The two North American carriers which maintain seasonal flights to Croatia - Air Transat and United Airlines - have registered a strong year on their respective services from Toronto to Zagreb and Newark to Dubrovnik. As a result, both plan to grow their capacity in the country next year. Air Transat handled 26.322 travellers on its Zagreb service this year, representing an increase of 28.1% on 2022. The overall figure on nonstop flights between the two cities is lower than in 2019 when it stood at 65.486, as Air Canada Rouge used to maintain operations alongside Air Transat on the route prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Air Canada subsidiary no longer has aircraft capable of reaching Zagreb, but its parent company has ruled out services to the Croatian capital for next year.
Air Transat maintained flights between Toronto and Zagreb between June 6 and October 7 this year with its 332-seat A330-200 aircraft. Its average cabin load factor for the duration of its summer operations stood at a high 80.9%. Next year, Air Transat plans to increase overall capacity on the route by 40.8%. It will do so by resuming flights a full month earlier, on May 4 and progressively increasing frequencies throughout the season to up to four weekly from late June until early September. It will mark the first time the carrier has scheduled four weekly flights on the Zagreb route instead of the usual three.
United Airlines handled 25.704 passengers on its Dubrovnik service based on data provided to EX-YU Aviation News by the United States Bureau of Air Transport Statistics. This is slightly lower on the previous year when it welcomed 27.628 travellers. However, the airline also had a 2.4% decrease in capacity on the route this year compared to last. The carrier’s average cabin load factor on the route this year, which ran from May 26 until September 20, stood at a high 86.6%. In 2024, the airline will increase capacity on the route by 10.4% by deploying its 231-seat Boeing 767-400 aircraft on all flights instead of the 214-seat B767-300ER utilised in 2023.
Well done United @ DBV.
ReplyDeleteOnce dreamlines is deployed instead of 767s it will be even better for Dubrovnik. 767s especially in business class are outdated, and with Dubrovnik being premium location, it doesn't really go well together
ReplyDeleteHow many seats do their Dreamliners have?
DeleteBoeing 787-8 Dreamliner C28W21Y194 (they only have about 5)
DeleteBoeing 787-9 Dreamliner C48W21Y188
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner C44W21Y253
Anon 09:01
DeleteYou are lying. Get your informations right.
They have renewed the cabins on the 767s, go and check on youtube how modern and beautiful those planes are.
DeleteHow old are these B767s though? Do they have plans to phase them out of the fleet?
DeleteVery good news, it's nice to see direct flights to Canada, even if I'd have to drive to Zagreb
ReplyDeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteBravo Jasmin!
Deletehahaha
Delete"analitičar"
DeleteNice, but I would have thought LF would be a bit higher for both considering they operate during peak season only.
ReplyDeleteAccording to a certain analitičar, this is a disastrous LF since he said that JU’s loads on JFK route published yesterday January-September (83%) are really bad.
DeleteJust compare prices for July 2024 between Dubrovnik and Belgrade. It 50% difference
DeleteYou don't say that a route on the coast where tour operators sell majority of seats to senior American tourists is more expensive.
DeleteNow compare costs
DeleteSo what are you trying to say? That JU's load factor of 83% is a disaster which includes the slowest winter months of the year compared to UA's Dubrovnik flights?
DeleteNot to mention that JU's flights in summer are daily.
Delete@anon 9:32
DeleteThose were analtičar's words regarding JU's JFK LF. If LF would be 100% then it would be because of dump prices.
He claimed yesterday 90% LF is break-even for long haul to be profitable. LOL
DeleteWhat is a typical price for round trip usa-dbv?
Delete@10:18 He is tarnishing Croatian aviation image. Inconceivable that Croatia doesn't have true aviation experts available to discuss aviation issues in public media.
DeleteThe United flight is used by a lot of Slovenes.
ReplyDeleteTo Dubrovnik?!?!
DeleteAjahahahahahah
DeleteSlovenes - it is true, Slovenians probably few...so guy is correct!
