Croatia Airlines will put focus on its operations to Germany this coming summer season with the carrier to maintain 69 weekly flights between the two countries. A total of 45% of those will be to Munich alone. This summer, the airline is introducing a new service between Brač and the Bavarian capital, which will complement its flights from Zagreb, Split, Rijeka and Osijek to Munich. In total, the carrier will operate 31 weekly services from Croatia to the German city. In addition, it will maintain another 38 weekly flights to other points in Germany, including from Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik to Frankfurt, as well as from Split to Berlin and Dusseldorf. The Croatian carrier also codeshares on Lufthansa’s operations between the two countries.
Commenting on it record number of flights to Germany this summer, Croatia Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer, Slaven Žabo, said, “During this year’s tourist season, we’ve again paid special attention to connections between Germany and Croatia. We are glad that, besides expecting to see further recovery in demand for air transport, we can offer passengers a more extensive service. Germany is one of our key markets, while Bavaria and its capital, Munich, are one of Europe’s biggest transport hubs. During this year’s high season, we’ll be connecting Munich directly with six Croatian destinations. More specifically, we’re planning to operate a total of 69 return flights a week between Germany and Croatia”.
Germany is a key travel and tourism market, accounting for as much as 24% of overnight stays in Croatia. During the coming summer season, Croatia Airlines plans to operate flights to 22 international destinations on 47 international routes. In total, it will run some 17.000 flights and has put over 1.820.000 seats up for sale. It has scheduled four new seasonal routes including those from Split to Skopje and Oslo, from Dubrovnik to Prague, and the abovementioned service from Brač to Munich, This year is expected to be the company’s last operating the Dash 8 and Airbus A320-family fleet, with the carrier to start taking delivery of A220 jets in early 2024, with which it plans to replace its entire fleet by 2027.
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That's a lot of flights to Germany.
ReplyDeleteWhere else?
DeleteActually headline today should be "to focus on Munich and Frankfurt". Few seasonal weekly flights from SPU to BER and DUS are insignificant and exist only as a cover, as disguise, the same as few other routes from ZAG, hiding one of two existence purposes of OU, and that is feeding LH in their two hubs, for peanuts, and at all costs
Delete"Germany is a key travel and tourism market, accounting for as much as 24% of overnight stays in Croatia. During the coming summer season, Croatia Airlines plans to operate flights to 22 international destinations on 47 international routes. In total, it will run some 17.000 flights and has put over 1.820.000 seats up for sale."
DeleteThere are nearly 1 million Croats living in Germany, Croatia's population of 5.2 million dropped down to 4 million in less than 20 years, what do you think where all these people went??? EU membership has its good sides, but also its bad when it comes to emigration, Croatia lost around 1 million people in past few decades due to it.
Yes, Croatia has 3.2+ million German visitors every year, but there are also 1 million britis, 1 million Czech, Polish, 700 000 Dutch, 650 000 French, 400 000 Spanish visitors to Croatia, don't see OU planning any additional flights on scale they've planned for Germany.
Croatia’s IT industry is growing nearly 20% annually and is projected to become Croatia’s largest sector by 2027-2030. People are slowly starting to move back and Croatia is even attracting highly educated IT professionals from all around the world
DeleteAnd again the most variety and number of destinations from Split, not Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteWell their focus is well and truly turning to Split in summer.
DeleteGood they are not focusing only on Zagreb.
DeleteFor such a small airline, it makes no sense.
DeleteThey alone are making seasonality higher, yet they all the time complain about it.
DeleteNo surprise
ReplyDeleteWhy not a single flight from Pula?
ReplyDeleteI mean from Pula to Germany
DeleteThey do fly Pula-Frankfurt.
DeleteNot this summer.
