Zagreb Airport recovery accelerates with new airlines and routes


Following months of stagnation and declining passenger figures, Zagreb Airport is seeing its traffic pick up this month with a number of airlines increasing frequencies and capacity. “In the summer months, growth is expected to accelerate, culminating with the opening of Ryanair’s base and the launch of most of its planned new routes from Zagreb for 2021”, the airport said. Croatia Airlines has gradually increased its frequencies and now maintains operations from its hub to fourteen international and five domestic destinations, counting over 150 weekly departures. However, the airport is betting its comeback mainly on Ryanair, which will station its first aircraft in the Croatian capital at the end of next month, followed by a second in early September. Overall, the airline will maintain operations from Zagreb to fifteen destinations with 42 weekly departures.

Other carriers to have introduced flights to Zagreb this summer include Nordwind Airlines from Moscow and TAP Air Portugal from Lisbon, while Eurowings will commence a new service from Dusseldorf in late August, followed by the introduction of Prague in November and Berlin next March. Notably, KLM has doubled its frequencies and capacity to Zagreb compared to the pre-pandemic era and now runs double daily services. Iberia and Vueling have restored seasonal operations to Zagreb, while British Airways has also returned to the Croatian capital with four weekly rotations, increasing to five during the second half of this month and daily from August. The airport is also awaiting the resumption of flights to Dubai, with Flydubai to maintain the service starting September.

Commenting on the developments, the airport said, “Given the summer announcements, Zagreb Airport has reason to hope for a more significant recovery. The increase in traffic on existing services, the arrival of new airlines and the opening of new routes from Zagreb will act as a strong incentive for both tourist and business travel by both foreign and local passengers who now have a respectable choice of destinations at their disposal this year”. During the peak of summer, Zagreb Airport will handle between ninety and 100 air traffic movements and boast a network of six domestic and 42 international destinations.



Comments

  1. Anonymous09:01

    Ryanair is going to be Zagreb's savior this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:06

      +1

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:11

      They are discontinuing Bergamo in August due to low demand.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:12

      No they are not. Tickets are on sale. Check their site.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:16

      Flights to Bergamo can be booked in August, so it is not true.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:47

      Seems like it was just a glitch on Ryanair's site as flights were not available yesterday in August.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous11:38

      I love how you made a conclusion about the demand @anon 9:11

      Delete
    7. Anonymous14:09

      Adria was also selling their tickets after they were grounded. So I won't be supprised if ryanair does same, and than not return money :/

      Delete
    8. Anonymous14:20

      You are suggesting Ryanair is about to go bankrupt LOL

      Delete
    9. Anonymous01:02

      While flights are now selling again, the issue is passengers who had flights booked received emails that their flight was cancelled. Don't know what's going on.

      Delete
    10. Anonymous09:02

      Looks like the low demand had increased very quickly.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:05

    Good to see

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:05

    How many passengers could ZAG expect this year?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:14

      I would expect around 1.5 million.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:32

      I think 1.2 is more realistic

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:50

      I think 1.25-1.35 million is very realistic, we'll have to wait and see for next year, it'll depend on how Corona Delta variant effects travel in 2022.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:21

      Corona Delta variant?? Haha. My God, you can't make this stuff up.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:53

      Haha, delta varient is real, portugal is on red list because of it.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:13

    OS is reducing ZAG from 7 to 5 and LH from 14 to 12.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:19

      I think because of FR which offers non stop flights to many unserved destinations

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:20

      And Aegean has suspended planned flights.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:39

      In the past ZAG lacked many non stop flight so people were forced to connect via LH Group hubs. Now that's no longer the case so frequencies to main hubs are being adjusted to realistic demand.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:15

    I'm unimpressed by Croatia Airlines. I believe they could have restored more flights like Helsinki, Stockholm, Milan, Prague...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:15

      Now Lisbon has been taken over by TAP and Prague by Eurowings.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:16

      You snooze you loose

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:38

      More routes will be taken over time until their network shrinks to Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Zurich, Brussels and PSO lines.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous01:01

      Should have done more this summer and been more aggressive. They have the available aircraft.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:19

    Is Skopje still ahead of Zagreb in terms of passenger numbers this year?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:32

      Absolutely

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:10

      And how many new destinations has SKP gained?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:14

      @9.32 you can't know as Skopje has not reported its passenger figures for May so don't make things up.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:15

      @10.10
      Three - Moscow (Nordwind), Bodrum (Anadolujet), Antalya (Anadolujet).

