NEWS FLASH
Zagreb Airport has been fined just over 6.700 euros by the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency for denying landing rights to a diverted Croatia Airlines flight which was forced to land in Rome instead. The operator was fined as it did not adhere to the terms of the concession agreement which requires the airport to be operational 24/7. Croatia Airlines said its jet was denied touchdown since Zagreb Airport was insufficiently staffed at the time. The incident occurred last month after midnight. It has since emerged that Zagreb Airport recently downgraded its rescue and fire fighting services (RFFS) category ranking from six to four between 23.00 and 05.00 in the morning, preventing many jet-engine aircraft from landing at the airport during those hours. The move is believed to be a cost cutting measure aimed at reducing staff numbers in emergency services over night. Zagreb Airport has the right to appeal the fine.
Comments
Or did the government forgot to add two zeros? I guess that's how much politicians value their passengers' safety
With the same logic they could punish Croatia Airlines for operating such large aircraft on this route. ATR 42 could have diverted to Zagreb, for example.
It's inconvenient when an airline can't return to its home but is forced to divert to a foreign airport.
Zagreb's first departure is 6:10 and latest arrival is 23:25. So more than 6 hours of no scheduled traffic, and RFFS can be planned with 2 shifts by 9 hours.
See the difference?
PS: The moment you see W6/FR at ZAG, they will have RFFS 7 throughout the night and OU will be able to use it as well.
You have to understand that it is the airline's problem to use ZAG as an alternate airport or not. The airline may choose an airport as alternate even if it is Cat 4 (while the aircraft's recommended requirement is 6). And it seems that they did not have Zagreb as an alternate airport but Rome, that's why the flight ended there.
Let's see if French will act or not. If they do, CCAA will be in trouble too.
The decision to choose the level RFFS for the airport rests solely with the airport operator (well, perhaps not in exyu) and is a commercial one. Why have high fire service available if nobody is landing or departing?
It's 2017 and companies need to turn profit in order to run. One of the way to ensure profitability is reducing the unneccesary cost, like having high RFF at night.
Btw, to define "operational". An A380 cannot use Zagreb as an alternate airport even during the day, unless previously arranged. Who's protesting that the operator doesn't follow the concession rules in making the airport operational 24/7?
As someone mentioned above, if a small provincial airport like SKP can take flights at all time then a state of the art airport lika ZAG should do it too.
Sure, being 24/7 available for widebodies is a waste of resources, but not being able to handle an A320 in my opinion is scandelous.
The new owners have already made many cost cutting measures in ZAG, fair enough, raised taxes, but where do you draw the line?
if SKP is a "small provincial airport", then ZAG is not better either
Croatia always has the option to ask ZAG to extend the RFFS to 6 or more through the night and I am quite sure they would do it. However, I expect OU would have to pay for it.
Secondly it is an absolute disgrace and an embarrassment for a capital city of such a tourist country.
They should've paid 10 times as much.