Emirates, one of the world's largest international airlines, inaugurated flights between Dubai and Zagreb this morning, marking its arrival to the former Yugoslavia and its 39th destination in Europe. Flight EK129 left Dubai for the Croatian capital just after eight in the morning local time with a fully loaded 360-seat Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, featuring eight private suites in first class, 42 lie-flat seats in business class and 310 seats in economy. The airline will maintain the service on a daily basis. In Zagreb, the jet was welcomed by a water cannon salute, Emirates staff and members of the press. Following an address by the airline's representatives, local media had opportunity to tour the wide-body jet prior to its return to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The new flights also mark the first time Dubai and Zagreb have been linked with a nonstop service since Flydubai suspended its operations on the route in November 2016.
Travelling on today’s flight EK129 was Thierry Antinori, Emirates’ Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Thierry Aucoc, Emirates’ Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations (Europe & Russia), Gari Cappelli, the Croatian Minister for Tourism, Ali Al Ahmed, UAE Ambassador to Croatia and a contingent of partners and business leaders from Dubai, Hong Kong, India and China. Demonstrating the high level of interest in the new route, today’s flight carried commercial passengers from more than sixteen countries in Emirates’ network, including Taiwan, Australia, India, the United Arab Emirates, Korea, China, Japan, Singapore and South Africa. In the flight deck of the B777-300ER operating the inaugural flight, were Captain Rashid Al Ismaili from the United Arab Emirates and Croatian-born First Officer Marin Zdrilić.
A welcome reception was held in the airport’s new terminal, followed by a press conference, gift exchange ceremony and cake cutting. After the formalities, government ministers, VIPs, airport executives, trade partners and media enjoyed a guided static tour of Emirates’ B777-300ER. Thierry Antinori, Emirates’ Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, said, “Today is an important milestone for Emirates as we launch full operations into the market and reinforce our commitment to growing trade and tourism flows between Dubai and Croatia. Since establishing our commercial presence in the market in 2003, we have worked with our trade and tourism partners to make this day happen. We thank those partners and especially the Ministry of Tourism and Zagreb Airport for their support in preparing for introduction of our daily flight and the event today”. He added, "We look forward to continuing the successful partnerships we have formed over the coming months and years".
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| Water cannon salute at Zagreb Airport |
Commenting on the new service, the Croatian Minister for Tourism, Gari Cappelli, said, "I am very pleased to have the opportunity to welcome Emirates in Zagreb on behalf of the Government and the Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Croatia. We believe that this direct daily flight between Dubai and Zagreb will bring many benefits to our country. Namely, it will enable significant increase of trade relations between countries and will have the especially positive impact on tourism. With Emirates daily flights, Croatia will not only become the centre of Southeast Europe in connection with the Middle East - the most propitious part of the world in terms of industrial growth, but will also be connected with many other countries like China, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan". He added that this year-round route will contribute to extending the tourist season. The General Manager of Zagreb Airport, Jacques Feron, noted, "We are extremely proud of the fact that one of the biggest airlines in the world, Emirates, chose Zagreb as their new destination in this part of Europe and this is even more important if taken in consideration that it comes just after the opening of the new passenger terminal that offers the superior level of service for all passengers and complements the top service provided by Emirates”.
The new route will be an important one for Emirates as it will further strengthen the airline’s European footprint and tap into a new part of the continent. It is expected to boost the growing tourism demand for Croatia from around the Emirates network, especially the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and also offer a convenient option for visiting friends and relatives travelling in from Australia and New Zealand. In June alone, Emirates has received bookings for flights to Zagreb from passengers originating from no fewer than 36 different countries around the world. To further facilitate trade and commerce, Emirates’ daily B777-300ER service will offer up to 23 tonnes of cargo per flight, providing many same-day transportation options for temperature-sensitive shipments to the UAE and beyond. Dedicated services like SkyPharma, for pharmaceutical consignments, and SkyFresh for perishables, like fruit and vegetables, will become available to Croatian exporters.
