Austrian Airlines to suspend Zagreb service


Austrian Airlines will discontinue flights between Vienna and Zagreb from mid-October, as a result of reduced demand. The airline will operate its last service between the two cities on October 16. Croatia Airlines, which has temporarily suspended its flights to the Austrian capital, will then take over the route when it resumes operations on October 22. Austrian will make a brief return to Zagreb during the winter for the Christmas and New Year holidays, during which it will run services from December 18, 2020 until January 6, 2021, after which it will again suspend flights until March 1 of next year. Changes at this early stage remain possible.

Austrian Airlines will continue to serve its remaining destinations in the former Yugoslavia, including Belgrade, Podgorica, Pristina and Skopje this winter. Both Austrian and Croatia Airlines are part of the Star Alliance. Among the premium Lufthansa Group carriers, Lufthansa itself will be the only to maintain services to Zagreb throughout the entire winter with flights from Munich. Traffic between the Croatian capital and Vienna has been growing in recent years, with Austrian relying on a notable number of transfer passengers continuing their journey via Vienna onto North America, as well as elsewhere in Europe. Last year, 173.431 travellers flew between Zagreb and the Austrian capital among the two carriers.

Zagreb - Vienna v.v. passenger traffic

YearPAX
2015163.960
2016160.757
2017164.108
2018168.384
2019173.431

Austrian Airlines has cut its upcoming winter schedule which will only reach about 30% of last year’s. The carrier will serve some sixty destinations, down from around eighty during the 2019/2020 winter season. Frequencies on routes that are scheduled to go ahead have been greatly reduced. “It has already become apparent in recent weeks that we will have to dress warmer than expected this winter. The new entry restrictions from Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and many other countries make adjustments to the schedule necessary. We are prepared for that”, Austrian Airlines’ CEO, Alexis von Hoensbroech, said, comparing the current situation to that of a ship. "Our goal is to manoeuvre our company through this storm with our combined forces. We don't know how long this storm will last”, he added.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:01

    Austrian is having a tougher time than most European airlines. Any particular reason?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:08

      And which European airline was less affected according to you?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:09

      Inside the Lufthansa group I think they did the worst.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:19

      All LH group airlines are doing very, very badly.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:21

      @09.08
      There are airlines that seem to be doing a far better job at weathering the crisis. Austrian Airlines took the longest to resume flights out of most western European airlines (even though the epidemiological situation in Austria was relatively calm). They have suspended more routes than most airlines and all this despite already getting state aid.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:16

      LX is about to fire 1.000 employees

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:37

      Austrian has been struggling from when the low costers were allowed to fly from Vienna. Ever since Wizz, Easyjet, Lauda and Level started basing aircraft in Vienna, Austrian has been in the red.

      Delete
    7. Austrian has been struggling from when the low costers were allowed to fly from Vienna. Ever since Wizz, Easyjet, Lauda and Level started basing aircraft in Vienna, Austrian has been in the red.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous11:51

      Anon 10:19 LX is NOT going to fire 1000 people.

      They are just not going to replace any employees in the next 2 years who within this period either retire or leave the company on their own.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous12:47

      You that are saying Austrian made the worst and was the only one closing in the lh group. Maybe u Don't know that also Brussels is in this group, they had to close all operations, are flying even less than Austrian and are cutting even more planes, having already a smaller fleet.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous12:49

      It shows the hierarchy in the LH group. Even before corona Brussels was treated worst in the group. Then Austrian.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous16:26

      The ones who earn money are always treated better than the ones who lose money- as simple as that.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:02

    Let's hope it returns in March. I'm not so sure.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:02

    Good news for Croatia Airlines!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:05

      I don't think it's good news for them either. If the majority of pax are transfers there are less and less options to transfer with Austrian as they have suspended so many routes.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:02

    I guess they made a deal with OU.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous09:06

    They should have started Ljubljana with Q400. Could have worked.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:53

      They are retiring all Q400s, as all of their domestic routes will be replaced by train.

      Delete
    2. @Anonymous 11:53: they are not going to retire all Q400s as they operate a lot of flights with them now due to low demand! After corona yes, but I think they will fly them at least for one year more...

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:06

    Why was there such a big increase in passenger numbers between ZAG and VIE in 2019 compared to 2018?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:11

      More flights?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:12

      Whatever the reason was it is to be commended that numbers increased despite there being less of a need for people to transfer (considering Air Transat, Air Canada Rouge, Korean Air flights). Shame corona ruined it all.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:07

    Is there really so little demand that OU has cancelled Vienna until 22nd OCT and after that Austrian cancels the flights too?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:08

      Yes but Croatia Airlines starts flying again after Austrian cancels.

