Croatia Airlines plans to add new destinations and routes to its network this summer for a third year in a row. The carrier will put a greater emphasis on coastal operations and has announced the introduction of flights between Dubrovnik and Munich, as well as from Split to Copenhagen. "After several years of recession, the Croatian economy is recovering and the market requires new leisure destinations. This is why we expect that many travellers, both from Croatia and other markets, will use our products more", the company said. It added, "Croatia has been a tourist hit at a global level for several years, not only during the summer season but also in winter. In accordance with these trends and our capacities, in the future, we plan to further expand our European network of destinations and strengthen our position as a regional leader".
Seasonal services between Dubrovnik and Munich will commence on April 30 and run five times per week until mid-October with a mix of Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft. Both Lufthansa and Eurowings maintain flights between the two cities, however, the German national carrier will codeshare with its Croatian counterpart. Further service details can be found here. Flights between Split and Copenhagen will be maintained once per week, each Saturday, starting May 5 with a 174-seat Airbus A320 aircraft. It will compete directly against Norwegian Air Shuttle and SAS Scandinavian Airlines on the route. The Croatian carrier has been growing its operations to the Danish capital over the past few years by increasing frequencies from Zagreb during both the summer and winter months. Flight details for the new Split - Copenhagen service can be found here.
The carrier is also expected to announce new flights from Zagreb in the coming weeks. On the other hand, Croatia Airlines will discontinue its one weekly service between Rijeka and London Heathrow. The airline will wet-lease additional capacity this summer to cater for its growing network. However, the exact make-up of its fleet is yet to be fully finalised. In a recent statement to EX-YU Aviation News, the company said that it "hasn’t made a definitive decision in terms of wet-leasing aircraft for next summer season".
Good to see they are focusing on DBV and the coast again.
ReplyDeleteThey have the right idea but I fear it is a little bit too late when the coast is concerned. Other airlines have been extremely agressive. How is OU going to compete against SAS and Norwegian with its 1 weekly SPU-CPH?
DeleteIt does not have to compete. SAS and OU are both in Star Aliance and demand from Scandinavia to Croatia is huge. SAS will fill that OU flight easily, since demand for Saturday is enormous and SAS does not have enough slots at SPU on that day.
DeleteAnd Norwegian has two daily SPU-CPH in high season.
DeleteThis could work
DeleteSAS will operate up to 3 daily with A321 on CPH-SPU in high season
DeleteStill, the demand seems higher for DBV this year.
DeleteAre you sure anon 3:08 PM? In peak season SAS will have 96 weekly flights from Scandinavia to Split, only 15 to Dubrovnik. And Norwegian also has no less flights to Split than to Dubrovnik. So it seems Splits demand is definitely higher
Delete97! 80 regular + 17 charter by SAS. Plus charters operated by flyBRA, TUIfly, Thomas Cook of SK, Novair
DeleteI wonder what they will start from ZAG.
ReplyDeleteMostar
DeleteI think there will be other routes too.
DeleteDublin 5pw
DeleteHamburg 3pw
Sofia 3pw
Tirana 3pw
Podgorica 3pw
Mostar 3pw
and St.Petersburg from 2 to 3pw
where did you get this info?
DeleteThey would have to wet lease at least 4 planes to have that sort of schedule from Zagreb, plus resume last year's summer routes and have the new flights from the coast.
DeleteThat would be great but no chance for all that in this year. I hope for some new year round routes. Not only seasonal.
Delete4 extra planes?? Its only an extra 21 flights per week. 1 plane could cover that if not 2 max.
DeleteI meant in total. They need two to keep same network as last year plus two if they really do start all of these new routes. They will have some free capacity because of 5 less Heathrow flights.
Delete@Danijel
DeleteLast year they said they would fly Sofia year round this from this year. Although this was said by Kucko and he announced many things that didn't happen. Let's wait and see.
** Sorry I meant Bucharest not Sofia. Hopefully they start Sofia this year.
DeleteAgreed with SOF. Lots of Bulgarians traditionally visit Croatia and DBV in summer - charters. Both ZAG and SOF are EU capitals so there should be a flow of business travellers too.
DeleteLets see how the SOF-LJU performs this spring.
OU will 4 more destinations this summer, soon we'll find out which, Dublin is certain. Lyon? Nice? Krakow? Budapest? Milan? Sofia? Istanbul?
DeleteWhat about Scandinavia?
DeleteDublin and Sofia will be great addition.
DeleteToo little to late
ReplyDeleteFor what?
DeleteTo assert their position on the coast. With a 20% market share during summer, better to focus on ZAG like they have been doing for the last two years.
DeleteAnd how and which which planes are they suppose to do that? Do you realize the amount of new routes have been launched last several years? How in the world would one OU could compete with that?
DeleteJa ne vidim potrebu za natjecanje s ikim.
DeleteU ljetnoj sezoni, kolac je poprilicno velik
Time to stop wet leasing year after year and find a longer term solution to the fleet. Otherwise good news for OU.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Their ops are extremely seasonal. What would they do with all the extra capacity in the winter?
DeleteIt is cheaper to have extra capacity grounded during winter than to wet lease extremely expensive extra capacity in summer. That is why easyJet, Ryanair, Lufthansa, Flybe have their extra capacity grounded in winter time.
DeleteIt's deffinitelly not cheaper to ground fleet and expensive staff during the winter, pariculariy in the union driven airline, with seasionality like six month peak. Please don't compare OU with Ryan or LH or Flybe because there's no direct comparisson in fleet management. The cheapest is to weatlease the capacacity but very difficult to get it for summer 2018. Its even harder to impossible, to lease a Bus for 2018, so will be interestiing to see on what they will build the network.