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| Captain Rashid Al Ismaili and Co-pilot Marin Zdrilić |
Comments
Greetings from BEG
Nice!
Connected passengers from 36 countries!
Impressed!
On all other flights LF if very good!
1.6. DXB-ZAG
Overbooked by 15 pax
1.6. ZAG-DXB
Booked: F3 J18 Y195 = 60%
2.6. DXB-ZAG
Booked: F2 J20 Y337 = 100%
2.6. ZAG-DXB
Booked: F2 J11 Y210 = 62%
3.6. DXB-ZAG
Booked: F1 J10 Y268 = 78%
3.6. ZAG-DXB
Booked: F4 J14 Y282 = 83%
LH does not offer for €350, they start from €550 onwards which is ok because of the ATIs and JVs, something EK doesn't have.
Bravo Hrvatska!
EK and QR are both dumping since these flights were announced. QR can probably go lower because they operate a narrowbody to ZAG so there are less costs.
The B773 is ideal on flight over nine, ten hours. Of course at the end of the day it depends on how much EK can charge customers. On some destinations like RUH, KWI... they can charge a premium meaning that sending even the A380 makes financial sense. From what I've seen yields to ZAG are far from ideal since fares are extremely low.
Thumbs up. Shows that this route will bring many new travellers to Croatia.
E da, kad smo već kod toga. Ovaj blog traži hitnu rekonstrukciju...razgovor s tolko Anonymousa je besmislen.
I need to by 25 tickets for my troop to Shanghai for 11th October this year (back on 23rd October).
Most expensive in this moment is Emirates, than Qatar. Good deal is on Aeroflot, but, surprisingly, the best deal is Lufthansa (520 EUR).
Also I did check prices last few days on Dubai-Zagreb route. For first flight it was more than 600 EUR. That is huge!!!!! In same time I compare prices via Dubai with Emirates and via Doha with Qatar, Emirates is always 10-20% more expensive. So, it is not about dumping, prices are higher then on others, and because of that LF is even more impressive.
I just hope that because of Emirates prices would go down, especially on Emirates flights. But for now, that is not the fact.
https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1986810&page=55
If flying 90 A380s was commercially viable, LH, AF and BA would be doing it.
I mean, I know Croatia is magnificent but that there was so much interest from the media that even the flight on June 3rd is 80% sold out..
We all know that P2P routes for legacy carriers are more expensive than connected one. So, it is usually cheaper to take flights to Dubai via Doha then nonstop one. But 600 EUR is really to much even for P2P legacy route.
About that partnership one can see how good that was with Austrian, Dolomiti, Eurowings, Swiss, Brussels... whom all, after several years of "good cooperation" becomes part of Lufthansa (100% ownership)
Congrats to ZAG!
https://scontent.fzag1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/18768263_10212879143553333_2722458529968559835_o.jpg?oh=aa785859799d0fecc2d45d96174ded83&oe=59B42EAF
Yeah journalist have overbooked the flight for next 4 months I heard. Damn freeloaders !!!
I am sure if you pretend to be a journalist and pay €800 you can get a free return ticket to Zagreb, you should try, who knows you might be lucky.
You'll need a press pass however, it says Visa or Mastercard on it, and has long number in the middle, you'll need to give Emirates that number so they can trace you down and confirm you really are a journalist. (its good to be a journalist)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StJS51d1Fzg
Go get them tiger !!
Good luck btw.
Euro carriers acted smart by changing their business model and creating various brands e.g. IAG Group created Iberia Express, Vueling and Level, AF/KL will soon create a long haul airline and so on.
They would want to do the same if they wany to survive in the next 10-15 years.
I am sure Air Serbia never done that sort of stuff, dumping fares. As to €350 to Beijing, is that return ? I want one @that price.
PS, are you paid to troll or it is just your hobby ???
Don't remember Croats ever needing visa to visit UAE. However, I think the flights will be packed with Croatian and Slovenians visitors to Dubai or on the network to other places, land of Ozz, Kiwiland, far orient, land of giants and so on.