      Delete
    2. Zagreb - Vienna is 4 hours by car, doors to doors. Flying P2P takes approximately the same time, maybe one hour less. If more people travelling (family, friends), which usually is the case, it's much cheaper going by car. Especially with OU /OS duopoly prices. The service is basically for transit /transfer pax only. In this situation, when everything is close to nothing, it is expected. On the other hand, AF/KL announced daily to CDG and 6 weekly to AMS from ZAG for this winter, the same as before, which is also logical, both being much more far away from ZAG, and offering more transit/transfer possibilities

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:04

      That's why we need Lauda to lower the fares and stimulate demand!

      Delete
    4. @Anonymous 13:04: First of all, Lauda does not exist any more, second the last thing we need now is Ryan. Don't forget: as soon as they have no competition from other airlines, they are even more expencive than the "normal" carrier before...

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:08

    Ouch

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:53

      Winter is coming

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:11

    Is Eurowings still flying to Zagreb?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:18

      Yes

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:20

      But only from CGN, DUS and TXL were cut before covid.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:11

    I don't think OS will make it. Tested morning they had two passengers to NUE on Q400.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:15

      I don't the Austrian government would let them go bankrupt.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:47

      *i don't think

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:28

      Oh come on - another made up statement on here. This morning there was no NUE flight at all I just checked and all others / on other days are only flown in triangles linking it with LEJ so maybe more luck with ur bs next time!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous07:47

      It's not made up, Simply Aviation had a story on Instagram.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:54

      Again - it is impossible, as there was no such flight.
      Maybe it was from a completely different time period such as in March?
      Also nothing to be found on https://www.simply-aviation.com/austrian

      Delete
  11. Anonymous09:12

    Hasn't Austrian started operating some triangle flights now because of low demand?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:15

      Yes, Vienna-Leipzig-Nuremberg.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:28

      Only this one routing

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:14

    I hope the September statistics will be launched soon. I think 100 thousand passengers in August is still not bad even after all the airlines lost this summer.

    https://www.zagreb-airport.hr/en/business/b2b/statistics/statistics-for-2020/629

    The trend is likely to continue until March and then climb up in June.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous09:18

    When will these cancellations stop?!?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:19

      When there is demand for air travel again.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:24

      It will take some time.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:36

      When governments around the world stop trying to kill a fly with a bazooka.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:21

      Lol, that's a great reply Vlad

      Delete
  14. Anonymous09:21

    If they are still around by March 1.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:26

      They will be, don't worry.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous09:22

    And how many weekly flights will Croatia Airlines have to Vienna this winter?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:33

      Two weekly

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:36

      wow, who would have thought

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:51

      And last winter it was two daily...

      Delete
  16. Anonymous09:26

    Shame to hear this about Austrian. They are a good airline and transferring via VIE is a breeze.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous09:32

    This is all becoming far too depressing again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:36

      At least the upside compared to spring is that most of us are not locked up at home and there is some aviation activity.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:41

      Agree anon 9.32. Just waiting to see whose next.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous09:37

    Airlines are doing anything to survive. Routes that don't make sense in the current circumstances are simply being cancelled.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:46

      I would still expect VIE-ZAG to make sense!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:31

      Sure it makes sense when you have lots of connections on both ends. But only P2P at these crazy prices- surely not! Zagreb to Vienna is only 3.5 hrs by car, no P2P pax here.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous09:40

    But I wonder how they came to the decision for OU to keep flying this route and Austrian not. Did they discuss it? Did Lufthansa decide? Just wondering what the process is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:23

      Probably LH decided it. Remember that Kucko said all flying in winter is unprofitable for OU.

      Delete
  20. Anonymous09:42

    The big question is whether all these airlines that have cancelled flights will actually come back next year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:44

      Austrian for sure will but others, like Emirates for example, won't.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:52

      I believe except Emirates, everyone else has in principle announced that they would resume flights.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:45

      There are many months to go before the summer season.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:33

      Any other crystal balls?

      Delete
  21. Anonymous09:50

    This could be the perfect time for Wizz Air or Ryanair to launch this route.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:52

      +1

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:55

      If OU and OS can't fill a Q400 or Embraer, you expect Wizz or Ryanir to fill A319s or B737s?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:56

      If nothing, it would be good to see this duopoly end.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:23

      OS charges €500 for a return flight!

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:38

      That price it outrageous! For which period?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous07:49

      It was of you wanted to go one the same day and come back. Otherwise it was rarely under €200.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:56

      It is/was usally around 240-280 EUR return - and that is immense in my opinion.

      Delete
  22. Anonymous09:51

    Not surprised to be honest.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous09:57

    Worried no one wrote "Winter is coming" yet :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:59

      and "go hrvatska"

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:38

      Go hrvatska? You are the first one ever who wrote that and the first one who expected that someone would applauding comment on bad news.

      Delete
  24. Anonymous09:58

    That's unfortunate

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous09:58

    So many airlines suspending flights to the region.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:11

      Airlines are suspending flights everywhere. It is not only the region that is affected.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:11

      It's corona's fault.

