Bravo Hrvatska!

I have no doubt these flights will be a hit. Good to see booking doing well.

Just a couple of weeks ago I read in the Dubrovnik Times an interview with Peter Greenberg, the CBS travel editor, who said this, and I tend to completely agree with him:

"It’s great to hear that they have been introduced but I bet these flights will only be through the summer months. Do you really need more flights in the summer? Do you need more guests in the summer? It’s a big mistake to introduce only seasonal flights. The airlines are just following the numbers and not looking to develop the destination. Airlines must be directed to fly all year round and build up the winter tourism. Otherwise all you are doing is perpetuating the problem of overcrowding. You have to figure out – are you listening to the airlines or are the airlines listening to you. Right now it would seem that the airlines aren’t listening to you at all.

It’s nice that American Airlines are flying again to Dubrovnik after all those years but its problematic that they are only flying seasonally. What they are actually saying is “We don’t have enough faith to fly all year round.” The problem comes from Dubrovnik and not from the airlines because you haven’t educated them on the possibilities in the winter."

"...We will, in due course, consider prolonging the flying season to the coastal city."

Bravo, DBV! American Airlines opening this route was one of the most exciting news this year! Good luck!

Hope they move to the B787 in 2020 and not wait until 2021 :)

But it's not AA's job to develop DBV as a winter destination, it's up to Croatia and its tourist board to do so. If airlines are ignoring it in winter time then we should be asking ourselves what more can be done?

Next question is if winter tourism can be developed? Lots of Europeans go in winter to places like Tunis and Egypt because of the warm weather. If Dubrovnik starts to promote itself as a winter gateway then it will have to start competing with Zagreb because their product would be similar.

I agree with you, and in the interview he says the same.
"The problem comes from Dubrovnik and not from the airlines because you haven’t educated them on the possibilities in the winter."

Very nice. Hope this might trigger other US carriers to start (and spread like TS) across the country.

They haven't even started flying, but, hey, let's start spitting all over Dubrovnik! Agree with seasonality issue, no doubt about it, but of all the cities in the region, they chose DBV (a very small town and quite a surprise), which is realy great! Let's wait and see if it ever turns out to be something more than a seasonal flight. So far, they could extend the season (as mentioned in the article). Patience!

No one is spitting on DBV. This is a great success getting these flights, no doubt about it. We are just discussing.

Regarding American tourists in Dubrovnik, this is a great news:

http://www.poslovni.hr/hrvatska/dubrovnik-je-amerikancima-najbolja-kulturna-destinacija-za-2019-348109

Agree. I think it will attract other airlines to launch long haul flights to DBV.

+1

No one is spitting on Dubrovnik, we are just stating the obvious here or are you implying that the city is no overcrowded and that it's not seasonal?

AA is launching DBV because there is a market and it's probably the only city in Croatia with enough demand to warrant a non-stop flight... even on a summer seasonal basis.

However it's not enough to just speak about seasonality but we need to also speak about the shortfalls on winter tourism in Dubrovnik. Croatia is doing a lot to promote Zagreb as a winter destination. Would the government be ready to shift some attention and funds away from the capital to promote Dubrovnik? Does Dubrovnik have enough funds to do it on their own? If done right, I think Dubrovnik could become attractive in winter, even more so than Zagreb.

They can definitely extend the season. They are a bit cautious next summer but hopefully with good returns this early on they will fly for 5 months in 2020.

DBV is the only city in Ex-Yu that has an American carrier which is impressive.

Are there any prospects for American to start flights to Zagreb? Or any US airline?

I think it can also attract more US carriers to other cities in Croatia (not just to Dubrovnik)

And they deserved it, a city is small, but extremely well known in the world!

Dubrovnik is once again cementing its position as a regional player.
In the new routes section, on the frontpage of this website, you can see that 75% of the new routes will be from/to Dubrovnik.
Dubrovnik is well heading towards the 3 million mark.

Conclusion: Unbelievable acheivements.

Congratulation to Dubrovnik.

