Zagreb Airport anticipates handling over four million passengers this year with its growth to be fuelled by Ryanair, which based its fourth jet in the city on Sunday and launched five new routes since. Zagreb will be linked to a record-breaking total of 66 destinations over the summer, six of which are domestic and sixty international. This expansion is projected to result in double digit growth throughout the summer months. Capacity on scheduled flights over the summer season, from March 31 until October 26, currently stands at 3.581.722 seats, representing an increase of 13.2%, or an additional 418.009 seats.
Projected capacity growth at Zagreb Airport by month, summer 2024
The airport’s General Manager, Huseying Bahadir Bedir, said, “We started the year off on a positive note by welcoming our new airline partner Pegasus Airlines. This summer, Croatia Airlines is introducing three new routes from Zagreb, to Berlin, Stockholm, and Tirana. Ryanair is expanding its network with five new destinations. Our new long-haul partner T’Way Air will commence flights from Seoul in May, with services to run three times per week until late October. We also anticipate an increase in frequencies on flights from Toronto and Dubai, as well as other destinations”. He added, “If all goes to plan, we expect that this year, for the first time in the airport’s history, we will handle over four million passengers”.
This summer a number of carriers are increasing operations from Zagreb Airport. Apart from the abovementioned Ryanair and Croatia Airlines, they include Iberia, which will grow capacity on its Madrid service by 50% year-on-year, Turkish Airlines which is adding an extra four weekly flights, KLM, which will boost capacity, Lufthansa and Air France, which are increasing their number of weekly flights, as well as Flydubai and Air Serbia, which will grow frequencies from five weekly to daily and from double daily to sixteen weekly respectively. In addition, Qatar Airways is maintaining ten weekly rotations from Doha from the very start of summer, unlike last year when services were increased from seven to ten weekly mid-way through the season. Finally, Air Transat resumes its seasonal Toronto service earlier than last year. In total, twenty airlines will serve Zagreb Airport this summer season.
Zagreb Airport’s largest airlines by capacity share, summer 2024
wow impressive growth coming on monthly basis. Well done.
ReplyDeleteYes, bravo ZAG. My favourite airport to use outside of SLO.
DeleteReally? Mine is VCE.
DeleteMine is also ZAG, it is new, clean, easygoing, quick, efficient... the only thing I'd add is some plants and greenery because it is a bit too sterile. Don't get why they haven't done this yet because it doesnt seem like a difficult nor expensive thing to do.
DeleteIt's only growth of passenger numbers. Not profits.
DeleteI’m pretty sure we don’t have ZAG shareholders here, so everyone is looking from passenger perspective.
DeleteFrom that perspective, growth of numbers and options is important, profit is irrelevant.
@ 10:25
DeleteVCE? With nowhere to sit since all available space is taken up by retail stores that no one ever seems to visit? With endless queues at security? With no air to breathe during the summer months because Italians seem terrified of AC? No, thank you. Not to mention the increasingly more exhausting drive there.
@ 13:42
DeleteWell more passengers also brings more opportunities for the wider region. I’d be happy to get more passengers at LJU, even if that would mean less profit for the airport.
Will Ryanair keep the fourth plane in ZAG over winter. Are the new routes seasonal?
ReplyDeleteI think they will be year round. We will see. They still haven't put tickets on sale for most destinations in winter.
DeleteWell done ZAG
ReplyDeleteWell done what?
Deleteattracting airlines and increasing their pax numbers.
DeleteGrowth by most airline all around.
ReplyDelete* airlines
DeleteBelgrade will have more than 8, so the ratio BEG/ZAG will continue to be more than 2.
ReplyDeleteAs well as between SKP and ZAG.
Delete@9.11 lol how?
DeleteWell check the numbers. If ZAG didnt have all this increase in traffic scheduled for this summer ( new routes of FR, OU; increasing of frequencies by all carriers mentioned above in the article ) then SKP would have become even closer with the pax numbers at the end of this year to ZAG. But will the increases now at ZAG the diffrence between SKP and ZAG will continue to be the same.
