Several low cost carriers are considering introducing services to Zagreb Airport in the near future and are being enticed by an updated incentives scheme, which provides financial support via discounts on landing and passenger service charges for new routes and frequency increases. Both Transavia and Volotea are among the possible new arrivals at Zagreb Airport. The Air France - KLM no frills subsidiary Transavia France has told the Croatian Ministry for Tourism it plans to add services from France to Zagreb in 2018. In addition, the Spanish low cost carrier Volotea is currently negotiating new seasonal routes to Croatia for the 2018 summer season. It is in talks with Zagreb, Rijeka and Pula airports and aims to handle 220.000 passengers in the country by 2020. On the other hand, budget carrier Monarch Airlines will expand its operation from the United Kingdom to Zagreb by extending its two seasonal routes from London and Manchester, launched earlier this year, into the winter. It is also on the lookout to add services from Birmingham to the Croatian capital in 2018.
easyJet is considering a return to Zagreb in 2018 from which it suspended operations three years ago. It previously maintained flights from London Gatwick, Paris and Dortmund to Croatia's busiest airport. In the past, Wizz Air also served Zagreb with several routes but recently noted that the airport is too expensive for them to operate out of. Budget airlines have upped their presence in the Croatian capital over the past year. Besides Monarch's new flights to the city, Norwegian Air Shuttle has introduced flights from Stockholm, while Eurowings will commence services from Dusseldorf this October. The French-led consortium has previously said it will put a greater focus on attracting low cost carriers and warned Croatia Airlines of getting its business in shape in order to be more competitive against increased competition.
As part of its efforts to attract new carriers, as well as boost frequencies on existing routes, Zagreb Airport recently rolled out an updated incentives programme. "We have updated the programme recently, together with the opening of the new terminal building, in order to extend our financial support to a greater verity of flights", the airport's General Manager, Jacques Feron, said. He added, "Looking ahead, the airport's ambition is to attract more airlines and increase the number of passengers. We are focused on providing an excellent experience at the airport, in accordance with the highest international standards in every part of the passenger's journey, making their experience more memorable".
Wow that terminal always looks amazing!
ReplyDeleteIt'll look even more amazing when it is fully expanded.
DeleteWhat it'll look when Phase 2c is completed.
http://i.imgur.com/ysFGmY5.jpg
2d, will see additional 6 air bridges added.
Finally some low cost airlines! Much needed.
ReplyDeleteThere is Eurowings, Norwegian, Vueling and Monarch all flying to ZAG.
DeleteNot enough
DeletePlus Vueling is only seasonal.
Delete@AnonymousJune 20, 2017 at 4:28 PM
DeleteVueling plans year round service from next year, linking Barcelona and Zagreb year round, with three weekly flights.
Norwegian pans to expand in Zagreb dramatically. they have big plans for Zagreb.
Monarch is looking at adding Birmingham and Edinburgh from next year.
EasyJet plans to return next year, and Transavia and Voltea all plan to introduce flights to Zagreb next year.
Very likely Zagreb will be connected with 25 airlines next year, on regular basis. As of now there are 28 airlines that fly to Zagreb, but only 20 provide regular year round service. 17 legacy Carriers and 3 low cost operators.
Aeroflot,
Air France,
Air Serbia,
Austrian Airlines,
British Airways,
Brussels Airlines,
Croatia Airlines,
Czech Airlines,
El Al
Emirates,
Iberia,
KLM,
LOT Polish Airlines,
Lufthansa,
Qatar Airways,
Swiss International Air Lines
Turkish Airlines
LCCs
GermanWings/EuroWings
Norvegian Air Shuttle
Monarch
+9 Seasonal
Air Europa
Air Malta
Air Transat
Korean Air
Nouvelair
Onur Air
Qeshm Airlines
Tunisair
Wings of Lebanon
Now Zagreb needs to entice Alitalia, TAP and SAS back.