Generally flights from US and Canada should always do well to Croatia. Mix of leisure and diaspora passengers.

ZAG is also getting flights to the US, to start this summer.

By who?

And Zagreb is the only city in ex-YU to have not one but two Canadian airlines. What's your point?

lol calm down. No need to get irritated or jealous.

oh please, if this was true tickets would already be on sale. Every year we hear how an airline will start flights from the US to Zagreb "this summer" for the past ten years. All major US airlines - United, American and Delta have announced their international network for next year.

It will. If AA makes DBV work, ZAG, and SPU will follow.

I think that next up Dubrovnik should definitely target Canada or South Korea flights. After they secure one destination from each they should look into adding more points in the US.

If AA succeeds in making DBV work, ZAG and SPU will follow. Like TS and AC to ZAG, Now TS to SPU which will be extremely successful, and it is obvious that AC will follow suit. So it continues.

I'm really interested to see how this will perform but it looks promising. Hope for the best and we see new US routes to DBV in 2020 :)

I'm surprised Air Transat hasn't tried Dubrovnik from Toronto. Seems like a good fit for them.

Unfortunately, I also thought ZAG would secure (at least, seasonal flights to US), Delta would be a nice addition.

I'd say South Korea (seasonally) could work for DBV.

With SPU a success next year, it will certainly be considered and follow.

2 years ago Capelli said that first seasonal flights from US to Dubrovnik or Split would be launched and that a year later we could see flights to Zagreb. So my guess is we could see flights in 2020.

They went to Split instead but it would be cool to have Transat flying Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik.

Delta flies to the the most secondary European airports out of the US airlines. So perhaps they could consider Dubrovnik in the future too.

Very good for DBV

It would be nicer if they flew Philadelphia - Zagreb - Dubrovnik - Philadelphia.

Good news just keeps coming from Croatia this year. Well done.

Opet mjeraci mjere nemjerljivo

Agree! Unfortunately, ZAG is lacking behind because of bad management!

Why Philadelphia? Why not New York? Any particular reason?

PHL is American Airlines' major, intercontinental hub and one of the most premium airports in North America. That is why they are linking DBV with it.

Bravo Dubrovnik!

Philadelphia is AA's hub.

Fingers crossed.

Bravo American Airlines.

Bravo EU :)

I'd appreciate OU for once stating to think out of the box. Triple Sevens are currently available for very cheap money. They could either lease a 777 for half a year and serve high demand leisure routes JFK 2x, ORD 1x, IAD 1×, SEL via ZAG 1x weekly. Or buy an older 777 through lease-and-buy option and serve these routes 9 months a year. In winter it can go to maintenance. No doubt services were a big money maker for 7 or 8 months a year when they don't forget to make contracts with TOs that take over guarantee seats. Biggest issue of course is to take care of a plan B in case the bird goes tech.

I will NOT be surprised if DBV even makes it to second position behind BEG airport in terms of passengers. For me, it´s the BEST performing airport in ex-YU!!!

Until they don't kill the extreme seasonality, don't hold your breath.

Good luck

I'm hoping these flights will get to use the air bridges at DBV.

They said that US and South Korea are their main long haul markets so Seoul might be next.

This year it was Dubai for Dubrovnik, next year Philadelphia. Nice work DBV.

It's great to see a new one world carrier in Cro.

Of course they will.

Three weekly is a good start. I think in 2020 they should fly from May until October.

These flights should boost passenger numbers nicely at DBV.

What's with Japan flights? Still charter with ANA or...?

I think Split and Zagreb will do for Transat/AC Rouge, Dubrovnik should aim for some other markets.

SPU has more chances of being ex-YU's second airport. They are doing really well in fighting seasonality. In November SPU grew by impressive 39% while ZAG was around 5% if I am not wrong.

Would be nice for Air Canada to replace AC Rouge, but doubt it will happen any time soon.

SPU is also struggling with extreme seasonality and 39% more from a few dozen thousands of passengers is far from enough.

ZAG is the most logical choice if you look at the number of foreign tourists.

