Croatia Airlines in domestic expansion

Croatia Airlines and Trade Air team up for new domestic flights

Croatia Airlines will launch new flights within Croatia in cooperation with charter airline Trade Air. Next summer the Croatian carrier will operate flights from Zagreb to Rijeka, Rijeka to Split, Split to Dubrovnik and Dubrovnik to Rijeka. In addition, the airline will maintain flights between Osijek and Zagreb launched this winter season. The new domestic services will operate on behalf of charter airline Trade Air which has leased an Embraer 120 aircraft for the flights from Budapest Air Service with the capacity to seat thirty passengers. The new services will operate under Croatia Airlines’ flight numbers and sales will be carried out by the national carrier. Furthermore, the airline will have a share in part of the revenue.

Commenting on the new flights, Trade Air CEO, Marko Cvijin, recently said, “Initially we will use an Embraer 120 but we will consider introducing our own aircraft on the route as well. This certainly represents a new segment and strategic turnaround for our company. We are extremely happy that these routes will emphasise a new level of cooperation with Croatia Airlines, considering ticket sales will take place through their distribution system, therefore, making tickets available for sale in all countries and enabling passengers connections through Croatia Airlines’ hub”. The new domestic flights will be launched on April 4. All of them will operate once per week, every Friday, while the Rijeka - Zagreb and Zagreb - Osijek flights, launching on April 6, will operate every Sunday.

Meanwhile, a codeshare agreement signed between Croatia Airlines and United Airlines during the summer, came into effect last week. United has placed its flight numbers on eight of Croatia Airlines’ services within Europe. They include flights from Zagreb to Amsterdam, Brussels, Zurich, Frankfurt, Munich, Paris and London Heathrow as well as the Split - Munich service.

Comments

  1. Nice news, just pity its once weekly, it would be really cool if it were twice daily with a smaller aircraft.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nikola09:11

    Where is the logic in domestic flights operated once a week?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Purger09:42

      There is no logic. It is just that Government has excuse that there are flights to RJK and OSI, and that no one can say those cities are isolated. But in reality they did nothing.

      And for Trade air they don’t need logic. Because costs of flights are paid by Government, so they can not loose.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous10:13

    Air Serbia ATR 16th December, PRG-BEG

    In the middle of safety demonstration captain or first officer said on microphone:

    «Ajd ne seri više, majke ti...» (Stop bullshit, for God's sake)

    Purser immediately stops presentation. 15 minutes after launch she continued demonstration.

    Very strange and very unprofessional. Company which pretend to be leader in region can not tolerate this rude and dilettante behavior from cockpit.

    P.S.
    I am Serb (I was proud with Air Serbia project), manager of one private company from Belgrade, and I flied with my assistant. We were stunned. I fly all the time and never had experience not even near to that.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:15

      Part of demonstration after launch was to show us exits. That can not be normal not to show that before launch.

      Delete
    2. Wow, someone who is surprised about unprofessional stuff that happens in the Balkans. Brother this is part of life.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:58

      Get on the phone to Kondic, I'm sure they don't tolerate such things - but hard to believe really

      Delete
    4. Anonymous16:15

      I was also in that flight. It was like that. Strange, not nice to hear, but I was not that stunned. It makes me hilarious laugh.

      V.S. (male)

      (those who work in Air Serbia can check my initials in passenger list)

      Delete
    5. Anonymous16:27

      Well, perhaps the microphone was simply turned-on accidentally. Not a big deal.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous19:30

      Even in that case this is big mistake. But microphone was not on second before, not after "announcement". It was not part of talking. Switch on, sentence, switch off.

      But because of that she stops security demonstration. Immediately! So, it was "order".

      Delete
  4. Anonymous13:21

    OT: How did Sarajevo - Moscow flight go today?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was just going to post about that. I saw that the SSJ took off from Sarajevo maybe 30 minutes ago, that is at around 13.00.
      The aircraft wearing this livery looks just stunning.
      http://img.planespotters.net/photo/417000/original/RA-89001-Moskovia-Airlines-Sukhoi-Superjet-100_PlanespottersNet_417525.jpg

      Delete
    2. OT
      I think that today was also the first of the additional few flights by flydubai to Belgrade. FZ 8741

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:48

      Any info about the load factor?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous16:18

      Apparently inbound flight to Sarajevo was full, but also because of Moskovia management and journalists.
      No info on outbound.
      Prices are high though? 370 EUR for a return trip..
      Not really competitive

      Delete
    5. No, the first one FZ8741 took place on Tuesday, 24th December. Inbound PAX 100, outbound PAX 160.

