Croatian start-ups modify planned operations

Sea Air and Air Croatia delay launch and adjust plans

Croatian-based start-up airlines Sea Air and Air Croatia have modified their plans including their launch date, fleet and destination network. Sea Air, which was to inaugurate services from Osijek on May 18 with a Fokker 100 jet, will now do so on June 29 with a Boeing 737-500 aircraft. The launch was delayed after the airline encountered problems with processing credit card payments. However, the start-up says it has now overcome all issues and has put 10.000 tickets on sale. It will operate daily flights from Osijek to both Frankfurt and Munich. Initially, the airline planned to run services to Vienna as well but has since swapped the route in favour of Stuttgart instead, which will run three times per week.

Osijek Airport, which handled almost 30.000 passengers last year, anticipates to welcome some 100.000 travellers in 2015 as a result of the new services. “Sea Air will operate every day of the week from Osijek to Munich, Frankfurt and Stuttgart, with Boeing B737-500 aircraft, which have the capacity to seat 132 passengers”, Osijek Airport said in a statement earlier this week. The airline plans to appeal to travellers not only from Croatia but also from neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Hungary. “Sea Air will operate as a low cost airline, however, this will not reflect on our service. Our passengers are our guests and will be treated to an experience where safety and efficiency is our priority”, the company said. According to the airline, passengers will be served cold meals and beverages on all flights at no additional cost and will have the opportunity to check-in twenty kilograms of luggage free of charge.

DestinationLaunch dateDetails
MunichJUN 29Click here
FrankfurtJUN 29Click here
StuttgartJUN 29Click here

On the other hand, Air Croatia, which suspended operations this April just weeks into its launch, has scheduled its comeback for June 18. The start-up hopes to resume services between Zagreb and Budapest, Rome, Milan and Prague. The company suspended operations after the firm responsible for processing its credit card transactions had failed to forward funds to the airline, leading to Air Croatia’s inability to pay for the wet-lease of Denim Air’s ATR 42, which it used to maintain flights. It is unclear which aircraft Air Croatia plans to utilise this time around if it resumes flights in two weeks time. The aircraft it previously used has been leased out and is no longer available. Both Air Croatia and Sea Air will use foreign Air Operators Certificates (AOC).

Comments

  1. I had such sincere hope for Air Croatia....

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    1. Anonymous10:29

      Why? Based on what?

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    2. Why did I hope? Because it was such a beautiful underdog story that warmed my heart.

      Air Croatia was also one of the very few start up airlines from ex-yu that matched demand to capacity. They flew to all of their destinations three times per week with a 50 seat turboprop. This is 150 seats per week. If they continued operations for a few months, I could imagine that they would capture a good share of the market and their load factor would be good.

      On the contrary, I think Sea Air is a waste of time and money. Way too much capacity at a high cost. Those B735s are thirsty and they don't hold a lot of seats.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous07:27

      Thanks for the reply Aleksandar.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous10:35

    "The airline plans to appeal to travellers not only from Croatia but also from neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Hungary"

    Good luck with that lol

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  3. Anonymous10:52

    I think Air Croatia will die before the launch and we won't here any more news about. I will give Sea Air a few weeks. It might work at the beginning but daily flights on the B735... Not sure they will be able to fill it.

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    1. Anonymous10:57

      Sea Air might work out. I see they are getting a lot of support from Osijek Airport so I assume they are a bit more serious than Air Croatia.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous10:54

    I hope the Sea Air project works out because it would be great for Osijek Airport and its development.

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  5. Anonymous10:56

    Does anyone know who they will lease the B737-500 from?

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  6. Anonymous11:00

    I'm really hoping that some day someone serious like Germanwings bases a plane in a secondary Croatian city and develops a netowrk on a yearlong basis, unlike Ryanair with its seasonal base in Zadar.

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  7. Anonymous12:20

    OT: Air Serbia 737 to Zagreb - a capacity increase or the newly-leased ATR is still not flying or not enough to cover the needed routes?