Yes but it's a step in the right direction.

November 2017: 39.552
November 2018: 54.856

Zagreb

November 2017: 222.697
November 2018: 234.075


Overall difference in November was reduced from 183.145 to 179.219. Ok, difference is still big but at least ZAG isn't running away in winter as was the case before. Next year SPU might reduce this difference in November to 150.000 passengers, if not less.
ZAG management has shown to be incompetent to run the airport in winter with reductions by KL, BA, A3, OK, QR... SPU on the other hand is going the other direction.

Delta is likely to come to Zagreb, question is when. Hopefully in 2020.

Pennsylvania also has the biggest Croatian Diaspora in the USA.

This is fantastic for Dubrovnik and Croatia in general but I don't think these flights could work year round like some claim. The issue with Dubrovnik is that it has little outbound traffic. It depends purely on tourists.

It is likely that they will switch to B788 / B789 for the winter term 2019, since AA recently announced they will switch other routes from B763 to Dreamliner (like ZRH). But it is very questionable if they will extend the flights during the winter, so I expect to see AA Dreamliner (most likely 788, with 226 seats; 789 might be too large with 285 seats) in summer 2020.

It is easy to make conclusions about "incompetent people" running the airport based on few months. Things can turn 180 for both airports, so making conclusions based on couple of months of business isn't a smart move. SPU can go in the "other direction" when they have several routes during the wintertime to start with. ZAG had some reductions, but also had some increases, so focusing only on the bad of one and good on the other is a very subjective look on things.

Are we likely to see more EU-US Croatia-US flights in the future?
I think the missing US cities are: Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Louisiana. I think CDG already beats LHR when it comes to EU-US direct flights.
Delta has 11 US routes
DY has 7 routes
AA has 6 US routes
UA has 4 routes

Not to mention AF and XL Airways

The Croatian Coast can become the next new Jamaica or Cuba for the Americans as they are tired of the same destination every year.

Sure. Americans will swap Jamaica and similar destinations that can be reached in several hours for few hundreds of dollars with Croatia that is 7+ hours away with airfare surpassing $1000, not to mention the price difference in accommodation, food and service. Like there are no other options in the whole world.

They won't extend the flights past the summer season. They said they are only flying from June-September. And next year, they might extend the flights to start earlier or end in October but it will still be seasonal. This route is for holidaymakers.

I would be happy if we got a budget option to the US, for example Norwegian.

Excellent news!

Američko tržište jedno od najvažnijih svjetskih emitivnih tržišta u Dubrovniku, a u korist tome govore i brojke. Iz statistike se vidi da u proseku ostaju 3 noći.

It would be nice.

Could one of the new narrow bodies reach the US east coast from Zagreb nonstop?

While it will help, growth overall won't be as big as this year.

Quite a few flying to Dubrovnik now.

Croatia is about culture, beach and civilization and not reggae or dangerous Carribean.
Also why not bring RICH Americans to the country and not the poor, drunk tourist from England who will pay £50 for a cheap flight and sleep in a hostel and make noise.
What Croatia needs is HIGH CLASS tourism and not cheap Ryanair tourists not behaving.

It will depend on the subsidies and incentives.

Croatia would be absolutely nothing without the ''cheap Ryanair tourists'', and will always have to rely on them.

Hrabra izjava.....no, kad se uzme u ubzir kako Hrvatsku godisnje posjeti 16 mil.turista a Ryanov udio je jedva 350 000......zakljucak izvedi sam

And how many fly with easyJet, Eurowings, Jet2.com, Volotea, Norwegian... they all carry the same type of people as Ryanair.

There are bunch of other low cost carriers besides Ryanair which fly to all of the tourist hotspots around Europe, so Croatian LCC share is more or less the same as in other European countries.

What increases did ZAG have in winter? To me it seems like only SPU managed to efficiently fight seasonality. Look at the disaster in ZAD and PUY, Pula barely had 1.200 in November. Why are we justifying bad results? Why isn't ZAG fighting to keep these winter flights? Why aren't they lowering charges in winter months to stimulate demand? No, they would rather sit and do nothing while nagging and asking the government to reduce their concession fees.