DeleteIt doesn’t take long to drive from Germany to Pula. I think that’s why
DeletePula is already quite well connected to Germany with LH, EW and some other low cost carriers (FR, EZ). Maybe PUL shouldn't focus just on German and UK market but also add flights to PRG, BUD, Slovakia and Poland would also be successful as as many guests are coming from this countries. Oh I forgot, this are more "poorer" guests, croatian tourism prefers more "richer" guest.
DeleteI bet Munich will be the first destination to get the A220.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteLet's see if they are going to be around to get the 220
DeleteYou wish!
DeleteIt would be nice if they developed some other market other than Germany.
ReplyDeleteNah, it's too early for that..
DeleteAustria, France, UK, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland, BiH.
DeleteYou think they have developed irish market with 4 months of operations per year from Zagreb?
DeleteJust saying, there are other markets.
DeleteI didn't say they don't fly to other markets. I'm just saying they have done nothing to develop them as they have developed German market. I mean they fly to Rome via another city in Europe in the 21st century, from a country that borders Italy.
DeleteAnd also from Split.
Delete7 weekly ROUTES, not flights.
ReplyDeleteThe number of weekly fligts is 69 as you mention.
It says seventy not seven
DeleteIn the future stop flying to other countries and focus on flights only to Germany.
ReplyDeleteAnd they are going that way, instead growing their own market on the biggest ex-yu aviation market
Deleteinstead growing their network (and market)
DeleteIt would be interesting to see how many of these are profitable. A lot of the tickets sold on these flights are sold by Lufthansa for transfers where Croatia Airlines gets peanuts for the segment it operates
ReplyDeleteHow much it gets?
DeleteI was expecting more from OU this year.
ReplyDeleteNo money for bigger network expansion or frequency increases but enough money to A220s.
DeleteI still don't get the A220 order.
DeleteDifficult road ahead
DeleteMore rotations, greater capacity compared to q400, less maintenance cost, improved safety,better service...
Deleteall of the above fully agree, but with pink glasses only
DeleteI was looking into MXP-SPU in August, but pricing seems to be even more ridiculous than last summer. Six months in advance an Economy ticket on OU is already €300+ with luggage on the Q400. I booked Austrian in Business for €420 instead.
ReplyDeleteI guess their flights are full?
DeleteThere are EasyJet MXP-SPU flights for 35-50 EUR on many dates in Aug (Google flights calendar).
Delete@anon 9:22
DeleteHardly, they only just added them to the reservation systems. It's the starting price that is insane.
@anon 10:08
Thanks for the tip! I try to avoid low-cost airlines whenever possible, however.
That's so prestigious
DeleteVlad, the reason the price is so high is that OU (for all it faults) actually did a good job this summer with tour operators and most seats are actually sold out.
DeleteAll the power to them if that's the case. I just found it strange that in that case they are (i) not operating a bigger plane or (ii) offering more reasonable fares to stay competitive for the remaining seats.
DeleteGood luck OU!
ReplyDeleteOU needs to grow - routes and fleet.
ReplyDeleteWhy? OU does not have megalomaniac ambitions. All they need is for Plenković to replace the current management and make them introduce a 50% admin staff cut.
DeleteBecause this way they will just keep losing money and do little for the development of tourism in Croatia.
DeleteAlso OU seems to have no ambition whatsoever.
DeleteI agree, no drive for a change. The reason is that Plenković does not understand business and that OU should make and not loose money. Unlike Vučić who understands this.
DeleteWhen someone says Plenkovic needs to replace the management, mindset of the poster locked back in 1950 is clearly visible. The same mindset which entire Kradeze implemented into their pray - Croatia as a whole, and its carrier, which they use as their personal ATM and that's precisely the reason why this "management", is not, and will not be 'replaced "
DeleteWill OU actually achieve profitability this year?
ReplyDeleteI think it will be difficult.
DeleteIt all depends on Q2 and Q3. When the Q2 results are out I think we will know.
DeleteAnd what are the results for 2022?
DeleteThey haven't been published yet.
