Croatia Airlines will today commence its 2023 summer network expansion with the introduction of the first of five new routes. The carrier will today launch operations between Zagreb and Mostar, trying its luck between the two cities for the third time. The service, which will run three times per week with the 76-seat Dash 8 turboprop aircraft and is subsidised by the local authorities in Mostar, will receive a special welcome with a number of officials taking part, including the carrier’s CEO, Jasmin Bajić. Croatia Airlines plans to maintain services to Mostar on a year-round basis, although tickets for the upcoming winter are yet to go on sale. Its remaining four new routes will all run on a seasonal summer basis.
The Croatian carrier will follow up its Mostar launch with the introduction of flights from Split to Skopje on May 12. The service will run twice per week until October 12 with the Dash 8. Two days later, on May 14, Croatia Airlines will inaugurate two weekly operations between Split and Oslo, which will be maintained by its 144-seat Airbus A319 aircraft. It will face direct competition from SAS Scandinavian Airlines and Norwegian Air Shuttle. On May 18, the Croatian flag carrier will launch a one weekly service from Dubrovnik to Prague with its A319, which will run until October 12. It will compete against daily Smartwings flights between the two cities. The airline will cap off its summer expansion with the introduction of a one weekly rotation between Brač and Munich between May 27 and October 7 with its Dash 8.
Croatia Airlines is operating over 17.000 flights with over 1.820.000 seats on sale this summer season, which runs until October 28. Apart from launching new routes this month, the carrier will also restore a number of seasonal services, including those from Zagreb to Tel Aviv (May 7), as well as from Split to Bucharest (May 5), Stockholm (May 12), Prague (May 13), Lyon (May 13), Dublin (May 14), Oslo (May 14), Milan (May 15) and Athens (May 27). At the same time, the carrier halted its flights between the Croatian capital and Dublin on May 1, with the service shifting to Split for the remainder of the summer.
Nice to see OU expanding.
ReplyDeleteWith total of 9 weekly flights...
DeleteWell Jasmin had to go to Mostar for a coffee.
DeleteAt least Pozdrav iz Rijeke knows that Jasmin isn't sleeping today. He's a globetrotter on his way to Mostar.
DeleteThey know how to make proper coffee in Bosnia!
DeleteJasmin never sleeps @09.22. He is killing himself of work, on daily basis, sundays and holidays included, for general good, and even stronger, bigger and better OU (which is very very difficult task because OU already is of course strong, big and good, developed, proactive, innovative, and above all independent and self-sustaining) hahahahahaha. A sto se kahve tice u Bosni mog' samo da reknem : masala
DeleteI will always thanks Jasmin just making POZDRAV upset ! Way to go Jasmin ! Keep up !
Delete🤣🤣🤣God bless you!
DeleteYes, Jasmin, keep up good work, and very soon there will be nothing that upsets me or makes me sad. Except the IQ of @13.38
DeleteBring back Ivan Misetic!
DeleteWhy? Nothing left to sell and hand over for personal benefits
DeletePerhaps the use of the word 'expansion' is not adequate. Actually it is laughable. Truly ironic. Good one...
DeleteAnyone know the load for today's Mostar flight?
ReplyDeleteToday isn't bad because there are a lot officials on the flight. There are 23 passengers. But tomorrow - there are 12 from ZAG.
DeleteThey should've leased the tradeairs saab a340
DeleteThat's not that bad considering they put ticket on sale 2 weeks ago.
DeleteIt was just reported - 20pax to Mostar, 23 from Mostar.
DeleteTheir Mostar fares are crazy for such a short flight.
ReplyDelete120 euros round trip for the lowest fare without luggage.
Deleteif thats true, thats too much. 120 euro is a flight across europe not one small regional flight thats ridiculous.
DeleteGood luck OU!
ReplyDeleteThey don't need luck. They need to have competent management, to get rid of uhljebs and to start working. Their situation has absolutely nothing to do with good or bad luck
DeleteI hope this is the last year we will see such 'expansion' and that next year with new aircraft coming we will actually see some meaningful and logical growth.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteYes, expansion to FRA, MUC.
Deletenew planes are not coming to grow the fleet, they are coming (if they come at all) just as a substitute for existing Airbus fleet. So could you please explain me, how can you have, with the same number of planes with less capacity, "meaningful and logical growth". And why the same people in charge didn't make that "meaningful and logical growth" for the last 20 years?
DeleteIn my opinion, their main focus should be Zagreb and trying to deal with Ryanair.
ReplyDelete^ Money is to be made on the coast in summer.
ReplyDeleteWhat about trying to restart discontinued flights from Zagreb like Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm, Barcelona, Lisbon, Milan?
