Air Canada’s leisure subsidiary Air Canada Rouge has suspended its seasonal flights between Toronto and Zagreb for the 2020 summer season as a result of a sharp decline in demand due to the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic. Services are expected to restart in 2021. Air Canada Rouge was to resume operations between the two cities on June 4. They were to run four times per week until October 5 with its Boeing 767-300 aircraft, which has the capacity to seat 282 passengers. The airline halted ticket sales on the route this week. Its other seasonal summer flights in the region, including Budapest and Bucharest, have also been cancelled.
Passengers will still be able to reach Zagreb from Toronto with Air Canada thanks to its wide-ranging codeshare partnership with Croatia Airlines, once both carriers resume the majority of their operations. Air Canada codeshares on its counterparts’ flights from Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, London Heathrow, Paris and Zurich to the Croatian capital. At this point, the Canadian carrier plans to resume services to these European destinations in June and July. Air Canada is not offering refunds for cancelled flights but is instead providing credits which can be used for another flight within the next 24 months. The Canadian Transportation Agency says airlines are not obliged to pay back passengers for trips suspended due to the coronavirus and “should not be expected to take steps that could threaten their economic viability”.
Air Transat, which also maintains seasonal flights between Toronto and Zagreb, plans to go ahead with the service at this point in time. Operations are scheduled to resume on June 2 and run twice per week during the first two weeks, increasing to three weekly from the week starting June 15 until September 14, when services will again be reduced to two weekly. Flights will be reduced to one weekly from October 13 until the end of the 2020 summer season, on October 31. Further changes to Air Transat’s operations remain highly likely. The airline has suspended all flights through to May 31. Air Canada Rouge and Air Transat carried 65.486 passengers between Zagreb and Toronto last year, representing an increase of 14.6% on 2018.
I hope Air Transat will be back at least :/
ReplyDelete"Air Canada Rouge and Air Transat carried 65.486 passengers between Zagreb and Toronto last year, representing an increase of 14.6% on 2018."
ReplyDeleteNot bad at all. Shame about this suspension.
Good figure. Wonder which does does better. Rouge or Transat.
DeleteI believe Transat because they fly a longer season?
DeleteIs it me or is ZAG so far suffering the most? I mean other airports did not face so many cancellations so far?
ReplyDeleteThese are all routes that depend largely on tourists.
DeleteYYZ-ZAG was mostly diaspora, not so much tourists.
Delete^ you think Croatian diaspora is so large to support two airlines and daily flights in summer? Don't think so.
Deletecome on, everybody is affected. Traffic may not rebound until they find a drug that helps against COVID. Until then people will be afraid to travel and we will see many many cancellations, no matter tourist route, gasto route or business one.
DeleteYou've obviously never been to Canada. lol
DeleteThe airline said they see mostly tourists on the route. You can find articles here.
Delete"Its other seasonal summer flights in the region, including Budapest and Bucharest, have also been cancelled."
DeleteI haven't been to Canada. What is the biggest Balkan diaspora there?
DeleteI think biggest Balkan diaspora is the Greek one but Serbs and Croats are not far behind, especially around Toronto.
DeleteBudapest, unlike Zagreb, is a global tourist Mecca. Just look at their list of destinations and all will be clear. Bucharest on the other hand sees a similar passenger structure like ZAG.
DeleteItalians are by far the biggest diaspora in Canada
DeleteYeah but they are not from the Balkans.
DeleteHope they come back at some point.
ReplyDeleteWhy do they cancel the entire season? Why not move it to August?
ReplyDeleteProbably because advance bookings are bad and the little market that will be left can be carried to Croatia via Star Alliance hubs. Air Canada mainline recently replaced Austrian Airlines on YYZ-VIE and very fast they increased the plane from 788 to 789.
DeleteOU could profit from this cancellation since they could get a large chunk of the rebooked flights. I hope Lufthansa does not take all for itself.
DeleteIssue with ZAG is not so much tourism because it is the airport with most outbound demand in all of Croatia and even a bit beyond. Many seats were filled with locals travelling around. Unfortunately corona is taking a toll not only on Croatian tourism but on the economy as well. Unemployment is on the rise, just yesterday 725 more people got fired so unemployment is at 154.500 right now. Before most of these unemployed would just go to the West but they can't do that because their economies are also in free fall. Expect many Croats who left and who got fired to return to their homes.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the government handles this crisis well though I think collapsing revenue in the last month will continue in the summer.
If this trend continues expect ZAG to record even more cuts. Rising unemployment and collapsing economy do not fare well for the aviation business. It's a shame OU doesn't have transfer passengers. That business would help now as it would create 'artificial' demand in a way.
I am especially afraid of the winter season.
Love your economic analysis based on index job ticker lol
DeleteThat job ticket is based on government sources so I don't know what bothers you so much about it?
