Winter 2013/14
Adria and Croatia Airlines

Winter changes for Adria and Croatia Airlines

The 2013/14 Northern Hemisphere winter season begins next Sunday, October 27 and will last until March 30, 2014. Both Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines will make significant reductions to their network during this period as both airlines will operate with a smaller fleet. Currently, none of the two plan to introduce new destinations during the winter period.

Adria Airways’ winter season changes are in line with the carrier’s new strategy to reduce frequencies and operate larger aircraft. Adria will significantly decrease the number of flights to Star Alliance hubs such as Munich, Vienna, Zurich and Frankfurt. The Slovenian carrier will operate two daily flights to Munich, instead of last winter’s three, and only twelve weekly flights to Vienna, compared to last year’s 21. The airline will add one weekly flight to Pristina, operating the service eight times per week, while Sarajevo will be reduced to six flights per week. Although the airline will see competition on its Belgrade route starting December 1, Adria will maintain five weekly flights to the Serbian capital. Services to Tirana will operate eight times per week, up from last year’s daily flights. Out of its Pristina base, Adria will maintain a similar network to last winter with minor adjustments.


Croatia Airlines’ network reductions will hit Dubrovnik hard. The airline is suspending all flights out of Dubrovnik with exception to Zagreb and Rome, meaning the city will lose services to Frankfurt, Paris and Zurich over the winter months. The Croatian carrier plans to reduce frequencies on domestic flights between Zagreb, Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik and Pula. Croatia Airlines will also reduce frequencies to Pristina, operating the service only three times per week but will boost flights to Sarajevo to twelve per week. Flights to Brussels will be boosted from last year’s daily to ten weekly flights. Routes suspended during the summer, which include Podgorica, Istanbul and London Gatwick, won’t be making a comeback this winter. On the other hand, Croatia Airlines will maintain its seasonal summer service to Barcelona up until late November.

You can review the winter season changes both Adria and Croatia Airlines will be making by clicking on the links below.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:16

    Really disappointing if you ask me. 2 p/w to CPH from JP. That’s not even trying.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:22

      Maybe Lufthansa is not too happy about Adria feeding SAS' network, especially its intercontinental flights. I am shocked about Vienna, I always thought the market was there for at least two daily flights.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:33

    Can anyone explain to me why Croatia Airlines does not fly to Stockholm? You would assume there would be enough demand for 2 weekly flights. And I also agree the network is really poor. Adria flying to only 15 cities and Croatia Airlines only 17 (if they didn’t have domestic flights it would be even worse than Adria)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Purger11:04

      Because management is without vision and low knowledge

      Delete
  3. When did Adria stop flying Vienna to Frankfurt? I thought that route was doing well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:42

      I think it’s been a few years already. Lufthansa gave them that route and Lufthansa took it away.
      I will never get over the fact OU tied itself so much to LH. Look at that route map. All flights are to the west and there is so much potential for them to fly to the east. I remember that one of their CEOs, Simunovic, said how he plans to expand the airline to Bucharest, Sofia, Moscow and so on in 2013/14. He was removed. I also think OU would do quite well if they operated to DXB. They have the aircraft to make it nonstop. It’s just poor planning and listening to the divine mother called Lufthansa.

      Delete
    2. Interestingly enough, Bucharest has a demand of 40 passengers per day. In other words Croatia Airlines could easily fly the route 4 times per week with its Dash-8, and that's only if they rely on the O&D market.

      I guess the reason why they don't fly to Dusseldorf or Berlin is because of Lufthansa or is it because there is really not a market. I see that during winter time Lufthansa is not flying from Berlin to Zagreb. Was it a seasonal flight?

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:38

    How come Croatia Airlines can't make their Paris flight daily, yet they manage to fly into the rather expensive Heathrow airport nine times per week?! I thought there would be enough demand for a daily flight.

    Also, the increase in Sarajevo, could it be as a result of the recent partnership between JA and JU?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, it is because of big demand on the Sarajevo - Zagreb route.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous00:13

      Sarajevo, do you by any chance know something about BHA reinstating BEG-SJJ route?

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:46

    Let’s be brutally honest. All ex-Yu airlines have a disastrous network. Jat did as well (they had a great spread of destinations but frequencies were bad). The only airline that has a pretty good network is Air Serbia. Solid frequencies and a nice spread of destinations east, west and regional. They are only missing Spain in my opinion.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous10:35

    When will the EU publish the results of the investigation regarding Adria subventions?
    Will this influence Adria's activity?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:41

      They'll go bankrupt if they're forced to pay the subsidies back.

