Low cost carrier Ryanair is expected to announce another set of new routes from its new base in Zagreb by the end of the month, which are to be launched next year. The low cost carrier has just based a second aircraft from its Lauda Europe subsidiary in the Croatian capital and introduced nine new routes. A third Airbus A320 will be stationed in Zagreb from December 1 when an additional eight routes will be added to its network. The budget carrier has previously said it already has new destinations planned for the summer of 2022 and aims to offer between thirty and forty destinations from the city next year. Following its December expansion, Ryanair will already have 24 routes on offer from Zagreb. “The key for Zagreb is going to be the number of airports we have on offer in Europe”, Ryanair CEO, Eddie Wilson, said back in March.
The low cost airline ultimately plans to have up to ten aircraft stationed in the Croatian capital, handling between two and three million passengers per year. “Zagreb is the capital city … and remember, when we arrive in certain cities, they become passenger destinations. Ryanair will bring dozens of new routes to Zagreb this year, and Croatia Airlines has brought three in the past four years”, Lauda CEO, David O’Brien, said. Once it launches its remaining destinations planned for this year in December, Ryanair will have 94.923 seats on offer in January and 526 flights (return services included).
This year Zagreb Airport will be connected with 42 international destinations and six domestic services, marking the largest number of routes in its history, thanks primarily to Ryanair, which has made up for the handful of destinations terminated by Croatia Airlines over the past year including Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, Milan and Prague. By the end of the year, Zagreb Airport will have managed to cover four of its top twenty unserved destinations from the pre-pandemic 2019. If secondary airports are considered, its coverage of top unserved routes is further extended.
Top twenty unserved European routes to/from Zagreb in 2019
Top twenty unserved European routes to/from Zagreb in 2020
I think we are at the point of no return for OU. Ryanair is going crazy in ZAG.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Croatia Airlines is toast
DeleteI also think that the chances of Wizz Air starting flights to ZAG are now well and truly gone.
DeleteI'm still surprised at OU's passive response. As if nothing is happening.
DeleteDon't worry. BCG hatched a plan for them to react in 2022 when Ryanair marks its first anniversary and probably by then already has five planes in Zagreb.
DeleteWhy rush :)
DeleteOh, here we go again with that silly chant of how doomed OU is... give it a rest, seriously!
DeleteFor me it would be a no brainer for Ryanair to introduce flights to the Baltics and more flights in northern Europe.
ReplyDeleteI think Berlin is also a must, now that Eurowings has given up on it.
DeleteThey will also probably use a fourth plane to add more frequencies on existing routes.
DeleteMaybe some more routes to Spain too. Madrid, Barcelona?
Deletecould Berlin work?
DeleteIf lju-ber worked with easy jet I do not see reason why they couldn't do it zag-ber
DeleteRyanair should increase the frequencies of the Málaga route, it's a successful route already and more it will be in summer for sure. Now it's only 2 per week and it's possible to increase it to 4 per week for summer months. High demand of Spaniards wanting to go to Ex-Yu and viceversa also.
DeleteNice! Can't wait to see which routes they will launch.
ReplyDeleteRyanair is going from strength to strength in Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteI really didn't believe they would deliver on 30-40 routes when they announced it a few months ago but seems I was wrong. Great news for ZAG.
ReplyDeleteThat is a huge amount of routes
DeleteThe commercial terms they have with ZAG allows them to expand quickly risk free.
DeleteZagreb will finally get some much needed routes ignored by Croatia Airlines for years. Well done.
ReplyDeleteI think we could see them start Athens, Berlin, Riga, Porto, Nice.
ReplyDeleteDoes FR fly to Nice?
DeleteThey do from London and Dublin.
DeleteATH would make sense considering Aegean has withdrawn and OU is employing the same strategy as their FCO flights by flying via Dubrovnik.
DeletePlus those flight with OU via Dubrovnik are seasonal only.
DeleteDoes Aegean plan to come back next year or they have completely terminated Zagreb flights?
DeleteThey haven't scheduled any flights to Zagreb for next year.
DeleteWould be nice to see them start Marseille and one of their Moroccan destinations.
