Croatia Airlines is set to expand its network from Zagreb Airport this summer with the launch of five new routes, primarily targeting destinations with the highest indirect traffic from the Croatian capital. The airline has confirmed the addition of Hamburg, Bucharest, Milan Malpensa, Madrid, and Prague to its schedule. However, ticket sales will commence only after the carrier secures confirmation on the scheduled delivery of its new Airbus A220 aircraft. Among these new routes, Croatia Airlines will face direct competition only on flights to Madrid, while the remaining four destinations are currently unserved from Zagreb. The airline aims to enhance connectivity by introducing nonstop flights to two unserved markets - Romania and the Czech Republic - while also addressing demand on other high-traffic routes.
Among the five new routes, three rank among Zagreb Airport’s top ten busiest unserved destinations based on indirect traffic data from global travel provider OAG. These are Hamburg, Bucharest, and Prague. The three were previously operated from the Croatian capital until the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Croatia Airlines last served Hamburg in 2012, though the route was maintained from Split. Zagreb was later connected to the German city by Eurowings in 2019. Meanwhile, both Bucharest and Prague were last served by Croatia Airlines in 2019. Czech Airlines also operated flights to Zagreb on a number of occasions, running the route for the last time from April 2016 until October 2019, when it competed directly with Croatia Airlines.
Lisbon remains Zagreb’s busiest unserved destination in Europe. Croatia Airlines had applied for slots to resume operations to the Portuguese capital, which it last served in 2019, but was unable to secure them due to congestion at Lisbon Airport. TAP Air Portugal also previously operated flights between the two cities, with the last service running from June to October 2021. Other high-demand destinations without nonstop flights from Zagreb include Helsinki, last served by Finnair in October 2023, and Oslo, which Croatia Airlines last operated in October 2019. Additional unserved routes with strong demand include Geneva, Porto, and Vilnius. Many of Zagreb’s previously unserved busy routes have been introduced by Ryanair over the past three years.
Great news for Zagreb! It’s about time Croatia Airlines expanded its network. The return of Bucharest and Prague is especially welcome, as they were missing for too long.
ReplyDeleteSo true. Two routes that should never had been cut.
DeleteI'm interested to see how OTP will perform. Last time around they only flew ZAG-OTP but now they also fly SPU-OTP so I'm guessing there will be less transfer passengers. Hope they succeed.
DeleteRomania in general and OTP is particular have grown a LOT in the last 5 years.
DeleteCroatia Airlines will dominate on this routes, I expect a lot of profits to be made on this routes. Jasmin is already making huge shift in airline business model, it is inevitable that Croatia Airlines will profitable in 2025!
DeleteCompletely forgot CSA used to fly to ZAG until recently.
ReplyDeleteCSA existed until recently.
DeleteYes flew until end of 2019 summer.
DeleteAnd a bit of history: ZAG was the first CSA international destination (almost) 100 years ago
DeleteInteresting, thanks for that. Pity the airline is no longer operating.
DeleteLIS is a missed opportunity.
ReplyDeleteThey couldn't get slots.
DeleteTAP could have served it
DeleteThey could have just started Porto instead, considering there seems to be demand.
DeleteAnd demand will increase. Croats are aware there are many great destinations that offer better product that comes at half the price than in Croatia.
DeleteLIS will come when they are able to get slots.
DeleteI can definitely see Ftanjo Tudman airport having double digits growth again this year and over 4,8 million passengers.
ReplyDeleteAnd it won't come just from OU and FR expansion but from increased service of the other carriers too.
Never heard for Ftanjo.
DeleteDemand for travel to summer destinations in the Med is tremendous from all over the world.
DeleteIt is great that OU tries to capture some of that demand through ZAG and connect it to the coast.
+1
DeleteI could even see ZAG reaching 4.9 mil.
Fingers crossed. That would be great and is plausible.
DeleteHopefully Oslo and Helsinki resume.
ReplyDeleteHelsinki and Oslo would be much better choices than some of these.
DeleteBetter choices than which ones?