      Delete
    6. Thank you Gordana for the correction. I guess it makes sense that there were more outbound passengers than inbound ones.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous13:46

    Does anyone know how Qatar is doing in Zagreb? I see that they have been sending the A320 these days. Is it because they do not have the A321 to send or because the loads are not as good?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:09

      They have more and more passengers flying to Zagreb. In the beginning of this service (May and June 2012) there was around 30 pax from/to Zagreb, now on some flights more than 100 (even up to 140) are from Zagreb, rest from Budapest.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:32

      Yes, that is why they're are sending the A320. Seems like maths work in the opposite way @ZAG.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:02

      Hmm so that would mean that at times there are but a few passengers flying from Budapest? If that was true then wouldn't that push Qatar to fly directly to Zagreb?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous16:25

      Original plan was to fly with A319. But than they fly regularly with A320. Just in few weeks they start to send A321 on route from time to time. But at the end most of flights was with A321 all the year. So basically, when they fly A320 it is very good, but as I say most of the year they fly even with A321.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous16:29

      Well, yeah, but we know enough of Zagreb;s supremacy, don't make it look as if it ZAG fills the plane more than Budapest, that's just hilarious.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous18:50

      I highly doubt that they were initially supposed to send their A319s to Zagreb and Budapest. They have only 2 in their fleet and they are the long-range models that are used to long and thin routes. I am sure that they were intending on using the A320.

      Now, if they were supposed to fly directly into Zagreb then the A319 would make sense. However, I thought that the plans was always to link it to Budapest, at least until the route matures.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous21:10

      QR in ZAG us doing fine and route is developing in positive direction. Due to very high demand from spring till November ZAG actually had higher loads than BUD. From December naturally BUD takes more passengers, but 2013 was indeed very good year for QR route to ZAG.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous03:29

      Most of passengers in Qatar are Japanese tourists in groups of 30-80. Almost every day.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous04:30

      Well, for sure they're not Croats. When they see Zag airport terminal they might be thinking they're in the middle-ages. They'll never come back.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous06:52

      Yes. One usually visits a country to see the airport....and you know, Croats also have a habit to take a flight. Of course, only if they are attracted to see some airport somewhere, not the country. Your opinion is not really based on any normal logic..or do you simply hate somebody and that makes you look as an idiot?

      Delete
    11. Anonymous08:43

      I think you are both idiots. Him for writing something as stupid as that and you for taking the bite. It was a provocation which you should have ignored.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous15:05

    Congratulations to both Croatia airlines and Trade air. It is very nice to see that all Croatian cities are well connected, not just with all European cities but also with other cities within Croatia. Don't forget that Croatia is small country with 7 international airports (ZAG,PUY,RJK,ZAD,OSI,SPU,DBV) having more than 6 million passengers per year is not an easy job.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:59

      Congratulations? Well connected? Rijeka-Dubrovnik nce weekly on Embraer 120 in tourist season is SHAME and DISASTER. Every day ferry operates with capacity 1000 people + cars between RJK and DBV, there are 4 buses every day, numerous people who travel by plane DBV-ZAG and road on to RJK/PUY and v.v., plus lot of tourists who rent a car. This service would only be of some importance if it was to operate daily, or at least workdays, morning and evening/afternoon. I knew till now that Croatia Airlines and their (unexisting) "business strategy" sucks, but I thought well of Trade Air. Not any more.

      Delete
    2. No problem04:34

      "Croatia is small country with 7 international airports"

      Make it NINE. Lošinj and Varaždin, both general aviation only, are border crossing points too.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous16:09

    Why didn't Croatia land at SKP today? They diverted to OHD.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous18:04

    I like this this post so much, but I think that this Embraer should be an "air taxi" or something like this, so, it should connect Split and Osijek/Pula/Rijeka 2-3 times per week, Zagreb and Brač/Mostar 2 times per week, Dubrovnik and Osijek/Rijeka 2 times per week... It should be very attractive to tourists (one-day city breaks), bussiness travelers, students... Some routes could be prolonged in the winter season, too. But there is, obviously, lack of interest to take a money from the path. Trade Air anounced its flights to Osijek 2 months ago - look at their web-site; where is information? How to buy card? Frecuencies? ... It sounds just like taking the money from the government.

    ReplyDelete
  9. O.T.
    Some information about the Banja Luka - Belgrade flights:

    '"Ako govorimo o tačnosti i redovnosti, možemo generalno reći da se poštuje dinamika. Broj putnika se mijenja svakodnevno, ali se u prosjeku po letu u jednom pravcu kreće između 20 i 25 putnika", rekao je Janjić i ponovio da je potrebno još jače marketinški djelovati na putnike kako bi ova linija bila korištena za putovanja na dalje destinacije.'

    So that's roughly 35% loadfactor. Ok, it's not that bad I guess. The route is still new and I am sure with time they will manage to steal some of the O&D, especially if they keep on offering €60 tickets.


    Also, here is an article about Moskovia's flight to Sarajevo today. The flight was introduced so as to bring tourists to the ski resorts in Jahorina. On today's flight, 70% of the passengers were tourists. Return flight costs €370, not that cheap in my opinion.

    http://www.nezavisne.com/posao/privreda/Novi-let-na-relaciji-Sarajevo-Moskva-224224.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:06

      There target audience is in Russia so it's actually reasonable.