DeleteAnon 09.19 and you think the economy is not facing a major challenge?
DeleteYou can see this as an opportunity for Croatia to retain the brains that came back from the west and build a new type of economy. It is not only doom and gloom. Every crisis opens new perspectives. But yes, aviation will need to take a break.
DeleteUnfortunately I don't think brains are the ones losing jobs in the West....
DeleteIt will be interesting to see how this route develops in the future with the planned Air Transat - Air Canada merger.
ReplyDeleteWould not be surprised to see a mainline 788 replacing Rouge and Transat altogether. On these services Y is generally not full, PE is packed and there is small demand for J. So the 788 is perfect because of its smaller amount of Y, a decently sized PE cabin and small J cabin. Would be great to see that plane on this route in the future.
DeleteRV and AT planes had no J class on flights to ZAG, what small demand for J are you talking about? Both Rouge and Transat cabins are configured for economy and small eco plus type of section. Dreamliner on that route is for dreamers.
DeleteThere is small demand for J on this route because some (including myself) take connecting flights specifically to fly Star Alliance J. 20 seats on the B788 is very small and a perfect start. With AC acquiring TS it will only be logical to see them use one airline on the route, be it AC, RV or TS. So it's not that unlikely. Premium Economy on the B788 is of a similar size to the RV B763, while the Economy cabin is smaller than that on RV or TS. Actually an overall capacity downgrade, would just be more efficient.
DeleteThis is getting depressing.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWho is surprised? this was completely predictable and EXPECTED! People, when we talk about cancellations steming from world class airlines, then its logical to everyone why it happens, and everyone argues tourism is ruined, Greece and Croatia are kaput etc. and thise points are valid to a large degree. For the one HUNDRED time, ALL airlines will retract this year, WITH no exeption...there will be NO new routes or expansions, all of them will suffer and require heavy gvm’t subsidies, I repeat ALL. So please put patriotic and emotional views aside and get back to economics 101, all Balkan airlines will return in the fall, flying basic routes, and they will be lucky if they can survive long term. bookmark this comment.
Ok, I bookmarked that comment even if there is no bookmark option.
DeleteAs for retractions and reductions, obviously EY didn't get your memo since they are launching Vienna and boosting Australia while Qatar is more or less operating normally and they are even adding a destination here and there. They are doing this because they know other airlines are going to be vulnerable when the market will be modest so they want to take a big piece of cake for themselves. Very simple.
Qatar is more or less operating normally in a parallel universe: https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/290366/qatar-airways-ns20-network-changes-as-of-19mar20/
Deleteanon 9:32, good that you bookmarked in your mind my comment. BTW, what EY is doing is called reshuffling not expanding LOL
DeleteLike I said, all Airlines, WITHOUT exeption will retract this year, and only in Q4 (when strategic corporate decisions are made) will we have an indication of the intent of each airline.
You can sit back now and without worry watch your favourite Airline(s) retract, like the rest of the world.
anon 9:28 completely agree with you! some people here still live in dreamland! 2020 will be all about basic survival of all airlines.
DeleteNot airlines, the whole tourist industry. Aeroflot just announced that they won't be resuming flights before August as they don't expect the ban to be lifted before then. This will especially affect Montenegro, Albania, Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria which see a growing number of Russian tourists. I doubt Utair will be introducing those Croatia flights as it makes no sense to start them in August.
DeleteOverall countries that rely on tourism should prepare themselves for a very unpleasant H2 2020.
Croatian economy will be hit hard because of this doesnt line 20% of the bnp account of tourism sector?
ReplyDeleteReally sad. I think KE will also cancel ZAG for this year in the end. I hope Transat goes ahead.
ReplyDeleteTransat is safe because they are a different kind of business adn their costs are lower. Plus they will take over the AC clients.
DeleteThis is going from bad to worse
ReplyDeleteExactly
DeleteThis is expected. But I wonder will all these flights be resumed next year? Will there be demand in ling of new economic reality?
ReplyDeleteIf these flights made money, they will resume in 2021.
DeleteThere was this projection person giving us projections about numbers of pax in carriers and airports well into the 2030s... where are you now when we need you??
ReplyDeleteHaha those were priceless.
Delete:(
ReplyDeleteAs the airport with the most of wide-body traffic in ex-yu ZAG will be hit the hardest by these cancellations.
ReplyDeleteIt is for sure that Air Canada Rouge, Air Transat, Emirates, Korean won't return this year to ZAG.
If they return in the foreseeable future at all.
Zagreb will be hurted with long haul flights canceletaions for this year
ReplyDeleteWow :(
ReplyDeleteI expect a boom of Czech tourists. OU should focus on those flights from the coast.
ReplyDelete