ReplyDeleteThey decided Zagreb won't be their main focus in 2021 and haven't looked back since.
DeleteI hope they will at least use the new incentive scheme at ZAG for new routes to capital cities and launch some flights.
DeleteWould make more sense than Mostar.
DeleteMostar is great for them because it is paid for. They can fly empty and make a profit.
Deletehttps://youtu.be/JTTC_fD598A
ReplyDeleteCroatia Airlines' growth opportunities are becoming smaller and smaller, that's for sure. Anyway, I wish them good luck with these 1 to 2 weekly seasonal flights. I'm not including Mostar since it's a subsidized political route.
ReplyDeleteCroatia Airlines and "expansion" should not be used in the same sentance in 2023
ReplyDeleteBravo @XYZ!!! I wanted to write the same. And to criticize @ex-yu for the headline. They are not expanding, they are declining, for years, not only 2023, with number of destinations, with LF, with pax numbers, with everything. The only expansion is in losses and in corruption
DeleteWhat is their long term network strategy? I haven't seen it in the past 5 years.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they even know.
DeleteI am wondering this too. They have given up on building up a hub in ZAG which is a shame because that way they wouldn't actually be impacted by Ryanair that much.
DeleteAnd it could have been a good hub.
DeletePutting "Croatia Airlines" and "strategy" in the same sentence is not good idea, unless we talk about Lufthansa Group feeding strategy, for peanuts, at loss
DeleteWhat has happened with Boston Consulting group and their strategy? :D
DeleteThey split the money they never earned. That was where strategy begins and ends 😃
DeleteWhat is Croatia Airlines' average passenger share in Split?
ReplyDeleteNot very big because competition is huge in summer.
DeleteI mean just look at their schedules: twice weekly to Oslo against daily or double daily with SAS and Norwegian.
DeleteOr one weekly flight to Prague against daily Smartwings flights.
Great news
ReplyDeleteHopefully with the arrival of new A220s, they will start expanding in ZAG again
ReplyDeleteI don't see what difference it will make?
DeleteCosts will be lower plus less capacity than the A320s so greater chance of success.
DeleteHope so
DeleteCosts will be lower? Are you aware they have their OWN 320F, and they will LEASE A220. Have you any idea how much the lease of the new aircraft costs? Operational costs, which will be reduced, are not even one third of additional costs they will have for lease of new 220's. And they will NOT expand, because they are NOT getting MORE planes. They just substitute existing ones. But I do understand an average Kradeze voter could hardly have capacity to comprehend the above stated
DeleteAll these new routes have such low frequencies. It's crazy. All flights are one to two per week.
ReplyDeleteAnd all last just for a few months (except Mostar)
DeleteI believe starting one weekly flight makes no sense, try at least two.
Deleteone pw leisure routes are logical. Every European legacy airline operates them
DeleteEvery european legacy airline operates 1pw leisure routes? Please. Even if that was true, it only makes sense if you are "an outbound" carrier. If you are an inbound carrier, like OU is at the coast, it makes no sense to even operate 1pw flight. Even if leisure.
DeleteExactly!!!
DeleteCroatian Airlines is just simulating competition with 1 per week flights in summer. They should be operating around the clock in the summer. But private interests are compromised logic and collateral is tax payers and Croatian businesses in general. They sold the the most lucrative market in the most lucrative season period behind closed doors.
This is like going to Harrods department store during pre-Christmas and being told by Harrods employees that you can only purchase 1 gift!!!
Unbelievable.
Hope SPU-SKP works out
ReplyDeleteI hope so but schedule is not good.
DeleteThe flights a few years ago operated for a total of 2 weeks (2 flights in total) before they were suspended.
DeleteThey offer transfer connections via SPU
DeleteOne weekly flight to Oslo is a joke with such competition.
ReplyDeleteOne weekly to Brac too
DeleteDid they expand their fleet? If they are adding more flights then they probably have more machines to fly them with.
ReplyDeleteI think they added one A320?
The A320 replaced a plane whose leased expired. They are using that one aircraft as a back up. They add new flights by reducing on other routes. Example, they cut Dublin from Zagreb so they can fly it from Split.
DeleteBravo OU!
ReplyDeleteExpansion 😂 .
ReplyDeleteTurbo expansion mode
DeleteThey are out of control.
DeletePozdrav is very quiet today! Maybe he would like to congratulate OU?
ReplyDeleteMaybe he is on the Mostar inaugural :D jk
DeleteHe still hasn't checked the portal.
DeletePopcorn are at hand, impatiently waiting.
I hope I didn't disappoint you all. Enjoy your popcorn! You can even invite Jasmin for coffee. You know what to do : You just say : Jasmineeee!!!! Dje si? 😃😃😃
DeleteJasmin takes care of himself...
