Finnish national carrier Finnair will introduce flights between Helsinki and Zagreb next summer season. The airline will maintain three weekly services between the two capitals, each Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday with the 144-seat Airbus A319 aircraft. The flights have been timed so as to offer a morning, afternoon and evening departure each out of both Helsinki and Zagreb. Finnair faces no competition on the route. Croatia Airlines launched seasonal summer flights between the two cities in 2017, however, the service was suspended at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and has not been restored since. There is no indication the airline plans to restore the flights.
Speaking to EX-YU Aviation News in 2019, Finnair Manager, Satu Haataja, said, "Slovenia and Croatia are very popular leisure destinations from Finland. A lot of the travel is point to point but we do see an increase in transfer traffic as well, those destinations are becoming increasingly popular among our Asian customers, particularly from Japan". Ms Haataja added, “The Croatian market serves as a great destination for Finnair customers both from Northern Europe and Asia. We have also seen increasing numbers of passengers from Croatia using Finnair on their trips. Demand for Croatian destinations has been growing year by year and we have increased our flights to the area consequently”. Finnair also maintains seasonal summer operations to Dubrovnik and Split, which have been confirmed for next year as well.
Finnair has announced a number of new destinations for the upcoming 2022 summer season. The airline also plans to restore its seasonal four weekly flights to Ljubljana on March 28, following a two-year suspension resulting from Covid-19. In a statement, the Finnish carrier said, “We look forward to being able to serve more customers in a more personal way. We will be updating the public on some additional destinations and routes within the coming weeks”. Finnair will become the fourth OneWorld alliance member to maintain operations to Zagreb, complementing British Airways, Iberia and Qatar Airways. Further flight details for the new service can be found here.
Great addition
ReplyDeleteI guess they're positioning themselves for the reopening of Asian tourism - I'm sure the frequencies will increase over time. Great news for ZAG, this is an excellent airline for connections to the Far East (and IMO vastly preferable to midnight connections in the desert).
ReplyDeleteNow Zagreb have flights to all Scandinavian countries.
ReplyDeleteFinland is not a Scandinavian country.
DeleteScandinavia: Denmark, Sweden, Norway
Nordic countries: Finland, Faroe Islands, Iceland
Nordic countries are all the above.
DeleteI can't believe this. Croatia Airlines has just let slip another market. First they lost Oslo to Ryanair, then Prague to Eurowings, and now Helsinki to Finnair.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot TAP which took over Lisbon-Zagreb.
DeleteThey also lost coast to LCC s, long haul market with over million passengers to european legacies with transfers and North American and Asian carriers with both direct and transfer flights, they lost entire German gasto market to EW and other LCC 's, they would have even lost domestic services if there were no PSO subsidies, they lost UK to BA and FR, they are in process of losing AMS to KL, and in very simple words, they don't deserve to exist, they are one of the biggest croatian shames and loosers nd there was potential to be one of the biggest prides and development generators.
DeleteI couldn't agree more. Instead of being proactive they are dormant. So sad to see this.
DeleteFinally, welcome Finnair :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting to see the growing One World presence.
ReplyDeleteIf OU had any kind of strategic sense, they would immediately leave Star Alliance and join OneWorld, because the latter has a glaring gap in the Balkans. Since we know that's not gonna happen, I'm hoping JU will have the brains to do it.
DeleteOU is part Oneworld for over 20 years :-)
DeleteGood to see they will also keep LJU.
ReplyDeleteThey have reduced it from 7 to 4 because of ZAG. Bravo Fraport!
DeleteAY never flew daily to LJU. And I don't think they planned to either.
DeleteThey did plan.
Deletethey will fly daily to ljubljana. they are already selling tickets for peak season.
DeleteI think LJU should appreciate if AY does not switch all the capacity to ZAG.
Deletewhy would they do that?
DeleteIt would be another blow for LJU if they decide to switch to ZAG.
Deletedream on. maybe you wish that would happen but guess what, it wont. they will fly daily to Ljubljana next summer ... and 3pw to Zagreb. so stop being delusional.
DeleteLol, airlines does not know where and with what frequency they will fly next week and now you are 100% sure what they will do next summer :) please just go through every second article about LJU and you will quickly see that most of airlines are prolonging suspensions or they reduce flights..
