Preparations for Emirates' much anticipated new daily service between Dubai and Zagreb are in full swing, with the airline to reveal further details for its upcoming inaugural flight, scheduled for June 1, later this week. The airline has modified its equipment on the route from the initially planned Boeing 777-300 aircraft to the B777-300ER. Although the two feature roughly the same capacity, the extended range version of the jet boasts a refurbished three-class product, including the airline's signature first class suites. The aircraft rostered on to operate flights to the Croatian capital are fitted with Emirates' newest configuration of this type. It will bring over 5.000 weekly two-way seats into the market.
Apart from offering nonstop flights to the Croatian capital, Emirates also expects to attract a significant number of travellers from Slovenia on the route. The Slovenian Tourist Board has also recognised the potential of the new service and is working together with Emirates in boosting the flow of Gulf tourists to Slovenia. "The new flights will not only benefit travellers in Croatia, but also those in neighbouring Slovenia and even the southern regions of Hungary and Austria making it more convenient to travel with Emirates to Dubai and beyond. Visiting the airline’s home of Dubai for leisure or business, in a choice of three different cabins, on a modern, wide-body aircraft, is now a viable option. Onward travel to Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, or Sydney, Melbourne, Maldives, Seychelles and Sri Lanka can all be reached with less than four hours’ transit time", Emirates’ Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Thierry Antinori, said.
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| Emirates to offer upgraded first class cabin on Zagreb route |
The airline has forecasts an average cabin load factor of between 70% and 80% on the new route and expects solid occupancy both during the peak summer and slower winter months. "We are introducing this service because of the firm belief that Croatia has strong economic potential, especially in the tourism sector. Croatia has a solid diaspora in the Middle East and Australia, while this service will link Zagreb with forty cities in the Middle East, Asia and Africa", Mr Antinori noted. Zagreb Airport estimates the flights will bring in an extra 80.000 passengers in its first year of operations. Emirates' Area Manager, Martin Gross, recently told EX-YU Aviation News that the carrier has already seen "keen interest from travellers from the Far East" for the new route. Accordingly, Emirates has offered competitive fares out of Zagreb to markets such as China, South Korea and Japan during the high season, rivalling both Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines for the same passenger base. In the last year, an estimated 330.000 travellers flew between Zagreb and markets across the Middle East, Asia and Australasia. These passenger flows are dominated by direct and indirect flights by Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines which account for 71% of this demand.
Comments
But also look at fares from LJU and who offers the cheapest tickets.
EK plans in ZAG are not for one month, season or year, it is longterm business.
Correct. Staff was rostered a month ago for both inaugural sectors.
First - 0
Business - 17
Economy - 128
Of course this can change.
EK still made a profit but the amount has fallen quite significantly. Interestingly enough, it was the first financial year without their 'smaller' ac ie A330's and A340's.
First - 2
Business - 18
Economy - 70
@ 10:28 Of course not and I'm not implying that. Just made a comment that they could have filled up the plane with some media/VIPs on the inaugural. That's not to say they won't (or that they haven't for that matter). I can't see the fare type so don't know.
June 2 is better from DXB then the inaugural, but the return loads are not. I won't write figures anymore, probably shouldn't have in the first place.
Given that EK's profit plunged 82% I highly doubt they will be willing to wait for many years for this route to work. Just imagine, in June they have 150-170 passengers. In February they will have 20-30.
The Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, has alluded to a possible closer partnership between the Dubai-based flagship carrier and budget carrier flydubai (FZ, Dubai Int'l).
Earlier this year, Emirates President Tim Clark said studies were currently underway concerning the potential addition of narrowbody capacity to the Emirates fleet. The aircraft would be used to open up new routes whose demand may not require the use of the carrier's B777 aircraft initially.
As such, when questioned by Gulf News on enhanced synergies between Emirates and flydubai given the latter's fleet consists entirely of B737-800s, Al Maktoum said something could be done. “I cannot spell it out. But you will hear something about it in the near future,” he said.
During the same interview, Al Maktoum also commented that he hoped to have a final decision on an order for either the A350-900/1000 or the B787-9/10 by the time the Dubai Airshow takes place (November 12-16). Emirates terminated an agreement with Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) for fifty A350-900s and twenty A350-1000s back in June 2014 citing the need to reevaluate its fleet requirements.
But LF is never really high in the beginning of route, so I predict that for 2-3 years they will have pretty good LF. The same was with QR, I remember when I was traveling with them before 4 years, and there was only 20pax from ZAG, and all plane was filled with passengers from BUD, and now we see how successfull they are.
Uzalud.
Bad, really bad. We all expected more especially since we are talking about June here, not February.
Haplek
You need to be a sportsman and take your share of: "bad, very bad, really bad!" with smile and grace.