And Mexico and Cuba have no culture? You speak as if Croatia is the only place in the world where people go to visit cultural sites. LOL

As for tourists, seems to me that around 10.000.000 tourists still come by car or bus and not plane. Croatia needs to work on changing that.

There were numbered on here and easily found. Are you really saying that SPU managed to fight seasonality efficiently when in summer months it has around 700k passengers and in winter around 10 times less? Where's the logic in that statement?

Bravo planet earth!

You won't find a 777 for 6 months lease unless you apu insane amount of money.

One aircraft long haul operation is never going to be profitable, because in case you have a bigger issue, you will lose year worth of (potential) profit in days.

Unlikely, at least not reliably throughout the year.

Croatia needs high class tourists... Right, because every single room on the Croatian coast is brand new and furnished with premium equipment, correct?

No room for people who earn decent wages and want a nice budget holiday.

Can you please ignore the posts of Prince of Monaco. He's off the pills again.

You can claim whatever you want, but this does not change the fact that selection of PHL-DBV route is kind of a bet for AA, because statistics show that there are less than 1000 passengers travelling between these two cities in 2018. Even though PHL is a hub for AA and there'll certainly be connecting passenger on board too, it's still hard to understand the economic perspective. No business passengers, no VFR, no cargo, pure leisure traffic. Apparently AA is putting its money on the huge success of Game of Thrones - last season, ignoring already mature city pairs in the region.

Split also has Canadian Airline flying. However this is beside the point. We should all cheer for each other and stop measuring mini dicks because DBV's 2 milion and ZAG's 3 milion is all peanuts for let's say AMS, LHR or CDG.

Logic is there if you bother to read more carefully. I said SPU is the only one that's successfully fighting seasonality, not that they overcame it. Next November SPU will most likely reach 70.000 passengers which is great and not that bad.

Only increase in ZAG I remember is LO if I am not wrong. All others more or less cut their flights.

Don't patronize me.
SPU having 39% more passengers in the slow month doesn't mean it is successfully fighting seasonality, but slightly reducing it. But I guess you're in possession of a crystal ball when you can guess which way SPU will go in a year from now.
Even if there are less flights, there's more passengers. Guess that doesn't count for anything.

"The Croatian Coast can become the next new Jamaica or Cuba for the Americans.."

Sorry bro, Americans don't go to Cuba very much because of the embargo. Some Cuban-Americans go lately, but that's next to nothing.Americans go to Mexico, Dominican Republic and other Caribbean islands, not Cuba.

And with Trump in power, that's not going to change any time soon

Zanimljivo kako se uvijek preskoce zracne luke u regiji.

On prica o Delti u 2020 a za iduci godinu Zagreb nema nikakvu novu najavu.

Exactly, all true except for ZAG.

Frishki, why don't you simply admit that ZAG is not doing well for next year? I mean, even big enthusiasts have stopped commenting on ZAG on another forum, so obviously they have a problem. BTW, drugi anonymus ovdje.

First, how do you know how 2019 will be and end for ZAG or any other airport? Based on... what? The fact that there are no announcements by now? Is that your method of prediction? What if there will be announcements in the coming months?
Secondly, I'm not enthusiast regarding any airport, it won't affect me no matter how any of the airports do.
Also, the discussion was regarding the seasonality and someones' statement that SPU is doing great regarding it and ZAG is actually doing worse. Logic? There's none.

Ljudi moji kolko nebuloza! High class, Jamaica, Cuba, na cemu si ti brate? Ali ok, trolas pa cu napisati da si simpatican.

Zasto se tolko palis? Lik je poceo usporedivati Zag i Split i ja sam samo dodao da je za sada iduca godina u Zagrebu mizerna. Sto ne stima?

Zasto se tolko palis? Lik je poceo usporedivati Zag i Split i ja sam samo dodao da je za sada iduca godina u Zagrebu mizerna. Sto ne stima?

