Zagreb Airport is planning on expanding its facilities, as both passenger numbers and aircraft movements continue to grow. The airport's General Manager, Jacque Feron, noted, "It is the concessionaire's duty to invest in the expansion of the airport as soon as it reaches a certain number of passengers. Soon we expect to start work on a new building that will house car rental agencies, that will be located near the terminal. Furthermore, we plan to expand our baggage handling facility, as well as build a new apron capable of handling wide-body aircraft from airlines such as Air Canada and Emirates, because such jets can't be effectively served at the existing apron". He added, "This means we will then have to invest in new jet-bridges for larger aircraft. Following this, we intend to commence work on the overhaul of the old passenger terminal".
According to the agreement signed between the concessionaire and the Croatian government, work on the first stage of the second and final phase of the Zagreb Airport project, which includes the extension of the western pier of the departures area, as well as a new gate with dual jet bridges, allowing it to cater for either two smaller aircraft or a single wide-body jet, should begin no later than the end of March in the year the airport anticipates handling its five-millionth passenger. The second phase of the airport's development has a total of four sub-phases. Upon their completion, Zagreb Airport will have the capacity to handle up to eight million travellers per year.
 |
| Planned development for Zagreb Airport |
Meanwhile, the state-run Zagreb Airport Ltd (ZLZ). company, which operates as a separate legal entity managing the airport's assets that are not subject to the concession, is likely to lease land across the terminal building for the construction of a hotel next year. The 32.000 square metre four-star hotel is expected to feature 150 rooms, with the future operator required to meet airline requirements in order for the facility to be able to offer accommodation for cabin crew with a layover in Zagreb. ZLZ has already requested a location permit for the hotel from authorities, which is a pre-requisite to a building permit.
Comments
The old terminal will also need to be converted in to a cargo center, new cargo ramp added for trucks, and bonded warehouses and customs added.
All that costs money.
Phase 2a and 2b will be completed at the same time.
Phase 2a corridor will be extended over existing gate 8, gate 9 and gate 10 added with extra passenger boarding bridge for large aircraft, b777 or A330.
The entire corridor will be widen by 5m over entire section of the western pier. This would allow for better passenger flow and seating area for wide body aircraft.
With arrival of Korean, Emirates, Air Canada, things are bit more complicated if there's no adequate provision for large aircraft.
Phase 3a-3d, will see additional 4 passenger boarding bridges added to eastern pier, one for wide body aircraft at the end and 6 more passenger boarding bridges will be added to eastern pier parallel on the opposite side of the pier for total of 22 single isle and 4 wide body aircraft or 30 single isle aircraft.
Phase 4, will see construction of satellite terminal for up to 10 additional aircraft.
Once completed Phase 2 will bring pax to 10 million, phase 3 will bring pax to around 15 million and phase 4 to 20-22 million.
However, this is a long term plan, which also includes construction of 2nd and 3rd runway and moving all the current air force infrastructure further east of present location.
3rd runway, 2.5 km long will be exclusively used by air force.
As Korean leaves, Emirates arrives like 10-15 min difference, if there's delay, and Qatar sends wide body, you could witness 4 widebody ...
2nd Runway will run parallel to present one, and rd runs on top of 2nd runway and it'll be used only by the air force.
All the villages that are currently there, will be knocked down, and people re-settled somewhere else, presumably in Micevac.
Air Base will move some 3km further east towards small village of Strmec.
The master plan also includes constriction of faculties on the opposite side of the runway, technical center i presume or large cargo center with bonded warehouses.
However, this will be costly, so only built once airport reaches i don't know, 15-20 million pax.
Maybe Air Canada?