DeleteNorwegian has big plans for Zagreb? Starting with 1-2 weekly flights to ARN. It does not seems as has big plans
Delete"Sam Norwegian je jedino Beograd do sada naveo kao potencijalni grad svoje buduće baze u Jugoistočnoj Europi."
Deletehttps://tangosix.rs/2017/08/05/otvara-li-norwegian-bazu-u-regiji/
@AnonymousJune 20, 2017 at 10:29 PM
DeleteBlatant lie, Norwegian never said any such thing ever !!!
However, they are looking at Zagreb, primarily cause the're very few LCCs there and Zagreb and Croatia are in the EU.
The fact Norwegian already flies out of Zagreb to Stockholm and Copenhagen, successfully, is another bonus.
Bergen, Oslo, Gothenburg, Trondheim and Keflavík are likely routes for Norwegian at least on seasonal basis.
Norwegian has heavy presence in Croatia with over 300 000 passengers in Croatia. For any route manger in any airline, when you have such success, question of expansion is the next thing to consider.
In short for Norwegian Croatia is most important country in the region. Everything else pales in comparison.
So what if Croatia is in the EU? Serbia and Macedonia are not, yet they have a Wizz Air base.
DeleteAlso DY flies year-round from Belgrade to both ARN and OSL despite facing much more competition than in ZAG.
@AnonymousJune 20, 2017 at 11:29 PM
DeleteEU matters as Norwegian can set up base and be treated as home carrier, no need to apply for 5th freedoms.
Zagreb is up and coming destination with 1.1 million foreign visitors, many use Zagreb in combination with the coast.
75 000 Scandinavian visitors in Zagreb in 2016. This number will only grow even more.
Zagreb is only logical base, and they have what 5 weekly flights out of Zagreb already.
This will only increase as they see the initial yields on the route. Eventually they'll add Oslo, seeing how well OU does on the route. And numbers are really great.
Wizz Air is a bad airline, and I wouldn't really brag about Ryan Air or Wizz air, airports hosting these carriers do not make any money from these carriers and it costs money to maintain airport infrastructure.
Five weekly? Are you sure? So they fly four times from Oslo and one weekly from ARN?
DeleteSo you are saying that Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Brussels... are all losing money from having Ryanair there? Even BEG hiked Wizz Air's fees and they stayed. It seems that it's not a problem with the airline but with the airport. ;)
Plus, thy said it themselves to T6 that BEG is the only airport they would go for so why are you arguing?
Good news for the public but bad news for Croatia Airlines. They have already been squeezed on the coast, now Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteThat's their problem. They had years to become competitive and offer decent prices. For the basic service they offer their fares are way too high.
DeleteDoom and gloom for OU. Not at all. Great news for ZAG and the broader Croatian economy. Bring em in. Bravo Hrvatska!!!
DeleteThe pie is getting bigger and unless OU decides on dramatically increasing their capacity (which they should do) than it wont really effect them.
DeleteVery good news, it seems that ZAG is on the right path.
ReplyDeleteIf we exclude that the concessionaire has cut costs everywhere it could.
DeleteSpeaking of, did Croatia make a similar concession deal like in Skopje? Because in Skopje when the airport reaches 1 million passengers in a single year the concessionaire is freed from paying the concession fee. Is there some passenger cap for the French in Zagreb?
Deletehow stupid is that? Creating demand and pax numbers is easy. The challenge is for both the airline and airport to make money as economic entities. It leads to completely wrong incentives for the airport operator. So in the end the only paying is the tax payer.
DeleteIt would be fantastic for an LCC to base a plane in ZAG.
ReplyDeleteI think it might be Eurowings that does that in the end.
DeleteActually easy jet would make most sense seeing as they handle over 600,000 passengers per year to Croatia and have an extensive network in the country.
DeleteAnyone know how big these incentives are?
ReplyDeleteYear-round Scheduled New Destination Incentives:
DeleteLanding fees: 100% discount first year, 50% second year, 25% third year.
