Zagreb Airport anticipates record passenger growth this summer season with the arrival of new airlines, the launch of new routes, as well as the addition of frequencies and capacity on existing services. The dominance of full service carriers is set to continue as they are projected to account for over 90% of all seats on offer from the Croatian capital this summer. Following on from a record 2017, Zagreb Airport has continued to post strong results in the new year. In January, it handled 191.276 passengers, representing an increase of 13.3% on the year before. The number of aircraft movements grew 8.6% to 3.039.
| Month | PAX | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| JAN | 191.276 | ▲ 13.3 |
Two new foreign carriers will commence operations to the Croatian capital this year with Aegean Airlines to start three weekly flights from Athens, which will be followed by Air Canada Rouge's four weekly service from Toronto. The latter will compete directly against Air Transat, which itself will increase its seasonal flights to Zagreb by resuming operations on May 15, some two weeks ahead of last year. Last month, Air Canada Rouge, which will offer a total 20.586 seats each way between Toronto and Zagreb during the June 2 to October 7 period, told EX-YU Aviation News, "We are satisfied with advanced bookings for our new Zagreb service. It has fully met our expectations. This is why we have allocated four weekly frequencies to this route, which is primarily targeted at leisure travellers".
For a third year running, Croatia Airlines will launch new routes out of Zagreb with flights to Dublin and Mostar planned to commence in May. “We are excited that for the first time in Croatia Airlines’ history we will have a Zagreb - Dublin route. We see the introduction of this flight as a contribution to the development of tourism in both countries and we are looking forward to seeing many Irish citizens in the Croatian capital, as well as in other parts of Croatia", Croatia Airlines' CEO, Jasmin Bajić, said. Furthermore, the carrier will add four additional afternoon flights on its Skopje service for a total of twelve per week, as well as an extra two weekly operations to Rome (via Dubrovnik) for a total of ten. It will also add one service to St Petersburg, bringing its total number of flights on the route to three per week. This growth will offset the airline's reduction in flights between Zagreb and London Heathrow.
Emirates will enter its second year of operations in Zagreb this summer, with the airline maintaining daily flights from its Dubai hub. "Emirates remains committed to the Croatian market, and works closely with our travel industry partners to support and grow the route. Our new partnership with Flydubai now offers additional possibilities to serve our customers in Croatia better, and the two airlines continue to talk and develop the partnership", the Dubai-based airline told EX-YU Aviation News recently. Meanwhile, Spain's Iberia will maintain up to eight weekly seasonal flights from Madrid to the Croatian capital, an increase from five weekly last year. It will also bring forward the resumption of the service by a month to early May. LOT Polish Airlines will boost operations between Warsaw and Zagreb from ten weekly last summer to double daily starting June 26, while Lufthansa’s low cost subsidiary Eurowings plans to handle some 200.000 passengers to and from the Croatian capital this year, with the novelty this summer being its service from Dusseldorf which was launched during the 2017/18 winter season. Swiss International Air Lines, Brussels Airlines and ČSA Czech Airlines will all resume seasonal flights from their respective hubs to Zagreb on March 25.
You can review what's in store this summer at Belgrade Airport here and for Ljubljana Airport here.
You can review what's in store this summer at Belgrade Airport here and for Ljubljana Airport here.
Comments
If FR/W6 launched flights to Sweden, Germany... it would hurt airlines like LH, OU, LO, OS...
Better to stick with this premium formula.
"For a third year running, Croatia Airlines will launch new routes out of Zagreb with flights to Dublin and Mostar planned to commence in May."
Sorry I overlooked it
Good to read (above by Peter) that the European handball championships only accounted for 3% of the growth which makes the total 13% for January even more impressive.
Kad bi u HR bili samo ZAD i ZAG......
Not gonna happen
The arguments against are also good, but with less weight: Belgrade has a bigger ctchment-area, Belgrade has less concurence (INI & BUD... are to far away) and an unlikely argument is the unproportional economic growth. Unlikely because in Serbia we hadn't an significant growth the last 30 years, so why it should change right now (the so called crisis is NOT a crisis, but a status quo).
Anyway I hope for the whole region to grow an bring better life to all peaople. (I am from Macedonia)
I wish easyJet would have ten weekly flights this summer or if Transavia doubled its flights in February ... ahh if only.
Some flights today:
JU
BEG-FCO 174/174
FCO-BEG 110/174
BEG-FRA 70/144
FRA-BEG 110/144
TK
BEG-IST overbooked on A321
HV
AMS-BEG 154/189
BEG-AMS 172/189
The rest I can't remember
I think Zagreb will finish this year at somewhere between 3,4 and 3,5 million pax.
For example I paid BSL-KEF 100 eur return with U2.
Also, if Air transat continues to serve Toronto - Zagreb, ACR will continue to compete on the route.