      Delete
    2. Purger11:09

      So... we call it Malev scenario

      Delete
  7. Anonymous10:37

    Correct me if I am wrong but no Ex-YU airline has flights to:
    Ankara, Baku, Barcelona, Budapest, Dublin, Helsinki, Kharkov, Kiev, Lisbon, Lyon, Madrid, Manchester, Odessa, Riga, Saint Petersburg, Sofia, and probably many more mid sized cities.
    There must be some O&D (and transfer) demand to justify at least 2-3 weekly flights from Ex-YU.

    -- Charlie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:53

      When airBaltic flew into Belgrade, 95% of their passengers were transferring in Riga.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:02

      TAP flies whole year from Zagreb to Lisbon. Croatia and Vueling fly from Zagreb to Barcelona 8 months in a year.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:21

      well, JP flies to Manchester and Barcelona, it is in the summer period only.so does Finnair connect HEL to LJU, but only summer period again.

      Delete
    4. Aэrologic15:14

      Air Serbia is opening many of these destinations. The only ones notably missing are Odessa (in the regional network) and Spain in the European network. QR was to open flights from Ankara but they were denied rights.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous10:50

    I used to fly from FRA to LJU in the late evening.
    I was always shocked but the incredible low loading factor.
    Especially compared with my first leg that was nearly always jam packed.
    When asked they told me ... we just need to fly to the home base.

    I don't know how is going now.
    I suppose that Vienna is performing badly
    but I read in the news that FRA and MUC are doing well.
    But there is a cut. Probably is not performing that well.
    Don't tell me there is lack of birds.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:21

      I guess it is because the yields are just not there. If I remember correctly someone on here once mentioned that Croatia Airlines is selling to Lufthansa its seats for almost nothing. I guess it could be the same for Adria.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:29

      This is from EX-YU Aviation News a few months ago from Adria CEO “It is essential that in the long run we change our business model and focus on getting passengers from point to point. If, for example, a passenger travels with us from Ljubljana to Frankfurt and then with Lufthansa to New York, Adria earns much less than if the passenger travelled only between Ljubljana and Frankfurt”

      Delete
  9. Anonymous12:00

    I know it's a bit out of topic, but I was wondering why planes that are going to/from Pristina aren't flying over Serbia? It's always some wierd routing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:02

      Planes that fly to Kosovo are not allowed to fly over Serbia (same as for planes flying to Serbia are not allowed to fly over Kosovo)

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:44

      Okay. Thank you for reply. Do you maybe know if that will ever change? As far as I know that has nothing to do with our air traffic control? I heard that they control sky over Mongenegro and Macedonia?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:27

      Not true. Macedonia controls its sky from 1996!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous15:30

      You mixed up Macedonia with Bosnia

      Delete
    5. Anonymous17:41

      The sky over Kosovo is controlled from Hungary.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous14:23

    Very very dry timetables... Also surprised that OU can't manage a daily to CDG!
    But on the other hand I've checked the timetable of Air Serbia departing from SKP. It's a disaster and they will be yet surprised with their bad decision of shifting the morning flight to 15:30 in the aftrrnoon. Except for CDG, CPH, DUS and ZRH almost all of the other cooncetions are lost. LHR, TXL, FRA, STR- most important markets which JU was filling up with macedonian pax. Seems the new people at this airline have very little know how about the market!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:23

      Slots for FRA and LHR couldn't be changed ... On certain days, there are still connections to TXL and STR

      Delete
  11. Anonymous19:31

    As to the "losses" of transit pax from SKP 2 FRA via BEG:
    I've never used JU to fly this route anyway-why should I?
    The flight from SKP is-or now rather was-at approx. 6am and the connecting flight from BEG is at 2pm.
    I use OU and/or JP and/or OS when i fly from SKP 2 FRA with a stopover of 1hour in ZAG, LJU or VIE- much more convenient than having to stay at BEG for 5 hours!
    + who wants to get up at 4am to catch a f****** flight??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:31

      Yeah, and so? Jat's loads out of Skopje prove that you do not represent the voice of majority.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:28

    For all who judge Adria. Adria reduced there timetable because, 2 CRJ200 leave the fleet this winter. 2 new CRJ900 will arrive in march 2014 and because of that this reduction, which is normal because they fly with bigger planes. example 3 time per day to VIE with CRJ200 and now 2 times with CRJ900 with smaller fees, more seats then 3 CRJ200. And at the end chiper tickets...

    ReplyDelete

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