Zagreb Airport set for busy winter season

Zagreb Airport is preparing for a busy winter season, which will see it handle more flights than ever before, following on from what is set to be a record summer. A number of carriers have already committed to increasing both frequencies and capacity to the Croatian capital when compared to last year. Among airlines serving Zagreb for the first time this winter are Korean Air, Aegean Airlines, Iberia and ČSA Czech Airlines. Korean Air, which will commence three weekly flights from Seoul this September with an Airbus A330-200 jet, will initially deploy its Boeing 777-200ER on the route for the start of the 2018/19 winter season, which begins on October 28. However, the airline will then switch to the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner as of January 2, 2019. The two aircraft seat between 248 and 269 passengers. Korean Air will operate the return service from Zagreb to Seoul via Zurich over the winter months, however, the airline has not secured rights to sell tickets on the intra-European sector. "For the time being, it is impossible to purchase tickets from Zagreb to Zurich. However, we will consider ways to make it work in the future", Korean Air told EX-YU Aviation News.

Aegean Airlines has upgraded its seasonal summer service between Athens and Zagreb to year-round operations, with flights to run twice per week. Similarly, Spain's Iberia will extend its operations from Madrid to the Croatian capital past the summer months, with the airline to maintain two weekly flights with its Airbus A319 aircraft. "During the winter months there'll be two weekly flights between Madrid, Zagreb and Dubrovnik, with excellent connections from other airports in our network. These new additions to our programme will reinforce our presence in Croatia, not only for point-to-point flights but for long haul connections as well", Iberia said in a statement.

Korean Air to deploy B787-9 Dreamliner to Zagreb from January 2, 2019

ČSA Czech Airlines, which previously downgraded its Zagreb operations from Prague to seasonal summer flights, plans to retain the route during the upcoming winter season with three weekly services. Furthermore, Croatia Airlines will run flights to Mostar over the winter, while Emirates will add an additional two weekly flights from Dubai for a total of seven, boosting inbound tourism with over 15.000 additional seats during the slower months. Fernando Echegaray, the Director of International Operations at Zagreb Airport's concessionaire Aéroports de Paris, said, "We have a strong team at Zagreb Airport, which is very knowledgeable, and we are working hard to bring in even more passengers and airlines. In addition, Croatia, being a beautiful country that it is, has huge potential and growth in developing as a tourist destination, and that is what we base our expectations on, as well as the development of Zagreb as a tourist destination".

Zagreb Airport expects to see continued passenger growth in the year to come, with 3.5 million travellers projected to be handled in 2019. "Our trends are encouraging and I honestly hope that the coming years promise to bring us even more new carriers and passenger growth. The only issue that could hinder that is the rising price of fuel on the world market, which has a negative effect on airlines and acts as a deterrent in investing in new routes", Zagreb Airport's General Manager, Jacques Feron, said recently. He added, "Croatia is attracting more tourists than before and Zagreb is becoming an increasingly appealing destination. More passengers results in more new carriers, making Zagreb more interesting".

Comments

Anonymous said…

I wish OU was as successful as ZAG. I fear they won't be returning to Athens now that there is Aegean.