PHOTOS: Iberia Express launches Zadar service

GLOBAL AVIATION NEWS

Doha becomes Middle East’s busiest

In the battle to be the pre-eminent travel hub in the Middle East, the latest research from ForwardKeys has revealed that Doha seized and consolidated a lead over Dubai in the first half of 2021. In the period January 1 -June 30, the volume of air tickets issued for travel via Doha was 18% higher than it was through Dubai; and that relationship looks set to continue. Current bookings for the second half of the year through Doha are 17% higher than through Dubai. At the start of the year, air traffic through Doha was at 77% of Dubai; but it quickly reached 100% for the first time during the week commencing January 27. The major factor driving the trend was the lifting, of the blockade of flights to and from Qatar this January, which was imposed in June 2017 by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who accused Qatar of sponsoring terrorism - an accusation it strongly denies. Since January, five routes were restored by Qatar Airways in the region and new routes launched further afield. Olivier Ponti, Vice President of insights at ForwardKeys, said, “Without the blockade, which encouraged the establishment of new routes as a strategy to replace lost traffic, perhaps we would not have seen Doha charging past Dubai. So, it seems that the seeds of Doha’s relative success were, ironically, sown by the adverse actions of its neighbours. However, one needs to bear in mind that flights through the Middle East during first half of 2021 were still 81 per cent below pre-pandemic levels. So, as the recovery gathers pace, the picture could change significantly”. The last major factor, which has given Qatar an edge over Dubai, has been its reaction to the pandemic. During the height of the Covid-19 crisis, many routes in and out of Doha remained operational, with the result that Doha became a major hub for repatriation flights - most notably to Johannesburg and Montreal.
Source: Breaking Travel News

PHOTOS: Iberia Express launches Zadar service

NEWS FLASH

Low cost carrier Iberia Express has inaugurated seasonal summer flights between Madrid and Zadar, which will be maintained twice per week until August 31. Zadar becomes the airline's first destination in Croatia, with its parent company Iberia maintaining operations to Zagreb, Dubrovnik and Split. To celebrate the first flight between the two cities, Zadar Airport welcomed the Iberia Express Airbus A320 aircraft with a traditional water cannon salute.

Meanwhile, Zadar Airport registered its busiest June on record by handling 123.753 passengers through its doors, representing an increase of 43.6%. The growth was primarily fuelled by Ryanair, which introduced eight new seasonal services from Zadar this summer - Cologne, Eindhoven, Krakow, Hamburg, Bergamo, Nuremberg, Poznan and Prague. It has resulted in overall growth in the airline's operations from Zadar by 50% with over forty weekly flights maintained from the Croatian city. During the first half of the year, the airport handled 295.316 travellers, up 38%. It added an extra 81.376 passengers on 2018.

Comments

Anonymous12:01
Bravo Hrvatska!
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Anonymous16:43
Does anyone knows what was load factor on this flight?
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Anonymous17:19
By narrowing their focus onto Croatia only , their competitors have every route outside of Croatia for themselves ...
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Google Driver13:42
nice
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