Zagreb Airport has been run by a consortium headed by French operator Aeroports de Paris since 2013, however, connectivity between Zagreb and the country has been solely concentrated on the French capital, despite encouraging trends for nonstop flights to be launched to secondary cities. Passenger numbers between Zagreb and Paris have grown steadily, with Air France and Croatia Airlines increasing their operations between the two over the previous years. In 2020, the French national carrier was to serve Zagreb with two daily flights, however, shelved those plans as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. On the other hand, Croatia Airlines was to run daily services. This summer they have both operated one daily flight.
Zagreb - Paris - Zagreb route passenger performance by year
Indirect traffic between Zagreb and points in France show potential for at least seasonal operations to a secondary French city. According to OAG data, Nice was the most popular destination after Paris, with over 5.000 travellers commuting to and from Zagreb in 2019. It was followed by Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse. A number of other French cities also saw indirect traffic from the Croatian capital, with Bastia, Biarritz, Brest, Pau and Toulon among them, although passenger figures on these routes were negligible. Croatia Airlines serves Lyon seasonally out of Split and maintains summer operations from both Split and Dubrovnik to Paris. It also briefly maintained operations between Dubrovnik and Nice several years ago. Numerous low cost carriers operate flights from secondary French cities to the Croatian coast. The figures below indicate passengers who either boarded or disembarked their flight in Zagreb on a single ticket. As a result, figures would be significantly greater once transfer passengers were to be factored in, with potential for many to use Zagreb as their connecting point to the Croatian coast.
Indirect passenger traffic between Zagreb and cities in France in 2019
In 2017, Air France - KLM’s low cost subsidiary, Transavia France, held talks with the Croatian Ministry for Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, during which it informed them of plans to commence operations to Zagreb in 2018. Similarly, Volotea noted it planned to commence flights to the Croatian capital from at least one French city by 2020. However, neither materialised, with Zagreb Airport’s high fees believed to have been a deterrent. Since the Covid-19 outbreak, Zagreb has revised its pricing policy and introduced incentives, particularly targeting low cost airlines. As a result, Ryanair has commenced operations between Zagreb and Beauvais, near Paris, with two weekly rotations.
Surprising there are no flights to any French secondary city. Hopefully this will change.
ReplyDeleteEspecially since the airport is French operated.
DeleteThat really means little. It is demand that dictates flights, not airport operator.
DeleteWhat french operator? Its turks not french
DeleteAeroportes de Paris is the largest stakeholder and operator of ZAG.
DeleteThe CEO is Turkish.
Those are great numbers on Paris-Zagreb route.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteNice was the busiest with roughly 7 one way passengers per day. Unfortunately I don't think that's enough to justify non-stop flights. Who needs to go there can simply connect via one of the major European hubs.
ReplyDeleteFor me what is interesting is how AF-KL used covid to break through Star Alliance stronghold in Zagreb. This winter both airlines will have a strong presence in Zagreb while LH is not resuming MUC, they just reduced FRA to 11 and OS is reducing VIE to just 4 weekly flights. Obviously Zagreb can't get enough of AF-KL!
You can't pass judgment based on these numbers. They are just an indication of which cities are busiest from/to ZAG. Like it says in the article, these are just tickets sold on one itinerary. There were probably people who broke up their trip. Also when there is an actual nonstop route you stimulate people to travel with it and there is also the option of transfer passengers.
Deleteglad to see they are putting some pressure on LH also in LJ with those early morning flights.
DeleteRyanair could launch Zagreb-Nice. I mean they are starting Malaga with fewer indirect passengers.
ReplyDeleteFR only flies to Nice from Dublin and London so little chance of that happening.
DeleteRyanair flies to BSL only from DUB but now they will start ZAG.
DeleteObviously the market from BSL is larger to ZAG than it is to NCE. Also BSL is easyJet's stronghold so they probably want to make sure they don't launch flights.
DeleteThe point is that it doesn't matter if they fly to some European airport from just one or two cities, Zagreb can be among them.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteI have to ask bravo for what in this case exactly?
DeleteBravo that there is French potential.
DeleteThe best option would be Transavia launching flights to ZAG.
ReplyDeleteFrom where?
DeleteThey have bases in Lyon, Montpellier, Nantes and Orly
DeleteInteresting numbers
ReplyDeleteFirst we need flights to Stockoln and Oslo and then we can think about other cities in France.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThey don't necessarily cancel each other out.
DeleteOU should start Zagreb-Nice summer seasonal
ReplyDeleteThey are incapable of launching any new rourtes.
Delete*routes
DeleteDon't forget they did start one weekly Split-Prague this summer that lasted 4 weeks :D
DeleteDoes AF fly nonstop international flights from any other city in France?
ReplyDeleteYes, mostly seasonally.
DeleteAdding more links to France only makes sense if the available seats can be sold at a decent enough price.
ReplyDeleteWhy wouldn't they be sold at a decent price?
DeleteI hope Transavia considers some route from France.
ReplyDeleteAnd hopefully not Orly like they are adding to Ljubljana, since we already have two airlines flying to Paris.
DeleteHope we see more nonstop flights to France.
ReplyDeleteThat was great growth year-on-year on the Paris route. 2020 would have probably been another record breaker was it not for covid.
ReplyDeleteCertainly since we would have had four daily flights to CDG.
DeleteI wonder how many of those are transfers going via Paris and how many are point to point.
DeleteAF does quite well in ZAG with transfers to the US. Well until the pandemic that is.
DeleteLiar. There are no pax ZAG to US. OU knows it very well and acts accordingly. LOL!!! :) :) :)
DeleteHow many flights will Air France and Croatia Airlines have from Zagreb to Paris this winter?
ReplyDeleteAF will keep one daily, so seven weekly. Don't know about OU.
DeleteOU has only published updated timetable for November. They will also fly one daily flight.
DeleteThank you
DeleteUnfortunate that Transavia and Volotea did not start flights. They would have been nice additions.
ReplyDeleteMaybe now that the airport is focusing on LCCs they will come.
DeleteMissed opportunity for Croatia Airlines.
ReplyDeleteThey still have the opportunity since no one is flying any of those routes.
DeleteWill be interesting to see if there is an impact on the number of the CDG-ZAG route now that Ryanair is flying to Beauvais.
ReplyDeleteWhy should airlines open secondary flights to Zagreb when other airports in vicinity have even bigger demand ?
ReplyDeletelike?
DeleteDidn't FR operate ZAG-MRS a couple of seasons ago?
ReplyDeleteNCE is only a day's drive from ZAG, I think majority of demand would take the car for that trip, but anything beyond is quite a pain and could justify the flight
FR operated ZAD to MRS, not ZAG. And Volotea operated RJK to MRS before corona
Deletethanks!
DeleteAF
ReplyDelete