Zagreb Airport anticipates handling over three million passengers this year, with a busy summer ahead. The airport's Executive Director for Ground Handling Services, Ivana Akmadžić, said recently, "We expect growth to continue not only this summer but next winter as well. We anticipate good numbers and results at the end of the year. I wouldn't like to speculate on a precise figure, but in my personal opinion we are looking at some three million passengers this year. The arrival of new airlines, coupled with an increase in capacity on existing services give us plenty of reason to be upbeat on our business results". Zagreb Airport's General Manager, Jacques Feron, noted, "We believe that the opening of the new terminal will broaden our goals. We aim to handle more passengers in the coming period, up to five million and then up to eight million in our next development phase. In order to achieve this, we have to attract new carriers, open new routes and destinations, and make our airport even more competitive".
Last week, Monarch Airlines became Zagreb Airport's newest customer, with the low cost airline launching services from both London Gatwick and Manchester. "We are very satisfied with the introduction of our new year-long flights to and from Zagreb. Monarch is the only carrier to connect Manchester and London Gatwick with Zagreb. Both destinations have a lot to offer and are ideal weekend getaways", Monarch's Head of Communications, David Page, said. Furthermore, in just over two weeks, Croatia Airlines will introduce four new routes from the airport, while Emirates will commence its daily service from Dubai to Zagreb with its Boeing 777-300 aircraft on June 1. The airport says it anticipates an extra 80.000 passengers within a year as a result of the new Dubai route.
Apart from the new arrivals, Korean Air will resume its seasonal charters from Seoul on May 19 with its Airbus A330-200 aircraft. As was the case last year, a total of eleven flights will operate during the summer (May, June, September and October). "Other increases include the doubling of Iberia flights between Zagreb and Madrid, as well as a 70% increase in operations and capacity by Czech Airlines and LOT Polish Airlines from Prague and Warsaw respectively. We are also a proud partner of Croatia Airlines, which holds a 55% passenger share at the airport, and aids our connectivity significantly ", Mr Feron said.
Zagreb Airport handled a record 2.766.087 passengers in 2016. During the first quarter of this year, it welcomed 516.000 travellers, an increase of 1.3%. Numbers are expected to pick up in April with growth forecast in the double digits for the month. Antonin Beurrier, the Executive Director and Chief International Officer at Zagreb Airport's key shareholder, Aéroports de Paris Management (ADP), said, "With passenger traffic up 20% over the past three years, and the arrival of ten new airlines, Zagreb Airport is seeing particularly rapid growth. For Groupe ADP, it is a strategic asset in its portfolio of airports across the world". He added, "Groupe ADP will operate the Zagreb Airport concession until 2042, providing the airport with a powerful tool to take full advantage of its potential in terms of economic development and tourism".
I think they will manage over 3 million this year. Around 3.2 million.
ReplyDeleteThey are being conservative in the estimates.
DeleteI project between 3.07 and 3.15 million this year, and between 3.5 and 3.7 million next year.
DeleteProjection: if everything goes according projections.
2017: 3.15 million, 21000 landings
2018: 3.7 million, 23000 landings
2019: 4.25 million, 25000 landings
2020: 4.75 million, 28000 landings
2021: 5.25 million, 30 000 landings
2022: 5.75 million, 32000 landings
2023: 6.5 million, 35000 landings
2024: 7.25 million, 37500 landings
2025: 8.0 million, 40 000 landings.
Less optimistic growth projections:
2017: 3.07 million, 21000 landings
2018: 3.4 million, 22500 landings
2019: 3.8 million, 24000 landings
2020: 4.2 million, 25500 landings
2021: 4.5 million, 27000 landings
2022: 4.8 million, 28000 landings
2023: 5.2 million, 30000 landings
2024: 5.7 million, 32000 landings
2025: 6.2 million, 35000 landings.
Your projections are much lower than before Purger:
Deletehttp://www.exyuaviation.com/2013/08/wizz-air-gives-up-on-banja-luka.html?showComment=1376496148222#c9060381196906936545
@AnonymousMay 3, 2017 at 1:10 AM
DeleteI am not purger, and post quoted isn't mine.
I am using available seats + load factor + average annual growth of 7% to get numbers.
And average varies further in future projections are. This is why my figures deviate so much.
I was not in Croatia, I am on road for all day today, so I did not write this comment. Also I did not wrote projections in that post. I very rarely write projections.
DeleteGood work ZAG.
ReplyDeleteGood to see Korean is coming back. Air Transat also resumes Toronto this month.
ReplyDeleteYes good news about Korean. Is there a chance JAL might come back as well?
DeleteThe number of Japanese tourists in Europe has collapsed because of security. We haven't seen JAL charters to Zagreb for a few years now.
Delete@AnonymousMay 2, 2017 at 9:51 AM
DeleteJAL not likely as they're in deep financial crisis and they won't expand much. ANA might return, as they are already flying to Dubrovnik through charters. 177000 Japanese visited Croatia in 2016, if this number can be matched in 2017 would be nice.
I think following carriers might be coming to Zagreb in next 2-3 years.