Passenger service charge: 40% first year, 20% second year, 10% third year.
Year-round Frequency Increase on Existing Destination Incentives:
Landing fees: 50% discount first year, 25% second year.
Passenger service charge: 10% first year, 5% second year.
Seasonal Scheduled New Destination Incentives:
Landing fees: 100% discount first year.
New Charter Destination Incentives:
Landing fees: 100% discount first year.
Seasonal to Year-round Incentives:
Landing fees: 100% discount first year.
Passenger service charge: 10% first year.
Supplementary Long-haul Incentives:
Passenger service charge: 30% first year.
Thin Line Support (LF under 50%):
Landing fees: 50% discount first year.
wow thanks!
DeleteSeems like a smart programme. But the question is will new airlines stay around after those conditions expire.
DeleteSimilar incentive schemes on other airports have proven that almost all initially subsidied lines have not been discontinued.
DeleteI guess when winter comes EK will qualify for the thin line support.
DeleteLol. I like how they called it "thin" line.
DeleteSince Zagreb is managed by a French company it makes sense to add more links to France.
ReplyDeleteThere is absolutely no logic in your statement.
DeleteSo we might see some LCC flights from Paris? Any other possible destinations?
ReplyDeleteLyon, Nice, Marseille
DeleteLyon would be direct competition with Croatia Airlines.
DeleteNice work Zagreb!
ReplyDeleteGood to see more airline interested especially LCCs.
ReplyDeleteZagreb definitely needs more low cost airlines. I think Norwegian and Eurowings are a good fit for the airport. Somehow don't see ultra low cost airlines working out of ZAG.
ReplyDeleteWhy?! You think the local population is too good for ultra LCC and would avoid them?
DeleteNo, it's just that the management running the airport does not care much to being blackmailed, which is one of the business strategies of Ryan air and Wizz Air.
DeleteAnd Volotea is what? A hybrid? It's also ultra LCC.
DeleteTo me it seems that the only side with ultra low cost practices is the airport management which first cut the entire terminal project to save money and now can't park all aircraft at the terminal when there are two wide bodies, who bought the worst possible stand guidance system, designed the most nonfunctional apron and cut employees numbers so that they can't handle emergency landings at night.
DeleteTrue, Volotea is LCC, but is not as big as Wizz, nor Ryan - the ability to expand & develop is "modest", hence it is less likely to blackmail. I actually like ZAG's approach in working with several LCCs, such as Monarch, Eurowings, Norwegian and possibly Volotea and Transavia - as opposed to giving it all to 1 or 2 players ...On one hand, the airport has to work harder and is likely not to grow so fast, yet on the other hand it is less exposed and had reduced risks from dropping in numbers if something goes wrong with certain operator.
Delete@ June 20, 2017 at 9:44 AM
DeleteBravo. It had to be said.
How do you thing they would build a terminal even bigger than todays, when no airline pays for it (their customers), Try open a bakery and attract customers by exempting them from any payment and see how far you get. The AIRPORTs customers are AIRLINES- Airlines Customers are the Passengers. Not so hard to get it.
DeleteAnon 9:59 congrats for pointing out a not very well understood relation between airports, airlines and passengers.
DeleteYears ago Croatia Airlines used to push the argument that low cost airlines should not fly to Zagreb because it would not make it a world class airport and would reduce its value LOL. Reminded me a bit of the original comment here.
Delete@AnonymousJune 20, 2017 at 12:45 PM
DeleteYou're just now trolling and are jealous. Zagreb airport never said so, especially being world class airport.
Zagreb airport airport strategy has all along been to attract legacy carriers, this is the base they're building their future.
Plan to bring up to 40 carriers by 2020, and at least 30-32 of these are legacy carriers.
Aeroflot, Air France, Air Serbia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Czech Airlines, Emirates, Iberia, KLM, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, Swiss International Air Lines & Turkish Airlines are current Legacy operators to Zagreb.