As to docked part, I can only imagine how long it'll take passengers to leave the plane with a single bridge connected.
I normally fly with Austrian a lot from London to Vienna, and they use A321, 220 seat configuration, it takes ages to empty the aircraft. With 360 pax, it'll take at least 20 min.
Bude uspjeh ako oštemaju ulaz u sortirnicu pa se ne dogodi bruka i sramota kao danas kad su kontejneri iz Emiratesa ostali ispred jer nisu mogli proći u sortirnicu. Potom su se praznili ispred i vozalo se sve unutra. Kako se misle handlati 2 takva zrakoplova?
Ja stvarno ne znam kako opravdati ovaj...nemogu nazvati propustom već notornom glupošću. Stvarno jad.
Pa vi pljuvajte kritičare i pravdajte ovaj fijasko od ...trebalo je biti....vrhunskog posla za Zagreb i Hrvatsku.
Jer, ako vozilo koje vuce prtljagu moze uci u sortirnicu, budi siguran kako moze i ULD kojeg ovdje taj anonimac naziva kontejnerom.
Oh I see, my bad than, they can take as long as they need it, 30-40 min to deplane. No rush. I can only look forward to daily EK flights to Zagreb, hopefully first of many companies that will opt out to fly to Zagreb with Wide Body aircraft. Singapore next? ANA? Korean Air? China Southern or China Eastern ? Air Canada Rouge ?
I think they'll need to expand new terminal really fast now. One Wide body, but 3 wide body aircraft at the same time would make current terminal too small. The expansion must be on the airport management minds as they see traffic going through the roof and chaos with managing 3 large aircraft.
:))))))))))))
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7kiAopmdnprR1pUZVNOVmZkUUE/view?usp=sharing
https://www.facebook.com/AvioRadar/photos/pcb.1951619298403302/1951618285070070/?type=3&theater
I shouldn't really respond to a troll, however I shall this time.
140 passengers on first flight where journalist, all economy class seats. The plane was overbooked as many Croatian and Slovenian passengers bought tickets in advanced for very first flight, but this didn't show up on the system till all official/press reservations were certain.
Many of the passengers were transferred on flights for 2nd and 3rd.
Emirates won't be flying to Belgrade, or any other city in the region. Zagreb is it. There won't be landing in Budapest or Belgrade and on to Zagreb, you're simply making things up as you go.
All trolls lie, so I should simply ignore any future posts from a troll.
84.137 pax
-1,9%
So far, in 2017:
305.813 pax
+5,1%
Keep a good work!
You do realize that BEG has been connected with Dubai for almost 20 years now? You make it seem as if ZAG is the first one to get a link in the Balkans.
What ZAG is doing is playing catching up. As mentioned before, we had the link to the UAE long before you, we have flight to JFK and soon to PEK. Do you really think anyone will lose their sleep over these Emirates flights? No.
What makes me happy is that flying out of BEG is far more affordable than it is out of ZAG. For ex-YU people that's what matters the most.
But you are aware that this is DAILY service with EMIRATES B777-300ER which has more than 360 seats?
20 years! So what? With old metal and a small airline company with almost non-existant connections beyond Dubai (JU's code-shares were a joke).
Yes, that it the same.
Air Serbia is downsizing its destinations this summer, and the only new arrival is a line or two by Wizz. Woohoo!
The fact remains that you are presenting the situation as if this is something wow which it is for the airport but not for the wider region. Compare ZAG to BUD or BEG and all this shine is lost.
Like I said, we had these flights for 20 years so there is nothing to be jealous of. You are still light years away from BEG in order for us to even consider you as being in the same league.
To put things into perspective, ZAG is even behind SJJ when it comes to the connections to the East. Not to mention that TK has already downsized ZAG for the winter season and QR is down to 10 weekly A320 with all A321 withdrawn.
EK has come but at what price.