ZAG is Schengen ready. Croatia as country has fulfilled 95 % of the technical criteria to join Schengen, with 5 % remaining to be done until the end of this year, financed by EU funds. The only dispute with Hungary was INA, which is solved some time ago and Hungary will definitely not block HR joining Schengen. The issue with SLO is entirely political, European Comission refused to back up SLO related to arbitrary decision, elections in SLO just ahead, so I wouldn't be so sure that SLO would continue blocking HR. And I agree EU has many issue right now, one of them being migrants entering and leaving both EU and non-EU countries on the Balkans, which even my result in HR, BG and RO joining beginning next year
Of course ZAG has no facilities to serve efficiently wide body planes - Emirates, Transat, Air Canada, Korean Air regularly, and ELAL, Turkish, DHL and many others occasionaly are served by Martians :)
and if you also think that Slovenia won't block you then my friend you are wrong(EU commison is backing up Slovenia- Croatia has a problem understanding what is international law)
Not at all, you can actually look at ZAGREB GUP development plan and find out. 3rd runway would be only for Air Force use and built to separate air Force and the civilian operations. And this is like when traffic is way over 20 million pax,
I agree, AC won't stick around, not enough demand and the little there is uses VIE, MUC or AMS/CDG.
Now you're talking utter nonsense. EU wouldn't allow Hungary to block another EU member joining any of the EU organizations, it would be penalized and its powers revoked. Hungary has no power with in the EU. Also Schengen is a done deal, question is when Croatia joins the process, not if. I don't follow the EU discussion so am not up to date.
However, Croatia needs to join Schengen and Eurozone by some date, not sure if it is 2020 or some later date for Eurozone.
It was supposed to be bigger and it was supposed to have a glass roof.
Have you ever heard about visegrajska skupnost(hungary, slovakia, CZ, baltic states) they allways stick together and they have have power
Arrival of Korean Air and soon Hainan and Singapore Air is best proof.
I'd imagine if Delta or American arrive in 2020, that would only increase further strain on the terminal. Having dedicated gates for wide body aircraft helps with the flow of traffic and positively reflects on the airport. all is well
I have also read that this runway will be built at Zadar Zemunik once the F-16s start to arrive and that they could eventually be based there.
Again you're talking nonsense, Croatia has better relationship with visegrad group than Hungary even though it isn't the member, Poland, Czech R, Slovakia, Austria and Germany are historically close to Croatia, they have close ties to Croatia and have extensive cultural and political links. FFs every year PMs of these countries spend their summer holidays in Croatia.
Hungary might have issues on some things with Croatia, which is Ina, and that has been solved as Croatia is buying back Ina share owned bu MOL.
A mutually agreed decision. With in EU, Croatia has no major political issues to worry about, yes Slovenia and Croatia need to work on improving border solution which would allow Slovenia access to the open sea.
This issue doesn't strain close relationship both countries have, they're extensive, to much greater extend than any other member state, due to the fact we shared a common state for so many years.
Croatian economy recovered and number of Slovenians visitors to Croatia is all time high.
Things are looking up and we should be happy for it. Slovenia won't block Croatian Schengen membership, as there's no support for it with in the EU and Croatia is taking reigns of EU presidency on January 1st.
So the chances of Hungary or Slovenia trying to do something silly during that period, would not only be unusual, but also fully hardy.
What we know is that Japanese carrier, most likely ANA and Chinese Carrier, most likely Hianan are talking to start flights next year.
The deal is in advanced stage of negotiations and routes when agreed should be announced this autumn or winter.
Singapore, Delta or American airlines are only wishful thinking at this point, yes Emirates has improved chances of more carriers coming in, and the chances are Singapore airlines, Cathy Pacific and and even Delta airlines might start flight operations to Zagreb in not to distant future, perhaps 2021/2 is plausible, but nowhere near certain or even discussed.
Zagreb still needs to bring back SAS, TAP, Finnair, Aer Lingus, EasyJet and few EU based carriers to cover any holes in the European market.
The loads of perfect on the route, morning @90-95% LF, afternoon 75-80%. In winter there was a slight dip, but that's corrected with summer schedule.
