The news has been confirmed by Windjet.

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  7. Anonymous15:01

    This is something new and really, really great! Adria Wings (former Air Adriatic, airline based in Rijeka, Croatia) announced flights from RJK to INI during the 2010 summer season, three times per week.
    Read more:
    http://www.b92.net/biz/vesti/srbija.php?yyyy=2010&mm=03&dd=29&nav_id=420977

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  8. Anonymous16:58

    Oh my God that is so great for Nis and Rijeka :-))))

    Would love to see that happening! Interesting destination!

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  9. Anonymous17:03

    it seems it is going to happen! lets hope :-)

    http://www.seenews.com/news/latestnews/croatianairlineadriawingstolaunchflightstoserbiainmay-media-133811/

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  10. Hey hey, I can't wait to see that! :D
    Finally some interesting things are happening to INI airport! :)
    But it seems it's impossible to find out anything about that airline. Just some old information...

    Anyway, welcome to new airlines! :))))
    RyanAir, you are the next one... I hope! :)

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  11. Anonymous23:47

    Actually Jat has decreased their fares on many routes. A good example is BRU, last year it was around 310 to 350, now it's about 250-270!

    As far as OU's number changes, it's only about a 150 so that is not that much. I think there is more to their falling pax numbers than the introduction of new planes.

    ReplyDelete

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