DeleteGood for Zagreb. Not so much for Croatian Airlines.
ReplyDeleteLCCs are ruthless
DeleteHow are the current routes performing?
ReplyDeleteMixed bag
DeleteWhat is Ryanair's LF in ZAG?
DeleteHoping for Luton, it's much more convenient for me than Stansted.
ReplyDeleteNo chance they will fly to airports in London.
DeleteThey're already flying to Stansted...
DeleteAnd London was originally scheduled as daily and now it is 4 weekly.
DeleteWhat are you talking about? London was originally 4 weekly and went daily from 1st September when the second plane arrived. It was scheduled like that from the beginning.
DeleteThey are expanding so quickly from ZAG
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to know LF on their flights from ZAG.
ReplyDeleteGreat, this will generate a new type of passengers and will definitely mean a lot of passenger growth for ZAG.
ReplyDeleteIt will also change people's travel habits and get the local population flying more, at least on European city breaks.
DeleteImpressive
ReplyDeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteGood luck to ZAG and FR!
ReplyDeleteI wonder which of their current or planned Zagreb routes is performing best. Anyone know or any guesses?
ReplyDeleteBest performing - London, Charleroi, Hahn, Gothenburg, Milan, Baden Baden...
DeleteThey said the best performing markets from ZAG were Belgium, Italy and Sweden.
DeleteInteresting that 2 out of the 3 markets they are performing the best in are not served by Croatia Airlines or are barely services by Croatia Airlines - Sweden and Italy.
DeleteThis is attack on LH not on small OU.
DeleteThis is true. As a result we see Lufthansa isn't resuming Munich-Zagreb and Austrian is also resuming ZAG.
DeleteThis will be an exciting time for Zagreb and I hope Ryanair starts getting those passenger numbers up and ZAG returning to top 3 busiest in ex-Yu soon.
ReplyDeleteMaybe next year but not in 2021.
DeleteThis year it seems Split will stay Croatia's number one airport.
DeleteIn August ZAG was 6th busiest ex yu airport and it is the best month for aviation.
Delete1.BEG
2.SPU
3.PRN
4.DBV
5.SKP
6.ZAG
ouch. Now it is even more clear why ZAG had to completely change its strategy.
DeleteIn August TIA beat all of them
DeleteNo it didn't. BEG will have around 600,000 passengers in August. Not the case with Tirana.
DeleteI hope they stimulate more locals to fly and have weekends in Europe.
ReplyDeleteThey definitely will.
DeleteOf course it will. There was no demand to travel to Zagreb with ticket prices of 200+eur... But when you start to lower the prices, more and more people get interested and will actually book the flight and travel to Croatia for a weekend/ week trip...
DeletePoor OU.
ReplyDeleteThey are destroyed.
DeleteBringing Ryanair was a clever move.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Ryanair could introduce Zagreb-Tirana
ReplyDeleteProbably will TIA is already back to 2019 numbers
DeleteRyan never entered Albanian market, except for polish charters
DeleteBut Wizz expanded like crazy over there in TIA. They are even gonna launch AUH and MAD.
DeleteTheir growth has certainly been impressive.
DeleteWhat does the person say who was bashing LCCs because ZAG was an "elite airport" or some BS like that?
ReplyDeleteI wonder in which hole that person is hiding now.
DeleteSurprised about those Porto numbers. This is a good opportunity for FR!
ReplyDeleteWe can expect Riga or Vilnius (FR has base there and Baltic has been unserved from ZAG), Porto, Nice, Birmingham. Maybe even Athens and Prague even though there won't be reduced fee for FR
ReplyDeleteEurowings is starting Prague.
DeleteThey will eventually cover the whole of Europe from ZAG.
ReplyDeleteThis is ideal for recovery from covid.
ReplyDeleteWith those figures Luxembourg is a potential new route to Zagreb. Of course not by Ryan but maybe Luxair.
ReplyDeleteWhy not FR? They fly quite a few routes from Luxembourg Airport and are launching new flights in the next couple of months.
DeleteGeneva would be perfect for easyjet.