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:40

      I don't need to know their numbers because you can already predict by how both airports fared until now in terms of overall flight numbers.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:41

      Then you would know that ZAG has had more passengers than ZAG in recent months.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous16:39

      There is no doubt Zagreb will overtake Skopje, if it hasn't already.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous16:52

      ZAG will do way better than ZAG this year.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous01:00

      lol I think they meant ZAG has had more passengers than SKP in recent months.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous09:20

    ZAG will have a strong summer with Ryanair.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:24

      I'm interested to see how many new passengers Ryanair will generate and how many it will take over from other airlines.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:41

      They said they plan to be handling 2-3 million passengers when they reach between 30 and 40 routes.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous00:59

      But when will that be?

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:23

    And also good new is that next year Air Canada starts flights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:25

      *news

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:41

      Air Transat comes back too.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous09:29

    Since ZAG is now having bigger and bigger LCC presence, they should try and attract Wizz and easyjet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:30

      not sure Ryanair would be happy with that.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:41

      ZAG and W6 were in talks but doesn't seem an agreement has been reached.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:42

      I would be happy with easyjet too thoguh.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:38

    Great to the airport on the road to recovery.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous09:44

    We will need to wait until October to see the real positive numbers. ZAG and SJJ are definitely the airports that have gained many new frequencies compared to their size. Air Canada will be quite a prestigious addition as well.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous09:55

    Good work ZAG.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous09:55

    Will Korean come back?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:56

      And Emirates?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:14

      At one point, yes. This year, no.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:19

      Korean air flights are normally bookable from march next year- suspended just for Corona.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:53

      Korean Air, Air Canada are returning next year if all goes well, Emirates very likely in 2023, Emirates suspended over 100 destinations due to Covid, non reinstated yet. they plan to resume normal services from mid 2022 to major destinations such as Beijing, Shanghai and so on, Zagreb most likely in 2023.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous12:55

      Emirates has restored almost 90% of its network
      https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/emirates-restore-almost-90-passenger-network-by-end-july-2021-06-17/

      Delete
    6. Anonymous13:03

      @Anonymous12:55

      That certainly is encouraging, their previous statement on the subject was 2022, but clearly massive losses ($5Bn) forced the airline to open up sooner. Perhaps Zagreb possible in 2022, we'll wait and see.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous16:42

      Hope so. Still waiting to see if the Flydubai flights will happen.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:45

      Zagreb was an overshot and needed huge subsidies right from the start.

      It was Emirates only seasonal route and the smallest airport within its network.

      So i don't see a priority in it yet.

      They should/would rather start Dubrovnik seasonal, though they're content with FlyDubai.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous09:55

    I wish Croatia Airlines would have kept more routes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:38

      OU kept 14 international destinations. That's very good.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:43

      14 international routes isn't that good really, especially for an airline that recently said wants to become the transfer airline of southeast europe.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous17:16

      Aspiring transfer-focused regional competitor is already at over 40 international routes, not including charter destinations. Fourteen is not enough.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous09:57

    I expect much better numbers in the next few months.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous09:57

    Wish them good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous09:58

    I think there are a few more European airlines that could start flights to Zagreb. Primarily SAS, TAROM, Wizz...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:06

      SAS stopped flying to Zagreb in 90s, would love to see them return, but with
      Ryan air thing might get hard for them, although Copenhagen and Stockholm are good routes. Loads of Croats live in Denmark, over 7000 moved there in past 10 years.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:43

      Will Norwegian ever come back. They stopped flights to ZAG well before corona.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous10:02

    Great years ahead of Zagreb!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:44

      It's not going to be a great year for any airport in 2021. They are still handling fraction of the traffic from two years ago.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous10:02

    With these new arrivals they will have a very good selection of airlines and destinations.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous10:02

    I like that they are proactively trying to attract new airlines.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:45

      Their complete strategy shifted with corona. I mean Europe's biggest LCC is becoming their main airline.