DeleteIt will most likely be published tomorrow.
DeleteIt will be interesting to see how Croatia Airlines performs this year. They are facing a lot of competition on some key routes.
DeleteIt will be a very tough battle for them, especially since they have shown to be very poorly prepared to compete.
DeleteTime to diversify the network and look at developing other markets as well.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWhy can't OU follow the model of Aegean??
ReplyDeleteBoth economies are highly reliant on seasonal tourism and a car-unfriendly geographical distribution...
Because Aegean is a privately run company with competent management, OU is the exact opposite.
Deletecar-unfriendly geographical distribution?!
DeleteCroatia is just the opposite of car-unfriendly country with modern highways connected to central and western Europe.
Bravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteDanke Deutschland!
DeleteMore precisely, Danke München und Frankfurt 🤣🤭
Delete69 weekly flights is a lot a small airline like OU. Good job.
ReplyDeleteThe issue it is coming at the expense of all other markets.
DeleteCapacity and flight numbers are great but the real metric of recovery will be passenger numbers and whether there is enough to fill those seats.
ReplyDeleteThe real metric is financial results and these are not always linked to load factor or passenger numbers. A lot of factors impact on financial performance, from operational costs to cargo.
DeleteIt would be interesting to see which route in Germany is best performing for them. Both passengers wise and financially
ReplyDeletePlease start Zagreb-Berlin!
ReplyDeleteFor who? ZAG-FRA-BER or ZAG-MUC-BER it’s enough.
DeleteThis is actually much better than I thought.
ReplyDeleteHope bookings are performing well too.
ReplyDeleteThis is for transfer passengers from USA and Australia, no other reasons
ReplyDeleteAustralian transfer passengers fly via Frankfurt to get to Zagreb? How many airlines do they have to change in the process and at how many airports do they need to land? Isn't it easiest to fly with Qatar via Doha or Emirates/Flydubai via Dubai?
DeleteAustralian passengers less then North American, but yes, they do transfer via FRA. I know people who transfer via LHR which is even more distant. But the real tragedy is OU feeding Cartel and opting for A220 for higher quality (and much more expensive, with more losses) feed, instead converting order to A321XLR and starting North America even before, with leased aircraft. With croatian tourism and diaspora it's the biggest mistake Party aparatchiks in OU are doing in order to remain in mercy of their bosses. Air Serbia being the best proof of what I have been talking for ages, and being regularly spit at by OU and Kradeze bots
DeleteI also know lots of them who prefer Kangaroo Route via LHR or similar to that with SQ to FRA. All my relatives in Australia - and there are lots of them :) - would never consider Emirates or Qatar over Singapore Airlines. I don't know if they are just used to fly via Singapore or something else. Well, for some of them I could assume they are simply racists and xenophobes, they just don't like Arabs. And this is not at all very rare in "our" emigrant community in Australia.
Delete14:58 (Australian Croatian here..... "racists and xenophobes" nope, nope and nope!!
DeleteMost Australian Croatian do fly Qatar or Emirates. Those who choose to fly other airlines such as Qantas or Singapore most likely make that decision based on loyalty programs.
Singapore Airlines codeshares with Lufty to Croatia .
DeleteThat might be the reason why Australian Croats prefer flying them not racism although racism exists in the community ..
Racism exists in every community. I would say Croatians are just as racist as all other communities in Australia which overall, is a very small percentage.
DeleteAMS had for a while become very popular as well, at least in terms of connecting North America and Croatia, but guess things are going back to business as usual.
DeleteThis year will be interesting as it is the first one after all the covid restrictions where we'll see the return of Australians and Far East visitors.
Where is Berlin?
ReplyDeleteIn Germany
DeleteOne would think Munich is their most profitable route. They operate it from almost every Croatian city. How about introducing some new destinations in Germany please!
ReplyDeleteIt probably is their most profitable route.
