Emirates has indefinitely terminated seasonal operations between Dubai and Zagreb with flights for the 2021 summer season removed, while Flydubai has suspended its planned service resumption to Skopje until March 29, 2021.
Zagreb is being discontinued along with several other Emirates destinations, including Phnom Penh, Porto, Edinburgh and St Petersburg. Furthermore, Emirates’ partner, Flydubai, which was to restore its winter operations to the Croatian capital later this month has pushed back its service resumption for December 27. Emirates’ Chief Operating Officer, Adel al-Redha, previously said the airline would reintroduce all of its 143 pre-Covid routes next year, however, circumstances have since changed across the world as the coronavirus pandemic continues to hit demand for air travel. Despite this, Emirates currently flies to over ninety destinations, as it rebuilds its network. The airline launched daily year-round operations to Zagreb in the summer of 2017 with its Boeing 777 aircraft. However, flights were downgraded to seasonal the following year and a route-sharing agreement was concluded with Flydubai, where the hybrid carrier maintained services over winter, while Emirates ran flights over the summer.
Zagreb - Dubai v.v. passenger traffic
| Year | PAX |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 98.301 |
| 2018 | 147.157 |
| 2019 | 130.937 |
Flydubai has pushed back the resumption of its Skopje service by five months, from October until March. As a result, the Macedonian capital will no longer be directly linked to the Gulf region after Qatar Airways recently suspended its flights to Skopje until next summer as well. At this point, Flydubai's services are expected to resume on March 29, 2021 and run twice per week. The airline introduced operations to Macedonia in October 2012 and has maintained the route ever since. Within the former Yugoslavia, the hybrid carrier currently runs services to Belgrade and Sarajevo, which will continue throughout the winter, with flights to be operated five and three times per week respectively.
Skopje - Dubai v.v. passenger traffic
| Year | PAX |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 26.262 |
| 2018 | 28.767 |
| 2019 | 24.270 |
Wow those SKP numbers were really weak. No wonder they are not returning until summer. If air travel doesn't recover I don't see them coming back then either.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThere was this guy from SKP posting trip reports here, who mentioned the same thing. In spite of having the flights, he used to fly from either SOF or SKG because of the prices and connectivity options.
lol @9.15
DeleteWill FZ continue to fly to SKG? Or they cut the whole Balkan at once?
DeleteNo flights from Doha and Dubai to SKG in the winter either. Surprisingly both airlines will fly to SOF
DeleteThey didn't cut while of Balkans. They fly to SJJ and BEG and will fly in winter too.
DeleteSJJ is a different story, considering the thousands of inbound tourists
DeleteThousands of inbound tourists? From where? People from most Gulf countries are not allowed to leave their countries.
DeleteCarnage
ReplyDeleteExpected from EK but surprised Flydubai isn't coming back until the end of the year.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened last year, that numbers were already decreasing ?
ReplyDeleteAlways thought 2019 was the best year for aviation ever ...
QR
DeleteAnd Korean Air, LOT...
DeleteLast year EK decreased frequencies to ZAG.
DeleteYes, I believe it was 4 weekly instead of 7.
DeleteIt was not. It was daily with 777-300er all summer.
DeleteYou are partially right, sorry. it was 4 weekly until May 31 because of Dubai runway overhaul. Then it went daily. FZ was 4 weekly which was down on the winter before.
DeleteSuch a shame about EK but I kind of expected it after corona hit.
ReplyDeleteI think FZ should have used QR's exit as an opportunity.
ReplyDeleteThis is bad news, especially since Dubai is open and it's an accessible destination to travel to.
ReplyDeleteLosing EK now is a big blow for ZAG.
DeleteUnfortunate there are no flights to the Middle East from Macedonia anymore but the majority of people flying QR and FZ were diaspora from Australia. Since they can't leave the country until at least middle of December (it will likely be extended to middle of March), there is little point for these flights.
ReplyDeleteWhat you probably meant was there are no direct flights to the ME- otherwise you can get there by transferring in IST
DeleteBummer
ReplyDeleteDemand will be significantly lower next year across the world even if things go back to normal. I'm not sure this route to ZAG with a B777 could be sustained under such circumstances.
ReplyDeleteOne of Emirates' big strategic mistakes is having two widebody fleet model, one of which is the A380.
DeleteThe whole widebody only fleet turned out to be unsustainable.
DeleteEmirates said they are looking at narrowbodies so we might see them fly those into ZAG one day.
ReplyDeleteThat's a looong way off.
DeleteThey have FlyDubai for that.
DeleteCroatia needs to do more to stimulate local travel. The suspension of these long haul routes have shown more or less that all these flights are heavily dependent on tourism only.
ReplyDeleteTime to focus on Europe and connect more cities especially in UK, Spain and Poland.