      Delete
  21. Anonymous10:03

    Why doesn't Iberia start year-round flights? There must be enough demand to sustain full year operations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:13

      They seem to be extremely cautious when it comes to this region.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:15

      They did in 2019, before the pandemic. Then came the winter...

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:18

      But as far as I'm aware they stopped in the winter before corona started no?

      Delete
    4. Anonymous00:59

      No, they stopped Dubrovnik winter flights but not Zagreb.

      Delete
  22. Anonymous10:06

    Why are there no flights from ZAG to MLA?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:13

      No demand

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:17

      Maybe Ryanair starts flights considering they have a base there.

      Delete
    3. @An.10.13
      10 years ago, when there were no long haul flights to ZAG, answer to question why was no demand. Few years ago, when there were no LCC flights to ZAG, the answer to question why was no demand. When EW stopped BER, no to start again, the answer to question why was no demand. When Malaysian stopped its KUL flights from ZAG, answer was no demand although reasons for cut were totally different. Same is with MLA, which will very soon be in FR offer from ZAG. So please stop with ZAG no demand mantra. If you want it to be like that, it doesn't mean it is like that. And just btw, both OU and KM operated charter chains ZAG MLA for long years.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:59

      +100 @piR

      Delete
  23. Anonymous10:14

    I am secretly hoping for domestic LCC Ryanair flights similar to Romania, Poland and now Bulgaria.
    ZAG-SPU and ZAG-DBV would be perfect!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:17

      They said they would consider it but I don't think the government would allow it. They will always award PSO deals to the Croatian airlines and I don't think another airline can start flights on a route if it is under PSO.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:46

      Didn't know it. Thanks for clarifying. Hoping this law is changed one day and domestic travel is fostered, as it's quite important for the economy.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous00:57

      It's an EU regulation.

      Delete
  24. JU520 BEGLAX10:25

    What was QR 7430 A350-1000 doing today in ZAG?
    Currently on the way to IAH.
    On ZAG Airport website this flight was officially shown on the dep list with check-in row information.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:41

      Prevozi Amerikance koji beze iz Afganistana. Leti Kabul - Katar - Teksas.

      Delete
    2. JU520 BEGLAX10:51

      Anonym 1041h

      But it came fm DOH with a diff flt number and why can u check in for this flight in ZAG?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous17:54

      Saigon moment :) (the last helicopter from the rooftop of US Embassy)

      Its all connected. Withdrawal from Kabul, Rimac news yesterday (with as separate Technology and not Bugatti), only US direct flights to Dubrovnik but not from other major markets, $76 per barrel oil with decimated internation businesses or leisure transportations. Pretty exciting times.

      Delete
  25. Anonymous10:35

    Charter flights were not mentioned. Any details on charters?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:39

      There are almost none

      Delete
    2. Anonymous00:57

      I wonder why that is?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous01:03

      Not such big demand for summer holiday travel. Understandable considering you have the coast in your backyard.

      Delete
  26. Anonymous18:20

    Does that mean that ZAG will receive around 20 new destinations so far? I remember an article here about Ryanair having 15 destinations and the Air Canada one and EW to PRG? This brings the total to 17 new destinations. Anything else missed?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous18:21

      It says in the article there is also EW to Dusseldorf starting and Berlin next March.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous00:57

      These 20 are split between 2020 and 2021

      Delete
  27. Anonymous21:43

    Sarajevo also announced today it had more than 70,000 passengers for June. Curious to see how SJJ and ZAG will perform in July, with all these new routes :)

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous00:59

    I hope ZAG will have a swift recovery.

    ReplyDelete

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