Korean Air has cancelled plans to resume seasonal summer flights between Seoul and Zagreb next year with ticket sales between the two cities discontinued this week. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, flights did not run this year, however, they were scheduled to resume on March 30, 2021 and operate three times per week, departing Seoul on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, with the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. They were to be maintained until October 30, 2021. A total of 50.034 seats were to be put on sale between the two cities and 93 (one-way) flights performed. Alternatives from Seoul to the Croatian capital are now being offered by Korean Air via other points in Europe, mainly Frankfurt, Paris and Zurich.
Korean Air launched year-round operations between Seoul and Zagreb in September 2018. Services were maintained with a triangle routing - Seoul - Zagreb - Zurich - Seoul - during the winter of 2018/19, while the flights were downgraded to seasonal in 2019. Summer capacity was to be increased this year from the Airbus A330 to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. During 2019, Korean Air handled 43.123 passengers between the two cities. Korean low cost carrier T’Way Air confirmed earlier this month that it plans to launch flights to Croatia when conditions are met and has received necessary permits from the Korean Ministry for Land, Infrastructure and Transport to operate up to four weekly flights to the country.
Korean Air has been hit hard by the pandemic, with its woes beginning earlier than most European airlines as the virus spread across Asia from January. Earlier this month, Korean Air announced it would merge with its biggest competitor Asiana Airlines in a deal worth 1.6 billion US dollars. “The new integrated Korean flag carrier will rise to one of the top ten most competitive players in the global aviation industry, laying the groundwork to cope with the coronavirus crisis with efficiency and to leap forward in the post-pandemic era”, the company said. The merger is expected to take two years to complete.
It makes sense. Demand won't return by March even if vaccinations begin tomorrow.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI don’t see any airline returning to normal next year. It is easy to ground airlines and planes, destroy their network, but very difficult to get them flying back to normal.
DeleteZürich is cancelled as well. Vienna will not be returning next year too.
DeleteThere won't be many resumptions next year either, i am surprised some airlines are doggedly sticking to their predetermined schedule, not realizing how bad things are. Vaccine won't be ready till late 2021 and even then it'll be half effective due to so many idiots around believing Covid is just glorified flu that killed 1.5 million ppl. Some Humans can be so toxic.
DeletePity although in my opinion this route should have launched years ago, not 2018.
ReplyDeleteIf we had a more proactive flag carrier maybe it would have happened earlier.
DeleteExpected
ReplyDeleteShame. It's a big loss after EK.
ReplyDeleteGreat news for QR and TK.
ReplyDeleteI think Lufthansa will profit the most. Don't most Koreans arrive to Croatia from Europe anyway?
DeleteLO via WAW or to BUD and starting tour of the region from BUD.
DeleteBUD can cover the market, airport is already aggressive enough.
DeleteTravelled often WAW-ZAG before the pandemic. The planes always had at least 10 Koreans, sometimes much more.
DeleteDon´t understand these comments. How would QR or TK profit from no demand? KE suspends the flights because there is no demand..
DeleteMy good Anon 11.06 friend, think about it like this. KE had 50 passengers that it carried and those people want to fly back but they can no longer do it on a non-stop flight so they have to fly via one of the other global hubs like DOH or IST.
DeleteI'm sure they will be back in 2022.
ReplyDeleteNot sure 2022, perhaps 2023/4, 2022 too early I think, it'll take a decade for airline sector to recover from this one.
DeleteYep, no more non stop flights to ZAG on sale :(
ReplyDeleteYes they are completely removed.
DeleteLike Zürich, Vienna and Budapest.
DeleteSo a big withdrawal from Europe by Korean :(
DeleteWhich routes will they keep? London?
DeleteI mean in Europe
DeleteAnd here I was hoping they would eventually launch Dubrovnik.
ReplyDeleteHopefully when they consolidate with this merger they will be back.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed.
DeleteBut it says the merger will take two weeks to complete.
DeleteNow the T'way flights make sense.
ReplyDeleteThey don't have the aircraft to do such flights...
DeleteThey said they will get them.
DeleteThey havent even placed any order... Going to take a while for sure
DeleteIt is possible to lease planes. You don't have to buy new ones. And there are plenty of planes on the market at the moment at a good price.
DeleteZagreb should do everything they can now to get them to start flights.
DeleteUntil this virus is over or under control globally, there will be no flights of this type.
DeleteLet's hope the Canadians stay next summer.
ReplyDeleteAir Transat is coming back. It was already reported here. But we don't know about Rouge and if the airline will even have widebodies. Currently it does not.
DeleteOfficially AC Rouge also has flights scheduled for next summer to ZAG but I don't know how they will operate when they no longer have long haul planes.
DeleteA lot will depend on how Air Canada's acquisition of Air Transat plays out.
DeleteLike I said below there is always a possibility mainline will take the route over from Rouge.
DeleteZero possibility.
DeleteWhy do you think that?
DeleteBecause Rouge no longer has widebodies and AC is expensive to operate.
DeleteThis is sad
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's time for ZAG to lower costs. They could attract more airlines.
ReplyDeleteZAG already offers lower fees to new airlines and airlines willing to fly a full year for the first year of operations.
DeleteThis is standard incentive policy at many airports.
DeleteIt was good while it lasted.
ReplyDeleteI feared this would happen.
ReplyDeleteIt's devastating what this virus has done to the aviation industry.
ReplyDeleteNot just aviation, most travel industry is heavily effected.
DeleteI'm surprised we haven't seen any big bankruptcies yet.
They will come very soon.
DeleteWasn't there talk that they might combine Budapest-Zagreb?