Further down the line airport hopes to Add, TAP, Aer Lingus, Aegean, SAS, Air Baltic, Finnair, Tarom and Alitalia.
LCCS that fly to Zagreb are: Eurowings, with a base in Zagreb, Monarch Airlines soon to fly to 3 destinations out of Zagreb, Norwegian with big plans for Zagreb, Vueling flying to Barcelona, but might add Valencia at some point and Palma.
If Voltea, Transavia, Easy Jet arrive they won't be the first or last to arrive.
PS, there are number of seasonal carriers that fly to Zagreb.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagreb_Airport
World class airports are open 24/7. Just sayin'
Delete@AnonymousJune 20, 2017 at 4:50 PM
DeleteIndeed, that is true, something I am sure current skiving management at Airport would take note off.
I presume Croatian Government will now demand revision of the contract to ensure such things do not happen in the future, endangering lives of many passengers to save few bucks.
This is 2nd incident in very short time @Zagreb airport. These sorts of stuff should not be happening!!!
What was the first incident? Did I miss something?
DeleteOk so FRA and many other very big airports are not world class airport according to your definition as they are not open 24 hours a day?
DeleteAre you comparing Zagreb to Frankfurt?
DeleteThey(FRA) don't have fligts but in every moment(00-24) they can serve planes(all types). BEG too(00-24). Last night, about 2AM Aegean A320 landed in BEG (Heraklion - Belgrade).
DeletePlease no Ryanair or Wizz!
ReplyDeleteBoth have talked to ZAG last year and both got rejected. Their terms and conditions were just unrealistic.
DeleteIts good they were rejected! No one needs them.
DeleteHave you ever flown any of both carriers? Just look how they revolutionised travel in Romania & Bulgaria.
Deleterevolutionized travel? They create demand by exploiting everything and everyone around them. Pilots are on "pay-to-fly" contracts. Airports that are only dependent on them go bust. They do not pay socials in the country they employ. How do you think Nis for example will pay that new terminal or its employees? How if they do not make any money?
DeleteNis gets income from operating all parking lots in the city ;)
DeleteYes, but smaller airports need them for tourism and business. People use them even for domestic flights. Wake up, the world of travel has changed. INI will soon benefit from both W6 and FR. Look at SKP too, what about Zadar and Tuzla? I am hoping to see cheap domestic flights within Croatia too.
DeleteWell is INI can do that by operating the parking lots in the city - good for them ;) So no need to make money with the airport itself. Frankfurt-Hahn cannot do that and although handling more than 2,5 Mil Pax they are bankrupt and filed for insolvency. Their only customers are WIZZ and RYANAIR? HOW?
DeleteZadar flights are subsidised, by the tourism ministry. I guess that makes sense since tourists mostly use those flights and leave more money in the country than it is paid to Ryan
DeleteNot sure how many tourists Nis or Sofia get from those flights
Wizz and Ryan are really ULCC.
DeleteEasy and Volotea, Eurowings, Vueling are not - they are LCC.
That is differentiated - see for ex. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-cost_carrier#Ultra_Low-Cost_Carrier
If my memory serves me right, Croatia Airlines is offering 500h on the right seat of A320, which is a true pay to fly program.
DeleteI think ZAG must follow the BUD model of having both legacy and LCC. BUS is home for W6, FR and DY. But you also have direct flights to China, EK, Egyptair, etc.
ReplyDeleteVolotea, Transavia, easyjet and new Monarch flights would be more than amazing for next year!
ReplyDeletePlus flights to New York too :)
DeleteI HOPE that one day we will have a European low cost airline flying domestic flights from Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised this hasn't happened already. Why?
DeleteGuys- the bus services in Croatia are one of the best in Europe. You can travel to virtually anywhere withing the country in less than 4 hours. The only O&D that makes sense is DBV to ZAG timewise.