The chances are, Ait Transat will move to Montreal - Zagreb route and let ACR do Toronto - Zagreb. If that happens, AC could take over in 2020.
However, last year over 150 000 Canadians visited Croatia, 53000 visited Zagreb. The chances are, this number will continue to grow fast. 250 000 Canadians could visit Croatia in 2020, if projections hold.
Funny thing though, 476 000 Us visitors, no direct connection between Zagreb and US. 120 000+ US Visitors visited Zagreb last year.
Zagreb had 1.3 million visitors in 2017, nearly 10% were from US and 5% from Canada.
Also, number of Brazilians in Croatia went up dramatically, 64000, 33% growth on previous year. If numbers continue to go up at that rate, number of Brazilian visitors in 2020 could reach 150 000.
Not sure if that would warrant direct link between Rio or Sao Paulo with Zagreb, would be interesting to see first Latin American carrier touching down in Zagreb before 2025.
You do know tourist season starts in early April in Croatia and ends in late October.
The quiet months are November, January, February and first 3 weeks of March.
December is no longer quiet month. Zagreb gets busy due to Advent from December 1st to January 8th.
110 000 foreign visitors in Zagreb last December. This year, at least 125 000 are expected. That's nothing when compared to Vienna, Prague, Budapest or Venice, which are filled with foreign visitors.
Budapest had 4.4 million visitors last year, to Zagreb's 1.3 million. Long way to go for Zagreb.
SPU na ZAG od prosle
.
Tako nekako.
https://www.dailysabah.com/tourism/2018/02/15/dissatisfied-with-alternative-markets-european-tourists-heading-back-to-turkey
Also, AC will not come to ZAG.
But sure, they are going to launch mighty ZAG before silly, provincial ATH.
And that silly Emirates launched tiny ZAG. Ts-ts-ts...
Stop stating something you don't know will or won't happen. You'll look damn stupid if it happens. Oh, wait! You're hiding behind Anonymous. NVM.
Toga si svjestan?
Hrvatski aerodromi ce ove godine zabiljeziti 1 000 000 putnika vise nego prosle.
To ne cinjenica.
Hmm well you are not showing your identity either. You can post as Anon anytime you want, so...
And are you implying OU might be saved if the deal with Garuda goes through? :D
And yes, I could write under Anon, but I don't. Which can't be said for you.
And enjoy in belittling OU. I couldn't care less about them or any other airline. I won't affect my life if they stay or disappear.
Where did I write that AC is coming to ZAG. I wrote you or anyone doesn't know if they will ever come.
And that nickname is hilarious.
Not really.
You're boring. And annoying. Enjoy chatting with yourself. Bye!
I expect between 1.75 and 2 million visitors in Zagreb in 2020, 3.7-3.8 million nights.
BTW, when I say small, I mean compared to Vienna, Budapest, Rome, Milan and other major cities that are very popular city brake destinations.
I am hoping Zagreb can pull 3 million visitors by 2025. It is possible at present rate of growth.
In summer months iberia will fly to Zagreb on double daily basis on some days.
Cak i ako OU nestane, netko drugi ce istog trenutka popuniti prazninu.
Bez brige
Bit sill to say Zagreb would overtake Belgrade in 2025. First of all anything is possible and won't say it can't happen. It all depends in Zagreb allows LCCs to come in or not.
However, I don't think the airport can grow as fast as Belgrade did in one year by 1.3 million.
My prediction is Zagreb will handle around 3.4 million this year, a conservative estimate.
2018 - 3.4 million
2019 - 3.7 million
2020 - 4.0 million
2021 - 4.4 million
2022 - 4.8 million
2023 - 5.2 million
2024 - 5.7 million
2025 - 6.2 million
I am quite certain Belgrade will grow at the same time too. My projections, conservative estimates.
2018 - 5.6 million
2019 - 6.0 million
2020 - 6.4 million
2021 - 6.7 million
2022 - 7.1 million
2023 - 7.6 million
2024 - 8.0 million
2025 - 8.6 million
I think best is to ignore trolls, there's plenty of traffic all concerned.
Look if Marco Polo airport handles more than all of Croatian airports combined, shows how far we need to go, and plenty of fish in the water.
Are you saying 476 000 Croats with US passport visited Croatia in 2017? and 570 000 projected visitors from US will also have Croatian nationality on top of their US passports ?
In fact, the data for dual nationality of Us passport holders isn't the thing Croatian Government is bothered with. As it allows Croatian passport holders to maintain dual nationality (I think limit is to 5 passports).
That being said, a vast majority of visitors to Croatia from US are US nationals only!!!
Number of Croats who visit Croatia each year isn't that great, perhaps between 150 and 200 000. However they're not tourist, they have homes or families in Croatia.
To be classed as a visitor you need to be registered as such by hotel or accommodation service. In Croatia there's a system of reporting number of visitors electronically. Same goes with the tax and vat. It is automatic and nearly impossible to cheat.
