Croatia Airlines has finalised its network for the 2022/2023 winter season which begins on October 30 and runs until March 25 of next year. The carrier plans to operate over 8.500 scheduled flights, representing an increase of 29% on last year. It will maintain thirteen international destinations out of its Zagreb hub. The airline will restore limited services from the Croatian capital to Dublin, which have been suspended for most of the summer season. Furthermore, it will increase frequencies on services to Brussels, Frankfurt, London Heathrow, Munich, Vienna, Sarajevo and Skopje when compared to the majority of the current summer season. In addition, it will maintain domestic services to Dubrovnik, Pula, Split and Zadar. The carrier will operate the same number of destinations as the previous winter season. Compared to the pre-pandemic 2018/2019 and the start of the 2019/2020 winter, it will not serve Barcelona, Lisbon and Mostar from its main hub.
Departing Zagreb
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The carrier will introduce two new routes, with limited operations from both Split and Pula to Zurich. Both have so far been maintained on a seasonal summer basis. During the upcoming winter, they will run twice per week, each Wednesday and Saturday, with the Dash 8 turboprop aircraft. At this point, the two services have been scheduled to run until mid-January of next year. As a result, this winter, for the first time in years, Croatia Airlines will run international flights out of Pula, complementing its domestic operations to Zagreb and Zadar. Croatia Airlines will operate flights from Split to Frankfurt, Munich, Rome and Zagreb, in addition to its new Zurich service.
Departing Split
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Operations to Dubrovnik have been reduced to a single domestic route, in contrast to prior to the pandemic when there were also flights to Frankfurt. From Osijek, the carrier will continue to maintain services to Munich, which were launched earlier this year. Similarly, from Rijeka, the airline will boast flights to the Bavarian capital, while services from Zadar will be maintained to Pula and Zagreb. Utilisation of the carrier’s Dash 8 Q400 turboprops will be increased, with the 78-seat aircraft deployed on almost all routes. Destinations which will be exclusively served by jet-engine aircraft include those from Zagreb to London Heathrow, Paris and Frankfurt, as well as from Split to Frankfurt.
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Bravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteReally pathetic
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteConsidering the whole potential of the Croatian market this is a more than a disappointing network.
DeleteWhat exactly potential?
DeleteThere is no outgoing demand.
It's a small, but sufficient network for the country.
ReplyDeleteAgree. In winter it serves the needs of local travellers.
DeleteThey are very conservative with their winter ops.
DeleteIf locals do not travel this small network is optimal.
Delete13 international destinations from ZAG only!
ReplyDeleteThis must be a comedy!
I agree. ZAG deserves much better.
DeleteSuch a shame ATH is not year-round. Thankfully Aegean upgraded ZAG-ATH until January.
ReplyDeleteIt is not that bad actually. Secondary airports are getting a chance and it is a chance for them to make some profit and try something different. Their network out of ZAG is horrible tho. If not for Ryan, ZAG would be in huge problems this winter
ReplyDeleteBut how are secondary airports getting a chance when they no longer have any international flights from Dubrovnik?
DeleteBravo OU! It's sensible to slowly grow the network sustainably, rather then the chaos Wizz Air have made to themselves by adding flights that can't be filled. Especially with a global recession!
ReplyDeleteShame that their losses are growing faster than their revenue.
DeleteWizz Air doesn't fly from Zagreb. What about Ryanair?
DeleteThey really can't make Dublin work in February and March?
ReplyDeleteSeems like February is more dead for PU than November.
Delete*OU
DeleteAt least they extended it a bit. In 2019/20 they operated the route until 12th January.
DeleteHow many weekly flights will Ryanair have on this route in winter?
Delete3 weekly throughout entire winter.
DeleteHow come other airlines across the world can fly routes in January and February?
DeleteMany make looses during Jan/Feb but profit from other months cover it. They fly because they care about image and want to stay top of mind.
DeleteCroatian diaspora in Ireland do not travel in February and March.
