Zagreb Airport has seen growing air travel demand from secondary cities in Poland, some of which could be potentially served by LOT Polish Airlines or Ryanair. LOT has been operating flights between Warsaw and Zagreb since late 2014, with the carrier growing its presence across Croatia ever since. This summer, it commenced four new seasonal routes to the Croatian coast. “The Polish market is among the top five most important for us. According to the latest data, 79% of Poles want to travel to Croatia, which, you will agree, is a great result. With more and more flights, we can expect a significant number of Poles visiting Croatia this year and next”, the head of the Croatian Tourism Board, Kristijan Staničić, recently said.
Based on pre-pandemic 2019 data provided by OAG, Zagreb saw a notable number of indirect traffic from Poland’s second largest city of Krakow. Over 5.000 people travelled between the two that year on a single itinerary. It was followed by Gdansk, Wroclaw, Poznan and Katowice. LOT maintains bases in both Krakow and Katowice, which would enable the carrier to serve the Croatian capital with seventy to eighty-seater aircraft such as the Embraer E170, E175 and the Dash 8 turboprop. On the other hand, Ryanair, which opened a base in Zagreb this summer, has aircraft stationed in Krakow, Katowice, Poznan, Gdansk and Wroclaw. The budget airline is looking to base another two jets in the Croatian capital next year.
Indirect passenger traffic between Zagreb and Polish cities in 2019
The majority of passengers flying from Poland’s secondary cities to Zagreb do so during the summertime. LOT is adding more primary destinations in the region from its focus cities. It flies seasonally from Katowice to Podgorica and Tirana, and maintains summer charters to Ohrid and Tivat too. "Croatia is becoming more and more popular among our passengers each year and is becoming of interest for travellers outside of Warsaw as well. As we continue to increase our offer, both Zagreb and Croatia as a whole are becoming popular for short weekend breaks as well”, the company’s CEO, Rafał Milczarski, said while visiting Croatia this summer. Mr Milczarski added, "We want to be the preferred airline in Central and Eastern Europe. This region suffers from an insufficient number of connections. If in fact, we can be the first choice in the region, it certainly will involve further route announcements".
My guess is Ryanair will start s route from Zahreb to Poland sooner or later.
ReplyDelete*zagreb
DeleteWith two more planes they will probably add another 18 routes. So I assume Krakow or Gdansk.
DeleteI think Ryanair's plane would be too big for these sort of routes to Zagreb. But LOT with their regional jets could work.
DeleteLOT's E170 would be perfect for Krakow-Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteOr OU's Dash 8s.
DeleteRyanair will be ideal for secondary cities in Poland.
DeleteDash or E170 means the cost per seat would be too high for tourists in Krakow or Katowice. LOT is flying tourist routes from there only with bigger equipment.
DeleteThere seems to be decent demand from most ex-Yu cities to Krakow.
ReplyDeletePoland is a huge market and they like to travel to the Balkans. Also Krakow is popular with tourists.
DeletePoles like to travel to Croatia. I do not know about their travel to the Balkans.
DeleteLook at all the flights there are from Poland to Montenegro and Albania as well.
DeleteAnd to Macedonia.
DeleteNice!
ReplyDeleteMissed opportunity for Croatia Airlines.
ReplyDeleteAnother one...
DeleteOU hasn't located Eastern Europe on the map yet.
DeleteSkopje is furthest to the east they fly to.
DeleteI think seasonally Krakow-Zagreb could work.
ReplyDeleteNone of these will happen. Krakow which is the busiest on average has 7 passengers per day. That's tiny.
ReplyDeleteRyanair will fly from ZAG to TGD (4.325 passengers), MLA (3.989), AGP (3.577), SKG (3.350) and NAP (2,114). I do not know where you see a problem with KRK or GDN that had 5.131 and 3.437 passengers.
DeleteAnd why should they fly every day? They can fly 2 weekly, or sesonaly, or I dont know.
DeleteYes and we saw how well FR does in ZAG. Their planes are not full at all. That should give you an indication. Also they get discounts and money from Croatia, OU and LO wouldn't for Polish-ZAG flights.
DeleteRynair to Krakow would be seasonal. The number of indirect pax is the number of business people moving between southern Poland and the capital of Croatia. Rynair would appeal to tourists, connecting cities that are both great for a city break. The current number does not really include tourists.
DeleteAnd once again missed opportunity for the ones whom may be concerned. Linking strongly and permanently two Catholic countries and peoples. Rings that any bells CTN? And what about missed opportunity to link Mostar i.e. Medjugorje with Poland?
ReplyDeleteOU has so many missed opportunities that this is minor in the grand scheme of things.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteLOT's expansion in Croatia over past few years has been impressive. Hope they add more flights to Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteBig home market plus excellent transfer options. No surprise.
DeletePerhaps they should give Krakow – Zagreb a go, twice per week on a seasonal basis. I notice Krakow is quite popular.
ReplyDeleteMaybe next year.
DeleteFingers crossed
ReplyDeleteHow many flights per week does LOT currently have to Zagreb?
ReplyDelete6 weekly at the moment.
DeleteThanks and during winter?
DeleteIn November they will have 7 actually. One more than this month.
DeleteI think ZAG is their top performing route in the region.
DeleteNot saying it isn't but on what did you base your conclusion? Frequency wise they are all the same.
Delete7 years ago not a single ex-Yu city had flights to Warsaw. And look now. Amazing.
ReplyDeleteHuh? LO launched Belgrade in 2007, three weekly on the E145.
DeleteIt wasn't 2007. They launched them in 2010.
DeleteThey launched it in May 2009 with five weekly.
DeleteIn turn JU launched BEG-WAW in May 2014.
DeleteLOT didn't have Dreamliners back in 2009 and didn't count on ExYu region for transatlantic transfers. Primary goal of their expansion in the region was to increase passenger feed and fuel growth of intercontinental network as 787s started to arrive.
DeleteThat should be a lesson to other airline from the region. Alas, they are not willing to learn how to grow their intercontinental network.
Just google it and you will see that LOT opened BEG-WAW in 2009. Also when JU opened this route in 2014, JU did not fly to JFK yet.
DeleteI do not see a link with dreamliners, especially so that LO was flying to JFK, ORD and YYZ before they got dreamliners.
Can't help you, too bad you don't see the link.
DeleteI wonder who all these people are. Tourism? Business? At least we can rule out gasto traffic :D
ReplyDeleteTourists
DeleteA lot of people use bus to get to Krakow. Flights would be much welcomed.
ReplyDelete