ČSA chooses Split over Zagreb

ČSA cancels planned Zagreb service, goes to Split instead

ČSA Czech Airlines has shelved plans to launch seasonal flights from Prague to Zagreb this summer and will instead fly to Split once per week. In April, Croatia’s busiest airport confirmed that flights between Prague and Zagreb would be inaugurated on May 30 and would run until September 28. In addition, the Czech carrier was granted slots at Zagreb Airport with the following schedule. However, ČSA has decided to shift its operations to Split and presumably profit from tourists holidaying in the seaside city. While no official reason has been given for the move, airlines operating to Zagreb have recently expressed their dissatisfaction with the hike in fees and services at Croatia’s busiest airport. The move has led easyJet to announce plans it will be suspending flights to Zagreb this winter.

ČSA’s flights to Split will operate once per week with a Friday evening arrival in the seaside city and a Sunday morning departure back to Prague. On Saturdays, the aircraft will be used on behalf of the start-up airline Air Croatia which will run services from Gothenburg to Zagreb, Split and Zadar from June 14. Air Croatia has previously confirmed it will be using the Czech carrier’s Airbus A319 for its flights this summer. ČSA’s Split service will be inaugurated on June 13 and will run until September 28. Further flight details can be found here.

The new service marks ČSA’s return to Split following a three year absence. On the other hand, the airline suspended flights to Zagreb in early 2012 when services were relegated to its regional partner Central Connect Airlines (CCA). However, shortly after, in the summer of 2012, CCA declared bankruptcy and ceased all operations. Since then there have been no direct flights between the Croatian and Czech capitals. In January, the then CEO of Zagreb Airport, Gonzalve de Cordoue, said he was in talks with several airlines to launch flights to the Croatian capital this year including ČSA, Air Serbia and Etihad Regional.

Comments

  1. Purger09:10

    COLABORATION WITH ETIHAD STIL DID NOT BRING AIR BERLIN BENEFITS

    After postponing financial results for 2013 till last second (315,5 million EUR loss in year when most of company had profit), Air Berlin published devastating results for 2014 Q1, with 182,8 million EUR loss. Revenue is down for 3,8%. Because of that Air Berlin gets urgent financial injection of 300 million EUR from Etihad which will be converting to bonds. On that way Etihad will rice their share in Air Berlin from 29,2% to 49,9%.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:58

      Purger, what is going on with Zagreb Airport, no new lines, no new carriers! What about OU, Adria is most likely to be privatized by the Chinese Southern!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:48

      How wil Air Berlin's horrific finances help Zagreb airport?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:17

      @Purger, Etihad owns 29% of Air Berlin. If you want to compare apples with apples than take Air Seychelles where Etihad has 40% stake and the airline has been reporting profit every year since the takeover. It previously had simmilar losses to JAT.

      Delete
    4. Purger16:41

      Where did you read that I compare something? I did not! I just mentioned that 2 years collaboration with Etihad did not bring planed benefits to Air Berlin. In that light Hogan statements that Air Berlin will be profitable company in notime was not coming to reality.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous18:50

      Gospodine Purger jel ste i vi isto culi ko i ja u slucaju da OU propadne da se otvara Lufthansa Croatia ko sto je nekad bila Lufthansa Italia.
      Tako sam cuo u Innsbrucku.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous19:02

      Hi everyone, I'm just curious how can Lufthansa let OU fall apart, wouldn't it be better for them to save it or buy it, I mean, Croatia had 6,3 million passengers in 2013, this year will be even better thanks to Split and Dubrovnik mostly!