One is a legacy carrier while the other is a lowcost. That means that BEG has the best of the two worlds, unlike BUD for example which is home to only LCCs. At this rate ZAG won't have any airlines based there, unless EW sets up show when OU eventually goes bust.
It seems to me, you're all worked up, you can't sleep cause you're so stressed out over this.
Look Croatia is in the EU, what matters most to all Croats is they have a decent connections out of their airports, be it Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, Pula or Zagreb.
Totally irrelevant what you've got in Belgrade, what people in northern Croatia care most for is good and easy access to where ever they need to go.
Zagreb has good links now and more links are coming as Zagreb becomes increasingly more popular. I couldn't care what happens in Belgrade, not my neck of the woods.
Emirates is one of the best companies in the World. For sure one which all airports wants to have. You can not compare this to flydubai or Jat flights to Dubai.
BEG is behind SJJ also when it comes to connections to the East. BEG is behind ZAG when it comes to connections to the East especially from October when Air Serbia will stop flying to Abu Dhabi.
Qatar will fly 10 flights with A320 from winter, and that is less than combination of A321 and A320 they have in Summer. But, god bless you, it is 10 flights per week. More than Belgrade will have to Doha, or to Abu Dhabi. Zagreb will have much more seats do Doha compare to Belgrade, and much more than Etihad to Abu Dhabi. For sure will have several times more than Belgrade to Dubai.
In terms of weekly frequencies BEG is still ahead:
BEG has 18 while ZAG has 17. However to that we should also add Belgrade's 14 on TK, 4 on Pegasus and 10 on KK since the three are also offering connections to the east.
ZAG which is supposedly so fancy can't even make TK work double daily the whole year.
Maybe you should first pass 3 million passengers and then come talk to us. After all, soon we'll have twice as many passengers than you have. lol
Also, my comment on flydubai was in response to your comment that JU flies to DXB. ;)
Comparing ZAG to BEG is like comparing BEG to VIE. Different leagues.
ZAG should compare itself to Bordeaux or Varna.
What you are forgetting is that Croatia is being visited by 15 mil foreigners, Srbia less than 1,5 mil.
Zagreb is a tourist destination in its own right, holding the record for the most number of tourist arrivals on a town/city level throught Ex Yu...and leaving Belgrade behind which is even more defeating for Belgrade given that Belgrade is the only somewhat of a worthy place to see in the entire Serbia.
So leave your "no demand" theories at home ;)
Because I remember comments, predictions, and worries hers, few years ago, when Qatar started their ZAG operations, that the flights will be cancelled within few months time, and that QR would be leaving ZAG soon. Meanwhile, their tripled their capacity to ZAG. And Emirates case will be the similar story - if not increasing capacity, it will at least remain daily throughout the year. And lot of people are really not aware of the real turistic potential of Zagreb and Croatia, which is huge, and has just started booming
15.6 million + .8 million nautical visitors. total 16.4 million.
This year, 17.5 million expected.
@AnonymousJune 1, 2017 at 10:42 PM
Zagreb and Belgrade are in same league, i.e same size airports, and importance. Problem is, Zagreb had really small airport for many years, airport terminal designed to handle 2 million pax tops.
Now it has a representative terminal Zagreb will catch up with Belgrade fast. By 2025 Zagreb will surpass Belgrade in traffic.
Number of new carriers will arrive to Zagreb, i expect by 2020, out of Zagreb, there'll be at least 40-50 carriers offering flights to Asia, Africa, Europe and North Americas and not just on seasonal basis.
Emirates opens the doors, others will see if Emirates is in Zagreb, they'll try their luck too. Zagreb isn't a small city and 1.2 million visitors visited Zagreb in 2016, 2017, generating over 2.1 million nights. 10% growth is expected. All this data is available from Croatian tourist website, and official publications.
http://www.mint.hr/default.aspx?id=976
http://www.dzs.hr/Hrv_Eng/publication/2016/04-03-02_01_2016.htm
http://www.croatiaweek.com/record-2016-16-3-million-visitors-to-croatia/
Feel free to read and research.
