Skopje has retained its position as the Zagreb’s busiest capital city route from the republics which once formed the former Yugoslavia, followed by Belgrade, Sarajevo and Podgorica, with flights to the Montenegrin capital to be discontinued at the end of next month. Croatia Airlines, as the sole operator on the Zagreb - Skopje service, handled 26.044 passengers between the two capital cities. It performed a total of 503 flights during the six-month period (both directions included) and registered an average cabin load factor of 55.1% during the first half of the year. Figures on the route have still not reached pre-Covid levels, with the carrier welcoming 30.691 passengers during the same period in 2019. This coming winter, Croatia Airlines will operate eleven weekly services to the Macedonian capital, up from seven weekly rotations during the 2019/20 winter.
Roundtrip passenger performance on Zagreb flights, H1 2023
Air Serbia, as the only operator on the Belgrade - Zagreb service, welcomed 25.855 passengers on board its aircraft, according to the European Union’s statistical office. The airline maintained a total of 560 flights between the two cities, registering an average cabin load factor of 75.1% during the six-month period. The carrier’s figures on the route exceeded pre-Covid levels. In 2019, it handled 22.456 travellers. Air Serbia plans to increase frequencies between the two capitals from eleven weekly last winter and fourteen weekly this summer to seventeen weekly rotations this winter season, with three daily flights on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This will mark the highest number of weekly frequencies between the two cities since the collapse of the former Yugoslavia.
Croatia Airlines handled 23.547 passengers between Zagreb and Sarajevo. It is the sole carrier operating between the two cities. During the January - June period it performed a total of 667 flights. Its average cabin load factor over the six months stood at 46.3%. The route is some way off from recovering its pre-Covid passenger figures. In 2019, the Croatian carrier handled 30.241 passengers between the two cities. This winter, Croatia Airlines will maintain double daily flights on the route, up from thirteen weekly during the 2019/20 winter. The only other capital city from the former Yugoslavia served out of Zagreb is Podgorica, however, the route, operated by Ryanair, will be discontinued at the end of next month. Last year, the budget airline handled 28.745 passengers between the two cities for the entire twelve-month period.
Is the Skopje route mostly used by transfers or point to point passengers?
ReplyDeleteMix of both but I would say predominately transfers.
DeleteAny idea which destinations people mostly transfer onto from this route?
DeleteTransfer to where?
DeleteThe route is transfer heavy
DeleteHaha and transfers to FRA and MUC? 😂
DeleteAvg. load factor of 55.1, ZAG SKP is definitely profitable but in 1970’s!
Deletetickets are crazy expensive so why not
DeleteMost of them are transfers, their tickets to Zagreb are very expensive. I believe the transfers are to Paris, Amsterdam and London, even though Austrian is mostly used for that. Plus i have seen many Slovenian tourists in Skopje this summer which came with Croatia.
Deletethey get some MUC transfers too. It was always the quickest connection (SKP-MUC) but i see now its not available daily only 5 weekly
Delete12:51 I also saw this year many Slovenian car plates in SKP en OHD this year. I know there are 14000 Macedonian nationals in Slovenia but defenitly more and more balkan tourists are coming. Also due to work shortages shortages it is very easy to find work in Croatia for Macedonians so a lot of young people working there. And ofc transfers to the western european markets remain populair.
DeleteWestern European makret? Frankfurt, Munich, Copenhagen and Amsteram? Oh please!
DeleteInteresting numbers. Why such a decline on Sarajevo route?
ReplyDeleteBecause Croatia Airlines culled its operations from Zagreb, offering fewer transfer options.
DeleteTrue that could have been a reason.
DeleteLH now flies to Sarajevo from Frankfurt rather than Munich like in 2019. Maybe that also had an impact in attracting more transfers?
DeleteThere was always a lot of transfer passengers from Heathrow to Zagreb, but since they sold off the Heathrow slots it's only possible in the summer timetable on a Wednesday to transfer onto Sarajevo.
Delete55% load factor? Ooooof..
ReplyDeleteThese are all routes on props and these months include the slowest in aviation.
DeleteDoesn't SKP also see the Airbuses? Or is that only in peak summer?
DeleteSKP in Q1 was stil sleeping (compared to 2019)
DeleteI just wonder what will happen when OU get their A220s. Where are they going to fly them with this kind of LF on turboprops?
Deletedont think they use turboprops in summer schedule
DeleteSKP is Airbus
Delete@Vlad
DeleteWho cares? "Stoka sitnog zuba" will pay for it. And AP will get his comfy armchair in Brussels
Skopje is A319 and A320 in summer and Q400 in winter.
DeleteBravo OU!
ReplyDeleteHow yes no.
DeletePuno previse lose
Delete@anonymous!
