Zagreb Airport saw its busiest November on record, handling 253.666 passengers, representing an increase of 8.9% on the pre-pandemic 2019. It marks the first time since February 2020 that the airport has registered an improved result compared to 2019. The number of aircraft movements during the penultimate month of the year stood at 3.408, up 1.9% on three years ago. During the January - November period, Zagreb Airport welcomed 2.876.869 travellers through its doors, which is still down 10.2% on 2019. The airport is on course to reach its planned target of three million travellers this year and will likely handle approximately 90% of its pre-pandemic passenger levels.
Generating the growth in November was Ryanair’s strong performance, solid loads on Croatia Airlines, as well as Qatar Airways’ wide-body operations. With Croatia advancing into the semi-final of the FIFA World Cup in Doha, the airport is set to see more charters to the Gulf state in the coming days, as well as additional wide-body operations. Compared to its original plan, Qatar Airways has now extended the use of its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to the Croatian capital. It will be utilised on December 12 and December 14, while the Airbus A320 is currently scheduled for December 13, Croatia plays its semi-final match on December 13. Further equipment changes remain possible.
During the first seven months of the year, up until which data has so far been processed, Frankfurt retained its position as the busiest route to and from the Croatian capital. A total of 145.272 passengers were handled between the two cities by Croatia Airlines and Lufthansa. It was followed by Amsterdam, maintained by Croatia Airlines and KLM. Istanbul was the busiest route operated by a single carrier, with Turkish Airlines handling 97.152 travellers. Dubrovnik was the busiest domestic service, ahead of Split, while London Stansted was Ryanair’s most popular route out of Zagreb.
Top ten busiest Zagreb routes, January - July 2022
.gif)
Wow Ryanair is doing very well on that Stansted route. They had almost the same number of passengers compared to Croatia Airlines and British Airways to Heathrow combined.
ReplyDeletePrice is king in our region.
DeleteNot that you get much more in terms of service on BA or OU.
DeleteI think many of the P2P passengers migrated to Ryanair on this route
DeleteAnonymous 09:14
DeleteTrue dat!
Not only in our region.
DeleteThis is evidence that OU is not just an LH feeder, as claimed by some. Flights to Split and Dubrovnik are OU only, and London and Vienna are pretty strong too for OU. FRA and MUC are at least half, if not more OU PAX.
DeleteYes and they feed passengers to Lufthansa group in FRA, MUC, VIE.
DeleteSubsidised domestic flights don't count for much as evidenced by their finances.
Ryanair offers a daily service, so it is easier to buy a return ticket with them than it is with Croatia Airlines who flies three times weekly in the summer and four times weekly in the winter. There is far more flexibility with Ryanair.
Delete@anonymous 09:07 Actually, Ryanair's prices are usually higher than British Airways' at peak season times. It's only really on off-season days that BA is more expensive. And Ryanair sells out quicker. On the London-Zagreb sector, Ryanair is sold out tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The ticket on Sunday is 350 euros.
DeleteGood results.
ReplyDeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteI think ZAG has not reached its full potential yet. Compared to 2019 they have Ryanair with 3 planes and over 20 routes. That should translate into an annual jump of at least half a million passengers, if not more. Of course Covid still does have an impact. Let's see how things go next year but it should be a good one for the airport.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteThe long-haul tourism market is still dead. Ryanair has replaced the numbers that were lost there.
DeleteIf Croatia Airlines were real company, not humiliated servant and pathetic feeder, if it were not full of crime and corruption, if it had vision and strategy, if it had competent management, not puppets working for personal interest of individuals tied to high politics, ZAG could have reached already its full potential. Only LCC is not enough. Only foreign airlines from distant markets is not enough. Only, or predominantly feeding LH is not enough. ZAG will never reach its full potential without sinergy with the flag carrier based there, which is interested in making it proper hub. But with literally every day passing, chances for that are slimmer and slimmer.