Yes there has to be separation from Civil operations, ideally one runway for exclusive use by the Air Force, however atm, Croatia's defence budget is bit strained, so to move air force base and clear the land for future base and runway could cost anywhere between $300 and $700 million, money Croatia at this point doesn't have and it isn't the urgent priority, however with the increase traffic at the airport, plans have been drawn to move AF Base 3km further east and this also includes construction of 2.5km long runway, that meets NATO standards.
Cost of which will be no doubt great, the longer the move is delayed, 2nd Runway, parallel to existing one is planned only once airport hits high volume of traffic, over 10 million pax. The 2nd 3km runway would also require move of AF Base. Again this is a long term plan and reason for 3rd AF exclusive use runway.
Possibility of moving future AF F-16 squadron to Cerlje is also being considered, something that has been hinted on few occasions and requires Slovenian nod, although it seems this won't be an issue, as NATO also keen on both countries having viable air defence and air policing implementation in place.
Again, Cerklje and 3rd Runway are just some of the ideas and plans, don't expect much to change for next decade, however.
Current old terminal isn't suitable for cargo operations, it'll need major redesign , which is what they plan to do.
As park in front of old terminal is protected, the only solution is to go sideways, so plan is to extend current terminal a bit, by 50m i think and build bonded warehouse and docking station for up to a dozen trucks.
Something like this.
http://airportlogistics.lodige.com/db/images/AS-AAT-HK-PHO_3669-GP-W.jpg
Also, adding customs to a bonded warehouse is EU requirement, as this will become first EU entry point, the warehouse and terminal must comply with latest EU rules .... The reason why old terminal will need to be extended to meet these requirements.... Each parcel must go through customs and must be secured in bonded warehouse.
Google if you don't know what bonded whorehouse is. Old cargo terminal has all that, but it is tiny, it can handle perhaps 100 tons per day, but it is a serious stretch. New cargo terminal will be needed and it'll be needed pretty soon, with in next 3-4 years.
Not true, loads are not enough good to send 787 or A330.Especially when Emirates comming to Zagreb and now Korean.
Qatar has already stated that they consider upgrading ZAG service to a widebody (probably just the morning service): https://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/06/qatar-airways-to-expand-ex-yu-operations.html
Actually they are very good, 90-95% for morning flight and 75-80% afternoon flight, problem is the return flight, reason why afternoon flight has lower lf.
Yes, and this is why every emergency landing in region ends in BEG.
First 3 are for EU passports and EU nationals, and to the extreme left another 3 booths for non-EU passport booths. they open middle passport booths only when they're really busy, like 1000 passengers arriving at the same time.
We don't know what EK asked airport management, but considering the load factor is performing above expectations, it is inevitable EK will be sending A380 to Zagreb.
Question is, when?
Well, new gates should be constructed from this October to April/May next year.
Probably EK will put A380 in service on Zagreb route. This should increase capacity by 20-25% on current B777, which often is 97% full on flights to Zagreb. I had a look at EK LG on Zagreb route for May and load factor is very good @87%.
From what I understand every week EK sends its largest B777 - 300ER with 428 seats, often these flights are also sold out.
EK is doing really well with business class product on Zagreb route, even first class sells well.
I anticipate this year EK will have over 170 000 pax on the route to Zagreb. Next year, 200 000 is probable.
That is bit silly to say, Zagreb is quite capable of handling A380, it is capable handling any aircraft that can land on 3250m long Cat IIIb runway.
Terminal is being readied, well works will start in late October, on adding double gates that can handle A380, design is somewhat different from current jetways in use by the airport, and structuralist work should be completed by mid 2019, well late April, early May.
So Airport will be capable of handling A380, in fact A380 will be able to perfectly connect to the terminal so passengers can disembark.
Current gates at terminal can handle A380, but it is not ideal, as double decker a 380 disembarking 500 passengers could take 40 min or longer with one gate.
B777 300ER is almost as big as A380, just as long and carries 360 passengers, @90% LF that's 325 passengers, imagine how long it takes to leave A320 with 170 pax on a single gate, now imagine twice that.
Don't be surprised if from next year in late May, regularly see A380 in Zagreb, perhaps even daily.