Qatar Airways will increase its frequencies between Doha and Zagreb this coming winter season, while the carrier has scheduled wide-body capacity on select Belgrade flights in the upcoming days. The Qatari carrier will maintain ten weekly operations to the Croatian capital during the 2023/24 winter season, which begins on October 29, up from the seven weekly service initially planned. Although frequencies are still down on double daily, which were maintained prior to the pandemic, they are notably up on three to four weekly rotations performed over most of the previous winter season, bar November and December 2022 when flights were increased during the FIFA World Cup.
Qatar Airways handled 32.437 passengers on its Doha - Zagreb service during the first half of the year, representing an increase of 90.8% on the same period in 2022, however, figures are still down 53.1% on the pre-pandemic 2019. The average cabin load factor on the route for the first six-month period in 2023 stood at a high 89.4%, up 28.5 points on 2022 and an increase of 19.9 points on 2019. All of the airline’s flights for the remainder of the year are scheduled to operate with the Airbus A320 aircraft. Qatar Airways primarily handles transfer traffic on its Zagreb route, with main origin and beyond points being Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and select Southeast and Far East Asian markets.
Qatar Airways plans to run daily operations between Doha and Belgrade this winter season, maintaining its summer and pre-pandemic frequencies. Although the airline primarily deploys its Airbus A320 aircraft on the route, it has scheduled the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on the service over the upcoming days. Qatar Airways will deploy the 254-seat twin-aisle aircraft, featuring 22 business class and 232 economy class seats, on Sunday September 17, Friday September 22 and Sunday September 24. Last-minute equipment changes remain possible. Currently, there is no up-to-date data on the airline’s passenger numbers between Doha and Belgrade, however, similar to Zagreb, it mostly handles transfer passengers on the route, with Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Shanghai being main origin and beyond points, followed by markets in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
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| Qatar Airways B787-8 business class |
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| Qatar Airways B787-8 economy class |
Great news
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why they are so slow to react in BEG. This is the second or third time this year they are sending widebodies.
ReplyDeleteThey would probably look to increase freqeuncies first if such volumes were more regular. But these may be some ad hoc bigger movements as well.
DeleteMaybe they could schedule widebodies on select days of the week?
DeleteFZ is big competitor in BEG with 14 pw.
DeletePlease be mindful of the fact that there are also 44 weekly flights between BEG and IST in cooperation between Air Serbia and award winning Turkish Airlines. They are a huge problem for carriers such as Qatar Airways, Hainan and flydubai.
DeleteBut still all of them fly to BEG with frequencies higher than in 2019.
DeleteActually one should keep in mind Hainan Airlines and Air Serbia flying to China is big competition to QR too on the Belgrade route. Chinese cities were their biggest feeding routes from/to Belgrade before Covid, there is an article about it somewhere on here. Qatar Airways is flying the same frequencies as 2019. I don't see an issue with that.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteGreat, QR recovery in Zagreb continues, hopefully next summer back to double daily!
ReplyDeleteIt is sad that they are still not even on 2019 level.
DeleteOne of the reasons why ZAG is only on 102% comparing to August 2019.
Well, QR is getting there obviously. It is comforting that you are so worried about it, hahahah
Delete@Anonymous 09:37
DeleteOnly? How many airports in the EU have reached their 2019 levels of traffic, let alone surpass it?
Maybe Greece only?
Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Portugal, all of ex-YU (except Slovenia and Montenegro)...
Delete@Anonymous 09:53
DeleteJust checked, it is Greece only, the rest of the countries you mentioned have not yet reached pre-pandemic levels of traffic.
Don't forget that now that there is FZ in LJU, Qatar Airways lost some customers. Good people of Slovenia had to travel to ZAG in order to catch flights to Asia, Africa and Oceania. Now they have a more convenient option from LJU.
DeleteI don't know what you checked but ACI Europe shows that from January to July, Portugal is up 11,6%, Spain is up 1,3%, Malta is up 5.7%, Albania 107%, Serbia 25,4%, Greece 10,3%, Bosnia 40%, Cyprus 3,0%, Ireland 2,1%, Iceland 0,3%.
DeleteNo, he simply made it up.
DeleteSome people...
I didn't make it up. It's in the ACI Europe monthly report. The same report this site uses in its monthly passenger data. You have to be either in the industry or media to get access to it, it's password protected. Yeah I really sat down and made up Portugal's and Cyprus' passenger numbers. Crazy.
DeleteI think we are going to see stagnation and maybe even a drop in passenger numbers in a lot of markets next year. People still had enough disposable income to travel this year, I don't think it will be the same next year. Inflation and higher interest rates will eventually bite ad cause people to spend /travel less.
DeleteYup, 2024 could be very interesting in that respect
DeleteDespite the negativity that people here keep repeating, Zagreb is above 2019 levels, above EU average and it's the second biggest airport in Ex-Yu. It's performing fully fine.
DeleteIf you think 2% growth compared to 20% growth other airports in the region are seeing is fully fine (while having an airline with 3 based aircraft and 26 routes you didn't have 4 years ago), then I wish you similar results in the months to come.
DeleteYeah it's a very interesting and uniquely balkan phenomenon on here; even the positive news about QR increasing frequencies being spined in a negative way.
DeleteThis probably requires a deeper psychosocial analysis.
That doesnt need psychologic analysis.
DeleteThe EX YU market is extremely fragmented, competition bigger than anywhere else and airports are practically cannibalizing each other...