DeleteThey have been talking about purchasing 100 seaters for what 5 years now. Hope something will happen.
DeleteI am thinking, OU will be receiving 4 brand new A430 Neo in 2021, by that point, Zagreb will be very much "it" destination, with at least 2.4 million visitors, flights to Zagreb even in winter months will be in high demand, especially during the Advent, 01.12 to 08.01.
DeleteOU will be ok with a fleet of 16 aircraft, no need to rush and get new aircraft before that, OU doesn't need more than 20 aircraft I think. 20 wold be ideal.
In winters 12 or so Aircraft are fully utilized, 8 are serviced. Come summer season from April 1st to October 31st, Fleet will be busy. Filling these 5 months is problem for most airlines, OU could try to wet-lease the planes in winter months if there's demand.
6 Dash 8s will be kept, they're good aircraft, perhaps I'd swap them for brand new ones, cause these are now 10 years old, or keep these as they're now right to own deal, I think all 6 for around $20 million.
OU could do with 4 CS100s or CS300, just in case, perhaps to fill the gap in summer seasons. No idea.
I'm happy they are enhancing operations from the coast.
ReplyDeleteGood but this company needs to be shaken up from the ground up. Here is a good article in Croatian of what is happening inside:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dnevno.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/povjerenica-za-informiranje-prizemljila-croatiju-airlines-1120505/
Are they considering INI? If ever launched, the route will be a blast I can tell you.
ReplyDeleteOf course it would....
DeleteAnd Brač. Don't forget Brač :D
DeleteE to bi bio potez.
DeleteOU za INI i napucati taj bonus od 1 000 000 ako je ikako moguce :-)
Pa da....linija ZAG-INI-Brac..i nazad.
Delete2 x dnevno
Don't forget the success of YM when TGD-INI used to be operated.
DeleteINI is now nicely refurbished and waiting for the 1 million'th passenger in the very near future, so I think OU will have a huge success.
BWK already is well connected to North Europe.
YM used to operate from INI
Deletedoes it operate now? No.
was it a success? again, No.
and just because INI is refurbished, OU will be successful on this route.
INI had 300 000 pax in 2017-1 000 000 is not near future
You mean 331,582. Traffic in 2014, only 3 years ago was 1,335. Just imagine how it will be in the next 3 years?
DeleteOU will offer transit to main destinations such as CDG, CPH, MUC, DBV and will be the second legacy carrier after LX. Also Star Alliance!
OU will never fly to Nis, there's no demand for the route, there's little demand for Belgrade - Zagreb route, Air Serbia flying half empty all the time.
DeleteOU would be mad to start service to a small city in southern Serbia, just so numbers @Nis look good.
OU has fleet of only 12 aircraft, bare that in mind.
Well, you are all mocking INI but let's see how long OSI can keep on growing and if they will actually pass beyond 150.000 passengers in the next five years.
DeleteFunny thing is that INI managed to pull off year-round LX, something TGD, ZAG and LJU couldn't.
OSI is always skipped because it's inconvenient for their rhetoric.
DeleteIs Mostar going to be operated by Croatia Airlines or by Trade Air for Croatia Airlines?
ReplyDeleteIt would be smarter for OU if it is operated by the smaller Trade Air Embraer plane, but I don't know who will start it.
DeleteTrade air doesnt have Embraer's Brasilia anymore, its new commuter plane is Jetstream's 19 seater.
DeleteAgain their boasts of "regional leader"... What region would that be?
ReplyDeletePA KROEJSHA.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteThey should now concentrate on making those 8 new destinations from Zagreb that started in 2016 and 2017 year-round.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I think their priority now should be extending those during the winter or at least some of them before they open more new routes.
DeleteGood luck OU. Wish them all the best.
ReplyDeleteGreat news!
ReplyDeleteI think it doesnt makes sense to open various new destinations, but to rather develop existing ones with improved schedules. Once they cant grow there anymore, look for new dest
ReplyDeleteAgree. First improve connectivity on existing routes and then introduce new ones.
DeleteBut they have been flying the same destinations for years (so how much more time do they need to develop them) while other airlines have been opening routes all around them.
DeleteQ400, what are you talking about? They opened 8 new destinations in the past 2 years and are planning to add more this year. I wouldn't call that enough time to develop.
DeleteMaybe Zagreb airport forcing them to open new routes, and for return Airport stops LCC. Possible?
DeleteMozda su u sumi....
DeleteAerodrom, upamti vec jednom, nema koristi od LCCa
Да аеродром нема користи од LCC, онда ниједан већи аеродром не би сарађивао са њима. Упамти то већ једном.
DeleteCroatia Airlines has been doing really well lately. New destinations, record passenger numbers and record profit. Considering the state of the airline just a couple of years ago, it is a huge improvement. I'm looking forward to see what the summer has in store. This is just the beginning.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAnd they did all this under Kucko who people seem to hate here.
DeleteThey should fly to Tirana, Sofia, resume Pristina and Podgorica too. Get more links and transfer passengers from the region.
ReplyDeleteWere the Heathrow slots sold to DL in the end? I missed that part.
ReplyDeleteYes. For 19 million $
DeleteNot all of them, though.
DeleteBA will fill the void, and add extra flights this summer season. Longer term OU will buy lost slots when 3rd runway is completed. OU flies to Heathrow 4 times per week in mid day slot. However, they're most often most expensive airline on the route.
DeleteWell, LHR has always been an expensive airport. OK, SK, AZ for example sold their slots too simply because London is a very competitive destination with its 6 airports!
DeleteBA still has daily ZAG-LHR flights in the system. We are almost in February, they should hurry up if they are going to add more.
Delete