Zagreb Airport is unlikely to see the introduction of nonstop flights from the United States next year despite favourable circumstances for the launch of the much-awaited services. Although the major US carriers have not completely finalised their 2024 summer operations, two have announced their planned new long haul routes for the coming year. American Airlines will launch seasonal flights to Copenhagen, Naples and Nice, while Delta will commence operations from New York to Munich, Naples and Shannon, and from Atlanta to Zurich. United Airlines is yet to announce its full summer schedule, however, it will resume seasonal operations from Newark to Dubrovnik on May 24.
Zagreb Airport recently said, “We are working on the establishment of nonstop flights between the United States and Zagreb. However, ultimately, whether these services will be introduced depends on the commercial decision of the individual carrier”. Sani Sener, the founder of TAV Airports Holding, one of the operators of Zagreb Airport, noted, "The most desired route from Zagreb would be New York”. New York is Zagreb’s busiest unserved destinations in the United States, accounting for 21% of all passengers between the Croatian capital and the US. It is followed by Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, Miami, Boston and Houston. Lufthansa shuttles the most passengers between Zagreb and the States, accounting for 22% of all indirect travellers. It is followed by Croatia Airlines, which benefits from the notable number of codeshare partnerships it has with airlines flying to the US, including Lufthansa. British Airways also accounts for a sizeable number of transfer passengers between the two markets. Croatian passport holders no longer require a visa to enter the United States.
Zagreb Airport currently offers airlines incentives for the establishment of long haul flights, that is, service that are seven hours or longer. They include discounts on landing fees and the passenger service charge. The reduction in fees is dependent on whether services are operated on a year-round or seasonal basis. Incentives are also available for long haul charter flights. The last time Zagreb boasted scheduled flights to the United States was during the summer of 1991, when Pan Am maintained four weekly nonstop roundtrips from New York with its Airbus A310 aircraft. Prior to that, JAT Yugoslav Airlines ran services from Zagreb to New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
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1994, OU had announced, published, and prepared for operation flights to New York, Chicago and Toronto, to be operated with ex-LH DC-10. They had pilots, cabin crew, engineers and ground staff which had experience on type, LH was switching DC-10 to A340, with favourable contract which was continuation of cooperation after OU took their B737's from LH. Flights were announced, we were waiting for refresher/conversion trainings, and then, bloom, literally overnight, decision was changed that ATR was coming instead of DC-10. At the time, I still had hopes that they wanted to grow regional and domestic network, and long-haul would follow in couple of years. Then crooks and criminals definitely took over, with deliberate intention to make OU feeder only. Then I left the company. And as long as we let Croatia be corrupt and used by criminal organization, fully convicted, with mindset stuck in 1950's, you will be only dreaming about OU flying long-haul, as well as many many many more things
Agree with everything you wrote. ZAG does not have competitive advantage for US flights under current circumstances. The only way to become competitive and get use of advantages would be synergy with OU, of course not the one in current shape, but the one with tripled domestic and regional network, different business model, different aircraft typeS, proper waves, proper marketing, more code shares on both sides of network, not only codeshares as feeder, possible change of alliance, competent management, development strategy, increased work productivity, getting rid of influence of politics, and many more. ZAG does have long-haul potential, if not even bigger, at least the one BEG has. Unfortunately nobody in Croatia is not interested in realization of that potential
Last sentence, that JAT had flights from ZAG to JFK, ORD and LAX is slightly incorrect. JFK and ORD were direct nonstop flights from ZAG. However, it was not the case with LAX. The fact is that only the flight number of ZAG-BEG-ORD-LAX was the same. In "real life", passengers were taking DC-9/B727 ZAG to BEG and had to transfer to DC-10 which would take them to LAX via ORD. (It was similar with flights from SKP and OHD to MEL and SYD, and from SJJ to TIP, BGW and DAM-KWI).So, ZAG had flights to LAX is questionable. On the other hand, there were scheduled (ABC charter) flights, nonstop, direct, from ZAG to CLE and DTW seasonally, which you completely omitted.
“ ZAG does have long-haul potential, if not even bigger, at least the one BEG has. ”
Yes, we all see that greater potential than Belgrade.
But the man is right. Everything he wrote is true. Only 15 international destinations are served by Croatia. And it is true that Ryanair is close to dominance.
But OUs network is a joke.
All Rijeka does is criticize OU for the lack of building a proper network despite countless opportunities literally slapping them in the face.
Are passengers forbidden from transiting in DBV? Not getting the point of the comment. If the connection works for the customer both in time and price, why not connect via DBV if the option is there?
We see BEG with bigger potential because there was political will in getting JU into shape which sparked it's growth into making BEG a mini hub in the region which continues to grow. Just a decade ago OU was the better carrier in the ex YU region. Just look at the tourism statistics and numbers of Croatia and compare it with Serbia. Huge difference. Croatia has the demand just on O&D stats alone, let alone if transit traffic was thrown into the mix as well. OU has 0 will to do anything about it other than to boost capacity from every Croatian airport to FRA and MUC.
As you say, to be a viable connecting airport, DBV needs to work for the customer both in time and price. In reality, however, DBV has always been one of the most expensive European destinations in US carriers' network (as the seasonal P2P demand is always very strong), and the number of frequencies has never been nowhere near enough to sustain a high level of connecting traffic.
Therefore, DBV is not and has never been a remotely viable transit airport for flights to the US. Can it become one? Sure, but only if the situation changes drastically.
As of last year, JU finally has had the ability to stand on its own without financial injections by the Serbian Government. In fact, it has given back money to the government in the first half of the year with more to follow.
What A3 has that JU doesn't is:
- Main hub in one of Europe's largest tourist destinations.
- Large destination network plus frequencies in the Euro Mediterranean area (TLV, BEY, AMM, LCA, CAI, ADB, IST, TIA, domestic Greece).
- Star Alliance membership and access to the network of Star Alliance partners.
- Brand recognition.
- Double the fleet of JU with brand new aircraft with double the amount of destinations.
And this is just to start the list.
In theory, long haul shouldn't take 5 years to turn a profit, which goes to show how it wasn't executed well with JU. Inflated lease fees for ARA amounted to around a third of their overall losses in 2018 and 2019. It's interesting how JU further expanded long haul once ARA left the fleet and how JFK became one of JU's most profitable routes. The US also produces the greatest amount of revenue for JU.
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2022/12/air-serbia-closes-in-on-pre-covid.html?m=1
The troubles JU had with launching long haul isn't something I see happening at a well run airline as is A3.
From the top of my head I can only think of Vilnius, Tallinn and then capitals in our region except BEG. This is utter embarrassment for Zagreb.
That is why there are no flights to the US, demand is obviously limited.
The market is way too decentralized, seasonal, and the population is far too small to support a hub airline with longhaul flights.
And that's without even considering the strong competition on all sides.
Now to start off, direct flights to Zagreb. It has been my wish for many years. I even remember my mother saying that one day, there would be direct flights to Rijeka. I remember the days JAT flew the DC-10 direct from JFK to ZAG. It was a dream. It really made up for the drive to Rijeka on the “old road”. In my opinion, direct flights will only happen to Zagreb from the USA is if a flight originates from Zagreb. All these comments about US carriers flying to Zagreb for now is a dream. Believe me. I have been praying for such a thing for many years. Fact is Americans don’t know about Croatia, unless they are one of the many that watched a famous TV show filmed there and of course my co-workers. I don’t know what it is and I never did it, but people around me love talking about cruise ships or camping or going to the beach. Never hear about Europe or any far destinations. Well that’s it for now. Thanks for you attention.