DeleteLF 55 % on SKP. 46 % on SJJ. No network from ZAG to offer connections. Bravo OU. Are you for real?
Another samesame comment from Rijeka. Do you sit all day and reply to comments or are you an AI?
DeleteYou could say that for the Bravo Hrvatska and Bravo OU guy.
DeleteThis is real face of Kradeze and its uhljebs : response to facts and numbers are personal attacks and insults. So typical. So sad and pathetic.
DeleteWhat facts do you have , what numbers do you have in front of you . It is only your wanna be opinion . And if you are able to think you can see that your thoughts against Hdz and your wishes regarding hub in zagreb is oximoron . If you ever saw the financial results of OU , it is easy to see that the winter operations to zagreb are the negativ aspect in ou buissness. Everything went bad when they left costal airports to foreigners and started to build hub in zagreb . Zagreb was always capital by political decision to other parts of croatia btw it was not even the city in this margins till 1850g . Your wishes for centralistion is not different tham Hdz politics.
DeleteCould the Skopje numbers be impacted by Lufthansa starting flights to there?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so. In fact I think it shows it didn't have that much of an impact (yet at least). I think its down to OU offering less transfer options from ZAG than before.
Deletethese flights started in Q2
DeleteWhy should be they impacted when Croatia's network from Zagreb is poor anyway. Even if they did, for them is not important, they didnt do anything to be stronger at Zagreb and not to talk about other single routes.
DeleteThere is nothing to impact, since OU is almost never the best transfer option out of Skopje. I speak from experience, I fly at least 4-5 times a year medium-haul and long-haul from Skopje, and each time I search for best flights (both in terms of time and price) OU is never one of the options for me. In recent months I’ve searched for flights to Korea, Cyprus, Amsterdam, New York, Toronto, and my options were always JU, LH, OS, or TK. Don’t remember when was the last time I used OU and even then I probably only chose it because I could claim miles with Star Alliance. But for that I also have better options now with the other airlines.
Delete@13.30 true but for Amsterdam they often have good deals and not too long transfers.
DeleteI wonder how these routes and others in exYU + TIA who are currently(including the upcoming SKP) unserved, would perform out of LJU on a 100 or so seater.
ReplyDeleteBEG -TIA (JU sole operator) for the H1 of 2023 pax no was 28'113. if you include July, then pax no was 37'149.
DeleteSJJ - TIA (MNE sole operator, charters flights started on 31/07/23) pax no for July was 42.
Didn't people claim how BEG-ZAG-BEG was empty? Doesn't look that way.
ReplyDeleteIt's only 75% filled, so practically empty, opposite to 45-55% on OU. Sarcastic, of course.
DeleteBelgrade-Zagreb definitely is profitable.
DeleteBut 75 percent lf on an atr still is not much people.
You need around 45%-50% full to make a flight profitable on the ATR so 75% is more than ok. Especially in the part of year which involves very slow months.
Deletebut dumping prices are a factor too
DeleteAnd you know how much of the coupon went towards each sector of the transfer journey since they are certainly not 'dumping' prices for point to point passengers based on the ticket price. Look, I know you are not too happy about these results, but you just have to live with them The airline had 22 million euro profit in the first half, so obviously they did something right. If I were you, I would be more concerned with Croatia Airlines.
Delete"Profit"
Delete^ yeah it is profit. At the same time, all that is left for you is to cry your heart and be bitter but I would suggest focusing on the sorry state of your national airline.
DeleteAnyone know the frequencies between ZAG and mentioned cities during ex-yu times, both on JAT and Adria?.
ReplyDeleteJAT operated ZAG-SJJ twice daily, morning and evening, on DC-9/B737, year-round
DeleteZAG-SKP if I remember well, was only 3 weekly, DC-9 as well, but JAT was offering multiple daily one-stop options via BEG to both TGD and SKP and via SPU, SJJ or DBV to SKP.
I think Adria had flights to OMO and to TGD 2-3 weekly, on DS7, but not so sure anymore
Adria operated domestic to SKP as well, but it was not from ZAG, it was LJU-BEG-SKP, daily, first on DC-9 /MD-80, and later on A320
Tnx, Pozdrav! It's interesting to see how the passenger flows were developing from that time to nowadays.
DeleteAlso, between 1993 and 2002 Avioimpex operated SKP-LJU-ZAG-SKP on certain days, some of the flights were direct and some of them were via Ohrid.
DeleteAvioimpex operated not only to LJU and ZAG but to RJK and SPU as well
DeleteGood that someone remembers Avioimpex! It was the best airline in Macedonia for customer experience and it was caring about its employees,
Deletehow can they increase frequency with such small loads?