      Delete
  26. Anonymous10:01

    Is it me or Zagreb is having the toughest time of all airports in Ex-Yu?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:25

      Did you hear about Ljubljana?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:25

      LJU is definitely performing the worse out of all ex-Yu capitals.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:44

      *worst

      Delete
  27. Anonymous10:12

    But I'm confused they are not suspending any other ex-Yu route.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:16

      Zagreb is the only city in ex-Yu where they have a Star partner.

      Delete
    2. alexis10:21

      ..as well as their only ex-yu route that can be easily done by car in about 3.5 hours

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:24

      Because other markets are performing better than expected.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:17

      Wishful thinking...

      Delete
    5. Anonymous14:23

      ^ yeah you are right. That's why the only route they suspended is Zagreb.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous14:29

      Arent new taxes imposed by Austrian goverment on this route?

      Delete
    7. Anonymous20:16

      @anon 14:23
      I recommend you reading some other commemts under today's article. Currently almost only P2P passengers are possible. Due to the short driving distance there are generally almost no P2P between ZAG and VIE. All other OS destinations in Exyu are further away with enough P2P passengers.
      Or you can continue to believe what you want / dream of.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous07:50

      Then explain Prague and Budapest from Vienna.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous10:59

      Gladly:

      BUD is suspended, same as ZAG.

      Only PRG is still flown (max. once a day) - but it is a much bigger city and much more important both economically and in a tourism sense, compared to ZAG.

      Delete
  28. Anonymous10:20

    I said it before and I will say it again. So much for the LH Group and their commitment to the region.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:36

      And what should they do? Fly empty planes so they can show commitment?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:39

      You can say it 100 more times and that comment does not make any sense. It is normal to have LH group so dominant in this region. LH is the biggest group in the world, and very close to all west balkan countrie. Also there is alot of balkan diaspora in Germany/Switzerland/Austria, what do you expect, AF/KLM to dominate?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:27

      Precisely because of that I would not expect them to be suspending fights left and right in the region.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:11

      You do understand the demand and loads have plummeted to almost nothing, which is why they are cancelling flights?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous13:00

      LH is doing one really unknowned system for people in this region, they are commited to a profit and not to the "national interests".

      Delete
    6. Anonymous13:39

      Last anon +1

      Most Balkan inhabitants indeed dont seem to understand this principle.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous15:53

      And thats why devoloped coutries will only save their airlines during the global crisis while here we will do it on yearly basis or how much EU says it ok.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous07:58

      Lol LH IS further cutting their network this winter and is about to request another bailout. Yeah they are so perfect. People always idolise everything German no matter what.

      Delete
  29. Anonymous10:45

    Not good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:10

      The good thing is they are coming back :)

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:26

      ^ Fingers crossed

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:41

      I find the headline of this article very misleading.

      Austrian does not cancel ZAG. That would imply they won't fly to ZAG at all anymore when they will pause it temporarily for a part of fall and parts of late winter.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:04

      Yeah, like, they'll be flying for a few weeks.

      Delete
    5. I wonder if this glass is half empty or half full :) :) :)

      Delete
    6. Anonymous16:53

      @13.41
      You should learn the meaning of the word suspended. It means exactly when the route is not canceled and will come back. Before complaining learn some English.

      Delete
  30. Anonymous11:28

    Goodbye to any chance them ever launching LJU.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:42

      I don't think there was a chance even before covid.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:36

      Maybe when / if Klagenfurt airport closes or if KLU is replaced by train eventually in couple of years once they open that long train tunnel.

      Delete
  31. Anonymous11:29

    What aircraft type does OS currently use to Zagreb?

    ReplyDelete
  32. Anonymous11:41

    The Chrstmas/New Year flights will only operate if there is sufficient demand.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:37

      Like for all other flights it will mainly depend on Corona situation and entry and quarantine rules. This will determine the demand.

      Delete
  33. Anonymous12:42

    Thankfully we have a national airline that will keep flying this route.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You mean national airline which earns peanuts and is financed by its poor citizens, in order to feed other countrie's national airline which takes heavy cream and earns fat money to make living of its already rich citizens even better?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous18:08

      All the ex-Yu carriers are maintained by the taxpayers and sweet subsidies with no exceptions.

      Delete
    3. and not only all ex-Yu carriers live on subsidies, there are much more airlines, all over the world, but others at least have decent network, or lower prices, or don't exclusively feed others, or don't take over routes in period of year when those routes are unprofitable, for company like that, I am not thankful, nor proud

      Delete
    4. Anonymous00:36

      It's a good point. But having the taxpayer be charged for such an extensive network is not enough. When you charge, say 2% of the taxpayer, you must make sure they then have newer planes, competitive prices and fewer company parasites doing nothing. Just look at Alitalia or Aerolineas Argentinas to get an idea of what I am talking about.

      Delete

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