I assure you, of 476 000 US visitors, less than 10% are Croatian's with US passports and it doesn't matter, as they also spend money in Croatia.
1 000 000+ novih putnika na Hrvatskim aerodrimima u 2018.
ZAG +13.3%
SPU +17%
DBV +15%
1 000 000+ u 2018.
ZAG sijecanj 2017: 168 000
Razlika 88 000
Sijecanj 2018.razlika 90 000
Sta prica ovaj???
and what about next century?
what will the figures be at BEG and ZAG?
Razlika u sjecnju 2017. - 79 395
Razlika u sjecnju 2018. - 90 903
Dakle, LJU je zaustavila zaostajanje za ZAG tako sto se ta razlika povecala za 11 508 putnika.
Ma bravo za LJU
I think JP´s expansion will be very successful. Hopefully OU does the same.
BUD regularly receive B773.
And I really don't feel like spoiling your feeling of supremacy, combined with exctatic enjoyment, but I just have to remind you that "smaller, regional airports" are usually not served by Air France, KLM, British, Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, Iberia, THY, EL AL, Qatar, Emirates, Air Canada..., especially if we know that some "powerful hubs", "big game players", "centers of the World" (in the "region", of course), don't have even a half of above mentioned carriers. Cheers!
Would you rather have have airport like Sapporo in Japan with 20M pax and zero of those airlines, or have an airport with all those airlines but barely 3M pax?
Those American tourists mostly fly into VCE and sail down the Adriatic coast to admire the Venetian historical gems.
Also, from what I know, there is a large Croatian diaspora in the US, not so sure about Korea.
Jedino zajednicko sto imaju aerodromi kao sto su INI, DBV, SPU, Tivat, Tuzla.....je to sto su aerodromi. Drugih dodirnih tocaka nemaju.
Razlike su tim vece sto je npr SPU kadar progucati putnika u jednom mjesecu koliko INI ima u godini i pol.
Ponovit cu se, u 2018. na Hrvatskim aerodromima ocekujem rast prometa za 1 000 000+ novih putnika.
I summer months it is around 90%/.
We'll see how 2018 pans out, early days for A380 on the route. we'll see. However, 2020, sure on few busy days they might put A380 on the route.
WE'll see how Jin Air, Korean air and potential Chinese carrier influence the future capacity.
Zagreb domestic demand is growing @5% yoy and that is very encouraging, as Croats are among least air-traveling people in the EU.
This could be due to number of reasons, but one of the main reasons is the cost.
More airlines @Zagreb, more competition, will drive costs down.
It all depends on the airport.
Zagreb is growing as a regional travel destination, has very few transfers and is more final destination for many passengers.
As airport grows, and it'll grow as Croatia gains more importance of being an EU and NATO member.
Sadly many airport with high volume of passengers, tend to rely on few airlines to generate the traffic, seen it a lot among seasonal travel destinations.
Split, Zadar and Dubrovnik also start to benefit from these trends in Croatia, EasyJet, RyanAir, Wizz, Eurowings...
Problem with these carriers, which often pay nothing to bring the passengers in, do not stimulate local economy, but actually cost local economy as often they demand subsidies.
Sofia airport is a fine example. In 2017 airport had 6.4 million passengers, and you'd expect airport with 30% yoy growth would generate massive profits. Sadly not the case, Airport recorded massive loss.
Same goes for Bucharest airport. Budapest airport isn't doing too great. Riga, Krakow, Gdansk all depend on EU and local subsidies. Heavily. As they make no profits at all.
Even Standsted airport, major low cost hub, 26 million passengers and serving London. That airport makes £60 million profit on 26 million passengers. If Manchester Airport wasn't such a success, and invested heavily in infrastructure of the airport, Standsted would be losing money.
It is good to have few strong airlines, but ideally you really want number of carriers and number of destinations offered.
They have fleet shortage cause most of the aircraft due to old age are being serviced.
On order book they've got 24 A320 NEO starting deliveries from 2019.
they're retiring A340 fleet entirely this and the following year, and have ordered A350 as a replacement. 16 A 350 on order.
Iberia should eventually field some 65 single isle aircraft, and 40 twin isle aircraft.
Sijecanj 2018:
ZAG +13.3%
SPU +10.7%
DBV +15%
;)
SOF airport has recorded a profit of approx. 10 million leva (5 million €).
OTP airport - 8% increase in revenue.
You have made it sound as if all the airports are doing bad when the EU economy is doing fine in almost all countries including Spain and Greece.
Yes, regional airports rely on subsidies but nothing wrong with that. As long as you generate enough business + leisure traffic throughout the whole year.
There is no other way to ensure that smaller towns get connected to other bigger cities.
Good examples are most Romanian airports, Plovdiv + Burgas, Debrecen, Castellon, etc, etc.