Qatar Airways will launch its second destination in Croatia and fifth in the former Yugoslavia during the 2020 summer season with the introduction of seasonal flights between its hub in Doha and Dubrovnik. The route will commence on April 20 and run until the end of the summer season. Services will initially be maintained three times per week, increasing to five between May 18 and September 30. An Airbus A320 aircraft, featuring twelve business class and 132 economy class seats will be deployed between the two cities. Dubrovnik will be added to Qatar Airways’ network in 2020 along with Santorini. Furthermore, the carrier will increase frequencies to twenty of its existing destinations next year, although services to the former Yugoslavia remain unchanged at this point.
Commenting on the new flights, Qatar Airways’ CEO, Akbar Al Baker, said, “We are pleased to announce that Santorini, Greece and Dubrovnik, Croatia will be joining our global network in 2020. We are committed to offering our passengers as many seamless one-stop connection choices as possible. With the addition of these new routes, our network will expand to 170 passenger destinations, further consolidating our position as one of the world’s most connected airlines”. He added, “We are dedicated to giving our customers more options and flexibility when planning their business and leisure trips. These new flights are being added in response to market demand and are testament to our hard-working team at Qatar Airways who continue to set the benchmark in the industry”. The airline’s services to Zagreb will continue to operate twice per day.
Qatar Airways faces no direct competition on its flights to Dubrovnik, however, it will be vying for a similar customer base as Flydubai, which will maintain two rotations per week next summer. Dubrovnik noted that Qatar Airways is an important new customer, primarily due to the connections it will offer to and from Australia and New Zealand. The airline's interest in Dubrovnik was first reported back in 2016. Recently, Emirates noted it was “closely following” developments in the Croatian city, which it serves through its partner Flydubai. Qatar Airways entered the Croatian market in 2012 and is one of the busiest airlines in Zagreb, handling over 130.000 passengers in the city last year.
That's amazing, good work DBV!!!
ReplyDeleteCould this affect their ZAG operations? They did downgrade it to A320 a while ago.
ReplyDeleteActually yes. Many pax are transfering via ZAG to DBV so it is logical that they downgrade caapacity to ZAG by not sending 321 to Croatian capital next summer. In my opinion, that is smart move, ZAG will still serve many tourists and local Croatian and Slovenian passengers. No doubt DBV will work good for them.
DeleteAre you saying that before they used to fly to ZAG with the a321? Maybe occasionally, but it wasn't an everyday thing.
DeleteAn airline takes these things into consideration. If they thought it would canabilize their Zagreb flights and hurt its bottom line they wouldn't have launched it.
DeleteOr maybe they felt the effect of TK, FZ...in Dubrovnik so they had to react.
Delete321 was regulary scheduled for ZAG this past summer, not whole, but some months yes.
DeleteOf course they would not lounch DBV if they will kill ZAG. They will just offer a bit less seats to ZAG but with DBV flights their capacity in this market will rise. So in total, they will have benefits from it.
From another side, pax can now easly buy tkt, for example, TYO-DOH-DBV and back ZAG-DOH-TYO which will be great for groups from Korea, China and Japan for example. Because of that, Emirates and Korean could be affected on their lines from ZAG.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2SLNNiVio0&t=32s
DeleteNice!
ReplyDeleteWow very good addition.
ReplyDeleteAnd again Ljublnana misses out :(
ReplyDeleteThe Ljubljana Gulf flight saga shall continue.
DeleteThey just can't seem to catch a break with these Middle East flights.
DeleteHow can you compare Dubrovnik or Santorini with Ljubljana in the field of tourism? Two planets that are far apart ... in summer :)
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteBravo Katar
DeleteBravo, bravo, bravo Dubrovnik! I čestitke vladi RH na vizionarskom potezu ulaganja u DBV!