DeleteFinnair - trice weekly
Air Baltic - trice weekly
SAS - daily
Aer Lingus - trice weekly
FlyBe - daily connecting Edinbrough & Brmingham
EasyJet - return - five weekly flights
TAP - return - trice weekly
AlItalia - return if it survives. - daily
Aegean - trice weekly
Iberia, going year round instead of only 5 months. - daily
Korean Air - weekly service eventually, perhaps by 2020. twice weekly service
Unknown Chinese carrier - there are so many to choose from. - twice weekly
Air Canada - return, perhaps Air Canada Rouge ? weekly flights - twice weekly year round.
I don't think there'll be US carrier that will connect directly to Zagreb, perhaps Air Transat like service is possible in summer months connecting New York and Chicago with Zagreb.
ANA - Japanese Carrier might have twice weekly service to Zagreb at some point, perhaps 2020/2021.
If all these carriers do come to Zagreb, that be something. world class.
I wish Croatia Airlines would keep some of its new routes over winter or any of the ones launched last year. They should be working on reducing seasonality.
ReplyDeleteLast years new routes will not be discontinued this winter.
DeleteIs this for sure? Sankt Petersburg during the winter? I agree about Lisabon and maybe Milan, but SP, Prague, didnt so sure. But definetly good if they keep some lines.
DeleteI am sure it has been reported here that the 4 new routes introduced last year will continue throughout the year.
DeleteMaybe someone can clarify.
They expect 80,000 from EK? I think it will be more. There is something like 265,000 seats on offer in the first year.
ReplyDeleteThat's a huge influx of capacity.
DeleteI think they are calculating on calendar year basis; since EK starts on 01JUN, it wont be 250,000 seats but less. Overall, seems that estimated load factor is around 60%, which is realistic considering capacity, market size etc...
DeleteI think you are right. I think again they are being a bit conservative but overall it's a realistic number to start with.
DeleteZagreb is a bit disappointing this year in terms of pax growth. I expect much better numbers in the next few months.
ReplyDeleteFor the Xth time: There was a slump of number of flights during the 2016/17 winter season which are picking up now.
DeleteThe growth in the first quarter is quite good considering the drop in air operations. I feared numbers would actually go down.
Delete@AnonymousMay 2, 2017 at 9:25 AM
Delete400 fewer flights this winter. Braking even was projected, considering number of seats on offer. So the growth for first 3 months was actually quite considerable, if you include reduction in number of flights. 60000 extra pax was generated by existing flights + small growth was achieved for the 1st quarter, last year airport had 510 000 pax in first quarter with 8906 flight operations performed in same period.
This year first quarter airport had 8512 flight operations and 516 000 pax with 394 less flight operations than in 2016.
Zagreb did quite well in first quarter, considering.
Break even...
DeleteWish them good luck! I'm sure it will be more than 3 milion pax this year!
ReplyDeleteThe growth in the first quarter is quite good considering the drop in air operations. I feared numbers would actually go down.
Delete^ sorry I just realized I accidentally wrote a response here instead of on the comment above.
DeleteIf ZAG attracted an LCC to open a base numbers would boom straight away. But with handling prices increasing I don't know how realistic that is.
ReplyDeleteZAG is not LCC airport. It will never be.
DeleteBtw - just look what is going on at BEG airport and how LCC hurts JU.
LCC is good when you have stabile local airline. When local airline is still growing, LCC can hurt a lot.
Zagreb seems a good fit for Eurowings to open a base. But like the above anon says, it could hurt OU quite a bit.
DeleteWizz Air is not the main reason why JU is hurting, it's the management's incompetence.
DeleteAfter all, it wasn't Wizz Air that forced JU out of WAW, KBP or VAR.
That said, JU still flies to STR, LCA and CPH despite indirectly competing with Wizz Air.
What Belgrade did get was more affordable fares for its customers. That's what ZAG should aim for as well.
ZAG has opted to have sevaral "leisure" airlines, instead of typical LCC. Monarch will be expanding (Friday announcement), together with Eurowings and Norwegian.
DeleteVolotea/Transavia are another potential leisure partners that ZAG is hoping to get. Typical LCC, such as Wizz and Ryan are pure disaster for a market where a national airline is struggling, because they cannibalize the market and then leave. One day yes, perhaps - but Wizz/Ryan expansion has to be under control. I would be happier if ZAG brings in 4 or 5 smaller/medium sized leisure airlines, with each opening 2 to maximum 3 routes, rather than allowing Wizz to expand to 15 routes and then have them blackmail the airport. That's not how it should be done.
I think the era of ULCC (FR and W6) extortion is long gone. Airports around Europe are no longer accepting their crazy terms and conditions. Look at BEG, they hiked their fees, Wizz protested but eventually they returned and accepted the deal the airport offered them.
DeleteBEG is not the only one, there are also FRA, ATH, RIX, BRU... that have adopted this model.
I don't see why ZAG can't do the same. ZAG can approach Wizz Air and offer them an acceptable deal for both but in return it can only apply for low profile destinations such as Dortmund, Baden-Baden or maybe even Rome which is currently not served non-stop.
I am sure both the airport and the airline could profit from such a deal.