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    1. Anonymous12:45

      For the nth time, there is still a clear lack of Atrs for regional operations especially since ALO & ALN are rather unreliable due to their age.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:00

      Zato ce i doci jos koji ATR do kraja godine .
      INN-NS

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    3. Anonymous14:34

      Zar nije bilo riječi da će AS povećati kapacitete za Zagreb?
      Očito je im je isplativa ruta za Zagreb. Jel ima kakvih informacija o povećanju frekvencije za liniju Zagreb-Beograd? Te neka codeshare sa OU ili etihadom?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:50

      Codeshare je ponudjen OU pre nego sto je uspostavljena linija za Zagreb. Vodjeni su razgovori sa Kuckom i on ih je glatko odbio. Sto se tice codeshare-a sa Etihadom, podnet je zahtev i on je odbijen od strane Hrvatske strane.

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    5. Anonymous16:46

      No new Atrs will join the fleet this year, the latest winter schedule has 5 active Atrs.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous17:18

      The route to Zagreb has proved to be successful one, but ATR plane has quite appropriate capacity to operate it. At present ASL has abandoned the idea of using larger planes on the route.

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    7. Anonymous17:39

      Doce jos koji ATR ali ne zna se tacno u kom mesecu.
      INN-NS

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    8. Anonymous18:14

      Da, da nas gastos zna bolje od gospodina Gyule iz Abu Dabija.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous18:37

      Why is it not possible to have all six ATRs in air at the same time?

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    10. Anonymous18:45

      This evening all six ATRs will be airborne at the same time for the first time. The flights are to TIV, BUD, VIE, PRG, TGD and LJU.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous14:06

    Both will fail

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    1. Anonymous19:54

      Mr. Fail strikes again....

      Delete
  9. Anonymous16:19

    Can somebody answer this question from yesterday. I know that last day to buy ticket is like Sept 22, but it would be sweet to have direct flights. We have flights to Banja Luka, Varna and yet no flight to either Madrid or Barcelona.
    "I am looking at BEG "sezonski red letenja" and there are 2 weekly flights to Barcelona which the chart say is all year round with Vueling. Maybe I am just reading the chart wrong, so would appreciate if somebody looks at it. Also Iberia is code sharing so that is why I am thinking it could possibly go daily."

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    1. Anonymous16:35

      You are reading that chart wrong. It is clear that the last flight is on 29.09.2015. In fact Vueling is operating fewer flights to BEG this year than last. I think it was reported on this site as well.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous18:43

      You can do it bnx, seasonal var etc with profit, bcn, mad no way. you thinking is wrong.

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    3. Vaske19:16

      "You can do it bnx, seasonal var etc with profit"
      ok........
      Claiming that BNX and Varna are profitable and saying Spain is not. How can you know if flights to Spain will be profitable or not?
      Just to add, Spanair (now bankrupt) was doing just fine (LF wise, no idea financially wise) when it was operating flights from Barcelona to BEG during winter months. ASL and Iberia (operated by Vueling) could do even better due to numerous connections both ways.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous23:39

      They can fill ATR 72 for short distance with profit but not an A319 daily with profit from BCN. Not enough travelers from bcn unlike Rome or Bucurest, They have all needed airlines on El Prat. Thera are charters for Girona every summer season. BCN is most visited city from Belgrade but with buses

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    5. Vaske23:39

      "but not an A319 daily with profit from BCN"
      Who said anything about daily?
      Anyhow, you have to take into account that ASL would rely on transfer pax as well. I never said that it would only be filled with Serbian pax. Both Beirut and Tel Aviv are an example of this. If Wizz can have flights from Skopje to Barcelona I am sure BEG can too from either of the carriers.

      "BCN is most visited city from Belgrade but with buses"
      If some of those pax where offered decent plane prices I am sure some would switch. I for sure would not like to travel that distance with a bus.