DeleteVolim Dubrovnik, cijenim Dubrovcane, koliko god mnogi o njima imali negativno misljenje, apsolutno mi je drago da DBV raste i razvija se, i po kvaliteti i po brojevima, i po kompanijama i po destinacijama, i dio Bravo bravo bravo Dubrovnik u potpunosti supotpisujem. Ali staviti u istu recenicu, Vladu RH, bilo koju dosadasnju, i viziju i vizionarstvo, u bilo cemu, to prijatelju jednostavno ne ide, istina i svakodnevica su nazalost potpuno suprotne
DeleteSamo netko politički nabrijan protiv Vlade može poreći kvalitenu podršku koju je Vlada RH pružila upravi DBV, na kraju krajeva Vlada je postavila upravu DBV i time izravno dovela DBV na sadašnje razine uspjeha. Sviđalo se to Vama ili ne.
DeleteNaravno da sam politicki nabrijan protiv Vlade. Ne samo ove nego svih dosadasnjih. Dubrovnik je brend za sebe i po sebi, najpoznatije mjesto u cijeloj ex-yu, pa i sire, sa nevjerojatno pozitivnom energijom. I kao takav mogao je i jos vise i jos bolje i jos ranije. Da o svim potencijalima i propustenim prilikama na razini drzave ne govorim. Rad svih hrvatskih vlada do sada je negativan i kontraproduktivan za razvoj Hrvatske i boljitak njenih gradjana. A to sto je vlada postavila na celno mjesto DBV-a strucnog i postenog covjeka, nije pravilo nego iznimka. Pa desi se eto i njima ponekad "u sridu". Rijetko i slucajno.
DeleteDBV is showing impressive results, very well done! No signs of stopping.
ReplyDeleteIt is also worth mentioning that BEG will also receive 3 additional frequencies in summer, too.
Additionally, hoping that LJU finally gets flights after various attempts.
There are no 3 additional feequencies. They operated those 3 additional frequencies last summer as well.
DeleteAbove anon is correct
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/05/qatar-airways-boosts-belgrade-service.html
Thanks for the info, missed that one out. Good to see QR boosting flights in the region.
DeleteFlights will operate for a longer period than last year.
DeleteThat's not correct either. Flights start a month later than this year and finish up a month later. They operate for exactly the same period.
DeleteLet's see what happens in the end though.
DeleteThey will kill Flydubai.
ReplyDeleteI agree. QR has much better product than FZ while I doubt prices will be much different.
DeleteI'm very surprised that FZ will only fly 2 weekly to Dubrovnik next summer. Used to be more.
DeleteI think it is because of MAX issues. If they are cleared to fly by summer they will increase DBV.
DeleteThis is great news for DBV, would be interesting to see Emirates seasonally in DBV in a few years or so!
DeleteQR destroyed EK in Zagreb, they will annihilate FZ in Dubrovnik.
DeleteO 20 marki kako FZ ide na SPU
DeleteBEG also up from 7 to 10 weekly for S20 :)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/288184/qatar-airways-s20-network-expansions/
IT IS NOT CORRECT!
DeleteThese flights operated last summer too.
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/05/qatar-airways-boosts-belgrade-service.html
EX-Yu correctly says there are no additions to other ex-Yu cities.
Dude, chill... you are wrong... QR is upping its BEG flights again over 2020 summer:
DeleteDoha – Belgrade eff 02JUL20 Increase from 7 to 10 weekly, additional flight operated by A320
QR371 DOH1715 – 2125BEG 320 246
QR372 BEG2235 – 0430+1DOH 320 246
DUDE. I'm telling you this flight operated last summer as well. So it's not an increase. I flew on it myself. There is even a trip report on here from that very flight and the times and days are exactly the same.
Delete@9.43 he is not wrong. These flights existed last summer too. If you forgot about it that's your problem.
DeleteIt's Qatar's 'problem' since they are advertising it as an increase.
DeleteWill they switch back to 4 rotations per week to SKP in the summer or they will remain with 3 rotations?
ReplyDelete4 weekly in summer.
Delete... as it was in this summer too btw
Delete5 weekly not bad at all.