      Delete
    7. I think that even within the Croatian aviation market OU is not such an important player, they carried 1.9 million passengers out of a total of 6.3 million. If they go belly up, Lufthansa can just step in via Germanwings and save what's worth saving.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous07:44

      OU carries 30 % of all passengers, and Croatia (because of tourism among other things) still has the biggest potential and more passengers of all other Ex-Yu countries, so I'd say it's quite an important market in the region, hope good things will happen, let's wait and see!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:24

    OT:
    LJU airport paid 35 mio € in dividends this year.
    Adria is expecting another CRJ900 to arrive soon, as was already mentioned here on Exyuaviation. It will be registered S5-AAV and probably nicknamed Vesna. Apparently S5-AAF (CRJ200 with "Mini" logo) is leaving the fleet next.
    EU ruling on Adria may come already at the end of this month.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I remember roughly 10 years ago the Cypriots increased the charges at both Larnaca and Paphos airport with the excuse that they need to finance the construction of the new terminal building. Once the terminal was built the charges remained. In 2012 when the crisis started to hit the island, the airport management was forced to be creative and to introduce a new price list.
    What I am getting at is that if these newly introduced charges are really hurting the airport that much then I suppose they will be suspended, especially if the airport does not secure the planned growth for this year. Then again, the loss of this one weekly flight from Prague won't hurt the airport that much, easyJet's exit most likely will- especially as OU has no plans to expand.

    By the way, are they talking to any other airline? The three are all legacy carriers, what about some lowcost ones? As far as Air Serbia goes, I think it's the most likely candidate when they get some more Atrs.

    For all those interested, YU-ALT went to the Netherlands yesterday around noon to get the new livery while YU-ALP entered service in the afternoon.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I would also like to add that I noticed that Montenegro Airlines' Embraers are featuring some commercials right next to the front doors. They are advertising some Gardens or something like that. Anyone have more information on that?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:35

      Are you referring to Dukley Gardens? http://dukley.com/en/

      Delete
    3. Yeah, that's the one!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:08

      I think its one of thos investments a la Porto Montenegro and Lustice.

      Delete
    5. It's an apartment complex in Budva on Zavala peninsula or whatever it is. Very nice place and expensive too.

      Delete
    6. I wonder how much money they are getting from those commercials. They actually look quite nice on their aircraft.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous17:19

      Are the commercials inside or outside of the aircraft because i've never seen them before.

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    8. They are on the outside, right next to the front doors. I think they were added two days ago. I saw two Embraer birds in Belgrade featuring the commercials.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous20:04

      Some pics would be amazing :)

      Delete
    10. Anonymous20:53

      I will try to find some and post them on here. :)

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:41

    Bad news for Zagreb, great news for Split! The French concessionaires at Zagreb Airport are obviously not doing their job properly!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous09:44

    Well, as I can see, Split will have a nice season!
    I expect around 1.7mil passengers, with peaks in July/August, each around 350k

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:56

      Agreed! Dubrovnik will have a great season as well, but Split will do much better! Unfortunately, Zagreb is not doing well, at least for now!

      Delete
  6. Anonymous10:18

    SPU will ocertake PRN this year

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous10:43

    Slight off-topic:

    Last night there were around 30 passengers on JU's flight to Varna.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:21

      I flew to ARN yesterday morning and we were maybe 10 people. lol

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:57

      I am on waiting list on 20may auh-beg. Sooo

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:05

      I suppose EY, not JU.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:00

      You are wrong. I am on waiting list for ju801 on 20may, not on ey.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:09

      That's good to hear but unfortunately that day is an exception. Air Serbia's loads to AUH are still not doing that well.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous13:34

      Actually JU801 is doing much better than JU800. From what i hear, it has quite a lot of transfer passengers from australia and far east. Both EY and JU have oscillations on flights to and from AUH, there are days when there are 30,40 passengers and there are days when there are 100,110.

      Cheers

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:53

      JU801 never has more than 85 passengers.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous14:05

      Where did you get that info from? My source that works those flights tells me that it happens that there is 100ish people on board from time to time. Not every flight but it is not never.

      Cheers

      Delete
    9. Anonymous14:12

      JU 801 had more than 90 passengers maybe once, twice. Other flights have between 50 and 85 passengers. Etihad's loads are much better. These days they had ok loads.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous14:47

      JU flight to auh last Friday was full. Depends on the days..