DeleteApparently you are not flying that much. Schedules are not erratic as they were in the past. Latest article about Ljubljana was actually about how airline is increasing frequency. And same thing you are predicting for Ljubljana could happen to Zagreb. at this point it's even more likely they will cancel Zagreb and only keep Ljubljana rather than moving their operation to Zagreb from Ljubljana. Since they were already successfully flying to Ljubljana in the past and since they are already selling Ljubljana as daily and Zagreb as 3pw. At the end of the day both destinations will stay because it has more to do with their asian long haul network rather than flying to Zagreb/Ljubljana.
DeleteI agree that there are much less changes then in past but due to worse and worse covid situation we can see changes everyday. And what they sell does not mean that they will actually operate those flights as well, it's even more convenient for them to rebook passengers on remaining flight to improve their LF.
DeleteNice!
ReplyDeleteThe schedule is really good actually. There are good times for transfers but also point to point. Good work.
ReplyDeleteWhen are the majority of departures from HEL to Asia? Anyone know?
DeleteHND NRT KIX NGO CTS
DeleteRyanair may launch more flights to Scandinavia next summer. Bravo Finnair !
ReplyDeleteGood to see another quality European legacy airline starting flights to ZAG.
ReplyDeleteTrue. So now we have Aegean, Aeroflot, Air France, Air Serbia, Austrian, British, Iberia, KLM, LOT, Lufthansa, TAP and Turkish among European legacy airlines. Of course OU too.
DeleteVery good line up. Who could be next?
DeleteSAS missing big time.
DeleteTAROM too.
DeleteUmm before SAS or TAROM I would think securing flights by Swiss would be a priority.
DeleteWill these flights be seasonal or year round?
ReplyDeleteIt will probably depend on performance.
DeleteIt will be seasonal
DeleteNext summer will be interesting!
ReplyDeletePlus new routes from Ryanair.
And maybe Wizz;)))
This is very nice addition, and could affect LOT loads on ZAG route.
ReplyDeleteLjubljana will start as 4pw in April, 6pw in May and going daily from mid June to mid August and than back to 6pw till the end of summer season.
ReplyDeleteAnd 14 pw in 2023, right Nostradamus?
DeleteFirst of all try to communicate on a certain level (i know for some people that could hard but at least try). Second thing: you don't need to be Nostradamus, just need to know how to use Google and check what they are planning for next summer. Yes that definitely could change but probably they will stick to their plan since they are well run company with (i am pretty sure) really good controlling department. So they know how to "predict future".
DeleteI would suggest to you to check what certain airlines did plan for S21 or W21 and how much of that is realized. Then you will figure out what I'm talking about, but of course it's your right to remain convinced that FI will fly daily to LJU in S22
DeleteAnd again OU is sleeping!
ReplyDeleteZagreb is gonna come back pretty strong next summer. Ryanair is filling all the gaps in ZAG network. In addition to Air Canada, Air Transat also put ZAG flights on sale, starting from May. And Aegean is returning back in June too :)
ReplyDeleteWelcome Finnair!!! Flew AY just once, Ljubljana to Japan, and can only say it's one of the best airlines I have ever flown. All four flights were perfect, without single complaint or remark. Very happy to see them in ZAG also after the coast.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Any particular reason you chose to fly with them or it was just most convenient?
DeleteConvenient timings, departure from LJU which is very close to Rijeka and most of all super cheap double promotion tariff for Ljubljana and Nagoya which have both just started. Believe or not, I flew economy return for 496 euro 😃
DeleteWizz base will be big problem for OU.
ReplyDeleteTap, Finnair,Eurowings,Aegean,RYAN for one year!? OU is sleeping!
Wizzair isn't making a base in Zagreb anytime soon
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteBravo svi ostali osim Hrvatske koja umjesto da iskoristi svoje potencijale, ima veliku i snaznu aviokompaniju i zaradjuje, leti Daseve, puni avione Lufthansi, prepusta sva trzista i sve segmente drugima i to uz masne minuse koje svi placamo. Ma ne jednom bravo, sto puta Bravo!!!
DeleteIs it possible that next summer Zagreb will surpass Sofia and Belgrade in the number of destinations?