DeleteI think better option than Milan and Madrid where they will unnecessarily compete against airlines with more frequencies.
DeleteA bit surprised about Vilnius.
ReplyDeleteTime for Air Baltic to consider Zagreb.
DeleteYes, especially since it's mentioned that Riga comes after Vilnius in terms of demand.
DeleteAnother example of Croatia Airlines reacting too slowly. Ryanair is eating up the market while they take their time launching routes.
ReplyDeleteWell it’s nice to see Croatia Airlines finally doing something proactive instead of just watching Ryanair take over Zagreb.
DeleteRyanair has already taken over OU passenger wise at ZAG.
DeleteThese should’ve happened years ago. The airline is too cautious while other carriers take over.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteBetter late than never.
DeleteIt's pretty much just resumption of routes served in 2019 with exception to Madrid.
ReplyDeleteHambur, Tirana and Berlin were not served at 2019.
DeleteHamburg was served by Eurowings in 2019.
DeleteOh sure,HAM was "served" with 6 rotations yearly.
DeleteIt will be interesting to see if they can compete against Iberia.
ReplyDeleteAnd Ryanair to Milan.
DeleteHow many weekly flights does Ryanair have to Milan?
DeleteSo they can fly nonstop to Milan but not to Rome?
ReplyDeleteThe one stop flight to Rome makes no sense to me. Maybe now that ITA is part of Lufthansa group things will change.
DeleteIt's inherited from JAT era. They used to fly to Rome that way. OU didn't see fit to evolve that route for 35 years.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteIs MXP being added because of their new codeshare partnership with ITA?
ReplyDeleteITA doesn't operate at MXP. The codeshares are all on routes from FCO.
DeleteITA flies from Linate in Milan.
DeleteCroatia Airlines should be working on long-haul flights, not just adding a few European routes.
ReplyDeleteWith what aircraft?
DeleteWhy would they do this mistake?
Delete^ judging by their current profitability and load factor, most of their existing network is a mistake.
Delete@9.43
DeleteA220
@09.43
DeleteArkia, which does not have long haul aircraft in fleet is starting JFK from TLV with leased A330. If you want to do it you can do it and you can do it now. Croatia has FAA cat 1, there is EU-USA Open skies agreement and no administrative barriers. 760.000 US citizens visited Croatia last year. But they are remaining LH feeder, for personal interest of few croatian Mafia fellows tied with high politici. BCG corruptive deal with single type fleet as a result is the best proof.
Classic pozdrav
DeleteYes, it's classic pozdrav. The same pozdrav who was saying FR would come to ZAG. And FR came. The same pozdrav who was saying the only way for OU to survive was to grow, network and fleet. And now, they are growing network and fleet. The same pozdrav who was saying that 2.000.000 visitors from distant markets are more than enough to start long-haul. And it will happen as well, sooner or later, because classic pozdrav was never wrong so far, including criticism of corruption and incompetence in OU. You like it or not.
DeleteHow so no one launches US-ZAG flights if there is such big demand? Classic Pozdrav.
DeleteThis matter has been discussed million times and I will not discuss it again. No one was launching BEG as well until HOME BASED CARRIER did it. Today, it's daily in season, and profitable. So, classic pozdrav explained it to you once again. Your refusal to accept explanation is classic you. Cheers!
DeleteSo... you want to say demand for such route is so low that the only carrier which could launch it is state owned one (which will fly it despite of loses)?.
DeleteWho was flying via Dubai/Doha 20 years ago?? No one. You build a product people want to use and they will consider it and some will use it. This is the principle Air Serbia has based there business on. Fly people to Belgrade but at the same time fly people to other destinations via Belgrade and it has been very successful for them. Someone in the region will soon copy Air Serbia's model, most likely in Romania or Bulgaria or maybe even Hungary. Croatia Airlines could and have the jump on all three mentioned start running the airline with a growth strategy focus but they wont, because its the same old boring OU.
DeleteWill these routes be seasonal or year-round? Hope they don’t just disappear after a few months.