      "they can fill ATR 72 for short distance with profit"
      Even if its a short flight, it does not necessarily mean its profitable plus LF to BNX is still not good.

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    6. Anonymous23:40

      BNX is around 50% which is not that bad. It went up from 41% this winter season.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous23:40

      ATR 72 is best airplain for Air Serbia not Q400 becouse you can make it earning money with 35 to 40% LF.

      People travel to bcn for holidays in spring and "skolske ekskurzije". decent price are not offered on regular flights for that segment. you are completely wrong.

      they will not start 2-3 pw flights. beirut has good conection for paris. they are in making money daily not just connecting cities like Jat, in this moment they have no small jets, they have three types of aircraft which is bad for them. They need 2-4 more ATR to cover local networks later they can change boings for additional 2-3 a320 for evro mediteran connections Algeir, Maroco, Spain, Iran if they find enough transfer passangers at this destinations.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous16:22

    Ako ste bili skoro na Tesli Terminal 1, da li se počelo sa gradnjom novog graničnog prelaza na T1?

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    1. Anonymous18:42

      Bio sam pre dve nedelje, radi se nesto u T1. I sjedne kao i sdruge strane pasoske kontrole. Bili su i neki radovi u T2 pored gate A4a i A4b, to ce mozda da bude novi Air Serbia lounge.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous16:54

    OT: info x 3:

    Новине поново на аеродрому: Све новине су биле склоњене из продаjних обjеката на аеродрому привремено, из оперативних разлога, али су већ поново на рафовима, рекао jе Танјугу генерални директор компаниjе "Дуфри" Aдриjан Бредшо.

    Još dve turske kompanije dobile dozvolu za čarter letove: Turski avioprevoznik "BoraJet" biće angažovan za prevoz turskih turista u Beograd, radi obilaska znamenitosti Srbije i biće to, kako se ističe, prva strana aviokompanija koja će organizovano dovoziti strane turiste u Srbiju. Navodi se da je Direktorat civilnog vazduhoplovstva Srbije do sada ukupno izdao odobrenja za šest stranih aviokompanija za obavljenje čarter vazdušnog saobraćaja u Srbiji, u sezoni leto 2015. godine.

    Er Srbija: Prvi ugovor posle 20 godina: Ugovor je potpisan s predstavnicima Sindikata komercijalnih i ekonomsko-pravnih radnika Er Srbije (KEPR) i Jedinstvenog sindikata stjuardesa i stjuarda vazduhoplova. "Ovaj čin predstavlja prvo zaključenje kolektivnog ugovora u nacionalnoj aviokompaniji nakon što je, tacno pre dvadeset godina, poslednji put potpisan u junu 1995. godine", navodi se u saopštenju.

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  12. Anonymous19:31

    Why does every comments section turn into Belgrade or Air Serbia? Why don't you use the forum section instead for off topic discussions. I mean you are going into such off topics like whether newspapers are available at the shop at Belgrade Airport. Seriously....

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    1. Anonymous20:12

      X

      Delete
    2. Anonymous01:10

      It's a wild guess, but I'd say Serbian visitors to this blog are a majority and this is the subject that sparks their interest.

      I repeatedly asked readers from other parts of ex-YU to contribute more (especially Kosovo or Slovenia, we really seem to lack any insider info there), but unfortunately I don't think there's actually anybody professionally or strongly affiliated with aviation here - at least not contributing - except Serbs and Croats. There's one Macedonian guy checking in from time to time and Visit Kosovo who is mostly MIA.

      So, I appreciate any additional info in comments. Feel free to skip if you don't want to read something, I do that a lot (hint: Innsbruck).

      Delete
    3. Anonymous02:35

      I personally dont care if there is OT on any topic. If I am not interested I just skip and end of story.

      Delete
  13. I am a tour operator with number of bookings on hold for Air Croatia. Frankly, we are scared to book our clients because of this uncertain situation with the carrier.

    ReplyDelete

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