Thursday, June 25, 2015
The construction of Zagreb Airport’s new passenger terminal has intensified with work currently taking place both landside and airside. The terminal will have the capacity to handle 5.5 million passengers per year, compared to the current 2.2 million, once the first phase of the project is completed. The airport will later be expanded in subsequent phases to reach an annual capacity of eight million passengers, though no firm timeframe has been set for future development. The project involves a total investment of 331 million euros, 243 million of which will be spent on the construction of the new terminal and 88 million for the maintenance of airport infrastructure over the entire period of the thirty-year concession, awarded to the French-led Zagreb Airport International Company (ZAIC). The terminal's opening is scheduled to take place in 2017.
The NPT is great, but let's get back to the traffic business...
ReplyDeleteNot to be pessimistic, but I has expected much more in terms of the pax numbers in 2015. 8,5% growth is too little given the number of new routes which rose total # of flights by 6-8%. Seems that OU had further reduced several frequencies or is using smaller planes out of Zagreb base.
LOT is withdrawing, Air Croatia failed. 2,6 mil pax is now much more realistic. At the beginning of the year and in accordance to the new route announcements, I had expected at least 2,7 mil but had hoped for 2,8 to 2,85...
April was big setback, for some reason only 3% growth in april, normally april always had good results, and OU is cutting Zagreb a bit to cover the coastline, reason why OU is desperate for four aircraft to cover Zagreb.
DeleteOU's share at Zagreb has fallen down to 50% in first half of 2015, if it continues it might fall bellow 50%, 47% predicted.
Foreign carriers are predicted to handle 1.25 million at Zagreb this year. with out predicted to handle 1.4 million for entire year, so total will be around 2.65 million. 2017 however should see massive growth due to expansion of foreign carriers SAS, Alitalia, Czech Airlines, return of LOT, possible Finnair arrival (talks are being held for past few months with them, Air Blatic and SAS), possible return of EasyJet and Korean Air going year round.
Although from looks of it June looks really promising, 280 000 is possible, first two weeks were really busy with 15% growth, July also looks very promising numbers projected are around 305-310 000, and ?august 315-320 000, even September might hit 300k although projection is 280-285k. arrival of Brussels Air makes things bit uncertain.
2015 might be still hitting 2.8 million we'll see how summer months perform, but so far airport is doing rather well, on 25th Zagreb had 80 landings, on 24th 72, on 23rd 87 and very much is expected same numbers for july and august,.
Numbers should be good no matter what, 2.65 million bare minimum, 2.8 million if all goes well. 2016 and 2017 will also see impressive growths, finally OU will be out of EU imposed restrictions and if airline does get privatized it'll be even better.
Frankly, your post reads more like a wishlist than an analysis. For example, I definitely don't think it's realistic to expect Korean Air to go year round in the next 2-3 years, especially if CSA comes back (they could funnel passengers through PRG). Furthermore, the arrival of new airlines doesn't mean a pure increase in pax numbers - for instance, if SAS comes, 70-80% of the traffic will be people who previously flew via MUC and FRA, so not incremental passengers per se.
Delete@AnonymousJune 27, 2015 at 12:09 AM
DeleteI said possible return of EasyJet and Korean Air going year round !!!
Also, new airlines new markets, opens more opportunities for others to travel, expand business opportunities. Tourism too.