ReplyDeleteUnlikely as other airports will grow too.
DeleteDepends how much Ryanair will grow out of Zagreb next year.
DeleteHas AY ever flown to Zagreb?
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteThey didn't. They used to fly to Pula which they have not flown in a couple of years.
DeleteThey flew a lot to Dubrovnik as well. I think they even had daily flights to DBV before covid scam. Split too.
DeleteFinnair might take away some Northern Europe transfers from LOT, which is quite strong in that department.
ReplyDeleteI wonder who has more transfers to HEL from Zagreb. Lufthansa or LOT.
DeleteBased on 2019 data, which gives a clearer picture than 2020, Lufthansa flew a significant portion of connecting traffic between Zagreb and Helsinki. On the other hand, LOT had no major role in transfers between the two cities. LOT was primarily used by Zagreb passengers to transfer to Asia, the Baltics and North America, with a few exceptions.
DeleteThanks for that info! I guess the competition will be for the long haul passengers.
Delete2022 will be a great year for ZAG.
ReplyDeleteCertainly on its way to recovery.
DeleteGreat news for Zagreb but bad news for Croatia Airlines, especially since they won't be able to codeshare with them.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see more of them around ex-Yu.
ReplyDeleteTransited through Helsinki in 2019. Great looking airport. Nice experience.
ReplyDeleteIf they position themselves well, they could also be a good transfer option from Zagreb to North America.
ReplyDeleteBut why backtrack to Helsinki to get to the US?
DeleteFor good price? For good timings? For good service? And actually backtrack would be minimal, as bounding north compensates bounding east
DeleteSerious airline, great service, good fares and an excellent and young fleet.
ReplyDelete+1000
DeleteFinnair can be lucky that airports in FIN are so expensive. there is almost no FR or Wizz flights
ReplyDeleteRyanair has launched flights to Helsinki recently.
DeleteThis route will be mostly for Asian transfers, same as Ljubljana. Finnish people don't really care about the Balkans. They only fly to Croatian coast to sunbathe and swim.
ReplyDeleteYou would be surprised how much Finns like Balkans. Problem is just too little marketing other than Croatian coast.
DeleteIf there were more flights, there would be greater interest.
DeleteFinnair flew to Ohrid a few years ago and flights were quite successful.
DeleteIf they were successful why did they stop them?
Delete"Slovenia and Croatia are very popular leisure destinations from Finland. A lot of the travel is point to point but we do see an increase in transfer traffic as well, those destinations are becoming increasingly popular among our Asian customers, particularly from Japan"
ReplyDeleteI really do hope ANA launches flights to either LJU or ZAG after pandemic calms down. There is obviously demand and other airlines will benefit from it.
No chance. Croatia and Slovenia are still niche holiday destinations for JPN market. And the route doesn't have enough outbound demands nor high yield business demands.
DeleteCroatia could definitely attract carriers from the far east. They had a lot of tourists coming in from China (i believe it was around 200k or even more) and with each year they were expecting impressive amounts growth. For Japan, the amount wasn't as high but still enough to be fair. I think both ANA and one of the Chinese carriers should for sure establish Zagreb or Dubrovnik as a seasonal destination.
Delete+1 last anon. There is a lot of potential.
DeleteCroatia Airlines is losing markets one after the other
ReplyDeleteGood thing they have BCG to guide them lol
DeleteWhat a waste of money that has been.
DeleteFrankly speaking, it's one of the smaller wastes
DeleteWell we don't know the value of the contact.
Delete*contract
DeleteIt is great to see that Zagreb is still attracting full service legacy airlines on top of massive Ryanair expansion.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the fares like?
ReplyDeleteCheck their website
DeleteNever understood this question. Fares differ based on subclass, date, availability. There isn't a fixed price.
DeleteHow many pax can we expect at ZAG tomorrow?
ReplyDelete** oops obviously I meant next year not tomorrow :D
DeleteIt depends what happens with Covid.
DeleteI think we could see 2m-3m pax if everything goes to plan. Of course it still all depends on covid and new FR and OU flights but it should be in that range.
DeleteThese new arrivals impact LH/OU. OU that flies everything to FRA and MUC and LH that then handle the transfers.
ReplyDeleteUnexpected but good to see.
ReplyDelete