DeleteHaha, good one
DeleteUnited is like 90% tourists on its flights with few Croatians and very few from other parts of the former Yugo
DeleteNo, no, and no. Emirates was in ZAG only because of Slovenians. Ryanair is in ZAG only because of Slovenians. United in DBV, of course, Slovenians only. Malomescani at their best.
DeleteWow 767. Not many airlines are still flying them. Love a retro plane.
ReplyDeleteThe 767-400 is not a retro plane.
DeleteWell been 20 years since one was built so it falls into the category of fly it now before no one flies them. A bit like the 747.
DeleteThe yields on the DBV route must be good. Whenever I looked at the prices for this route they were absurd.
ReplyDeletePrices went up to almost 2000 USD this summer.
DeleteSo, how come Air Canada Rouge doesn't fly to ZAG anymore? And what made Delta quit DBV?
ReplyDeleteIt says in the article, AC Rouge no longer has planes capable of flying to ZAG. They retired all their widebodies during the pandemic.
DeleteOh, sorry, should have checked first. Did they suspend some other cities in Europe beacuse lack of planes, or just ZAG?
DeleteYes, but they were mostly all transferred to mainline operations
DeleteOk, so, once again, how come they don't fly to ZAG?
DeleteBecause they don’t want to.
DeleteDon`t know for delta but one of American Airlines managers told that they didn`t have alternative route during winter period for the plane, so they cancel Dubrovnik Philadelphia
Delete332 seats on an A330-200 is absolutely insane.
ReplyDeleteSardine can. But they do have business class
DeleteIs it real business class or more like premium economy?
DeleteGood results. Congrats
ReplyDeleteTime for US airline to start ZAG.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteTo be honest it makes sense that American tourists are more interested to go to the coast
DeleteUA always made the most sense since OU is in Star Alliance and can offer good onward connections to the region.
DeleteWhay are US carriers avoiding ZAG? There are plenty of American tourists going there. Besides Dubrovnik, Split or Plitvice, of course. Is the airport in Zagreb too expensive?
DeletePlus no visas for locals to travel to US
DeleteIt's unfortunate that the national flag carrier has no interest in these flights
ReplyDeleteThey don't have the aircraft capable, if you meant OU. But if you meant JU, they do have capable aircraft but still no interest in Canada flights
DeleteWhy on earth would he mean Air Serbia on an article on Croatia?
DeleteI meant OU. I know they don't have aircraft capable, but they can get them.
DeleteThere is discussion above mentioning JU load factors so it's fair
DeleteTime for Croatia Airlines to lease a widebody and start US/Canada/Asia flights.
DeleteOU can't make it to Rome, not to mention theire poor network, nonetheless US or Asia.
Delete^ True
Deleteex-OU CEO Kucko once said that Croatia doesn't need direct flights to NY because ZAG already has so many options to NY and elsewhere in the US with 1-stop connections over Europe...
Delete^ this is the guy who was recently suspended as Air Mauritius CEO for corruption. So I wouldn't take anything he says seriously.
Delete@09.46
DeleteNo, it's not time. And it will not be time as long as Ivan Misetic, the gravedigger of croatian civil aviation, is deciding about the future of OU, the future he sold years ago "za judine skude", as his former boss, whose name today ZAG is "proudly" bearing, used to say
Croatia has the demand for long-haul flights. Its sad that they sacrifised this opportunity to start again with the A220.
DeleteOU could have year round flights to new york, toronto and maybe one asian route at least. who knows how many years it will be before OU can be in a position to introduce long haul flights now.
Agree with Slav Man
DeleteWonder if there is potential for Air Transat to start Dubrovnik in the future?
ReplyDeleteI honestly hope not. Dubrovnik is a small city, summers are already too crowded.
DeleteVery nice for Croatia!
ReplyDeleteIt is nice, but same old routes with same old carriers.
DeleteWe are too small market for this kind of players
DeleteAh, ok, makes sense. Still hope things will change, give us some new routes/carriers. Or, at least, a normal national carrier!
DeleteWhen did Air Transat launch Zagreb?