DeleteIt's not profitable at all. MUC is extremely expensive, and both LF and yields are not satisfactory. But feed to Cartel must be provided, no matter of anything
DeleteHow much is yield?
DeleteMiserable.
DeleteWhat about some secondary destinations in Germany? Stuttgart, Hamburg, Hanover?
ReplyDeleteVia BEG :)
DeleteHaving 70 flights to Germany and 70 to the rest of your network is not good business.
ReplyDeleteBravo OU!
ReplyDeleteHahahaha Hahahahahahahaha
DeleteHow comes OU has 30+ flights to Munich per week and Air Serbia not even one. I understand that OU is part of Star Aliance and has very different relation to LH but still.
ReplyDeleteBavaria is an expensive and prestigious market and not many have exclusive access to this market especially Munich.
DeleteI guess there is more demand for richer tourists and traffic.
Not sure about that, there are a number of Munich flights to BEG, just not with JU.
DeleteGreat question! Air Serbia was all over the place announcing expansion from Cairo to Malaga so in my opinion they completely forgot to look at Munich. On the other hand, OU's laser-sharp focus on Germany and future prestigious A220 service is leading the way among regional airlines when it comes to connectivity of the region to Munich airport. I expect further innovations from this carrier that would include cutting down on unnecessary services to other countries and then rebranding that would highlight their focus on Germany. New brand could be for example CGA: Croatia-Germany Airlines.
DeleteLove the sarcasm of 14:43 !
Delete14:43 true that JU is expanding well. But, MUC is a quite expensive airport and not many airlines can afford flying there. Only easyJet operate flights and not a large number. Even Tarom are quitting it soon. Croatia's target is to bring richer tourists, which is absolutely normal. MUC is an airport used by richer people and clearly the Croatian routes are P2P.
DeleteHow do I know if I belong to those richer people? Do I need to provide income and bank statement and tax return to qualify for flights to MUC?
DeleteZGA-DUS?
ReplyDeleteZGA?
DeleteThe flights from Berlin and Dusseldorf to Split are almost completely sold out. All bought by tour operators.
ReplyDeleteOk, but it's 5 percent of all german OU flights. What about 9 daily to FRA and MUC?
DeletePozdrav you ask too many intelligent questions !
DeleteThat makes you very un-croatian , i guess your people hate you ...
If people hate you for asking questions, then you know you’re doing a good job, is what I think.
DeleteOk Pozdrav it's enough now
DeleteI can never get enough of Pozdrav, he knows what he talks about .
DeleteI dislike him .
DeleteI have the feeling that hes from Cacak ..
Very uncivilized person .
DeleteReally Croatian people are very civilized and dont complain about their homeland !
Croatia is extremely succesfull and would not be in European Community if it wasnt so good .
Switzerland is not in the EU. That would make them unsuccessful according to your twisted criteria. You need help.
Delete@08.58 and @09.02, and many others before, the same person, Kradeze bot, person with mindset stuck in distant past, person who does not comment aviation but other people, me in most cases, because "he dislikes me" and person with extremely narrow view, who can't see and understand what's happening in his country, and who judges about entire nations being "civilized" or not. Kindly asking @ex-yu not to erase this post again, because it is just the answer to what shouldn't be written here first. Thank you!
DeleteI flew Melbourne to Split in November 2022. First leg with Emirates to Dubai. Dubai to Zagreb with flyDubai, then Zagreb to Split with Croatia Airlines.
ReplyDeleteDubai to Zagreb with FlyDubai was shocking and I felt sick most of the seven hours flight! Never again!
Croatia Airlines should consider to cover this route for us coming from Australia.
Emirates and Croatia Airline were very pleasant flights.
I will not be flying FlyDubai again. Instead I will fly with Emirates to ANYWHERE in Europe, even as far north as London or Amsterdam and then fly to Split from there!
In less than 5 years, Croatia will publish tender for subsidizing of connectivity.
Delete