Chongqing - Zadar flights to launch in March

China approves Chongqing - Zadar service

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has approved the launch of charter flights between Chongqing, in the country’s Southwest, and Zadar. The CEO of Zadar Airport, Irena Ćosić, will form part of a Croatian delegation which will visit Beijing from February 5 to 9 where details of the new service will be finalised and an operating carrier selected. “This is an important project which should be concluded with these talks and we expect to sign an agreement. This is also important for our airport as it will open the doors to a major new market”, Ms. Ćosić says. The new service has been initiated by the Chinese Southeast Europe Business Association (CSEBA).

Flights from Chongqing to Zadar are planned to operate once every ten days. Chinese tourists will visit Zagreb and Dubrovnik, as well as Split, Plitvice, Rovinj and Kumrovec during their ten day stay in the country. According to Ms. Ćosić, Zadar’s position on the Adriatic coast will give Chinese tourists an opportunity to make a quick visit to Italy as well. Charters between China and Croatia would mark the first air link between the two countries. CSEBA hopes to eventually introduce scheduled yearlong services. Zadar Airport’s CEO says she expects for flights between China and Croatia to commence by early March.

Recently, Croatia Airlines said it would cooperate with Chinese carriers and work together to bring Chinese tourists to the country. The airline’s CEO, Krešimir Kučko, presented the flag carrier to a Chinese business delegation from Chongqing, as well as the DC Travel agency, which will assist in setting up the charter service. Mr. Kučko expressed his desire for Croatia Airlines to get behind the flights and offer domestic connections to Chinese visitors. In turn, the airline aims to improve its loads on domestic flights throughout the year, as visitors from China will also be offered packages outside of the busy summer season.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:04

    Great, so these flights might actually start! Good luck to Zadar Airport!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:16

      Hopefully... Not even a carrier selected yet...

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:09

    This should draw passengers from the whole of south east asia, even Australia. Great move.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:28

      ROFL

      Yeah, I can really see Australian citizens booking an incognito charter flight from Chongqing rather than tens of available weekly Star Alliance connections.

      Some people here...

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:21

    These flights will mostly be sold by Chinese tour operators and it is unlikely they would attract individual passengers.

    Good to see more widebodies in ExYU. One thing I don't quite get is why they chose ZAD over SPU. Was it because of landing fees or something else?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:59

      If the tour operators don't completely fill the plane, then there will be tickets available to individuals. Just good business sense.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:35

      Of course but the overall seat capacity is quite limited (1 flight in 10 days) so I don't see too much space for additional passengers. The news is great for the tourism industry of course, and for ZAD as such.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:13

      Split can't handle widebody aircraft, nor can Zadar, so it is strange to see this actually even being discussed. Runways at Zadar and Split are only 2.5km long Cat IIa, Only airports able to handle widebody aircraft in Croatia are Zagreb, Pula and Dubrovnik, each with 3km+ runways.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:01

      SPU handles widebodies such as 767 of DE. For ZAD, not sure...

      Delete
    5. Anonymous14:14

      Further info - rwy req (on dep.) for handling widebody:
      a) B763 at MTOW sea level 7.900ft = 2,408m
      b) A332 at MTOW sea level 7,400ft = 2,256m
      So in any case no problem for both ZAD and SPU.
      However I assume that terminal capacity in Split might be a prob during summer peak

      Delete
    6. Anonymous15:21

      @AnonymousFebruary 2, 2015 at 2:14 PM

      actully both airports have slightly shorter runways, 2500~ look on google earth you'll see.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous15:55

      Who said anything about widebodies?!?! It can easily be done with A320/321 with fuel stop in Astana, KZ: CKG-TSE-ZAD! Almost ideal half way stop.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous16:09

      Astana, Kazakhstan was mentioned before in CSEBA news, remember this one:

      http://exyuaviation.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/cseba-eyes-zagreb-astana-service.html

      Delete
  4. Supposedly both: landing fees + Zadar's central location (easier to move around north and/or south of Croatia) + connections to Italy I believe...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:38

      Is that you are trying to say that Zadar have better ferry connections to Italy? Nonsense!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:35

      @AnonymousFebruary 2, 2015 at 9:38 AM

      Don't play dumb, Petar is saying that Zadar is centrally located and is more convenient for Chinese tourist, so from one place they can easily access rest of Croatia and should they wish to visit Italy there's a ferry connection as well.

      Although it is a strange decision for Zadar I must admit, I'd go with Split of Zagreb for Zadar has its limits, runways are too short to start with although there are plans to lengthen runways at Split to 3000m, Zagreb to 3700m and Zadar at some point to 2500m (2nd runway), I still wonder.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous03:46

      Never will runway at Zagreb be 3700m, you can dream about that. Only your lies are longer than any runway on Earth.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:52

    @ ZAD more connections to Italy than @ Split?

    u SPU je kratka pista, a u ZAD moguce produziti

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:29

      Gluposti, i u ZAD i u SPU slijeću širokotrupci već godinama.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:18

      That's an IL-86 on the picture.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous13:09

    OT: Sarajevo Airport January 2015 - 43 700 pax, +21% :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14:38

      Who fuelled this growth? It surely wasn't JA.