Koliko je putnika za DBV sletilo u SPU tijekom 11. mjeseca, s obzirom na obnovu piste i loše vrijeme u Dubrovniku?

Of course not.

Palim se koliko i ti . Frajeru.

@frishki,
nisam Anon 18:56 (za početak), inače sam Dubrovčanin i mislim da nam je svima u interesu da zračne luke u Hrvatskoj dobro služe putnicima (kako Hrvatske, tako i ostalih zemalja). Činjenica jest da je ZAG (uvjetno rečeno) podbacio u pogledu novih najava i ukidanja/reduciranja pojedinih linija, što je stvarno šteta jer koncesionar nije dorastao zadatku. Croatiu airlines i Vladu RH neću ni spominjati.

Opet, tko govori o tome koliko je ZAG podbacio ili nije?

A vjerojatno su linije za Toronto, Dubai i Seoul podbačaj.

Slažem se dijelom, ali, budimo realni, očekivalo se više od iduće godine. Ne mogu vjerovati da nisu u stanju dovesti niskotarifne prijevoznike ili liniju do SAD-a. Također, primijetio sam da pušačke zone u Zagrebu (iako postavljene) još nisu proradile. Imam osjećaj (možda griješim) da se DBV više trudi.

HEy, I was recently in Havana. 6 US registered planes left Havana in 2 hours..... So no Americans in Cuba :)

Why not, Anon 19:13?

Croatia is neither Jamaica nor Cuba, period. Plus, for the Americans it is just the ideal gateway to the Coast and not to mention to the Balkans.

Kao VCE? hehe

DXB nije podbacio? HM. Ok.

Nobady said there is no Americans.. I said very litlle American tourists (please read original statemant first). Aproximately 20K permits are issued by US government mainly to Cuban Americans. Obama relaxed sanctions a litlle bit to allow limited scientific, religious, educational visus but no tourism especially not wide spread like the original post was suggesting.

Btw after the sanctions were relaxed there was numerous new flights established. Some of those have stopped since Trump came to power

I'm so happy for Dubrovnik!! This year I fell in love with that city all over again, for the nth time. In my opinion this is a good strategy by AA. Frankly speaking when you talk to Americans about specific cities in western balkans, Dubrovnik and Sarajevo are the only two most of them can name. Sarajevo because of the war unfortunately.
They are however increasingly discovering other parts of Croatia and even Mostar is quite popular. They are more frequently making tours along large chunks, or even the entire coastline. Then they often discover Montenegro as well. Zagreb also is attracting increasing number of Americans, so in due time it's highly likely there will be more direct flights.
Once more tho, great job Dubrovnik airport!!

"What Croatia needs is high class tourism and not cheap Ryanair tourists not behaving." What a sadly ignorant and snobbish statement. :/

Pao broj putnika između DXB i ZAG?

Bravo cosmos

Best country in our milky way!

I think he is referring to EK not making it on the market in winter.

Why not? Why are you all attacking him? Croatia needs to attract high end tourism as they have the money to spend. Look at all the Poles, Czechs and Slovaks who come and bring their own food. They might go to Balaton in stead. haha

I know what he meant. I'm asking did the pax number drop since EK was introduced?

frishki, do you have any inside info, is there a chance of seeing direct flights to ZAG from the USA in the future? How many American tourists did ZAG have so far in 2018?

I have absolutely no inside information. There should be with the number of Americans visiting ZAG and Croatia. From January till November, Croatia had 578.569 American visitors, up almost 23%, but Zagreb had 73.609 American visitors between January and October, up 18%.

Thank you big bang for making this all possible!

frishki, thanks, nice numbers!

Snobbish and ignorant. Period. I would love not high end tourism to stop coming to Croatia for a year. Pa da vidimo kako ce proci zimu Dalmatinci i Istrani koji se bave turizmom. Tolko o omalovazavanju Ryana i ostalih.

Best news in Ex-Yu region in 2018!