"LF is never really high in the beginning of route, so I predict that for 2-3 years they will have pretty good LF".
This has disaster written all over it
Firstly, with so many routes downsized, they are drowning in capacity and are looking in every corner of the globe to deploy these aircraft since parking them at DXB is not an option.
Second, they know pretty well that these secondary and tertiary gateways will be troublesome, but considering their proximity to DXB, they are willing to try and nurture them towards an eventual success.
Third, many such destinations are introduced to fend of market penetration by other competitors and also to mingle into Star and One World territory before it's too late. Leaving market vacuums also exposes such destinations to the evolving business model EK fears the most - long-haul, low-fare non-stop.
So, taking all this into consideration, their ZAG move was logical and I for one welcome them from down south in Belgrade, because we - the consumers will have a better and more competitive choice in the future.
Oh and finally, ZAG is just the begging, I'm almost sure other Balkan capitals will soon be on the map as well.
It would be interested to learn some info on these routes. IMO they attract passengers similar to the ZAG route hence their numbers could be illustrative.
As for BUD, I heard it's not good for them and that out of season flights are seeing really light loads.
https://www.airserbia.com/en-RS/corporate/news?newsplus_news_id=162321&newsplus_topic_id=77910
Kuala Lumpur: €382
Bangkok: €386
Colombo: €387
Jakarta: €438
Ho Chi Minh City: €439
These are return tickets. Availability from September 2017 to March 2018.
This is not going to end well....
Also have you noticed how there is no mention of profits anywhere :/
Bear in mind that JFK was introduced and I think some flights were upgraded to year-round.
For 2017 we don't even stagnate but cut flights. Only a lousy VCE for an ATR and that's it. And how many cuts?
Sadly, it feels like there are two hater brigades now.
Best of luck to EK in ZAG, but more so to ZAG in general.
Rgds from BEG
trolling are we
Tourist will use EK/OU or QT/OU combo over any other combo from Asia and Australia.
This is why Qatar is doing so well now. EX is just joining the game.
Qatar: 180 000
Turkish: 170 000
Emirates: 80 000
2018 projections:
Qatar: 190 000
Turkish: 180 000
Emirates: 180 000
2019 projections:
Qatar: 200 000
Turkish: 190 000
Emirates: 200 000
2020 projections:
Qatar: 210 000
Turkish: 200 000
Emirates: 210 000
2021 projections:
Qatar: 225 000
Turkish: 210 000
Emirates: 220 000
2022 projections:
Qatar: 240 000
Turkish: 220 000
Emirates: 235 000
Dont know what you mean by Croatian crew but it will be 5 Croats and 1 Slovene going to ZAG and 5 Croats on the return. This number includes Serbs and Bosnians with Croatian passports.
+ 10000000
Both June 1 flights overbooked.
Now, who will you believe?
I doubt you're familiar with Croatian citizenship laws, I doubt many Serbs or Bosniaks have Croatian passport, if they had it up to 2013, these passports are no longer valid and their respective rights to Croatian passports revoked (passports sold mostly sold through Consulate in Mostar and Sarajevo in the late 90s and between 2004 and 2010).
Some Croatian Serbs have right to Croatian passport, but they're like really small minority.
Bosnian Croats have rights to Croatian passports, but they're also small minority.
So if there are 5 croats going out of Zagreb, most likely he refers to Croats, otherwise they'd state it was 1 Croat, 2 Slovenes....
Getting Croatian passport is very hard for non-Croats, especially for non-Croats. I have a Serbian friend who can't get a Croatian passport despite living in Croatia as a Child and his mom being Croatian. Due to the fact that he was born in Serbia, he'll never be able to claim Croatian passport, unless he is allowed to settle in Croatia for minimum of 6 years 5+1 years, and that is almost impossible, at least legally impossible.
Same goes for Bosniaks. New EU laws means Croatian citizenship is nearly impossible to gain, unless you were born in Croatia and can prove it.
Man you're so angry and jealous. And no EK won't be starting any Balkan flights, they've got Budapest, Athens and Zagreb, Bucharest might be their next target if they aren't flying there. And that is it.
Zagreb is a long term strategy, they know they'll take a hit on the route in winter months, and they expect that in first few years before the route builds up in-to a route that generates money year round.
Turkish, Qatar are already flying to Zagreb, and that is some serious competition, they know it and they'll work with that in mind.
Emirates doesn't fly to airports that are served by Etihad and vice versa, unless airport has over 20 million pax. This is the case in Europe. Venice being exception here, Venice has 10 million pax, but it is a major holiday destination for super rich. Most likely they're sending B777 300ER to Venice that is all business and 1st class configured. Etihad flies to Venice only seasonally during summers.
Yipee.