ReplyDeleteI mean, which year? Thanks in advance
Delete2016
DeletePeople need a reality check. Zagreb is not interesting for American tourists and US carriers simply wont make enough money on the route. The only chance of US flights is OU. I mean, we have been listening about US carriers planning ZAG flights for 10 years. It wont happen
ReplyDeleteBe careful about what are you saying. Whenever I say that, I got offended, humiliated, spit at, called names and so on and so forth
Deleteand the average stay of US tourists in HR is 2.8 days (August data)
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know why it is so short? This is not even enough to see everything in Dubrovnik and the surrounding area...
DeleteProbably people go by ferry from Italy or vice versa. A lot of American tourists that go to Europe do open jaw flights. So they arrive in one destination but leave from the other.
DeleteHope AIr Transat will consider Vancouver-Zagreb flights in the future.
ReplyDeleteIs there demand?
DeleteI think there were some rumors about Vancouver flights, not sure, though.
DeleteNot possible as Air Transat doesn't have a hub at YVR
DeleteWill American and Delta come back?
ReplyDeleteTo DBV
DeleteDelta no, American said when they have a route to substitute DBV in winter.
DeleteI'm curious as to why Delta didn't come back. They seemed to have done rather well too on this route
DeleteAgree! What were the numbers while both Delta and American were flying to DBV?
DeleteDelta is focusing more on Greece and Italy.
DeleteWhich makes sense, bigger markets. But, why did they even "bother" with DBV?
DeleteAmerican carriers are discontinuing flights if they are not making (enough) money for them. Seems like the market wasn't large enough for both of them to make money.
DeleteAmerican was planning to introduce Chicago-Dubrovnik before Covid hit. There was an article here about it. Unfortunately, then the virus happened.
DeletePity. I wonder where we would collectively be in the aviation industry had covid not happened. 2020 was expected to be massive.
DeleteUnited can also send bigger plane to DBV since there is no competition... And LF is good.
ReplyDeleteMaybe B777 one day :D
DeleteLet's hope in 2025 one of them will fly the entire season.
ReplyDeleteI would rather they introduce a second Croatian destination in 2025.
DeleteI would rather OU introduce NA, and much more regionals to feed it. But......
DeleteBut they will have "brand new shiny" regional feeder fleet, and continue with LH asskissing
DeleteOU ain't going long haul
DeleteIs it possible for Air Transat to upgrade YYZ- ZAG to year-round?
DeleteReally happy to see the flights worked out for United. Although I do hope they change the plane type to the Dreamliners eventually
ReplyDeleteTheir 787s have a 3-3-3 seating configuration.
Delete767s have 2-3-2, much more comfortable.
Fom one extremity to another. The Air Transat A332 is a sardine can but the United B767 has just 231 seats! Wizzair carries more than that with their 321
ReplyDeleteI wonder if anyone from Zagreb uses UA out of Dubrovnik to get to New York and the States?
ReplyDeleteProbably none! That why there is no direct flight to Zagreb from the States, all the guest are going to the coastal cities and they are using London or Frankfurt as hub, it more convenient
DeleteOn the EWR-DBV flights …on average about 2-4 paxs would connect to ZAG
DeleteIt's literally too expensive.
DeleteOtherwise, ZAG could probably sustain direct year round flights to at least JFK given it is one of or possibly THE most underserved route out of ZAG, based on the indirect traffic.
The way things are, with prices to and from Dubrovnik clearly set up for well off American tourists, Croats from Zagreb and elsewhere in Croatia are flying via IST, BEG, FRA, AMS...
I see a collapse in the derivative market bubble and the worst economic depression ever seen
ReplyDeleteHow many American tourists Croatia has and how many American touristis have other ex-YU countries? And how many Croatian diaspora is in America in comparison to other ex-YU dijaspora? Check the numbers on the internet.
ReplyDeleteIs the message addressed to Jasmin? If yes wrong address. He was not ordered to do so by the Central Comitee.
DeleteI was hoping UA would go daily in 2024, oh well let’s hope they go daily in 2025. And I will never understand why OU does not codeshare on this flight makes no sense what’s so ever
ReplyDelete