Croatia Airlines has drafted three different plans for the wider resumption of its international flights, depending on how the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic progresses. “Croatia Airlines will be the first carrier to bring tourists to Croatia and enable the country’s connectivity to the world. We will start with domestic operations first. In terms of international flights, we currently have three active strategies, of which each has several sub-strategies, on how to resume services. Routes with healthy point-to-point demand and some transfer traffic will be prioritised. However, considering the number of unknowns, we are still keeping all scenarios open and are constantly devising new ones”, Croatia Airlines’ Director for Network and Revenue Management, Krešimir Mlinar, said at the Aviation Arena webinar last week.
Mr Mlinar noted that the airline has no plans to make wider changes to its planned network at the moment. “At this point I can’t say we will start flying to Copenhagen, but we won’t launch Dublin. It will depend on a number of factors. We are currently not considering a network reshuffle. We believe our big advantage is that we fly to hub airports and have a significant number of passengers transferring onto our partner airlines”, Mr Mlinar noted. Croatia Airlines will resume domestic flights from Zagreb to Dubrovnik and Split on May 11, both of which will operate twice per day, while services to Pula and Zadar will commence on May 18 and to Brač on May 19.
Croatia Airlines has been operating one daily flight to Frankfurt over the past few weeks, which will continue to be maintained until the wider resumption of international services. “We currently run one daily rotation to Frankfurt. We positioned this flight in order utilise the 6.00 PM slot so we can carry as many transfer passengers from Frankfurt to Zagreb. The role of this flight is for the continued repatriation of Croatian nationals - and there are still those coming home - as well as foreign nationals who are leaving Croatia. In mid-March we decided not to discontinue all operations, as most other airlines have. During this period, we carried 23.000 Croatian citizens who had to come back to the country”, Mr Mlinar concluded.
My assumption that the first international routes to be resumed (besides FRA which is operating) are Star hubs - Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Brussels.
ReplyDeleteIm sure they will add AMS and CDG very soon
DeleteWhy those two?
DeleteYa they need to bring more covid asimpthotic tourists. Except Vienna all corona epicenters.
DeletePlease...
Delete@9.09
DeleteBecause they are major hubs perhaps.
Their major partner is LH group not Air France-KLM.
DeleteStill they have alot of demand in AMS and CDG. One daily service will be resumed very soon.
DeleteGood. My guess is by the end of the month more international routes will be resumed.
ReplyDeleteSorry I meant by the end of next month.
DeleteIt will be sooner.
DeleteWhy not resume some more international routes on 11th May along with domestic ones.
ReplyDeleteThey probably will.
DeleteDoes the government plan to do a tender for domestic PSO flights? Or have they given up on the idea and will just give the money to OU automatically.
ReplyDeleteGiven up on it. Trade Air is no longer (and will not) operate any PSO routes. Osijek is the biggest loser out of all of it.
DeleteRijeka too.
DeleteThey have not given up on PSO. They (government) literally didn't prepare anything on time. Tender will probably be during the summer.
DeleteGood on them for keeping FRA. Allowed many people to come home and not stat stranded across the world.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to the OU staff for keeping their cool in such a situation.
DeleteWhat situation? You make it sound as if they are operating out of Libya or Mogadishu.
DeleteComparing to other airlines who are firing staff, OU still has original number of employees...
DeleteGood luck OU. Hopefully they will manage to resume most of their flights.
ReplyDeleteMost of their destinations are in the EU and most countries are easing restrictions so they generally shouldn't have a problem.
DeleteWell I'm glad they are still optimistic about a tourist season.
ReplyDeleteWhy wouldn't they be? Europeans will still want to go somewhere for holiday. Spain and Italy will be more or less closed, Croatia is in the EU and those warnings how there will be no travel till September don't look like materializing. Even the EU president said over the weekend that Europeans will have the chance to go on their summer holidays.
DeleteA high minister in germany warned countries of opening up for tourism too early so it doesnt become a race for first opening up for tourism, immsorry tonsay this but there will not even be 10% of tourists during high season in croatia compared to last year, finland said today that they managed to stop the virus outbreak too good avtually so now they postponed the peak too sep/oct and they will not allowe their citizens to travel freely there will be restrictions. Sweden has said to its citizens that they should prepare for a summer in sweden. Chezch republic said its citizens should also stay home. Lets put it this way all countries who has had a lockdown will have to stay in their countries ptherwise the virus will explode again, thats the negative psrt of a total lockdown.
DeleteAbsolutely no one can predict "a second wave". It is something that the WHO just remembered a week ago and started pushing this theory (even though they have shown themselves to be completely incompetent and run by personal interests). Meanwhile in China where the virus started they now announced they will have public use vaccine (something that usually takes 10 years to develop) available by September (to stop "second wave"). Convenient.
DeleteThe point is that all countries is on different stages, why would any country risk for a widespread outbreak again because of tourists bringing the virus home with them? No one will and the travel will be on a minimum trust me. Tjis is a perfect oppurtunity for all to explore their own country.
DeleteOh my, the state-operated social media bot farms have discovered this niche blog. No, we don't want to explore our own countries. If there is significant danger of getting infected, we won't travel of course. If there is a moderate-to-low level of danger we'll go. Life itself is risky - you can get hit by a loose part of the facade when leaving your building or if you stay inside an earthquake may hit. So as long as the COVID-19 is not wild, we'll gladly travel. Now go back to the newspapers/TV station websites you're supposed to cover.
Delete+100 last anon!
Delete+1000 also from me, anon 13h32
DeleteThat was not my Point you are one of these 10% that will still travel My friend compared to last year.
DeleteMy answers was in the line for those who said that this will be a
Minor bump and soon there will be masstourism im sorry to say but it wont happen. But you 10% feel free to travel. Nothing will be the same this summer season. If you arent restricted you mayby stsy home because you lost your job.
I hope OU used this time wisely and did any maintenance they may have had to do on their aircraft.
ReplyDeleteThey do that during the winter season.
DeleteThere is a meetign today on eu-level with all tourism ministers on what to do and what the countries have planned so the border can open up for tourism but the german foreign minister heiko maas warns for a chicken race between the countries will have unprecedented risks. So there will not be a quick opening up as people here belive.
ReplyDeleteMakes sense. The flight to Frankfurt has a relatively good LF. Although this is obviously because there are no other flights from/to the country at the moment.
ReplyDeleteWould be interesting to read a trip report from one of those flights :D
DeleteRelatevily good LF?
Delete10 or 15%?
Good to see domestic flights coming back first. I assume within a week of them launching international flights will start as well.
ReplyDeleteWhenever the tourist period start, in the matter of coronavirus cases, I think Croatia and Greece might benefit the most.
ReplyDeleteBenefit? In this situation?
DeleteHaving 20% of last year income in tourism would be great success for Croatia
Czech government today requested for Croatia to open its boarders for Czech citizens this summer so they can go there for a holiday.
ReplyDeleteSource?
DeleteAre they sending Q400 or A319 to Frankfurt? Which aircraft will they use to Split and Dubrovnik from 11th of May?
ReplyDeleteyou can check fr24 by yourself... they are sending mix or A319 and Q400, depending on demand
DeleteHow are TGD and SOF performing ? Bookings are generally down in the entire world but what about OU newest destinations ?
ReplyDelete