ReplyDeleteKnowing OU, probably seasonal.
DeleteI also think it will all be seasonal. The only year round route OU has introduced in the past 10 years is Mostar, which is subsidized.
DeleteCroatia Airlines expanding is great, but let’s not forget the elephant in the room—Ryanair is still the real driver of growth at Zagreb Airport.
ReplyDeleteThat is a smart strategic choice by ZAG. And the traffic numbers are there to prove it.
DeleteI agree. While OU was stagnating Ryanair came to the rescue. This year Ryanair has just one new route from Zagreb but OU comes in with 5.
DeleteThey’re focusing on high indirect traffic, which makes sense.
ReplyDeleteWell, all airlines do that when launching new routes.
DeleteLet’s hope they don’t price themselves out of the market. Competition is fierce, and expensive tickets won’t help them.
ReplyDeleteAnd they are well known for expensive tickets.
DeleteCroatia Airlines is finally doing something, but they’re still years behind. Other carriers are dictating Zagreb’s growth, not them.
ReplyDelete"Among these new routes, Croatia Airlines will face direct competition only on flights to Madrid, while the remaining four destinations are currently unserved from Zagreb."
ReplyDeleteWhile technically true, this is not really accurate because FR flights to BGY serve the exact same market as the future OU flights to MXP. Even the travel time to Milan is the same.
Admin is there any info about the plan to move Ryanair to the old terminal and thus making more space available in the new for the other carriers?
ReplyDeleteIt won't happen before FR's current contract with Zagreb expires, which I believe is some time next year.
DeleteThere are rumours about that for years now, but apparently it's going to happen next year. For that purpose new X-ray machines are going to be installed sometime during spring, and the existing are supposed to be moved to old terminal.
DeleteIf they didn't get Lisbon they should've tried Porto imo
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteLisbon and Porto are actually quite different in terms of passenger profile. That is why there is usually high demand for both. I agree that they should have looked into Porto and I have a strong feeling Ryanair will start the route if OU doesen't soon.
DeleteThey should first focus on making its existing routes stronger. Load factor and profitability is horrendous.
ReplyDeleteYes, neither are very good. Next week they will release their results for 2024, and I can tell you now it's a disaster.
DeleteAnd then famous "analitičar" completely ignores needs for routes towards Vilnius and Porto while proposing flights to Izmir, Ankara, Temišvar and Tuzla.
ReplyDeleteVilnius is a route that JU should definitely start.
DeleteI can see potential for year round operations from BEG
Following Vilnius, other unserved European routes from Zagreb with decent demand include Riga, Pristina and Hannover, as well as Ankara and Antalya in Turkey. Larnaca used to be high on the list but Ryanair's Paphos service has reduced demand for Larnaca.
Delete^interesting. Thanks!
Delete@Admin
ReplyDeleteOn which place was MXP? How many passengers where there between ZAG and MXP?
It is just outside the top ten but it includes a combined total for all of Milan's airports so I don't have an accurate figure.
DeleteGood to see Zagreb's busiest routes being served but it's crazy to think there were no flights to places like Prague.
ReplyDeleteSurprising. Lisbon too.
Deletestep in the right direction
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWill OU add flights from any other Croatian airport this summer?
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteBravo!
ReplyDeleteOn what exactly?
DeleteMaybe easy but I could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteDarwin Airline operated flights between Geneva and Zagreb from October 2008 until February 2009.
ReplyDelete"...unserved routes with strong demand include..."
ReplyDeleteGive us those numbers!
Love that A220.
ReplyDeleteTo me it looks like TU134 with engines under the wings
DeleteWow completely forgot about those Darwin flights.
ReplyDeleteNew aircraft will not make new routes automatically viable. Except Madrid where they will face direct competition, new routes are mostly in 1:30 hour range. A220 advantage is significant only on much longer missions. Once Ryanair replaces ZAG-based fleet with MAX jets, Croatia Airlines will be in trouble.
ReplyDeleteLOL! They will be in trouble but they don't give a sh.t
Delete