Zagreb Airport hopes to offer direct flights to New York in the near future, following the success of the recently launched service from Toronto. Speaking to the "Večer" daily, the General Manager of Zagreb Airport, Jacques Feron, said it would be "fantastic" for the Croatian capital to be linked with nonstop flights to the United States. "In the US, New York would be an excellent destination, although it is true that this metropolis is well connected to all major European airports", Mr Feron said. Late last year, Sani Sener, the CEO and founder of TAV Airports Holding and TAV Construction, which forms part of the consortium running Zagreb Airport, said the most desired route from the Croatian capital would be New York.
Commenting on Air Transat's recently launched seasonal service from Toronto to Zagreb, Mr Feron said there is no reason for the route not to be extended. "On the first flight there were 140 passengers flying from Toronto to Zagreb and 280 passengers back". The inaugural service was operated with the 345-seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft. "It should be noted that many Croats live in Canada, as well as some half a million people from the former Yugoslavia. However, the final decision on extending the service will be up to the operating carrier", Mr Feron added. Earlier this week, Air Transat said it is considering extending its operations to the Croatian capital next year and adding extra frequencies. Last year the route was operated by start-up SkyGreece Airlines which declared bankruptcy half-way through the summer season. "SkyGreece was successful in filling up aircraft between Toronto and Zagreb but they experienced liquidity issues and went bankrupt. However, this should not be associated with the Zagreb route which showed potential. The figures were presented to Air Transat and we managed to convince them to cooperate with us".
Earlier this year, the Croatian Ambassador to the United States announced that the Embassy had resumed discussions with various stakeholders in order to explore all possibilities for the establishment of direct flights to Croatia. "We will do all we can to spearhead and facilitate this effort, and achieve direct flights as soon as it is economically possible", the Ambassador said. Last month, Dubrovnik Airport noted it too was seeking direct links to the Big Apple. The Mayor of Dubrovnik, Andro Vlahušić, said the city expects for the route to be maintained twice per week throughout the year as of 2017. At this point, a partner is being sought out to maintain the route.
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For those interested here is a nice video of Cobalt's first flight between Larnaca and Athens. This was a promotional flight for journalists and officials from the tourism industry. The airline's first commercial flight will take place on 7th July. They will fly to Athens, Chania, Manchester, Dublin, London, Thessaloniki and Heraklion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDi3IDSdZrk
Thanks Nemjee, looks like Cyprus market is well served despite Cyprus airways closing. Looks like there is life even without state owned carriers...
Cyprus Airways was slowly becoming irrelevant as they couldn't cope with market realities. As sad as I was when they were shut down, it was for the best. The market is far more competitive now.
These Cobalt guys are interesting. They have deep pockets so let's hope they manage to setup a decent airline.
The 767-300 with winglets would be the right aircraft with litte cost of capital.
Are they getting passengers away from the others or is the market expanding?
It is good for the company to read it and make improvements.
He also made a great report about the BEG-ATH flight.
And those are the kind of customers that an airline needs to attract and satisfy.
It is not a claim it is a fact first flight did have 338 arriving and 104 leaving for Toronto, these are info provided by AirTransat, 2nd Flight might have hard 140 and 280, however I doubt these figures are right, I think flight was just as full as first flight.
Air Transat sold 5200 tickets for 17 return flights as of print on first inaugural flight. That is 300 passengers per flight, by the time the last flight is over sometimes in late October extra 500 return tickets will be sold.
So lets bring this to 5700/17= 335 per flight. Or in other words all the flights will be almost all booked up with 10 spare seats per flight.
Within Europe yes, from the report though it seems that they can not compete in longhaul product for business passengers.
+1000
Some people here were ready to call the person that made this detailed report a JU hater if it wasn't for the very positive BEG-ATH flight report he also made.
The guy gave details, suggestions and had photos to back up his claims.
As you said JU would be wise to look into this feedback and act accordingly.
The window seats would it be much better if they face the window instead of the aisle.
They could it try with 1-2-1 layout with similar seats such as TK.