DeleteAnd three generations after, minimum...
DeleteThe positive development that all routes launched from SPU last year are back. So it doesn't seem to have been a bad idea to relocate them from ZAG to SPU.
ReplyDeleteEvery small step is progress
ReplyDeleteWell, not exactly. The step can be bacwards as well. And that's precisely what OU has been doing for over 20 years
Deletebackwards, typo
DeleteMost of these flights are subsidized through various tourist board and city authorities.
ReplyDeleteThe new Brac flight has resulted in them moving their Zagreb flight which has resulted in them killing most transfer options.
ReplyDeleteThe timing of the Munich flight also doesn't give too many transfer options in Munich either.
DeleteUnfortunately, Croatia only sells connections via Munich with flights from Brac through its own call center.
Deleteunfortunately, not a single connection can be purchased on their own website or application...
I tried frankfurt but it doesn't offer that...
Starting Oslo one weekly literally makes no sense when there is such a strong competition. Try at least two. I mean, there is some development with OU. For the arrival of new planes they will need a completely new strategy
ReplyDeleteSame with their 1 weekly DBV-PRG. Competing against daily Smartwings.
DeleteI’m flying OMO on 18.5 for 66€, well the Bus tickets is by 40€… lot of Croats going to Medugorje I think that OMO has a potential bit of course it’s need a leadership skills in OU to bringing it ;)
ReplyDeleteThat is a good price!
Delete"Expansion" is a bit of a strong word for what they are doing, is it not?
ReplyDeleteIf they have more capacity and flights than last year, then it is an expansion.
DeleteLast summer.
ReplyDeleteThey shoud move their base to SPU. Its like Alitalia sticking with FCO and not MXP which is more business oriented
ReplyDeletethe same as in summer, a base. Its not that they do a lot in winter in ZAG. Leave a daily connection ZAG/MUC ZAG/FRA and feed through SPU for the rest of Europe
Deletegood idea !!
DeleteIt's lousy idea. Split aerea is with four time less population than Zagreb aerea, with much lower purchasing power, it has almost zero industrial or economic activity except for tourism, it does not have the second richest regions of Kvarner and Istra nearby, it does not have diplomatic representations and international organizations offices, it does not have parts of Slovenia gravitating, it has tourism and diaspora, mostly from Hercegovina and that's why it can't work year round. On the other hand, ZAG numbers are growing, yesterday I flew ZAG-MUC on LH. They deployed A321 and LF was 90 % with over 20 premium pax. The market in ZAG exists and numbers could be significantly increased. Unfortunatelly not with OU as it is and will be as it is as Croatia, both country and airline, are led by criminals who are deliberately stagnating national company and letting others do what they were supposed to do, long ago
DeleteAnd why isn't Ryanair growing in Zagreb like they publicly announced? The prices for Split from the beginning of April to the end of October are generally higher than Zagreb and so are the profits in most cases. I mean, no airlines fly Berlin-Zagreb, for example. There must be a reason. Meanwhile, even Tirana overtakes Zagreb
DeleteHow many airlines fly to Zagreb in the winter season from November to March, from the largest European cities?
DeleteRyanair's LF in ZAG is bellow those of Wizzair in ExYu (at least on the german routes)
DeleteIf someone had told "Poz i Rij" 20 years ago that Pristina has almost as many passengers in Q1 as Zagreb, they would have laughed at him, as he likes to do here. so much for the large and rich catchment area of ZG vs SPU
DeleteBoth PRN and SPU will soon overtake ZAG.
DeleteFor few posters above, just one question : How many passengers BEG had about 10 years ago, with Jat Airways, and how many it has today with Air Serbia? Aviation is a little bit more complicated to understand, especially if you have urge to underestimate or prejudice. Or have double standards. Once again, Croatia Airlines, controlled by the State=Party is the main obstacle that ZAG is not growing more and faster. As simple as that, you can and want to understand it, or not.
DeleteFlight prices for Split have risen disproportionately this year, including for the off-season of September and October
ReplyDeleteA beginning of a new era. Good news for OU and OMO!
ReplyDeleteAhahahahahahahaha, can't stop laughing about the new era 😃. Actually more appropriate should be : New beginning for another ERO, buying one way ticket to either Zagreb or Dojcland, as long as Kradeze rules and ruins both entities mentioned, OU and OMO, and much more, entire Croatia and Hercegovina
DeleteI like the irony in the title.
ReplyDeleteI wish they would pay me for my busted luggage last summer. I’ve sent receipts and pictures twice. Nothing both times.
ReplyDeleteSix weakly rotations... I'm speechless. AirSerbia's Budapest schedule is more then double at the moment.
ReplyDelete* weekly
Delete