Delete09:13 - Give them time. When FR based 3 aircraft in SOF in 2016 they haven't expanded ever since but, it is connecting SOF with their other bases. In some days there are up to 22 daily flights. Don't forget that ZAG is still new to them. It might get linked with their other bigger bases as well or you may see 3rd STN daily flight arriving from London to Zagreb or 2nd daily from CRL to ZAG, etc. Even though W6 will be basing their 7th aircraft next week, they are still loosing ground in SOF. When FR enters a market, it usually takes things very seriously and not that chaotic compared to Wizzair lately.
DeleteI think FR are growing well in ZAG, for instance ZAG-CFU is from late March until late October, I think they might add more flights to DUB because prices are not very cheap.
Also, now with your Schengen entry, you are highly likely to witness more air traffic.
Remember how Ryanair made wonders in airports such as Charleroi or Modlin for instance.
Zagreb is not Sofia. From Zagreb, you can drive to Germany, Italy and Switzerland. It's not the same.
Delete@Anon 11:41 The 7th aircraft isn't coming this month - lack of pilots.
DeleteGreat. The football charters and wide body ops will definitely help in December too.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately there are barely any charters. There were just two for the Brazil game.
DeleteSurprised Munich isn't higher up on the list. Full credit to Turkish Airlines though.
ReplyDeleteLH only resumed Munich-Zagreb in April.
DeleteAir France-KLM is doing rather well in Zagreb based on those numbers.
ReplyDeleteThey offer good connections and schedule.
DeleteAnd a much better on board product now.
DeleteAnd OU is also doing rather well on that route, let's not forget!
DeleteInteresting to see busiest routes. No major surprises among them.
ReplyDeleteI would think that Split route would have more passengers than Dubrovnik.
DeleteI wouldn't. Easier to reach Split, than Dubrovnik by car or bus.
DeleteNot easier. Faster.
DeleteActually easier. The highway is fantastic.
DeleteWell done
ReplyDeleteBravo OU!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, these numbers are to a great extent OUs numbers, no matter what the svakom-loncu-poklopac person from Rijeka says about it!
DeleteNot really. I don't see how you think this shows OU is doing well. They barely handled a million passengets up until September this year which is very poor
DeleteWow, so I am from Rijeka now, not from Cacak? And btw I am poklopac only to shortsighted lonac who/which is not able or does not want to see all missed opportunities and all crime and corruption in OU but repeatedly saying OU is the best, or at least good, which is far away from its sad reality
DeleteCroatia Airlines did nothing at ZAG this year. No new routes, no restored routes from pre Covid era. It's like they just gave up.
Delete^ sad but true
DeleteThey are punishing Zagreb for its relationship with Ryanair. But even their punishment is not that serious.
DeleteI do wonder what the result would be without FR. Seems the airport management made the right decision
ReplyDeleteWe will see in the financial results.
DeleteYou will not see anything in the financial results. The management knew that without a LCC they would be in serious trouble. So they dropped fees to attract one. The financial results will not tell you what the airport would have made if it had not dropped fees for new route launches.
DeleteAny new route announcements for next year?
ReplyDeleteSo far no
DeleteNot bad at all
ReplyDeleteNot bad but with Ryanair, I was expecting them to be at 2019 levels.
DeleteWithout Ryanair, Zagreb would be in serious trouble. Ryanair is merely replacing the capacity lost by the absence of long-haul tourism. It is a good result.
DeleteIt will be interesting to see whether Zagreb extends its agreement with Ryanair for discounts on fees once the long-haul tourism market starts to recover. If it wasn't for COVID, there is absolutely no chance that Ryanair would ever have arrived in Zagreb.
ReplyDelete@Admin is it possible to publish the maybe 5 busiest routes operated by Ryanair ?
ReplyDeleteStansted, Dublin and Charleroi should definitely be on the top 5.
DeleteFor the above mention period, they were: London Stansted, Bergamo, Dublin, Charleroi and Gothenburg.
DeleteThank you. No surprises there. Those are the routes with the most frequencies.
Delete