Now, objetively, for a cabin of that size, they should have turndown service. Seats are nice, but they don't look either super clean or attractive with just a blanket thrown on them. Seeing wear and tear on a newly refurbished cabin is really regrattable (obviously, they didn't refurbish those parts of the plane). And obviously, JU needs to adapt its catering to the taste of the majority of travellers, without forcing them to try the Serbian cuisine. At least they should give a choice here. Also, plating could be improved, and some details need to be worked out - that macaron really looks like somebody's third attempt at making them.
Every major airline does international business class, so the competition is really stiff. And Air Serbia is looking to be on par with Etihad, which is really difficult. On the other hand, JU's Eurobiz is unlike every other business class out there - and so the praises. I have yet to read a negative review on that.
Do you think we can expect JU to place an order for factory fresh A330s anytime soon?
As for Y+, I wonder what the demand would be for that. But for sure, it's not that difficult to take out say 3 rows of economy and put 2 rows of Y+ in 2-3-2 config. It isn't that expensive either.
Unfortunately seems like JU might have a problem as it's 16.30 and its A320s are still in TIV and ATH.
Considering the amount of advertising and hype regarding the arrival of the A330 and the relaunching of JFK opps, JU really have been cost cutting on its details.
Back a few years ago when the A319/A320's began arriving, the entire cabin was refitted. There is still some random signage in Spanish on a couple of the aircraft.
Overall the aircraft does look nice, however it looks as if the J class cabin had minimal work done, and its evident in one of the photos showing wear and tear.
Their Product Development team seems to not be working well, as there has been some more blunders on board ie: JU ran out of head rest covers making do with smaller white cheap disposable looking ones. The whole bag saga o short flights was a change in standards where flights under 1 hours are offered bags, and those between 1 to 2 hours have a sandwhich passed to them in the hand (speaking of Y class). Th quality of the sandwhich is adbsolutely terrible, where even Jat before the catering strike had better quality packaging and sandwhiches.
Overall, JU HQ is a mess that needs to be fixed, which is evident by looking at the many blunders and poor decisions being made.
@ anonymous 1,58pm
JU offers 3 mains to choose from on flights to JFK and AUH, where one of the options is a Serbian option marked with the JU eagle. The Serbian options tend to be popular with the customers.
I agree with you. Actually, JU's economy class is better than their business one, relatively speaking, of course.
It's such a shame because their short-haul and medium-haul business class is really good.
Every airline that introduced premium economy faced that question, and the growth of the premium eco offering around the world confirms the early adopters were right, with some of them already revising and improving initial product. It adds another market segment and captures customers that find biz class restriced (by travel policies) or lousy value prop (for personal travel). Air Serbia mentioned 60% of JFK-BEG passengers are US based and they are already familiar and are expecting Y+ offer. Air Serbia does not (so far) advertise upgrade deals from eco to biz on A330, so the gap is obvious.
I have been experimenting with Y+ on my personal long and mid haul travels and I absolutely love it, with Delta Comfort+ coming up in a few weeks.
Type in :
Air Serbia A330-200 is landing for the very first time at JFK
Zagreb Toronto pvhr541
That Mr.Bukota is hillarious ...
Ko je sve bio na prvom letu Er Srbije do Njujorka
Yes, but nearby TK is scrapping the product, so it's not all going well for Y+. Who knowns whether pax would be willing to pay, say 50% more for premium economy, especially with such generous baggage allowance JU has for Y on US flights.
But I'm with you on this, as I said before, it can't be that expensive to get and install 14 seats.
Dos anybody know load factors for next week?
I bus used to move pax to plane. In ZRH again 2 buses were used. Both dlighta today and on Friday perfectly cooled down while boarding
It s not the first time that in LJU they squezze the people into a Bus to the last m2. Today not even aircondintioned and at same time Jetbridge Gate 1 is being unused.
On Air Inflight Magazine has not been renewed, so still old one avaiable which expired in May
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PM did say 747 but that part was obviously a joke. Maybe he was just inspired by this:
https://youtu.be/Q0-Hns4u6AA
That wasn't a joke. The man is clueless when it comes to civil aviation and he has proven us right many times until now.
Their passengers do come from everywhere as the island isn't that big. Nicosia-Paphos is about 150 km and there are buses running between Nicosia's downtown and Paphos airport. This year their passenger numbers should grow some more since the terrorist attacks in Turkey and Egypt.