DeleteGreat so friends and family can visit them. StPatrick celebrations are amazing overthere.
Delete"Utilisation of the carrier’s Dash 8 Q400 turboprops will be increased, with the 78-seat aircraft deployed on almost all routes."
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see how they will make this work in the future with A220s.
And their load factor is barely 60% as it is.
DeleteHopefully by the time the planes arrive things will be much better at OU.
DeleteHow exactly? I do hope so though.
DeleteThey will probably reduce frequencies on some routes and have more aircraft to launch new destinations.
DeleteThat's not what they should be striving for.
DeleteActually A220s are exactly what they need in winter. They are operating most routes with Q400 because the A319/320 are way too big. Too large for 98% of the routes. This is where the A220 will prove really useful.
DeleteBut those Q400 are far from being full. With this network they don't need A220.
DeleteSo Ryanair with 3 planes 22 routes.
ReplyDeleteOU wirh 13 planes 17 routes
Croatia Airlines has a lot more frequencies.
DeleteAnd FR will do it by flying from Zagreb just 4 days a week this winter. Their aircraft utilisation can't be compared to OU.
DeleteHow many planes does Croatia Airlines use during the winter? They definitely don't utilize the entire fleet.
DeleteWhy are they ignoring Dubrovnik :((
ReplyDeleteThey do it in summer too (relative to DBV's huge demand in summer time)
DeleteI don't understand how they can have international flights from Pula, Rijeka and Osijek but can't sustain a single international route from Dubrovnik during the winter
DeleteThey used to at least have Frankfurt during winter.
DeleteThey are ignoring DUB because in Jan-Ape it is a miseryof bad weather and everything closed. No demand.
DeleteBut they are flying to DUB for part of the winter? And everything is open in DUB, not like DBV that closes down as locals like a nice long break.
DeleteLH hubs dominating the schedule.
ReplyDeleteOU is an LH feeder, so it makes sense.
DeleteInteresting that they can sustain Rome daily from Split.
ReplyDeleteThey inherited this from JAT thirty years back... Why change if it is so good...
DeleteHow does this stack up to pre-Covid frequnecies?
ReplyDeleteFrom Zagreb frequencies are the same on all international routes except Brussels which was 12 weekly in 2019/20 (although historically it has always been 11). Domestic routes have a flight less here and there.
DeleteOf course I'm not counting the three routes they discontinued.
DeleteNot bad
DeleteActually Sarajevo is up by one flights compared to 2019/20. It used to be 13 weekly :)
DeleteNice
DeleteJust shuffling frequencies around. They increase one route and decrease the other.
DeleteDisappointing, especially since they have an extra plane sitting in ZAG collecting dust.
ReplyDeleteMany planes go on maintenance during winter so they will use the extra A320 to cover them during that period.
DeleteI forgot about that
DeleteIt seems they are definitely not focusing on ZAG or competing with FR.
ReplyDeleteI think it is not that bad overall. Connected to LH hubs from which you can get to anywhere. This is OU. You can't expect any miracles.
ReplyDeleteWhere is IST? Have they thought about serving the busiest airport in Europe? They could have codeshare with TK, work with TK to make the route a success.
ReplyDeleteCopy/paste every year from Croatia Airlines.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately absolutely true
DeleteA missed opportunity to react to Wizz Air leaving Sarajevo.
ReplyDeleteThey did respond. They increased frequency by one weekly flight in winter to double daily. More than enough to serve Sarajevo's needs.
DeleteOne extra flight. Ground breaking. They could completely rule SJJ market. Could have based a plane there.
DeleteInteresting that Skopje is their southernmost destination
ReplyDeleteThey should really take some more risk and extend some of their seasonal flights from Zagreb to year round.
ReplyDeleteI’m no OU fanboy and have no intention of defending them but people should realise the company is constantly producing losses. It was already bailed out once this year (with 40 million EUR). All things considered this winter timetable is good.