      Delete
  8. Anonymous11:19

    OT: Belgrade keeps 10 wizzair lines.

    www.b92.net/biz/vesti/srbija.php?yyyy=2014&mm=05&dd=15&nav_id=848163

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    1. Aэrologic13:39

      Here's a short trip report of a recent trip to Larnaca:

      - On departure Belgrade was much emptier than in April. A thing that struck me is that the Air Serbia flight to Paris, which was supposed to leave earlier (and taxied in front of the WizzAir to London), wasn't given priority for take-off. The WizzAir bird lined up for take-off first, with AirSerbia to follow 5 minutes later. The flight was pleasant, FA's very nice and passengers well-mannered, what wasn't the case the last time when a huge Romanian group came from Timisoara to board the flight from BEG. The LF was much higher then. Taking-off runway 12, the flight to Larnaca needs almost no turns, the runway being almost in the perfect heading as the destination. Landing in Larnaca uneventful, the airport was quite empty, there was one B757-300 from Monarch pushing back (haven't seen that one in a while!). The arrival zone in Larnaca (also empty) is dark and dull, which is in sharp contrast with the departures area which is bright, airy and spacious, giving the impression that two different architects/companies designed them.

      NB: The airport was built by a French consortium giving it the right of concession. Interestingly, the Nice-Cote d'Azur (NCE) airport is one of the shareholders, yet it lacks all the charm of the former.

      - On the way back yesterday the plane suffered a multiple bird-strike on landing; an albatros impacted the left-hand engine. The flight was delayed by two hours and it wasn't sure we're gonna depart that night. They were welding something around the nose-cone, straight on the apron. There were a dozen technicians involved. Unlike Belgrade airport, Larnaca has a smoking room from which the apron can be observed. Finally we boarded two hours after scheduled time but still waited in the plane for 30 minutes before actual push-back. The start of the engines was very gentle, same as the take-off that took place in the direction opposite of Larnaca-city. Instead of flying North over Nicosia (where a 'nice' Turkish electronic flag can be observed, compliments of the North) we flew along the coast at low altitude, over Paphos (Cyprus secondary airport) that was to be used as an alternative airport in the case of anomalies with the engines. Later-on the course was set to Belgrade. The atmosphere on the flight was somewhere between calm and joyful, with a group of Serbian tourist staging a party with alcohol, roaming around the cabin in snorkelling masks... The FA's were very much in touch with the passengers, very nice just like the last time. Even while not being a fan of WizzAir corporate identity, i have to say that the uniforms are pretty stylish and of good quality. We flew over Izmir which looked huge at night. The moon was full, illuminating the clouds. Descent into Belgrade turbulent, we couldn't see anything but thick clouds and rain until the plane reached over Ada Ciganlija. The wind intensified and an impressive struggle to keep the plane's balance ensued. Many people held a short-brath for landing which was surprisingly smooth (given the weather and crosswinds) but nevertheless the a/c banked violently to the right on touch down; no brakes, reversals only. Surprisingly we parked at the gate A1. The crew was Serbian. On arrival the passport control was fast and efficient, BEG looks clean and decent. LF about 70% both ways or 130 pax.

      It comes as a good news that the line will be kept throughout the winter, being the most interesting addition in WizzAir's network in years as a non-typical LCC (guest-workers) destination.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:48

      Thank you. Loads are quite fine. Wizz won't leave us completely.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous23:39

      Yesterday I flew on JU310 to Paris onboard A320 Vlade Divac...flight was almost complitely full so I would say that LF was about 95%. I was connecting onwards to JFK flight and there were at least 20 people flying just to NYC (EWR+JFK) plus all those to Chicago, Toronto, Seattle etc. Flight JU31o was very nice with exelent service and very professional stuff.
      I hope JU will be able to establish non-stop flights to the USA at least twice weekly to both JFK and ORD...many people would use it both from Serbia and the region.

      Delete
  9. Nikola14:59

    OT: JU returns to PUY from 19.06
    http://www.aviokarta.net/vesti/2459-air-serbia-otvara-sezonsku-liniju-beograd--pula/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:03

      "Let ka Puli je uspostavljen na inicijativu predstavnika Privrednih komora Istre i Srbije, a zahvaljujući ovom dogovoru u Pulu će preko Beograda dolaziti turisti ne samo iz Srbije već i iz Rusije, skandinavskih zemalja, Austrije i Nemačke."