DeleteI am surprised they don't have more charters out of ZAG. Look at BEG today, there are a dozen charter flights to sunny destinations on top of A320 to LCA and IST and MNE flights.
DeleteTrue, BEG has sunny destinations but ZAG does not actually need those because of its coast. ZAG needs connections to more capitals and bigger cities especially more connections to more London airports, Manchester, Krakow, Thessaloniki, Bratislava, Cluj/Timisoara, Sofia/Varna, Antalya, more Moscow airports, etc.
DeleteCyprus is surrounded by coast yet there are still charter flights for Cypriots going for holidays abroad. Same with Greeks who travel abroad extensively despite having so many islands and seaside resorts.
DeleteCharter flights doesnt mean only sun, indeed. Cypriots may fly to Slovenia or Bulgaria for skiing
DeleteCharters won't really work for ZAG but rather urban, city-break and business destinations. Economically, Croatia has a higher standard of living compared to the rest of ex-Yu and also an EU member state. The airport management should think in that direction....
DeleteSlovenia has higher standard of living than Croatia.
DeleteSure, but Croatia does not have a low standard of living neither. People can still afford to travel and go to Bali, Bora Bora, Cape Town and so on. Cheap, low-budget destinations such as Hurghada or Antalya do not seem attractive.
DeleteYeah that's why there are flights from Zagreb to Bora Bora and Cape Town.
DeleteYes people in ZAG are so rich and keep on travelling which is why they lost Berlin flights even before corona.
DeleteZAG was never a Memmingen, Baden-Baden, Beauvais, Basel or Vaxjo airport. The management was focusing and had ambitions on higher destinations such as Seoul or Toronto, which we all witnessed. It's all just a matter of time and things will return to reality. Pretty sure the management will look into North America and SE Asia flights.
DeleteThe seasonality and the collapse in demand during corona shows that all these routes rely on foreign tourists, not Zagreb residents because as we can see, Dubai can not be sustained at all.
DeleteThis you can't know. The Croatian passport index has went up especially after EU membership and more people travel because of no visa. Regarding Dubai, well, read the article: "Zagreb is being discontinued along with several other Emirates destinations, including Phnom Penh, Porto, Edinburgh and St Petersburg".
DeleteStory short, ZAG needs more EU flights.
But Flydubai delayed Zagreb for DEC 30.
DeleteLuckily, other legacy carriers are back:
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2020/09/tap-air-portugal-to-launch-zagreb.html
Since you mentioned Cape Town and South Africa: they have an almost perverse visa policy for an African country.
DeleteNot only that visas are required, but you need to personally submit an application in the nearest embassy. Even though Slovenia and Croatia allegedly have such high living standards citizens of both countries need to make an appointment and go the nearest South African Embassy if they want to travel to Cape Town- and this is Vienna.
So, perhaps this is one of the reasons there are no direct flights between ZAG and CPT ;)
So how come there is less and less options from ZAG? Reality is one thing, your imagination another.
Delete>>but Croatia does not have a low standard of living neither
DeleteThat's not what you said. You said "Croatia has a higher standard of living compared to the rest of ex-Yu" and that was a lie.
>>The management was focusing and had ambitions on higher destinations such as Seoul or Toronto
Neither are that high. Mexico City, Denver and Daocheng Yading are much higher.
>>ZAG was never a Memmingen, Baden-Baden, Beauvais, Basel or Vaxjo airport.
That's why new ZAG airport is stuck at 8 jet bridges and BEG is currently expanding from 16 to 28 jet bridges. That's prestige ZAG will never reach.
Why no Flydubai until pretty much 2021 in Zagreb?
ReplyDeleteNo demand
DeleteOuch
ReplyDeleteI suggest Emirates tries Dubrovnik seasonal in the future
ReplyDeleteEK has apparently closed its representative office in ZAG and fired the staff.
ReplyDeleteAny source? How many poeple lost their jobs?
DeleteI can confirm as a friend of mine worked for them as an administrator.
DeleteI see. Sorry to hear that
DeleteJust 15 flights out of ZAG today. They even merged domestic flights tonight, DBV via SPU and PUY via ZAD. Both on Q400.
ReplyDeleteImagine what will happen in November...
DeleteBut this is just 15 flights, how can it get worse than this? That's one flight every two hours.
Delete15 flights overall or 15 departures? SPU has today 60 flights overall.
Delete15 departures from ZAG today.
DeleteBUD has 20 departures ��
DeleteHow come??!
Hardly surprising given the low yields and lack of business traffic.... as EK rebuilds its business, that's where it will be focusing its efforts
ReplyDeleteEvery fairy tale has an end.
ReplyDeleteoof
ReplyDelete