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be a very busy summer on the Croatian coast in 2020.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteInterestingly Dubrovnik will have more frequencies then their flights to Skopje and Sarajevo.
ReplyDeletewhereas the latter 2 have year round flights and DBV only seasonal
DeleteThis route is going to be huge success, many tourists from Asia/Australia will use it to reach Dubrovnik!
DeleteDubrovnik can be used for Bosnia too.
Delete@12:04 +1, Bosnian here and I use Dubrovnik, Sarajevo is terrible
DeleteAny chance they could go year round?
ReplyDeleteI doubt it. They themselves say it's a summer only destination.
DeleteI realize but you never know. Turkish made it work year round.
DeleteDubrovnik is closer to IST than many Turkish's domestic destinations from IST. It's easy for Turkish to work year round to DBV, but don't really think the same for Qatar.
DeleteAnon 09:19 Year-round by cancelling most of the flights (due to pax no. less than the crew) in winter :)
DeleteNice. Tickets not on sale yet though.
ReplyDeleteGood to see Gulf carriers have started flying seasonally.
ReplyDeleteEmirates won't be happy.
ReplyDeleteThey are not putting up much a fight woth 2 weekly Flydubai flights.
DeleteOdd. They used to have 4 weekly flights.
DeleteCroatia Airlines could have introduced seasonal Dubrovnik-Gulf flights years ago. Missed opportunity.
ReplyDeleteIt's too early.
DeleteThe moto is too soon, not too early!!
Delete*Their
DeleteCongratulations Dubrovnik. Fantastic work!
ReplyDeleteThe way things are going, Dubrovnik will need a new terminal soon.
ReplyDeleteTrue. I think it was reported here as a news item recently that they are thinking of building a makeshift summer terminal (like the one in Tivat).
DeleteYep they mentioned seasonal terminal here
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/09/photos-dubrovnik-airport-continues.html
Nice amother Oneworld airline in DBV. Quite a few now.
ReplyDelete*another
DeleteGrowing nicely:
DeleteAerlingus, American Airlines, Finnair, Qatar Airways, S7 Airlines, British Airways, Iberia
Every year some nice surprise from Dubrovnik. This year it was American, next year Qatar :)
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping in 2022 we will see flights to Canada.
DeleteI'm sure DBV will add some more American destinations in the next few years! Seasonally, of course!
DeleteDidn't they already say Chicago-Dubrovnik may be launched in 2021?
DeleteThey are very discreet in DBV, so, who knows? Potential exists, could be Delta, that would be interesting!
Delete@anon 9.43
DeleteYes, Chicago was mentioned.
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2019/08/chicago-dubrovnik-service-possible-in.html
DeleteWhat will be the schedule?
ReplyDeleteIt's not out yet.
DeleteThis will be a much better option than Flydubai. Apart from better product the transfer process in Doha is seamless compared to Flydubai-Emirates transfers and the awful Dubai airport terminal that looks like a train station.
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteI've had a terrible experience with transferring between Fly Dubai and Emirates. Although it wasn't on Dubrovnik route.
Does FZ use Terminal 3 in Dubai for their Dubrovnik flights?
DeleteNo, terminal 2 (even worse than T3).
DeleteI think sooner or later we will also see Gulf Air and Oman Air fly seasonally to DBV.
ReplyDeleteThese airlines don't have the necessary feed from Australia and NZ to make these flights work.
DeleteStvoris potraznju jednim potezom pera.....
DeleteVrlo jednostavno se potraznja stvori.....samo treba znati.
This is the second Middle East destination from Dubrovnik after Dubai?
ReplyDeleteWings of Lebanon fly seasonally from Beirut.
DeleteThere are also flights from Tel Aviv.
DeleteAny chance to see DBV-EZE? There is a huge Hungarian & Croat diaspora in Argentina.
ReplyDeleteThe same applies to north Chile (Iquique region).
Yes Emirates will mostly likely start DXB-DBV-EZE to serve all this huge demand
DeleteMost*
DeleteI think Split would have worked better for them unless they think they have it covered via Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteWhy so? Dubrovnik is world famous and a big tourist destination.