I don't mean aviation market or airport CEOs. I mean folks in the comments here...I did mention it's a phenomenon on here, and although the sample isn't necessarily big enough to be representative, it still reminds me of that type of behavior in other areas of life in the Balkans.
DeleteAt any event, I agree with you regarding the ex yu market, but in my opinion that's not the cause but rather the consequence of the aforementioned attitudes.
They would benefit even more if those additional frequencies were moved to LJU. Many many passengers from/to Slovenia are using this route.
ReplyDeleteN9t sure why bother increasing costs to open LJU as most of Slovenia can use ZAG just the same. Now even wihout the border. And with 10 weekly and much stronger Asia network and capacity than TK will dominate the market from Zagreb.Slovenian pax will still make good contribution.
DeleteSeems like FlyDubai didn't listen to you when they launched LJU back in 2021.
DeleteAnon 09:36
DeleteWho said anything about Fly Dubai or a LJU-DXB route?
What does that have to do with the discussion at hand?
Yes, QR planning department knows much less than you. Send them an email.
DeleteBecause we were hearing from same "experts" like you how FlyDubai will never launch LJU because they fly to ZAG. Pretty much the same this time.
DeleteMe? Are you sure you are not mixing me up with some other Anonymous?
DeleteThere is more than one you know. 😄
I just gave my opinion on why they increased ZAG and are not opening LJU. Did O say QR will never open LJU? One never knows, my opinion is QR will focus on ZAG only, as they also have VIE and VCE and can cover Slovenan potential that way,
DeleteDefinitely they will first restore double daily in zagreb before even thinking of any flights to ljubljana
DeleteI doubt it.
DeleteThanks for the info, I'm really happy with this news because I fly Doha-Belgrade on the 24th! I just checked the seat map and it is the 787 :D nice upgrade of equipment :D changed my seat
ReplyDeleteLucky, a much more comfortable ride :)
DeleteIt is, much better than A320. Just hope they don't do some last minute equipment swap now.
DeleteQuestion to those from Zagreb, has QR become much more expensive from there than it used to be? I fly from Belgrade and in 2019 used them constantly. They had amazing fares to Asia, even in business class. Now they are extremely expensive on most routes compared to the competition.
ReplyDeleteQR is no longer tolerating large losses so these fares are gone.
DeleteI think in 2019 they had dumping prices from most European cities.
DeleteWell, they are full so the pricing approach obviously works for now...
DeleteYes, back in 2019 QR had to fly to Europe through Iran and Turkey since KSA had banned them from overflying.
Delete^ What difference does that make? They don't use Saudi airspace on most flights to/from Europe to this day.
DeleteAnonymous 09:50
DeleteActually they do.
Still no words about return to SKP
ReplyDeleteHopefully in summer 2024.
DeleteWill be intrresting to see full year (or second half of the year) QR statistics. With strong growth of flights compared to last year and if their load factor remains as high (heard that in July and August it was over 90%), they may actually surpass 2019 numbers.
ReplyDeleteYou expect them to have 50% growth on 2019 in the second half? In 2019 they had double daily flights throughout the winter, this winter they still have 10. It is impossible for them to surpass 2019 numbers this year. Maybe next year
DeleteFor sexond part of the year is actually possible if their load factor will be much stronger than in 2019. Remains to be seen
DeleteBut not for the whole year, of course.
Ah ok, I misunderstood
DeleteSo accordingo to Slo fans they are increasing Zagreb because the flights are packed with Slovenians. They are rich and they travel constantly. Flydubai is doing ok in Zag again because full of Slovenians. Why on earth is Qatar waiting to open Lj? It is a gold mine. What are they waiting?🥴
ReplyDeleteThat's what we are talking about!
DeleteChill bro ;)
DeleteThe only gold mine in EX-YU is ZAG! Thats why airlines are waiting in lines to open routes! Even famous Analitičar got angry lately because airlines are expanding everywhere except ZAG!
DeletePeople here are so touchy on their domicile airports in a really pathological way. ZAG, BEG, LJU....doesnt matter, truly progressive and objective al the time :)
DeleteQR will have more flights to ZAG than to BUD
ReplyDeleteThry already have in the whole summer season
DeleteDubrovnik next year?
ReplyDeleteThey planned it for 2020 but it got cancelled because of Covid. We will see.
DeleteDBV will not happen until they restore 2 daily flights to ZAG, which would happen next summer. So DBV could se QR flights in S 2025
DeleteWould be cool to see more Long Haul aircraft in Belgrade, and Qatari use Dreamliner instead of A320
ReplyDeleteI read a very interesting analysis recently. Qatar's slowest recovering continent is Europe and they have been the slowest to return capacity to Europe.
ReplyDeleteCompetition in Belgrade is big for Qatar.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is better for them to compete by capacity instead of frequencies.
Some passengers will pay even a bit more if the can fly with 787.
Bravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteQatar really showed their face during Corona time, and how they respect their pax...It's hard to forget their behaviour during hard times...In regards of that, I would always choose Turkish before Qatar, even if the tocketwas more expensive..Qatar has to show up with soo much lower prices than Turkish, if they want their old pax to come back
ReplyDeleteQatar Airways continues to expand its presence in the region, and this news about increased flights to Zagreb and the introduction of Dreamliner service to Belgrade is truly exciting. It's a testament to the airline's commitment to providing passengers with top-notch travel experiences. The Dreamliner's comfort and efficiency are sure to be appreciated by travelers, while the increased connectivity to Zagreb opens up more options for exploring this beautiful city. It's a win-win for passengers and the airline alike.
ReplyDelete