ReplyDeleteBudapest is terminated too.
DeleteKE might have ran away from BUD but LO has already resumed flights because of big demand.
DeleteBig demand? Are you for real?
DeleteMaintaining flights in winter during a raging pandemic is a good indication of the market size.
DeleteShame would have been nice seeing these Dreamliner birds on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteI hope Korean Air weathers the storm and we see them back in Zagreb :)
ReplyDeleteThe best thing ZAG should do in the short term is forget about these long haul flights and focus on the EU market. Those non-European pax who want to visit Croatia will be arriving from EU.
ReplyDeleteThis route almost exclusively depends on tourists so its just question of whether there will demand for leisure travel next year.
ReplyDeleteSo sad :(
ReplyDeletethis is just bad
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame. This route was developing nicely.
ReplyDeleteNo disrespect intended, but was it really? It went from all year round to seasonal.
DeleteWell capacity was to increase in summer from A330 to B787.
DeleteMany people predicated this would happen.
ReplyDeleteZAG could never compete with BUD and VIE. Both of these airports are entry points for Koreans visiting the region. LO resumed ICN from BUD quite early and KE flies to Vienna, both scheduled and cargo flights. ZAG lost this important battle and it's time for management (and the government) to think how to proceed from here and how to stimulate demand and attract new airlines.
ReplyDeleteZAG must not lose FZ after losing EK and KE. This is a vital route for the airport to keep connections to the Asia, Oceania and Africa.
I agree the airport should work to keep FZ but the vital links to Asia, Oceania and Africa are also maintained by Qatar Airways.
DeleteIf you think about it, covid has thrown ZAG a decade or so. Just whipped out all the effort made over the years. TK reduced frequencies, QR not planning many flights, FZ uncertainty, SU down to a few weekly flights on SSJ (even before covid), loss of KE and so on.
DeleteLot's of work ahead for the management.
Much more worrying for ZAG than those airlines is OU and what will happen next year. They don't seem to be planing to resume a lot of routes. That will have the biggest impact.
DeleteUnlike most European airlines, OU didn't fire excess employees, they just cut the salaries. That was a major mistake. They could have used covid as a convenient excuse.
DeleteWell that is why October salaries were late. Official reason given was that the company is waiting for the approved aid from the government. Which basically means the airline did not have enough money. ie. is not liquid.
DeleteHow much was the delay in salaries? That's not good, actually that's the worst you can do at a time like this as it depresses the workforce even more, demotivates them. Worst thing is that they have nowhere else to go, I really feel sorry for them that they have to go through this.
DeleteI think depends where you worked, mine was 13 days.
DeleteCould not compete with BUD or VIE? Why did KE then cancel those flights as well for next year?
DeleteKE did not even start BUD. It is LO that is still flying it. One weekly this winter.
DeleteThe whole year has gone down the drain for aviation and next is not looking much more promising.
ReplyDeleteThings will probably start improving next winter season.
DeleteThe decision is not surprising.
ReplyDeleteKorean Air's ticket prices were crazy expensive both ways. And, on top of that, ZAG airport is crazy expensive. Not a good combination.
ReplyDeleteTickets were expensive because most seats were bought by tour operators who had special access to lower fares.
DeleteDidn't know that
DeleteMaybe we now see QR restore more frequencies to ZAG next year.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment they are still planned as double daily (pre pandemic level).
DeleteDoubt that will happen.
DeleteIt would be great if they flew double daily but I also doubt this will happen. The timetable will probably be revised.
DeleteMy guess is three weekly on the B788 next summer.
DeleteThat wouldn't be bad at all.
DeleteDepressing.
ReplyDeleteFirst Emirates, now Korean... hopefully things will improve sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteAc next
ReplyDeleteOr maybe AC mainaline takes over the route from AC Rouge.
DeleteAC mainline is expensive to operate, they go where yields are high.
DeleteWell. KE suspended sales on maaany european routes, not just to ZAG, like BCN, VIE, BUD, PRG which does not mean that there will be no flights. I mean, chances for ZAG are reallz slim, but BCN could work for them.
ReplyDeleteMarkets might not restore before 2023 or even 2024. By that time new generation of tourists might not have the same interest in flying to same destinations tourists flew in 2018 or 19. Covid will have lasting effect and new destinations will emerge. Zagreb is not likely to be a hot destination in a couple of years.
ReplyDeleteThe latest prediction by IATA is that markets won't restore before 2025.
DeleteIn the short-term, when things start calming down (probably next summer) people will not travel for leisure long haul. Most will visit neighboring or nearby countries. Scenes of being stuck in a foreign country as was the case in March will be the reason for this.
DeleteWith this pandemic developing as it is, this is not surprising. Koreans can't travel anyway.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know which European office covers (covered) Zagreb sales for KE?
ReplyDeleteVienna I believe
DeletePrague.
DeleteReally unfortunate. Especially when you think that this year Air Asia X was to fly charters from Bangkok to Zagreb and KE increase capacity...
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteSouth Korea had an 8 month high in covid cases today,
ReplyDeleteThat's so sad, praying for their fast recovery.
DeleteShould be noted that the 8 month high is 80 cases in 24 hours. Peanuts compared to Europe.
DeleteCroatian statistical institution announced yesterday that GDP in Q3 fell by 10% and that we are officially in a recession. This shows how much has to be done in order to reduce reliance on tourism and how we need to boost manufacturing.
ReplyDeleteSince I'm a Croat learning Korean, I looked forward to flying with them from Zagreb to Seoul maybe next year or the year after. But this just makes my 2020 mood even better. Thanks:)
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