Low cost carrier easyJet is planning on growing its operations to Croatia next year, particularly from the United Kingdom. Sophie Dekkers, easyJet's UK Country Director said, "A lot of the challenges we’ve faced in the last twelve months has consolidated our capacity in Europe. A lot of airlines have shifted away from Egypt and Turkey in favour of routes like Spain and Portugal. Everyone is competing to get passengers. We are looking at alternative routes to places like Croatia next year”. She added the airline is considering such expansion from across the country. easyJet is seen as a possible contender to fill the void on the London - Zagreb route following the collapse of budget rival Monarch Airlines and in the wake of Croatia Airlines' flight reduction to the UK capital after the sale of its Heathrow slots. easyJet previously discontinued services from London Gatwick to Zagreb at the end of the 2014 summer season.
The budget airline added eight new routes to the Croatian coast this year, which were announced in mid-December of 2016. The expansion represented a 23% year-on-year increase in seat capacity. The carrier continues to maintain its position as the second largest carrier in the country based on capacity, increasing its share by 2% to 10% this year, behind Croatia Airlines but ahead of Eurowings, Ryanair, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Lufthansa. It is the number one airline in both Split and Dubrovnik with a 22% and 16.8% share this year respectively. easyJet has applied for subsidies on offer for 2018 by the Croatian National Tourist Board through the implementation of joint strategic promotional campaigns.
Ali Gayward, easyJet’s UK Commercial Manager, noted, "We see a growing demand for short and long breaks to Croatia and we’re continuing to make it convenient for our customers to visit Croatia’s fantastic destinations contributing to the local economy". Furthermore, the airline said, "easyJet periodically assesses the opportunities on the basis of market research with business cases on several routes and then we choose the ones that result to prove more attractive for our customers. easyJet currently offers as many as 39 destinations to and from Croatia confirming the airline’s commitment to the country and to making travel easy and affordable for local passengers to connect to Europe".
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My only guess for Hrvatsko is ZAG as the coastal airports already have plenty of direct flights by U2.
I am surprised they officially dumped Romania and pull out of Serbia in March unless INI can act fast.
I think they are quite similar.
But hey it is always nice to dream.
LOL where? You do realize they announce many new routes traditionally in December.
Pre desetak dana easyJet-ov korisnički centar je u odgovoru putnicima preko društvenih mreža na pitanje zašto više nema letova u rezervacionom sistemu odgovorio da „linija postaje sezonska i da će se letovi vratiti od naredne zimske sezone“.
Aha! So we know ;)
New routes in 2018:
London Gatwick
Paris CDG
Manchester
New routes in 2019:
Berlin Tegel
Toulouse
Porto
Edinburgh
I still don't understand why there is such animosity when it comes to LCCs and ZAG. For the love of God, most Croats would be happy if the average fare would go down the same way it did in Belgrade and Skopje once LCCs moved in.
Zagreb airport will change their policy for LCC from 2019. In 2018 they will allow some benefits for LCC but will still be focus on legacy and intercontinental. But from 2019 they will be focus on LCC. EasyJet is their prime interest because of ADP (on of concessionaire in Zagreb) where easyJet has 3 bases (Amsterdam, Orly and CDG). So they will start with easyJet but will try to attract one more LCC to base plane in Zagreb. I thing it will be Eurowings.
A feud has erupted between the management of Zagreb Airport and its main customer Croatia Airlines. Angered by recent news that easyJet will commence services from Paris and London to Zagreb, Croatia Airlines said it may be forced to reduce frequencies or terminate the routes during the winter months. “This way Zagreb would lose flights to certain European cities, which would lead to its isolation and would negatively impact on Croatian tourism”, a spokesperson from Croatia Airlines told the “Buisness.hr” portal. Furthermore, the national carrier said that the arrival of low cost airlines won’t offer passengers anything new from Zagreb and will increase competition on the market, which is still recovering from the economic crisis. The airline said that easyJet’s flights to Paris and London and Norwegian Air Shuttle’s service to Copenhagen will see passenger numbers decline. It warned that Zagreb is becoming a low cost airport. “This is against European standards because low cost airlines do not fly to major hubs, instead they use secondary airports”, a spokesperson from the airline said.
“We believe that Croatia Airlines’ announcement regarding the suspension of some services shows the airline’s inability to face up to competition”, a spokesperson from Zagreb Airport said. He continued by stating that low cost airlines do not only operate from secondary airports...
6 routes from Pula (1 all year)
6 routes from Rijeka (1 all year)
7 routes from Zadar
8 routes from Split (3 all year)
7 routes from Dubrovnik
5 routes from Zagreb (4 all year)
1 route from Osijek
That is
40 rutes
- of which 9 are all year
ZAG-LGW
ZAG-MAN
ZAG-EDI
ZAG-BHX
ZAG-LPL
ZAG-SXF
ZAG-CDG
DBV-VIE
DBV-BRU
SPU-ORY
Domestic daily flights from ZAG-DBV or ZAG-SPU to end OU monopoly. Croatian domestic market needs more players, not only U2 but W6 too.
Croatia would benefit from both, either way.
I think easyjet is ideal for ZAG. It is not the lowest of the low cost carriers but it would certainly be a good alternative to OU and legacies.
Still, princip je isti, sve su ostalo nijanse.
I wish they expand in BEG.
This year they could add flights for example from Amsterdam to Zadar.
Also I think Amsterdam - Zagreb could work if they start flying from Zagreb. OU always sends the A320 (while to CDG they mostly fly with the A319) and KL often upgrades to bigger planes.
A lot of Dutch people like to go on small city trips during the winter as well which could fill the easyjet plane throughout the whole year. Next to this I noticed that more and more Croats are starting to visit Amsterdam and also Paris!
All passengers are bused to Athens.
Have you ever heard of EI or one of the other 61 airlines serving DUB?
Invasion? Really?
Personally, I don't disagree with their strategy in principle, especially if Easy starts flying to Zagreb regardless, as is the case with Split and Dubrovnik. But they went too far!