DeleteZAG needs to have more then 6mil to have a "ratio 2"
DeleteWhat is the point of these comments, I don't understand why there has to be a comparison on every article on this site
DeleteAgain the comparison between Zagreb and Belgrade. There is no comparison for several reasons.
DeleteAnd by the way, on this very portal the statistics had been published showing that Zagreb had a TWO DIGIT decline in passengers numbers compared to 2019. And most of the growth was apportioned to... you guess Ryan.
So the airport is on terminal decline.
Let us do a comparison between Croatian and Serbian market? Rođaci?
DeleteSure рођаче, let's start with the first parameter: year round demand and offer from all airports.
DeleteAnon 13:27 "I don't understand why there has to be a comparison"
DeleteYour understanding is not required for people to track and compare results in comments.
@Anon 13:47 How is there a TWO DIGIT decline in passenger numbers compared to 2019. when last year already the airport had surpassed the 2019. numbers by 300k passengers?? That's not a decline but a growth of over 8%. And given that this year the passengers number will be over 4 mill. that will be a TWO DIGIT growth in passenger numbers compared to 2019. - likely 16 - 17% growth.
DeleteTerminal decline, oh noo!! 😂
Zagreb Airport in terminal decline??? Omg some people here, this has to be a troll.
Delete1659, no, let us just do PAX numbers? That's the easiest way for you to shut it!
DeleteSo the T'Way flights are definitely seasonal
ReplyDeleteWith four planes stationed in ZAG Ryanair is definitely going to eat OU alive.Even these three new routes are coming too little, too late. It is starting to remind me of JP's last days when they were announcing major expansions ahead of their collapse.
ReplyDeleteOU is going in that direction. Ryanair will butcher them.
My prediction is that in 2024 Ryanair will overtake Croatia Airlines in terms of passenger numbers in Zagreb.
DeleteOU and FR attract completely different types of passengers. There is a market for both. Being the biggest Airline doesn't make better.
DeleteEmm OU's overall performance disagrees with you. Unfortunately there is room for only one sheriff in town and Ryanair seems to be slowly but surely taking over.
DeleteOh sheriff, dream on dream on
DeleteWhy dream when reality says so. Read today's article.
DeleteI, što ako OU bude druga? Čemu ta nepostojeća natjecanja, OU vs FR, JU vs OU? Zabava za raju?
DeleteAnyone know the load on the first flight to Alicante? I hope they replace these old A320s as the one to Weeze this morning broke down and the flight is delayed. These days they had quite a few delays.
ReplyDeleteDouble digit growth throughout the summer each month. That's good growth
ReplyDeleteHow is LH increasing flights?
ReplyDeleteFRA increases from 12 to 14 weekly. Munich gets second daily flight.
DeleteAnyone know what the capacity to FRA will be like? Most flights are going to be operated by LH's CRJ1000 instead of A320/321 like last year.
DeleteLufthansa's capacity on the route for S24 is currently at 83.990 seats, down 27.2% on 115.350 in S23.
DeleteWow thank you Admin, those are cuts from FRA?
DeleteYes, that is the capacity from/to Frankfurt. However, Lufthansa's Munich capacity this summer stands at 124.916, which is up 74.6% on S23 when it stood at 71.560 seats.
DeleteMUC is back to prepandemic and missing direct flights intogood parts of ExYu, FRA is now better connected with ExYu
DeleteFRA is in trouble, LH cut many longhaul flights for this summer.
DeleteWhen is ZAG required to expand based on their concession contract? Is it when they hit 4 or 5 million passengers?
ReplyDeleteFive (5) million passengers.