ReplyDeleteShame on OU, look at DBV! Luckily, there are foreign carriers!
ReplyDeleteLooking at the upside at least they are not shrinking this winter.
ReplyDeleteCroatia Airlines is limited in what it can do. The winter schedule would benefit from OU being more of a transfer airline, so they could fly to certain destinations purely to transfer people to third destinations. But in summer they have sufficient demand for point to point flights and do not have the capacity to do large scale international transfers.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't understand is why in gods name don't they station one dash8 in ljubljana over the winter, prague, london, vienna, skopje, gosh even sarajevo would all work
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteZurich would also work judging by the prices, also rotterdam (as ams is currently in a meltdown), berlin as well...
DeleteGroundbreaking
ReplyDeleteIt’s like in winter they draw a line at Skopje and don’t fly anything remotely east of it :D
ReplyDeleteor south of it.
DeleteNot a lot different in summer either.
DeleteFor them the Danube marks the end of the known world and "civilisation".
DeleteFlights from ZAG to Rome still going via Split!! Will this ever change?!?!
ReplyDeleteIf they haven't changed this now that Ryanair offers nonstop flight to Rome, they never will.
DeleteMaybe they could have gone with 5 weekly via Split a 2 weekly direct. At least give it a try.
DeleteUntil a few years ago, flights used to operate twice per week via Dubrovnik and 5 via Split. Then they cancelled the Dubrovnik-Rome sector alltogeather.
DeleteI wonder how many people actually board in Split to Rome.
DeleteWhat about Madrid, Barcelona?
ReplyDeleteBarcelona is seasonal. Madrid they have never served.
DeleteSame old same old from Croatia Airlines.
ReplyDeleteAnd with that they still produce losses. So I don’t get why they don’t change things up.
DeleteNever anything new or out of the box for OU.
ReplyDeleteAnd competent management.
DeleteThe worst thing is tons of money and millions and millions were wasted on OU over 30 years, to have schedule like this as a result
DeleteInternational flights (east of Zagreb): Skopje, Sarajevo and that's all. Why nothing more to the eastern parts of Europe?
ReplyDeleteIn one word: Yields!
DeleteSo TK is flying with low yields? I don't think so.
DeletePreconceived prejudices, primarily.
DeleteOk let's see how they do this winter. I think it is crazy that a national airline has just 13 international destinations with 13 aircraft. But I do hope they decrease losses this winter and then they can go forward from there.
ReplyDeleteIt serves multiple airports to those 13, Zagreb with 13, although Rome goes through Split and some through Pula and Zadar, they also fly 5 routes from from Split, and other routes are mostly domestic; the thing about Croatia Airlines is that they have not many routes, but their frequencies are very high, they have a lot of routes that go 21-23 pw, a lot of them 7pw and only Zurich is 2pw, basically all of their routes go at least 4pw. Unlike Ryanair, which has 22(25) routes depending on schedule but serves destinations a few times per week, I think only 2,3 routes goes more than 7pw, but no route goes more than 14pw
DeleteYet Ryanair is more successful so their model with more destinations but less frequencies sounds better.
DeleteWell the jury is still out how successful they are in Zagreb. They have fewer routes this winter than last year (when Covid was still in full force) and I'm not sure they would be in ZAG in the first place if the incentive model was not tailored to their needs.
DeleteNot a single route in Southern Europe other than Copenhagen.
ReplyDeleteIts not great but its a step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteIt is finaly scheduling routes based on demand except of flawed strategy to make Zagreb a hub and on political wishes of people in power.
Outside of maybe OSI - MUN flight and RJK - MUN route the rest will probably be profitable (with small dash aircraft)
Hopefully its not too little too late.
If they continue this effort they may grow organically.
Problem with this is that they opted for a220 (150) seats opposed to cheaper and more economical e190 with close to 100 seats.
Lets see what happens
As long as you refer to Munich with MUN on an aviation forum, your opinion does not count.
Delete