ReplyDeletehow much are they charging for tickets then? people must be paying a lot. the yield must be insane, or are the routes being subsidised by someone?
Tickets are crazy expensive.
DeleteThey now operate 8 times a week from Zag to Skp, 6 of them are with A319/A320 and 2 with Q400. In winter there will be 11 flights with Q400. So there will be less seats on offer for winter.
Delete9 weekly. 7 jet , 2 dash
DeleteLufthansa without doubt take pax from Istanbul , Zagreb , Vienna ...
ReplyDeleteVrankvurt, Minken Minken Vrankvurt....
ReplyDeleteLove these stat articles
ReplyDeleteIs Mostar above 25%?
ReplyDeleteLOL
DeleteIt’s heavily subsidised, so for OU it doesn’t really matter. But on my last two flights in Aug, both on Wednesday out of Mostar there were around 50 passengers.
DeleteThese numbers perfectly show the state of Croatia Airlines. And it perfectly shows why getting new planes will be a disaster. Instead of taking care of the house from the bottom up they think new planes will resolve their poor sales, marketing and planning. Introducing subsidised 1-2 weekly flights to Munich can only get you so far. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteSuper glad other people see what I see, and what I've been talking about for years... And still hope blinded will open their eyes and see what we see. Unless they are not interested in opening eyes but only adoring and serving criminal organization which is robbing its own people
Delete@12:43
Deletewhat you said is true. but its just the how the JUG nations and administration operates.
JU would have ended up the same if a foreign company in Etihad didnt buy, invest and teach Air Serbia how to run the company.
OU needs an outsider to come and do the same. invest, re-structure and teach them how to run an airline. i dont see a middle east carrier going to OU. But maybe LOT can if they were invited or the japanese/ Koreans.
just not Lufthansa
@Slav.man
DeleteSorry, but this time I disagree. It's not about management first, it comes second. First is politics and its influence. Etihad did not teach JU to run company. They made even bigger mess in JU with their failed boutique concept and wrong market approach. But they came to JU because of political decision of AV to grow the company and reinstate ex - JAT to maximum extent. Only after becoming clear Etihad was failure, they got rid of them and their managers, and hired Marek who is finally doing the job, almost perfectly.
Situation is absolutely the same in Croatia, with OU being totally dependent and influenced by politics and people close to high politics. But, unlike Serbia, where AV was eager to create strong national carrier, in Croatia, Ivan Misetic, ex Chief Office of FT, handed over OU to serve as feeder for LH, and in exchange he got his chair in Cartel Board of Directors. And currently AP has no interest at all to do anything to improve position of OU, and Misetic is strong enough to place CEO's who are continuing his dirty job. Furthermore, AP is using combination of A220 for OU and Rafalles for Army to secure his position in Brussels. If Croatia had new owner, LOT, Aegean, whoever, it would probably change situation because they would place competent management. And not even necessarily foreigners. There are competent people and good managers in Croatia as well. But unlike in Serbia with AV, in Croatia with AP, Misetic and the gang, there is NO WILL for anything to be changed and that's why OU is where it is, and will highly likely remain as it is as long as people "leading" us (to ambbiss) are mentally stuck in 1950's
abyss, typo
Delete@ Slav.Man
DeleteOU is serving primarily the economic and political interests that are that are not aligned 100% with interests of Croatian aviation market. So there is gap.
That gap is collateral damage in OU profitability and long term growth and viability of the company.
"not alligned 100 %with interests of Cro av.market? You must be either kidding or you are in diplomacy, appointed by Kradeze. They are 100 % AGAINST Cro interests. What they are doing and even better, not doing, equals TREASON. Gap? Damage to growth? Better call the things with its real name : Crime and corruption on the highest level.
DeleteI am in diplomacy of not creating negative vibe😊
DeleteLets put this way: people who running OU and you are mentioning them by names are nobodies. They are appointed there for that very reason because they are nobodies. If they’re are not there someone else would be there with the same “qualities”. Its by nature of of pyramidical economic and political system.
I would not give too much credit to Air Serbia either because they operate in the same pyramid economic system. The difference is that geo politicall and geographic position gave them more room to operate since 2014.
Its just circumstances that BEG got huge airport expansion, it happened to be in so called “No Mans Land” between East and West where it can fly East and West. Mr. Marek could be good manager but it is not his achievement that Air Serbia can get access to the markets in the East.
OU would not be able to fly to eastern markets even if the had a planes available. That decision is not made in OU.
Also there are no constraints for Air Serbia not being in any airline Alliances.
Its just happened that way. Its a circumstances.
Good points, Slavman.
DeleteRussia and "eastern markets" make less than 5 % of JU overall traffic and income.