DeleteThank you
Delete@Anonymous09:10
DeleteAirport will start expanding next year, it is 5 million of 2025, which ever comes first. Works on new phases is in planning stages and work should start in April next year, this year they'll expand taxiway and add few other bits. Next year they'll start to clear area where terminal will expand, all non-Schengen arrivals/departures, 5/7 additional boarding bridges will be added, 3 of which will be wide body and 4 for single isle aircraft. This will increase non-Schengen capacity. Schengen part of the airport, currently half of all of the air bridges, 4, will remain until airport expands in phase 3 when 10 additional boarding bridges will added around 2028 most likely. Final expansion will see expansion of the main terminal building by expanding current terminal building by 75x127m and additional 8 boarding bridges. Eventually main terminal building will have a footprint of 205x127m and concourse length from one end to another will be almost 1km with looking something like this...
https://postimg.cc/gLdbbsVx
However these are longer term plans around 2035.
Congratulations to Zagreb
ReplyDeleteNo, congratulate Ryan.
DeleteGood job by Ryanair!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see T'way in ZAG. Impressive that they are going for 3 weekly straight away.
ReplyDeleteHope QR will finally go back to double daily fromm winter.
ReplyDeleteThe good news is they keep 10 weekly in summer
DeleteSKP fanboys will claim again they are "competing" with ZAG in numbers and being the 2nd busiest in ex-Yu ;) Now that Ryan eyed Croatia as a new market and agressively expanding in ZAD and soon DBV, don't see them quitting it any time soon.
ReplyDeleteWell ZAG is the closest airport with pax numbers to SKP in Ex-Yu, if SKP is not competing with ZAG then with who is it, with Banja luka?
DeleteZAG will always remain the 2nd largest in the JUG nations, but unfortunatley it is hampered by the geography of the country and croatia having too many airports, so while it will always be bigger the growth in ZAG will be slower. people thoughts SKP will be bigger because its 1 of 2 airports for the country so can grow much quicker.
DeleteWithout checking numbers I would say SPU and PRN have greater chances than SKP to "beat" ZAG for the second place.
Deleteof course they have but that guy @9.29 has some problems with SKP :)
DeletePRN cannot surpass ZAG. since ZAG has its own national airline and is internationally renowned that is able to open to the whole world. Every single factor for further growth is in favour of ZAG.
Delete@Slav.Man I don't think Croatia has too many airports, precisely because of the geography of the country. If, or rather when, especially with Ryanair now, DBV recovers to where it was before covid, it will quickly surpass 3 million annual passengers. At that point Croatia will have one airport with over 4 million pax, two with over 3 million and one with over a million. That will mean the 4 busiest CRO airports will have a combined number of some 12 million passengers or more.
DeletePula is also recovering albeit slowly, but half a million pax or slightly more, isn't bad at all.
Brač is a niche airport but constantly growing.
Arguably, you could claim Osijek and Rijeka are the only two Croatian airports we could do without. Both currently have truly disastrous performances - especially given their potential.
Osijek is slowly recovering but with respect to Rijeka, there I guess the highway to Zagreb plays a role, with Zagreb being only an hour drive away. The only reason Rijeka airport isn't bankrupt, is its cargo traffic and it being a convenient NATO arms and ammo shipping hub.
The point of all of these airports tho is, most of them are successful and even more importantly; if they didn't exist it would be very inconvenient for locals and tourists alike to reach Dalmatia or Istria via ZAG. This means a bunch of money which stays in Croatia this way, would instead go elsewhere. The folks traveling to/from Split would likely be flying via Mostar. Also you could definitely forget about people traveling to/from Dubrovnik driving 6 hours to Zagreb - they'd be flying out of Montenegrin airports right there across the border.
The same goes for Istria - people would be flying out of Trieste, Treviso, Venice.
Croatia is going wild this summer due to LCC.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering which of the new FR destinations are most popular.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is Girona will be most popular
DeleteI think Mallorca
DeleteI meant among the new destinations launched in the last few days
DeleteYes they launched Mallorca. And it's doing very well. So is Girona. Pisa not so much. Marseilles not at all.
DeleteThat is really good growth. Well done Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteBravo OU!
ReplyDeleteThey are still way below 2019 levels in Zagreb and they did nothing to compete against Ryanair. They are the last ones that deserve a Bravo. More like the entire management should have been fired years ago.