LJU is just 140 km away and if ZAG remains inactive then they could take away quite a lot of potential passengers.
AnonymousMay 2, 2017 at 11:11 AM said: " just look what is going on at BEG airport and how LCC hurts JU."
DeleteBut, do you see what happens with OU? they are not profitable(sold the LHR slots = profitabile...yeah), and there is no low-cost carriers in Zagreb.
Well it's not just Wizz in BEG that is hurting. It is rather the development at other airports in the vicinity such as Ryanair/ Germania/ Swiss at INI that puts pressure on JU. If FR further increases INI, JU will start feeling the pain even more, as BEG was more or less the only choice for most of Serbian travelers in the past.
DeleteINI's fantastic development is bad news for Belgrade Airlines.
DeleteEmirates announces flights to ZAG:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nle5Yk7oEU
They were promising flights to New York this year. What happened?
ReplyDeleteYes anonymous is reliable source as always here
DeleteNothing. They are still working to secure flights. Let's be honest, it's not that easy as you probably know.
Delete@ 10:28 the airport went on record promising the flights not anonymous posters.
Delete@10:31 thanks, I understand.
It will happen next year by the looks of things
Deletehttp://www.exyuaviation.com/2017/02/croatia-new-york-flight-talks-in.html
Just to underline that the management of teh airport has never said that they will secure flights this year, they are very discreet about everything concerning new routs. There was only a wishful thinking, if I remember correctly.
DeleteAnd unfortunately the Beijing flights didn't materialize either.
DeleteBejing flights were never announced by ZAG. It was a Chinese tour operator/airline instead. I know the background story - nothing more than their PR to portray they are doing something so they can get their chinese tourist board to co-finance the project.
DeleteI know it wasn't the airport that announced the Beijing flights. It was the airline themselves. Pity it didn't happen though.
DeleteI think there are a few more European airlines that could start flights to Zagreb. Primarily SAS, Aegean and maybe Alitalia if they are still around.
ReplyDeleteAlitalia is not even flying to some major major places, like Vienna... Well anyway, they will shut down the very latest at the end of the profitable period - end of summer.
DeleteThey won't shut down, you obviously don't know how things work in Italy. :)
DeleteGreat years ahead of Zagreb!
ReplyDeleteMy prediction is about 10% growth this year.
ReplyDeleteYep, seems most realistic in my opinion.
DeleteThe best managed airport in ex-yu.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWith these new arrivals they will have a very good selection of airlines and destinations.
ReplyDeleteGood news for Zagreb. Can't wait to see EK next month!
ReplyDeleteThis year Zagreb is around 3.2 mil.
ReplyDeleteI like that they are proactively trying to attract new airlines. From what I hear Transavia will start flights next year.
ReplyDeleteSo much for increased fees at the airport having an impact...
ReplyDeleteThey surely do have an impact. You could expect a lot more new arrivals if they lowered fees instead of an increase of the already high fees in the past.
DeleteWe also have Norwegian starting Stockholm-Zagreb in the summer and Eurowings starting Dusseldorf-Zagreb in November.
ReplyDeleteTrue!!
DeleteDat.
DeleteHonestly I think all of this could have been achieved without a concession. Look at Dubrovnik with a new terminal.
ReplyDeletePS not trying to take anything away from ZAG. I think the growth and arrival of new airlines has been great, I just think it could all have been done without giving the airport to foreigners.
DeleteWould be great but unfortunately they have been talking about doing something at Zagreb since 1995. Some things need to be taken out of government hands. I truly believe that if there was no concession there would be no new terminal.
DeleteLook at Split!
April growth should be around 12% I think.
ReplyDeleteMore than 15% IMO.
DeleteWhy doesn't Iberia start year-round flights? There must be enough demand to sustain full year operations.
ReplyDeleteOfc there must be, when Anon says something its done deal.
Delete@AnonymousMay 2, 2017 at 11:51 AM
DeleteThere is but Iberia is very cautious, they'll be flaying this year throughout summer months well from this month till October, perhaps if the numbers are good this year, they might start year round service from next year, perhaps from March 31st. We'll see numbers is what most airlines care about.
Bravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteopet ovaj
DeleteWhy are there no flights from ZAG to MLA?
ReplyDeleteYes, I think OU flies there.
DeleteOT & just for Nemjee:
ReplyDeletehttp://cyprus-mail.com/2017/05/02/new-cyprus-airways-announces-first-three-destinations/
Thank you! I don'know what they are looking for in TLV as there are already close 60 weekly frequencies!
DeleteOT:
ReplyDeletePRN figures for April 2017 are out.
173,096 pax up 20.74%
1,260 movements up 15.17%
Great job, PRN! Congrats to BEG as well!
DeleteVery good PRN. SKP have any chance ����������.
DeleteVery impressive! Dubrovnik is breaking records this month as well from what I've read.
DeleteWill be interesting to see how SKP performs.
DeleteSvakako se moze ostvariti taj broj sa novim kompanijama .
ReplyDeleteJel i prosle godine leteo KE sa B777 ili je leteo isto sa A330.
Hvala unapred.
INN-NS
Ej, pa gdje si ti? Nisi se odavno javljao na ovom blogu...
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