DeleteLuxair said they are interested in flying to LJU, which had more indirect passengers than ZAG. I don't think they will fly to both LJU and ZAG.
DeleteFantastic!
ReplyDeleteRyanair is not mucking around with ZAG. This is a huge number of new routes in such a short period and I assume they will announce fourth based aircraft from March 2022.
ReplyDeleteOne day they will come to Belgrade and then stars the party…
ReplyDeleteBelgrade already has Wizzair, Norwegian, Pegasus, FlyDubai, Eurowings, Vueling and easyJet so the party already started many years ago.
DeleteAnd it made national carrier even stronger. Totally different than in ZAG.
It made JU stronger just because it can receive unlimited state aid, unlike OU.
DeleteYes OU has received so little aid... every year despite eu not being allowed to.
DeleteWhen will Zagreb get Easyjet and Wizzair?
DeleteZagreb had both Easyjet and Wizzair. So the question would be when will Zagreb get back or get again the two 😃
DeleteI hope that Ryanair's big surge won't deter other legacy airlines from launching flights to Zagreb. For example if they open a few more Scandinavian routes I doubt we will see SAS start flying anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteIt is certainly a risk. If FR starts Athens I don't see Aegean coming back for example.
DeleteOr Brussels Airlines for example.
DeleteBrussels obviously doesn't have interest. CA flies to Zaventem which is ok for all those travelling to Bruxelles on a business trip. Those who want to go on a leisure or want save money, have FR and Charleroi.
DeleteEven pre-covid time, Brussels didn't fly so regularly
Were there any ever direct flights between ZAG and SOF during the communist times? Maybe Pozdrav remembers. The former Balkan Airlines used to fly to SPU.
ReplyDeleteStill puzzled why this route was the top 1 in 2019.
I would hardly called 4 airline companies in Yugoslavia operating all American /European fleet s on market principles communist times, but if it makes you happy you can call it so, you can even repeat we had only one yoghurt type. But nevertheless, the answer to your question is no, there were never scheduled flights ZSG-SOF during ex yu times.
DeleteHe call ist communist Times because the state Name was Socijalistička federativna republika Jugoslavija an the goverment party was savez kumunista Jugoslavije SKJ. And the 4 Airlines was not in private hands
DeleteThanks, Pozdrav. Well it was a socialist times period and the times were different back then. Didn't mean it to sound too offensive by saying communist times. After all, more than 30 years ago, the Balkans was a completely different world.
Delete@An. 18.45
DeleteWhen discussing serious things, you should think about the contents, not only the form - and the contents is that all 3 of the existing ex yu airlines are not in private hands, and all 3 are controled and managed by Government Parties, which are basically derivates of the SKJ. Are you trying to say we still have "communism" today? LOL
@An.19.04
No offense taken. And you are welcome. And yes, the Balkans was much better than, with all that "communism"
FR has nothing on OU if they can't fill up their planes which I doubt they can do. MANY people would prefer to spend a little extra to fly with OU over FR. It should be about quality not quantity.
ReplyDeleteThat's why FR has been losing money for years. Because they can't fill their planes, as people rather pay more money to pay with full service airlines.
DeleteRight.
What are the chances for routes to TLV and SJJ?
ReplyDeleteSJJ is way too close for a FR route.
DeleteFrom Zagreb to palma de malorca will be great for sommer....and winter gran canaria
ReplyDeleteWhat FR have done so far is that they copied W6 network from the other ex-Yu markets to prevent them from opening these routes and receive incentives from ZAG plus they added a handful of routes from top unserved list. If they are going to stick to the destinations that were not operated from Zagreb in 2019 with Dublin as the only exception, then we could see Porto, Riga, Vilnius, Bologna and Krakow in addition to some other destinations in UK, Spain and France where they have a base, like BHX, EDI, VLC or MRS. If they go for destinations served in 2019 then my bet is also on Stockholm, Helsinki, Bucharest, Athens, Madrid and Barcelona.
DeleteSince they plan to base 10 aircraft in Zagreb, maybe it's finally time to utilize that old terminal. Fingers crossed!
ReplyDelete