DeleteThere is no money to be made on domestic flights. You can't ask Croatia Airlines about that. Those flights are filled with transfer passengers during the summer, while during the winter domestic routes are loss making and don't have too many passengers. For a LCC it is much better to fly direct from the west to the coast than to fly a short domestic flight.
DeleteBWK also needs a year round Dash or at least Trade Air Jetstream service few times a week to ZAG. 2pw in summer is not enough. The route is PSO after all.
DeleteYou're forgetting that there are business travellers too. Come on, even Slovakia has domestic flights. Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece all have year around LCC, so why is Croatia an exception?
DeleteSame for BEG-INI, much potential in this route.
Inter ex-yu could work. I know that it's impossible within the current framework of
Deletebilateral agreements and protectionism but I'm sure there would be passengers.
I'm sure ZAG DBV would be a success. Even ZAG SPU. And that's all.
DeleteNot impossible at all. It is allowed within EU.
DeleteAny EU carrier can operate any intra EU service as well as any domestic service within any EU country.
Imagine an airline like Wizz starting Sarajevo, Zagreb, Podgorica and Pristina from ZAG :)
DeleteThat would be revolutionary. A sightseeing flight on Wizz A320 from ZAG to ZAG :)
DeleteHaha I meant Sarajevo, Belgrade. Podgorica and Pristina.
DeleteOU actually offers very good deals for domestic flights, although I can't say the same for their ex-Yu flights.
DeleteThis is true. Bus from Osijek to Split or Dubrovnik is 10+ hours, bus from Zagreb to Dubrovnik is 10+hours, bus from Rjeka to Split and Dubrovnik is 5 and 10 hours, etc. PSO is good, but not with Croatia Airlines. They have prices on route from Zagreb to Dubrovnik like there is no PSO subsidiary. Also, 2 weeks flight from Rijeka to Dubrovnik and Split with 19seater is not enough, specially during they the summer. 2 week flights with dash just during the summer is also bad. As I wrote earlier, PSO is great in theory, but not well taken in Croatia...
DeleteThey should also try to develop cargo traffic.
ReplyDeleteAdmin, you meant Manchester, not Birmingham as the route that has been launched this summer?
ReplyDeleteNo ,he meant Birmingham as a future destination for Monarch !!!!!!!!
DeleteDude, chill with the exclamation marks.
DeleteAdmin wrote Manchester as a future route instead of Birmingham.
I would love to see Pegasus start SAW-ZAG. It would end the Turkish Airlines monopoly on the route and would offer some great transfer options.
ReplyDeleteDidn't they fly to Zagreb before?
DeleteNo they have never flown to Zagreb.
DeleteAgree, ZAG needs Pegasus with some cheap fares to the Middle East.
DeleteYou have affordable tickets to the Middle East with Emirates at the moment
DeleteGiven that TK is not doing as wonderfully in ZAG I highly doubt Pegasus will consider it.
DeletePegasus went to Turkish and asked them about their loads and yields. They said they do not do well on the route to ZAG and Pegasus decided against launching it.
DeletePegasus went to Turkish and asked them about their loads and yields. They said they do not do NOT well on the route to ZAG and Pegasus decided against launching it.
DeleteNot necessarily, it was enough for them to see the winter reduction to put two and two together.
DeleteWhy would TK (or any other airline) enclose their performance details on any route to any airline? You really believe that they would save the trouble for future contender? I sincerely doubt it..just because somebody posts this on the forum doesn't make it so...
DeleteI don't get the point of your comment last Anon.
DeleteIf the market was there then TK would not have reduced their flights and OU would still be flying to IST today. Pegasus looks at these things, they don't announce destinations randomly, to make their destination map prettier.
Glede TK price i ZAG.....zivim u Saudijskoj Arabiji i TK mi je uvijek bio 1.izbor....sve do Erdogana i njegova showa....od tada ih zaobilazim u sirokom krugu. I TK i IST.