I don't have to make numbers up, the're there to be looked at.
In short Croatia is going places.
Also Belgrade can't ever be compared to Vienna. Vienna has traffic of 27 million passengers. Belgrade barely 4.9 million.
Vienna has a world class sci fi state of the art airport/, Belgrade has 60s throwback and monument to communist brutalist architecture.
Belgrade is expected to handle what, 5.1 million pax this year, Zagreb 3.1 million.
by 2020, Belgrade if it hits 6 million I'd be surprised, Zagreb will hit 4.5 million easily, 5.0 million possibly.
Zagreb has mostly legacy carriers, with decent LCCs such as Norwegian, Monarch and German Wings. Belgrade has collection of lccs Zagreb told so sod off.
So you can argue two cities are in complete different league, Zagreb comparable to Vienna in terms of quality of airlines, Belgrade comparable to Varna.
https://scontent.fzag1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/18880004_1541835195839274_4357643207706221076_o.jpg?oh=50e4dccce8f35eb2cd697b1581a5f815&oe=599C43D4
- Hrvoje
As far as Nish goes, on a year-round basis it has as many airlines flying there as DBV or SPU. In winter months it has already surpassed these two in terms of passenger numbers. This year it will comfortably pass 300.000 while next year... who knows. Especially if Wizz Air opens up a base there. So 450.000 is realistic so it's more than worth mentioning it as an airport.
As for tourists in Belgrade, of course we are behind. Belgrade had sanctions and then it was illegally bombed by NATO. Zagreb saw minimal damage during the war of secession not to mention all the support you received from the West.
What I do find funny is that people on here brag about tourism in Zagreb yet we managed to snatch the PEK flights. If there was really so much demand for ZAG then Hainan would have gone for them, no questions asked. Like they fly to BUD or PRG. I think you are overestimating your value.
Furthermore, the growth you are experiencing on the coast is primarily due to the unrest in the MENA region. If there were no wars, growth would be comparable to the previous years as in 5% to 10%.
Like I already said, BEG is home to two airlines, a legacy and a lowcost. It has direct flights to New York and soon to Beijing. It has links to both large and small airports in the Euro-Mediterranean region so no, BEG and ZAG are far from being in the same league. Don't forget your number or passengers and ours. BEG is chasing six million while you are still chasing three. Huge difference.
However, if believing all the nonsense you wrote there will help you sleep at night then I will agree with you.
p.s. I am surprised that with all this massive demand for ZAG (and I suppose you will say it's also high yielding) that OU is such a basketcase and that all of its destinations are loss-making. I guess that also speaks volumes about the nature of the market.
Once again, it seems that you have deeply rooted issues. Both you and Michael who already had outbursts of anti-Serbian hate on here.
Niš compared to DBV or SPU? OMG that's like a 6 x 100% difference in numbers :)
Croatia's tourism had been growing twice the world average tourism rate of growth for more than 10 years, unrelated to the "unrest in the MENA region".
I am not predicting what BEG will achieve this year, but calling an airport like ZAG which has traditionally been roughly 60-80% of BEG's traffic "a city in a totally different league" is nothing but a pompous and arrogant statement. Watch what you say, there's one local saying "tko visoko leti, nisko pada..." and to me it seems BEG has already passed through its honeymoon with Etihad 2013-15...
As for the Chinese - Please, let me set you straight. You did not "snatch" anything. This is the first hand information from one of the ZAG managers. Hainan Group is going around the world and asking for money to fly to places. They gave up on ZAG, because one of their own states in China experienced some problems with providing subventions to the airline... Vučić on the other hand stepped in and promised who knows what. 2 pw with a stop over in PRG ? Wow, huge :)
And AGAIN Croatia beats you here as well - Chinese will come one way or another, wheter that be Hainan, Air China or some other airline...
given that over 150.000 Chinese are in Croatia per year already, Serbia has what...30k ?