      Delete
    2. Well, I think their primary target are tourists heading to Jahorina and they are surely paying less for the flight.

      Delete
    3. Is it just seasonal flight or they plan to keep it during summer as well?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous23:26

      I dont think so. Flights after 31th january aren't loaded into the system. I think it is only planned for tourists heading to Jahorina, that is why it is 370 euros.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous19:37

    What I dont understand is Croatia Airlines in known for its quality and high trainned staff so if their international airports dont have their own staff that means it will be like aan Los Budget airline no service towards thema passengers what is this management rubbish I will never fly again with them . I am a Gold Card member .Sorry Croatia Airlines. Remember quality has a price not only the tickets alsof the staff.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:45

      I totaly agree the tickets arent cheap. It will be like buying a Ferrari and getting a pair of shoes .Their New motto will be do it yourself

      Delete
  11. Anonymous19:46

    I think Croatia Airlines should introduce new uniforms. The ones they have now are totally boring and nothing special.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous19:54

    For who ? Because the way they are doing they wont need uniforms soon they wont have staff Just management

    ReplyDelete
  13. Honestly I am in the tourism business here bringing in groups and individuals from North America. Croatia's 1st and 3rd most populated cities zagreb and Rijeka connected 1 x per week on a 30 seat aircraft!! This year alone living in Opatija I must have done that route 50 zimes, by car, bus, and never again by train!! Point is it could be a moneymaker with daily flights using a Bombardier Q-400!! Twice I flew in and out of Zagreb, taking airport bus to downtown Zagreb, then the 2,5 hours to Rijeka, a total of about 4 hours..believe me I would pay alot of money o just get on a plane on Krk, and transfer in Zagreb! Again I just don't get the logic!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:45

      Dear Peter,

      Back in 1994, Croatia Airlines started daily evening Zagreb-Rijeka-Pula, returning morning Pula-Rijeka-Zagreb, on ATR42, seatnig 48.
      First few months, as any new service, there were some 5-6 passengers to/from both RJK and PUY, but after some time plane was FULL, day by day, with local and foreign people, tourist and businessmen, P2P and transit passengers.
      Then, the service was cancelled, Pula added to Zadar, and Rijeka got minibus form Rijeka city to zagreb Airport. Typical and "Brilliant" move of croatia Airlines, similar to withdrawing from Istanbul, Moscow, Madrid, Prague, Stockholm, and leaving passengers and bucks to Lufthansa.

      Delete
    2. Great you say that was 1994..now its going to be 2014 in 3 days !!! Lets see maybe 20 th aniversary reinstaling service!! Seriously think the LCC"s want to see everyone colapse (MALEV) started now is Adria, LOT, Croatian next!! But you know what maybe WIZZ or RYAN will set up Zagreb-Rijeka flights..who cares just spare me that 4 hour train ride to do 150 kms!!! Doesn't it make total sense that in the entire industry the only way to fly Zagreb-Budaoest daily is with QATAR !! I rest my case !!!

      Delete
  14. Anonymous21:22

    I think that there should be more flights between Istria and Split/Dubrovnik in summer. At least 3-4 weekly flights per direction, because boats and buses are packed. This announcement with a weekly EMB flight is a joke....

    ReplyDelete
  15. Purger03:38

    The only logic option should be

    12345--
    OSI-RJK-SPU-RJK-OSI-DBV-OSI-RJK-SPU-RJK-OSI

    -----6- morning
    OSI-RJK-SPU-RJK-OSI

    ------7 evening
    OSI-RJK-SPU-RJK-OSI

    OSI-RJK 12x nonstop
    OSI-SPU 12x 1stop
    OSI-DBV 5x nonstop
    RJK-SPU 12x nonstop
    RJK-OSI 12x nonstop
    RJK-DBV 5x 1stop
    SPU-RJK 12x nonsto
    SPU-OSI 12x 1stop

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:55

      It could be, with one single E120 :

      12345-- morning
      OSI-ZAG-RJK-SPU-DBV-OSI

      12345-- afternoon/evening
      OSI-DBV-SPU-RJK-ZAG-OSI

      I agree with yours -----6- and ------7.

      In this way, there is link for transit passengers form Osijek in Zagreb, Transits, too, RJK-ZAG v.v., opposite of (and in addition to) minibus times. Demand in season (tourists) is higher for Rjk-Dbv then for Spu, and definitely no need for 12 Rjk-Osi and vv

      But whether "yours" or "mine" suggestion, or something third, ANYTHING makes more sense then to lease a plane for 3 weekly ZAG-OSI and one weekly RJK-SPU-DBV.

      Best regards!

      Delete
  16. The best all is the flight from Rijeka to Split and particularly the one from Split to Dubrovnik. Maybe once a week is not enough but I do hope Croatia Airline will add additional flights.

    ReplyDelete

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