Ryanair in Zadar subsidy row


Zadar Airport has warned that Ryanair could cut back on its operations from the city, which serves as the airline's seasonal base, after the local tourist board said it may be unable to cover part of the airline's costs. In a statement, Zadar Airport said, "At the start of September, Ryanair proposed a 20% increase in operations during the 2017 summer season and the possibility of extending its flights throughout the winter. This pitch gained full backing from local authorities and the Ministry of Tourism, which promised to provide financial assistance. However, the head of the Tourist Board of Zadar, Mihaela Kadija, rejected the offer and informed Zadar Airport that the Board has not finalised its budget for promotional expenses for the upcoming year".

Zadar Airport believes that the funding, which revolves around promoting Ryanair's operations, will be much lower in 2017 when compared to this year and will result in a 26% reduction in the carrier's operations. "Instead of nine new routes and a 20% increase in fligts, we are facing a 26% reduction in services next year", the airport noted. Zadar already owes the no frills airline 612.000 euros in unpaid incentives for 2015 and 2016. Ryanair previously announced the introduction of new flights from Glasgow and Copenhagen to the Croatian city next summer, however, neither have been put up for sale yet.

Ryanair is Zadar Airport's busiest airline, handling 325.000 travellers to and from the city this year. Its average cabin load factor to and from Zadar stood at 86% during 2016. The airline's major low cost rival, easyJet, has hinted at the possibility of introducing services to the city next year. A delegation from the budget carrier visited the airport last month to inspect its facilities and operations. The airline could launch flights as early as next summer season. Zadar Airport handled a record 510.518 passengers during the January - October period, up 6%. It is the first time the airport has managed to surpass the 500.000 passengers mark in a single year.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:06

    That's what happens when you go to bed with Ryanair.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:07

      It's not like easyJet or Wizz Air would have behaved any different. Zadar should have done what INI did, no subsidies but only low charges.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:01

      Oh you are so not true. easyJet and Wizz Air are also bastards but not as near to Ryanair.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:06

    I hope they find the money but with SPU becoming a zoo I could see more airlines looking at ZAD. It's such a shame that SPU can't expand as much as it needs to.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:14

    I think they will find a solution in the end. This is a conflict between the tourism board and the airport.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Purger11:05

      Tourist board invest in best possible way to bring more tourist in area. Of course they have limited funds. And for sure they can not spent most of their funds to Ryanair. So, one should know on what they spent money, how much they can spent on Ryanair and what benefit that comes from. It is not that tourist board is here just and only to spent money on Ryanair, isn't it?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:22

      Nismo dugo cekali na komentar strucnjaka. Mislim ako RA moze da ucenjuje Zadar sta da rade male vazdusne luke po unutrasnjosti. Taj nacin rada treba zakonom zabraniti makar nam studenti pocrkali. Rasipanje budzetskih srestava bez prave racunice. Niko nije postao turisticki centar sto dolaze niskoprofitnim kompanijama i popiju tri-cetiri piva.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:00

      Ti to stvarno? Jesi li ikada letio sa Ryanairom? Ima ogromno porodica i svi trove, nisu to samo studenti, o cemu ti?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous16:14

      Ja bih vam organizovao demonstracije ispred aerodromske zgrada da ne trosite vise pare iz budzeta grebatorska klaso.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:17

    9 new routes and year round flights would be amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous09:30

    I suspected there was some kind of issue since I could not book CPH-ZAD-CPH and the announced the route more than a month ago.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous09:45

    I really hope they find the money and pay them. Ryanair has really helped Zadar Airport over the last few years and winter flights would be excellent too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous09:49

    You should not put all your eggs in one basket. Though this is the risk with FR. At least they don't plan to pull out entirely because in that case Zadar's passenger numbers would more than half.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:57

      I don't think Zadar has put all of its eggs in one basket. There are many other airlines that fly there although FR is the dominant one, which is natural since it has a base there. The alternative would have been fewer passengers, that's for sure.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous10:00

    I'm surprised there is no Wizz Air in Zadar... or Croatia for that matter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:16

      Apparently Croatia is too expensive for Wizz lol.

      http://www.exyuaviation.com/2015/05/croatia-too-expensive-for-wizz-air.html

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:29

      Haha they find Croatia expensive but somehow easy jet, ryan, norwegian and a hundred others don't.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:38

      Wizz does actually fly to Croatia. London - Split during the summer.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:54

      They also started Warsaw-Split I think.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous12:22

      Of course HR is not expensive for FR when they get all these subsidies

      Delete
  9. Too bad not everyone is as wise as the director of Airport Nis, Vladica Durdanovic. When Ryanair came up to him and demanded 200.000€ to fly from Nis, he basically told them to get lost.

    And of course FR came back when they were ready for some reasonable and professionalism negotiations. They understood that the crew at Nis Airport isn't going to bend to their bullying.

    Because of the leadership at Nis Airport, everything has been turned around and now they have 10 routes from three different airlines. Hopefully many more in the near future.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:10

      Of course he did not say "get lost", but "I am very sorry we can not afford this, we don't have money for that". Huge difference. Trust me he was to clever to be propotent there.

      And they did not come back, but he was in Dublin to ask for flying. Even more there was no coming back to Dublin, but they ask for the money and agree of conditions in same meeting.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous18:36

      'proponent' does not mean anything in English. You probably mean bully.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous19:35

      The same with "professionalism negotiations" - perhaps you meant professional.

      Delete
  10. OT

    Will Kucko make it to Christmas?

    http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/croatian-government-suspected-of-political-public-companies-purges-11-24-2016

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous18:01

      Why should it ? They should replace the Minister and the Board before they hit mgt, incl the CEO. Remember, just like it was in JAT, the govt (ie the Minister) appoints the Board and then the CEO. So whatever has gone wrong at OU, it is easy to make the CEO the scapegoat. No point in replacing him if they don't change the Minister (who is anyway new) and then they should hit the Board - who ultimately pull all the strings and make the final decisions.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous18:52

      No mention of Croatia airlines in the article, unfortunately.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous15:14

    The country's flag carrier struggles financially and cities pay millions of Euros every year to foreign carriers. So wise and well coordinated!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:21

      The flag carrier is struggling because of their own stupid decisions. No money in the world can help that.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:15

      It's a free market, OU made huge mistakes and now they're paying for it!

      Delete
    3. Anonymous18:03

      Help your own before you help others. Your own airline employs locally and the money stays in the country

      Delete
    4. Anonymous18:16

      Sweety, we helped them with taxpayers' money and it didn't work, enough is enough!

      Delete
  12. Anonymous15:43

    Zadar gave 1,4 million euros for Ryanair to set up a base and station one of its aircraft at the airport in 2013. They also get subsidies for their flights each year.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous16:15

    From 26th June 2017, Czech Airlines will increase service to Zagreb by 4 weekly to 1 daily (7 weekly)

    Source: http://avioradar.hr/index.php/hrvatska/340-csa-pojacava-liniju-zagreb-prag

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:14

      Great news, so there is some interest after all!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:32

      Iberia also increase to 5 pw.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous00:45

      Any references about Iberian increasing Zagreb service?

      Delete
  14. Anonymous16:34

    Every year it is the same. The tourist board issues a threat that they won't fund the flights. In the end they always reach an agreement.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous19:39

    If ZAD continues growth it will officially be in the top 10 list beating TGD!

    ReplyDelete
  16. this is how Ryanair operates, why are they so surprised?

    ReplyDelete

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