DeleteI am just saying that Pegasus did not go to TK and got their yields etc on ZAG. I dont comment on the rest.
DeleteAny news or inside info about AerLingus in ZAG 2018?
ReplyDeleteIn a statement to EX-YU Aviation News last week, Paula Donaghy, an Aer Lingus spokesperson said, "We currently have no plans to operate flights between Dublin and Zagreb". Of course, this could change but the official line from the airline is that there are no plans for the route for the time being.
DeleteThank you for the information and procative approach towards EI.
DeleteThough I believe that usually an airline will not give (official) info away that they are planning a certain route in the future as this would immediately alert and motivate the competition. Recently happened with OU and their ARN service where DY jumped in.
It is remarkable that there are also no DUB services from surrounding airports LJU, GRZ, TRS, MBX, OSI, RJK, BEG.
Just Ryanair serves Zadar from/to DUB on a year-round basis.
Well EI flies to DBV daily, to SPU twice a week and to PUY. Judging by their loads to SPU they will increase it to at least 4 times a week next year. They will certainly then offer ZAG to cater for circle tour tourists in the country. Just a matter of time. They will of course not confirm or reveal their future business strategy. Only when it gets concrete.
DeleteI wish Sarajevo airport follows the same procedure. With biggest tax in Europe, we don't attract any low cost company, except Eurowings, but they cost same as Luftahansa or Austrian
ReplyDeletetalking about Eurowings, you are right, their price VERY OFTEN could be compared to any other national airline! Pozdrav svima.
DeleteSJJ has more LCCs than ZAG? Pegasus, Norwegian, Eurowings, TUI, FlyDubai, Wizz.
DeleteNice, Marseille, Tenerife (or any other Canary island), Porto, RIX, MLA, DUB, VLC, KRK, etc..... These are great destinations to visit and most importantly nobody flies to these cities from Zagreb. I think they could all work if operated by a low cost airline.
ReplyDeleteWell great news for Zagreb i am not surprised really :)
ReplyDeleteFrom Airliners.net:
ReplyDelete'It seems SCAC will sign a new order for 10 SSJs with Mexico's Interjet, and is about to close a deal with Adria Airways for 12 SSJs to substitute their BBD fleet.'
Seems like JP will be getting those SSJ Ruski jets.
So the article from a few days ago was correct
Deletehttp://www.exyuaviation.com/2017/06/sukhoi-pitches-superjet-to-adria.html
Seems like it. What's interesting is that Interjet seems to be expanding its own fleet. Great news for the Russine jet maker.
DeleteI'm glad Zagreb finally has a proactive management that has identified clearly what they have to do. First they attracted legacy airlines, now low cost, and I assume cargo operators will follow.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/273407/wizzair-boosts-sofia-network-in-s18/
ReplyDeleteIs ZAG going to be the next base? I really hope W6 are reading our blog!
ZAG will get someone like Eurowings or easyJet.
DeleteNo chance for Wizz. Like I said last year they wanted to restart flights to ZAG but gave some ludicrous conditions and ZAG turned them away.
DeleteSo OU need to launch new routes to take advantage of under served/non existant routes before their competition to take advantage of the discounts. Bravo
ReplyDeleteNorwegian, ARN-ZAG-ARN W17/18 bookable from today. 1pw...but it's something.
ReplyDeleteW17/18 will be great for ZAG:
OU: LIS & BCN
Monarch: LGW & MAN
Eurowings: DUS
EK: DXB
LOT: +2pw
Norwegian: ARN...and possibly CPH
About time!! Really great news! I'm happy that Scandinavia is working out so well,I was sure it will. There's still so much more potential and demand, enough to go around for both legacy carriers and LCCs. Still hoping they dedicate the old terminal to LCCs, at least partially. They can easily expand cargo facilities there as well. At any rate looks like they'll have to start working on the 2nd phase of the project concerning the apron extension at the new terminal.
ReplyDelete