DeleteOU serving as a feeder within alliance is not circumstantial, it's deliberate and with purpose
Position of ZAG and Croatia, geographical and geopolitical, "between East and West" is not worse than BEG and Serbia, 2014 and before, it's better.
For incompetent OU "management" and their bosses, we agree. But then, how come with same bosses and within the same system, Marek managed to do what Jasmin couldn't.
I am not against good vibes, on the contrary, but out of all places where good vibes could and should be applied, OU with its shameful and humiliating position, is the last one.
@Boris
DeleteI understnad what youre saying. But all countries have "cirucmstance" but its up to each business and country to make the best of what they have.
i personally think JU success is from the foreign investment and education from etihad + Marek the Czech taking control. but As we saw earlier in the year president of serbia now wants Qatar to invest and take the responsibility to further improve the airline.
but by your reasoning, Croatia should have been the first to start long haul to north america since it is closer to the western nations politically and unlike serbia can also offer great summer tourism destination.
it will be interesting what new developments will happen in next few years. like will there be a revolution in OU and they finally achieve there potential, or will they cooperate more with JU.
Maybe OU and the new Slovenian airline create some type of partnership like AF-KLM
Will JU try to expand and try to emulate JAT in the region? or create subsidiaries to do it that way making it easier for people to accept that way. who knows. its all full of possibility.
Eastern markets including Africa make 5% now for JU. But…
DeleteIn 3 years it will make 50% or JU will die off.
With 60-70% in control of oil and that includes jet fuel, within the BRICS with addition on 3 more oil producing countries the oil market is divided. That was just few days ago.
Europe eats too much “jet fuel” per capita for a long time and that is just a fact. It is not sustainable anymore.
Once they asked Gretzky hockey icon what is the secret of your hockey game and he answered “ i only anticipate where the puck is going to be and not where is now”
So what was before is no more.
What are you saying is just symptoms of things that happened 30 years ago and Croatia air travel market is assigned to certain economic interest. In this specific case for OU is interest of Lufthansa group.
And it was good for a while. Isnt it?
But it was good because it was subsidized with cheap jet fuel from east and cheap labour from the East. Isnt it?
And now that all collapsed. No more cheap jet fuel and people in the east dont want to work for peanuts. And by peanuts I mean freshly printed dollars without colleteral . And I say mainly US dollars and not Euros because Oil until few years ago was traded exclusively in US dollars.
So if you need oil you need to get something intangible like gold timber samsungs toshibas et etc so Fed will print you dollars.
So all this is finished now.
@Slav
DeleteSomebody sold air travel market in Croatia to Lufthansa 30 years ago. Its not that OU can not get planes or can not get pilots.
I don't know who is that and it does not matter now.
You speak complicated, I speak simple
DeleteYou speak future, and if, I speak now, no if
Basically, we agree about wrong direction we are going, globally
But particularly, OU wasted its opportunities and potentials
It's not circumstantial, it's not about the fuel prices, and it's not vibes
I might not be right, but I have grounds on which I base my opinion.
What's going on in OU for more than 20 years, is 100% against its interests.
No matter how you try to soften it with vibes and global situation.
Wish you very good night!
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThe SKP load factor...on a turboprop and similar...is a disaster. But seeing the fares, no wonder.
ReplyDeleteand "similar"?. caught you trolling
DeleteHow so?
DeleteThus Podgorica was the most succesful intrayugoslavian route out of Croatia and still not worthy enough to be continued?
ReplyDeleteHow on earth was Podgorica most successful? It had the same number of passengers for the ENTIRE year as the other routes had in 6 months. Read the article again.
DeleteActually only loadfactor was given for the half year.
DeleteNumber of pax i guess are for the whole year.
Why should the admin compare half year data with full year data?
No, passenger numbers are also for half the year. Is it such an issue for you to actually READ the article?
DeleteBGD will next year overtake SKP as the busiest based on trends.
ReplyDeleteJU struggled in Zagreb but they were committed and it pays off, the loads during winter&spring are quite good. I believe it's going to be similar scenario with Budapest.
ReplyDeleteZAG-SKP
ReplyDelete26.044 pax / 503 flights = 52 pax per flight
ZAG-SJJ
23.547 pax / 667 flights = 35 pax per flight
35 passengers per flight is bad on the Q400, but on the A220 that is abysmal. If they get rid of the Q400, I think it will cause OU to lose the little regional presence that they currently have.
The A220s will be OU's brand new shiny coffin.
DeleteWizz Air is launching new services from the Macedonian capital to Ljubljana on September 27.
ReplyDeleteFlyDubai has more passengers on the route to TIV, than OU on the line ZAG-SJJ? FlyDubai pays the full price of PAX TAX....about (cca) 19€ per passenger. Without any incentives!
ReplyDelete