      And some guy said that JU numbers are rigged and that he does not believe JU has transfer pax.


      Still, these times bring big responsibility, it is important that JU does not have delays, and that people do not miss their connecting flights.

      Delete
    2. Aэrologic15:12

      With these lines from the Croatian coast, Zagreb airport is about to loose even a larger portion of transit passengers, even without Air Serbia flying to it directly.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous15:01

    Hm, looks like Air Serbia loaded flights to Pula in Amadeus (3 weekly) in July and August 2014, return ticket 110€.
    http://www.kayak.com/flights/BEG-PUY/2014-07-07-flexible/2014-07-14-flexible

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:10

      excellent connections from Vienna as much as I can see...

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:18

      And Zurich

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:43

      Sorry, I made a mistake. It is almost the same time to come to Pula by bus or by plane via BEG. So I do not understand why they mentioned Austria. The aviokarta article fooled me.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous15:15

    Is it really true that Air Serbia is paying the highest taxes at Croatian airports?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:30

      It is true. It was the only way they would get permission to fly to Croatian airports, especially the coast ones and behind that is OU itself. Aldough I don't thing it will last for long considering that Dubrovnik is looking for and airlines to replace OU and airlines wich will gave year long services to the city.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous20:35

      @Anonymous May 15, 2014 at 5:30 PM
      Hey, it's Purger! ("I thing") :)

      Delete
    3. Purger20:44

      You think wrong!

      Delete
    4. Purger makes a mistake once, and now every anonymous who makes the same mistake is now Purger! :)

      ps. I thing that this is not fair.

      Delete
    5. Purger02:06

      thanks man! :-)

      Delete
  12. Anonymous15:43

    A JU flight to Dubrovnik took off today, was it their first one of the season?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nikola17:57

      yes. also, APB is stored at MUC prior delivery

      Delete
    2. Anonymous18:15

      Do you happen to know when APB will be delivered to BEG?

      Delete
  13. Anonymous18:46

    veoma vazan OT: danas sam doputovao iz soluna a319com.. na letu je bilo nesto manje od 70 putnika (u avionu sa 122 sedista). u polasku u ponedeljak nas je bilo 48. i na jednom i na drugom letu je bilo 2-3 bebe. danas je bilo sigurno 20ak tranzitnih putnika, britanci, nemci i 8 slovenaca. sedim u avionu i razmisljam kako bi atr72 u stvari mnogo bolje obavio let do soluna u smislu popunjenosti kabine. u odlasku bi bila 65%, a na danasnjem letu 100%. nije mi jasno ko je odlucio da za solun leti a319? a ponajvise se pitam kome je pala na pamet ideja da od 29.maja a319 leti 2x dnevno za solun? i to u pola1 nocu, a iz soluna u pola 5 ujutro? zatim 2x za atinu, rim, pariz itd itd, a za hamburg, barselonu i bolonju nijedan jedini.. zatim sam razmisljao o tome koliko je er serbija izgubila na ovim letovima novca. citam u njihovoj reviji kako imaju 227 zaposlenih samo kao kabinsko osoblje, zatim predstavnici u svim gradovima prema kojima leti, nove uniforme, plate, ketering, prevoz osoblja itd itd. kartu sam platio 10.973 din sa svim taxama, gde je na taxe otislo 9.559,00 din.pitam se da li ce er serbija ovakvom politikom uspeti da stane na noge u narednih nekoliko godina.. znam da su letovi za pariz, london, moskvu i cirih krcati, ali ne znam da li ti gradovi mogu da pomognu realizaciju letova ostatka mreze.. i jos nesto, 4 stjuardese i dva pilota koji su sleteli u solun su napustili avion, a uslo je novo osoblje. jel oni imaju placen smestaj u solunu i zbog cega je to praxa ako imaju? molim nekog strucnjaka (kojih je ovde jako mnogo) da mi ukratko eto objasni. hvala unapred. ps: oba leta su kasnila 35/45min iz soluna, stjuardesa nam se izvinila zbog toga (ona plava zgodna) rekavsi da je to zbog kanjenja na prethodnom letu. danasnji a319 koji je sleteo iz soluna je postavljen na C1 let za stokholm, tako sam video prilikom izlaska..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:01