      Delete
    2. Fly Dubai and Turkish.

      LF on SJJ-DXB flights was over 85%.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous03:28

      ^ that would be sick if true. I heard that Skopje flights are doing horribly and BEG flights are not much better

      Delete
  7. Anonymous16:21

    OT: Less than 4 weeks until March and still no summer schedule from Air Serbia. Actually no news at all about Air Serbia in the last couple of weeks, since onboard wifi announcement. Are they still away on vacation?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:01

      Naah it will be just like last year... A mess.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:39

      I am the guy who wanted to bet over the fact that BWA will cease to exit by the end of the year and nobody responded. Who wants to bet that this year there will be not a single new carrier in BEG for a FREE LUNCH lol. I am serious btw. As for ASL, I think it will be alright year with 10% increase and maybe 2-3 new routes.

      Delete
    3. Boorek with cheese18:54

      I want to bet it will. What restaurant are you offering if you lose? No fast food LOL!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous19:09

      Boorek with cheese ce pobediti bolje nemojte se kladiti ;)
      INN-NS

      Delete
    5. Cevapi i Luk19:13

      Boorek with cheese where you at?
      Cevapi u somunu naravno dolaze u obzir? Right? :D

      Delete
    6. Boorek with cheese20:03

      Naravno da dolaze u obzir, samo reci gde da dodjem da preuzmem nagradu!

      Delete
    7. Boorek with cheese20:28

      New carrier in BEG, potvrda da sam zaradio cevape u somunu:

      http://tesdfdfd.blogspot.com/2014/12/germanwings-stuttgart-belgrade.html

      Delete
    8. Cevapi i Luk21:48

      ^ LOL no! That is not a new carrier since they served BEG for years PLUS its for FREAKEN 1 MONTH!

      Delete
    9. Cevapi i Luk21:50

      I am talking about carriers who will serve BEG all year round plus it will not be like Belavia 1 weekly with CRJ :D

      Delete
    10. Boorek with cheese23:39

      You can't add new rules now. If Qantas starts flights to BEG that would not count because they also flew to BEG 30 years ago? No, that's not right.

      Rules are what you mentioned in your post at 5:39 and I delivered new carrier to BEG according to those rules. I deserve those ћевапе fair and square.
      People am I right? I want my chevape u somunu!!!

      Delete
    11. Can't add new conditions after the fact. I think Cevapi i Luk owes Boorek a meal!

      Delete
    12. Cevapi i Luk00:51

      ok ok, you did win fair and square, frekean Germans with their 4-5 flights in a whole year :P. I will be in BEG during May and June so hit me up somewhere at beginning of May.

      Delete
    13. Boorek sa sirom01:49

      Toooooo, osećam se kao Nole posle pete titule u Melburnu!!!!! Zahvaljujem se svim navijačima na podršci a naročito A.Stojanoviću (mislim da je sa Aljaske)!

      Što se tiče mesta ni ja nisam u Beogradu, sada sam u snežnom Torontu! Ako si možda u blizini pošalji email da se nađemo na ćevapima, ovde ih ima na puno mesta, a ako nisi ovde dolazim sigurno i ja u BEG do juna! Ja plaćam piće!

      Delete
    14. Cevapi i Luk02:11

      Haha man that made me laugh! I am currently in Vancouver so you are going to have to wait for free cevapi till June. You are a lucky man for having so many good cevapi places in Toronto. In here there is a few overpriced Bosnian " Balkan houses" and that is it.

      Delete
    15. CiL, at least you have those overpriced "Balkan houses"... When I lived in Victoria we didn't even have that!

      Delete
  8. Anonymous16:59

    Jedina Aviokompanija koja ima interkontinentalni saobracaj u CKG je 3U posto imaju A332 mada ja mislim isto da ce let obavljati A321 sa Stopover u TSE:
    INN-NS

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous18:51

    hoće li eks ju imati ekskluzivnu reportažu o er srbiji sa turističkog sajma u beogradu za 2 nedelje?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous20:13

      Zbog cega? Najava novih destinacija?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous20:24

      Sajam je uglavnom o letnjoj ponudi a do sada nismo culi ni rec od njih kad su nove destinacije ili letnji red letenja ili Aviolet u pitanju.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous22:11

    Oce TU sad stalo leteti via VIE za BEG ?
    PS pocinje na leto sa letovima za YYZ.
    INN-NS

    ReplyDelete

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