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.
Ryanair is going to be Zagreb's savior this year.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThey are discontinuing Bergamo in August due to low demand.
DeleteNo they are not. Tickets are on sale. Check their site.
DeleteFlights to Bergamo can be booked in August, so it is not true.
DeleteSeems like it was just a glitch on Ryanair's site as flights were not available yesterday in August.
DeleteI love how you made a conclusion about the demand @anon 9:11
DeleteAdria was also selling their tickets after they were grounded. So I won't be supprised if ryanair does same, and than not return money :/
DeleteYou are suggesting Ryanair is about to go bankrupt LOL
DeleteWhile 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.
DeleteLooks like the low demand had increased very quickly.
DeleteGood to see
ReplyDeleteHow many passengers could ZAG expect this year?
ReplyDeleteI would expect around 1.5 million.
DeleteI think 1.2 is more realistic
DeleteI 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.
DeleteCorona Delta variant?? Haha. My God, you can't make this stuff up.
DeleteHaha, delta varient is real, portugal is on red list because of it.
DeleteOS is reducing ZAG from 7 to 5 and LH from 14 to 12.
ReplyDeleteI think because of FR which offers non stop flights to many unserved destinations
DeleteAnd Aegean has suspended planned flights.
DeleteIn 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.
DeleteI'm unimpressed by Croatia Airlines. I believe they could have restored more flights like Helsinki, Stockholm, Milan, Prague...
ReplyDeleteNow Lisbon has been taken over by TAP and Prague by Eurowings.
DeleteYou snooze you loose
DeleteMore routes will be taken over time until their network shrinks to Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Zurich, Brussels and PSO lines.
DeleteShould have done more this summer and been more aggressive. They have the available aircraft.
DeleteIs Skopje still ahead of Zagreb in terms of passenger numbers this year?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely
DeleteAnd how many new destinations has SKP gained?
Delete@9.32 you can't know as Skopje has not reported its passenger figures for May so don't make things up.
Delete@10.10
DeleteThree - Moscow (Nordwind), Bodrum (Anadolujet), Antalya (Anadolujet).
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.
DeleteThen you would know that ZAG has had more passengers than ZAG in recent months.
DeleteThere is no doubt Zagreb will overtake Skopje, if it hasn't already.
DeleteZAG will do way better than ZAG this year.
Deletelol I think they meant ZAG has had more passengers than SKP in recent months.
DeleteZAG will have a strong summer with Ryanair.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to see how many new passengers Ryanair will generate and how many it will take over from other airlines.
DeleteThey said they plan to be handling 2-3 million passengers when they reach between 30 and 40 routes.
DeleteBut when will that be?
DeleteAnd also good new is that next year Air Canada starts flights.
ReplyDelete*news
DeleteAir Transat comes back too.
DeleteSince ZAG is now having bigger and bigger LCC presence, they should try and attract Wizz and easyjet.
ReplyDeletenot sure Ryanair would be happy with that.
DeleteZAG and W6 were in talks but doesn't seem an agreement has been reached.
DeleteI would be happy with easyjet too thoguh.
DeleteGreat to the airport on the road to recovery.
ReplyDeleteWe 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.
ReplyDeleteGood work ZAG.
ReplyDeleteWill Korean come back?
ReplyDeleteAnd Emirates?
DeleteAt one point, yes. This year, no.
DeleteKorean air flights are normally bookable from march next year- suspended just for Corona.
DeleteKorean 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.
DeleteEmirates has restored almost 90% of its network
Deletehttps://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/emirates-restore-almost-90-passenger-network-by-end-july-2021-06-17/
@Anonymous12:55
DeleteThat 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.
Hope so. Still waiting to see if the Flydubai flights will happen.
DeleteZagreb was an overshot and needed huge subsidies right from the start.
DeleteIt 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.
I wish Croatia Airlines would have kept more routes.
ReplyDeleteOU kept 14 international destinations. That's very good.
Delete14 international routes isn't that good really, especially for an airline that recently said wants to become the transfer airline of southeast europe.
DeleteAspiring transfer-focused regional competitor is already at over 40 international routes, not including charter destinations. Fourteen is not enough.
DeleteI expect much better numbers in the next few months.
ReplyDeleteWish them good luck!
ReplyDeleteI think there are a few more European airlines that could start flights to Zagreb. Primarily SAS, TAROM, Wizz...
ReplyDeleteSAS stopped flying to Zagreb in 90s, would love to see them return, but with
DeleteRyan 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.
Will Norwegian ever come back. They stopped flights to ZAG well before corona.
DeleteGreat years ahead of Zagreb!
ReplyDeleteIt'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.
DeleteWith these new arrivals they will have a very good selection of airlines and destinations.
ReplyDeleteI like that they are proactively trying to attract new airlines.
ReplyDeleteTheir complete strategy shifted with corona. I mean Europe's biggest LCC is becoming their main airline.
DeleteWhy doesn't Iberia start year-round flights? There must be enough demand to sustain full year operations.
ReplyDeleteThey seem to be extremely cautious when it comes to this region.
DeleteThey did in 2019, before the pandemic. Then came the winter...
DeleteBut as far as I'm aware they stopped in the winter before corona started no?
DeleteNo, they stopped Dubrovnik winter flights but not Zagreb.
DeleteWhy are there no flights from ZAG to MLA?
ReplyDeleteNo demand
DeleteMaybe Ryanair starts flights considering they have a base there.
Delete@An.10.13
Delete10 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.
+100 @piR
DeleteI am secretly hoping for domestic LCC Ryanair flights similar to Romania, Poland and now Bulgaria.
ReplyDeleteZAG-SPU and ZAG-DBV would be perfect!!
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.
DeleteDidn'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.
DeleteIt's an EU regulation.
DeleteWhat was QR 7430 A350-1000 doing today in ZAG?
ReplyDeleteCurrently on the way to IAH.
On ZAG Airport website this flight was officially shown on the dep list with check-in row information.
Prevozi Amerikance koji beze iz Afganistana. Leti Kabul - Katar - Teksas.
DeleteAnonym 1041h
DeleteBut it came fm DOH with a diff flt number and why can u check in for this flight in ZAG?
Saigon moment :) (the last helicopter from the rooftop of US Embassy)
DeleteIts 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.
Charter flights were not mentioned. Any details on charters?
ReplyDeleteThere are almost none
DeleteI wonder why that is?
DeleteNot such big demand for summer holiday travel. Understandable considering you have the coast in your backyard.
DeleteDoes 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?
ReplyDeleteIt says in the article there is also EW to Dusseldorf starting and Berlin next March.
DeleteThese 20 are split between 2020 and 2021
DeleteSarajevo 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 :)
ReplyDeleteI hope ZAG will have a swift recovery.
ReplyDelete