      Letove za Solun lete avioni registrovani u UAE i na njima radi samo osoblje sa GCAA dozvolom. Tu spadaju prve 4 grupe JU zaposlenih koje su isle na obuku u Abu Dabi i po koji stjurt/stjuardesa zaposleni u Etihadu koji povremeno rade za JU. Piloti su iskljucivo Etihadovi koji lete avione registrovane u UAE - trenutno ih ima 2, a prica se da ce biti samo jedan, tj. da ce se jedan preregistrovati uskoro. Da posade tamo spavaju jer ukoliko ne bi spavale prekoracile bi dozvoljeno radno vreme, jer posada koja se vratila sa vama iz Soluna nastavlja dalje do Kopenhagena i nazad npr.

      Toliko mogu da odgovorim, a ovo za profitabilnost, stajanje na noge i to...nemam pojma :)

      Delete
    2. Anonymous19:19

      u pravu ste, jesu bili etihadovi avioni jer je pored engleskog svaka oznaka bila i na arapskom. na putu za solun smo leteli sa arapskim pilotima, a nazad sa englezima (zaposlenim u etihadu). nije mi jasno za prekoracenje vremena, tj. kako je moguce da se ne posalju drugi piloti koji odmaraju u bg-u i kabinsko osblje, kad ih je vec 227. avion je odleteo za stokholm, ne za kopenhagen. mada, ko zna, mozda sve te troskove u stvari snosi etihad. ko ce ga znati kad niko nije video ugovor :D sve u svemu, odlicno je sve i mnogo mi se svidja er serbija, osim kasnjenja koja su toliko ucestala da to moze biti veliki problem sto se tice putnika.. valjda ce sve biti u redu. radujem se uvodjenju linije za pulu. to mi je bilo najvece iznenadjenje prilikom ukidanja iste. ohrid nekako mogu i da podnesem, ali pulu nikako..

      Delete
    3. Ових дана је попуњеност ка Солуну релативно слаба што није био случај до пре недељу дана. Обично је било преко 80 путника по лету што је више него ок за тако кратак лет. Атина има много бољу попуњеност, чак и онај лет што полази после поноћи. Пре неколико дана када је послат А320 за Атину имао је 140 путника у повратку.
      Ти летови што крећу у ситне сате су логични јер се враћају ујутру нешто пре шест тако да путници могу комотно да преседају даље ка европским градовима.
      Тренутна стратегија Ер Сербије је да консолидује своју позицију на балканском полуострву као и на западном Блиском истоку што смо видели када су почели да лете седам пута недељно за Тел Авив, сваким даном за Ларнаку а за коју недељу ће летети и за Бејрут.


      Што се тиче кашњења, ипак ми се чини да је то мање више под контролом. Наравно деси се да некада касни лет али често и слотови знају да створе хаос. На пример, летови за Амстердам или Франкфурт касне и по 45 минута само зато што им је додељен нови слот. То ствара велике проблеме јер оба лета имају доста трансферних путника у повратку што значи да други летови, који би иначе кренули на време, морају да их чекају. Наравно како Ер Сербија уводи додатне учесталости широм своје мреже то ће бити решено тако што ће ти путници једноставно бити пребачени на следећи лет. За сада морамо да баратамо са овим што имамо. :)

      Delete
  14. Anonymous21:31

    offtopic : are there any issues or threats to operations in BEG following the catastrophical floods in the region?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous21:45

      NO =D

      Delete
    2. Anonymous21:48

      NO =D

      Delete
    3. Anonymous03:04

      Nothing too serious, there was a truck collecting water the whole day yesterday and the day before that which prevented the parking positions (which are not tilted) from flooding.
      The only positions that are slightly tiled are A1-A7, that is the gates that were initially constructed.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous07:45

    I see that JU is sending A320 to TIV for two days in a row and also couple of days ago. Does anybody know the loads on these flights?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous08:18

      well, obviously good, othervise they wouldn't send it

      Delete
    2. I don't recall the loads for the second day but on the first day there were 110 passengers and then 140 on the way back.

      Delete

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