DeleteI wouldn't be surprised if there is no room at SPU to handle QR.
DeleteSplit more central. Cover more of the diaspora traffic too.
DeleteSPU is a horribly managed airport. It is a pale shadow of DBV, in all aspects! Unfortunately.
DeleteGreat airline. Nice to see them spreading their wings in the region.
ReplyDeleteQR has the right capacity for this region. They can always supplement A320 with A321 if the demand is there.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Emirates made a huge mistake not to have any narrow bodies in the fleet.
DeleteI'm pretty sure QR will send some bigger birds to DBV during summer!
DeleteI remember flying with them on one of their first flights from Zagreb to Doha via Budapest. There were around 40 of us departing from Zagreb. Today we have double daily direct flights from Zagreb plus seasonal five weekly service from Dubrovnik. This just show how Croatia have positioned itself as a premium destination in last 7 years and therefor choosen by the best carrier in the world.
ReplyDeleteThe same happened to BEG comparing to ZAG and therefore we do not think "we have positioned ourselves as a premium destination"
DeleteNot true. BEG is ten weekly and their only destination in Serbia. There is no such a small country like Croatia where Qatar flies to two destination. Croatia is unique in their portfolio.
DeleteWell logically but Serbia is not a premium destination (no offense). BEG airport is doing very well and kudo's for that they have positioned themselves as a gateway to Greece and the Middle East, so many people flying from Western Europe to Athens, Thessaloniki, Beirut, Tel Aviv fly over Belgrade.
DeleteBut comparing Serbia to Croatia as a premium destination is just not realistic. And of course not whole of Croatia is premium, there are lots of places that offer only sun, sea and beach... but places as Rovinj, Split, Dubrovnik and somet others are definitely premium. (I am not saying being a premium destination is a good thing, it has its pros and cons) But in this case its a fact that they are.
Kopaonik is premium if you want it that way. There is nothing premium about Croatia or any country in the close vicinity. You can call premium where tourism comes on top of a highly developed economy and industry and not when a country depends on it.
DeleteHere we go with premium obsession. It's silly to look at it that way when most tourists that go to Croatia are no different than those that visit northern Greece or Bulgaria yet no one screams how premium they are.
DeleteEveryone following this blog knows I am against "prestige" and "premium" BS. But putting the whole of Croatia, which hosts (in some of its parts) members of Royal houses from all over the World, plenty of the most famous Hollywood stars, and EU leading political elite (or "elite"), in the same group with Bulgaria and northern Greece, is simply not fair, and has absolutely nothing to do with real situation, basically is mean, especially towards Dubrovnik, that counts for the majority of the abovementioned "high-class" tourists. And even if speaking generally, about the "most of the tourists" to Croatia, they are again not the same as ones visiting BG or northern GR. And it's not just my claim, you can see it by comparing accommodation expenses and all other prices in Croatia, and the other two countries /regions.
Delete@An.00.58
DeleteTourism counts for 18 %of croatian GDP. It is, of course, very important for the overall economy, but Croatia is not exclusively dependent on tourism. And comparing Kopaonik, no matter how nice and good it is, with Dubrovnik, Hvar or Rovinj, so sorry but I can just laugh at it
18% is huge and must be about the most tourism-dependent country in Europe.
DeleteImagine a GDP fall of 18%. o<O
DeleteCroatia is along with Malta the world's most dependent country on Tourism.
DeleteEven Thailand is at around 9% which is still not little.
Croatia is double.
I don't have to imagine. We had 5 years of war with ZERO tourism income, with "balvans" on roads, destroyed and closed airports, country cut on two parts with only possible ferry link between Rijeka and Split, one million refugees from within Croatia and Bosnia staying at hotels on the see, and much more, and we survived. So please, don't make it sound like HR cannot make it without tourism. It would be very hard but is already seen and doable.
DeleteThis is a blow against FZ.
ReplyDeleteBravo
ReplyDelete