Delete+1 last anon
DeleteZAG has not reached its full potential yet. Lots more room for growth.
ReplyDeleteNot really, when it comes to O&D this is pretty much as good as it gets.
Delete^ This is as good as it gets??
DeleteLol! If It's not doom and gloom predictions for ZAG then it's this kinda nonsense pulled out of you know where.
And reality will prove you wrong next year as always.
Wonder if there is room for EK to return next year
ReplyDeleteI think there is a bigger chance for Flydubai to eventually deploy Dreamliners to the region.
DeleteThat would be great.
DeleteEK will come back when the Asian tourist return.
DeleteAre Asians still staying home due to Covid?
DeleteSo how many passengers can we expect exactly? 4.2 million?
ReplyDeleteMy guess 4.45
DeleteI think ~ 4.2 million is pretty much a given, but at the same time wouldn't go much more than that in terms of the estimations... perhaps 4.25 million. Anything above it is a bonus in my opinion.
DeleteAbout time. Zagreb reached 3 million passengers in 2017! It took 7 years to get to 4!
ReplyDeleteWell there was covid
DeleteLet's hope we don't wait till 2031 to reach 5 million
DeleteKLM's strength in ZAG is really impressive. 5th largest airline.
ReplyDeleteThey became very popular during Covid because they kept flying
DeleteThey are also much better than LH
DeleteWhile I think they are good service wise, they cancelled 4 of my connecting flights after starting my journey to AMS over 2 years. The ground staff in AMS is also really rude and the airport is an absolute mess. They don't have enough staff anywhere.
DeleteI agree with you. A lot of KLM's issues over past few years had to do with the mess AMS was in during Covid (thanks in major part due to the airport's former CEO) as well as the former government's crazy green policies. Thankfully things are imporving now.
DeleteLet's not forget positive impact of entry into schengen and eurozone.
ReplyDeleteYup. It must've had at least some positive impact.
DeleteSeems like ZAG has been prepared well for this summer. Let's see if the growth continues in winter season to reduce seasonality.
ReplyDeleteInteresting will be to see Sundair or ETF in ZAG or other croatian Airport on scheduled flights.
ReplyDeleteETF has categorically ruled out scheduled flights and Sundaair is just using Croatian AOC for cheaper labor costs.
Delete
DeleteGuys what happened to Pragusa and this airline that planned ACi air seaplane flights
@exyu - 13.2% growth in capacity for this summer does not seem to be aligned with the individual percentages per each month that you also posted. Which is correct? Thanks
ReplyDeleteThe figures are correct. The total capacity for S24 compared to S23 is for the exact dates when each summer season started and ended (for 2024 it is 31.03-26.10 compared to 26.03 - 28.10 in 2023), while the monthly data is a comparison from the first to the last day of each month, which is why there is a slight discrepancy. If we were to take 1.4.2024-31.10.2024 and compared it to the same period in 2023, the capacity difference would be 518.961 seats or 16.7%.
DeleteThanks for the explanation @exyu
DeleteThey need to launch ATH in order for Aegean to lower the prices. Croatia isn’t even competitive with the stop in DBV +the Dash.
ReplyDeleteThey'll hardly launch ATH without incentives, and they can't get it since the destination is covered. Maybe with some other incentive scheme...
DeleteI feel it is race to the bottom for all airlines and airports.
ReplyDeleteIts like evaluating economy based on how many Big Macs have been eaten in the entire year.
What is the race to the bottom? More people in Europe are flying than ever. Zagreb Airport has more passengers than ever.
DeleteNothing against Zagreb Airport. The trend on quantity over quality is evident in all Airports, Airlines and it is self destrictive in long term for consumers.
DeleteIt is some form of Lidl-ization of airline industry like it happened in Grocery industry 20 years ago.
The results would be availability flights to selected tourist spots.
Croatia has 34% while Ryan 30% share at ZAG by projected seat capacity. However... when typical Load Factor for OU and FR are included in calculation, Ryanair is likely to be Number 1 by the passenger count in ZAG once season is over.
ReplyDelete