Ryanair will significantly reduce its operations from its seasonal Zadar base during the month of April when compared to last year. The airline will have an average of 61 weekly departures out of Zadar next month, down 37.8% on April 2024, or some 37 fewer departures per week. In total, the airline has scheduled 260 flights out of Zadar next month, down 36.4% on April last year, or 149 fewer departures, which increases to 298 flights once the return services are included. As a result, Zadar Airport’s capacity levels will be hit during the month. Ryanair is removing 26.364 seats in each direction or 52.728 in total. The airport will boast 114.090 across April, down 30.7%.
Ryanair’s Zadar reductions are temporary, with the low cost airline set to maintain an additional fifteen weekly flights from the coastal city during peak summer travel in June, July and August when compared to the same period last year. In addition to the previously announced new services from the Croatian city to Bratislava, Bari and Rome Fiumicino, the carrier will add an additional two weekly rotations compared to 2024 on flights to Poznan, Charleroi, Baden Baden, Gdansk and Košice. An additional weekly service will be introduced to Krakow, Vienna, Wroclaw, Memmingen, Budapest, Bologna, Kaunas and Rzeszow. On the other hand, flights to Warsaw Modlin, London Stansted, Manchester, Marseille, Hahn, Cologne and Bergamo will be reduced by one flight per week, while the Hamburg service will be cut from four to one per week.
Ryanair continues to dominate in Zadar. Despite serving the city on a seasonal summer basis only, it accounted for 81.2% of the airport’s total annual capacity in 2024. It has fuelled the strong growth that Zadar Airport has seen over the past few years, handling a record 1.593.413 passengers in 2024. This summer, Ryanair will maintain flights to 53 European destinations out of the Croatian coastal city. It has 1.611.584 seats on sale, down 16.7% on last year, with the April cuts accounting for much of the decline.
So much for extending the season.
ReplyDeleteEverything is going to be ok...
DeleteThe airport is going to pay a little bit more for the privilege of them landing there and that's it
Why?
ReplyDeleteThe ol reliable Ryanair
DeleteProbably wasn't successful last year
DeleteThat's because the Tourism Organisation does nothing to promote Croatia outside the summer season. These cuts are proof they are not doing their job. FR tried and nothing, they can't do everything on their own.
DeleteBecause flights are quite empty. Last year I flew 3 times BUD-ZAD-BUD in April and May, barely 50-70 pax onboard.
DeleteThat's not too bad
Delete50-70 pax for Ryanair is not acceptable for their bottom line.
DeleteFor an ULCC that's a disaster.
DeleteI've flown Gothenburg Zag at the end of the summer and it was like 80 onboard as well. Traffic to Croatia as a whole is very seasonal
DeleteCroatia really needs to develop a strategy to extend the season. When I lived in Turkey, I often visited out of season. I remember, for example, Marmaris was full during the off-season because the hotels were three times cheaper at that time. There were many people from Western countries staying in these hotels because it was almost the same price as renting an apartment in London. With all these people using the hotels and traveling around, the whole town was able to operate for a couple of months longer because people were using restaurants, travel agencies, stores, etc. I'm not sure that Croatia could do exactly the same, but at least it can extend the season by one month in autumn and one month in spring. That would be a first step.
Delete@22:40 Tourists come to Croatia because of good weather and beautiful sea, you can't artificially extend the good weather season, and you can't artificially create life, buzz on the streets and nice atmosphere that would keep tourists in even after the good weather ends. Turkey is much bigger in terms of population and much livelier than Croatia, as is Spain, that's why these countries have life even during winter (having better winter weather than Croatia also helps). We used to have life during winter too, when Croatia had nearly 5 million people. Now we are a deserted, half-dead country with less than 4 million people, that has turned into a big amusement park during May to October period.
DeleteThe coast is closed until June and then goes back to sleep in September. Why would they fly half empty planes in April.
ReplyDeleteExactly
DeleteIt’s unfortunate Croatia doesn’t do much to extend their season. Have been to Mallorca off-season, and even to northern Spain, and it was alive and full of people.
DeleteMost of the Med embrace winter tourism, even if the weather is not great. It is very different in Croatia, locals seem to hibernate having worked for 4 months in the summer. Such a shame.
DeleteMy opinion ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
DeleteZadar is not Florence or Pisa with global attractions that are more appealing to visitors in April than August due to smaller crowds and absence of sweltering heat.
On the other hand, main Zadar area attraction is still coastline. Unfortunately sea is unbearably cold in April.
Sea in Cyprus is also too cold in winter but they still attract people to come and enjoy the sun. They managed to develop village tourism which seems to be popular with people from northern Europe.
DeleteAs for Croatia, even JU tried winter flights to RJK and PUY and both unfortunately failed.
Are you seriously comparing CYPRUS in the winter with the Croatian coast? The Croatian coast is more windy in January than Scandinavia.
DeleteIf tourism was more based on hotel/resort stays swimming in a heated pool in April/May would not be a problem. Unfortunately too many air bnb's dominate.
DeleteSurprising, especially since it's Easter.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot
ReplyDelete81% capacity share is nuts!
ReplyDeleteAnd that's for the entire year. Impressive considering they only fly in summer.
DeleteIt is a regional airport adjacent to a small coastal city- Ryan flying there at all is a big success
Delete@ 9:56
DeleteI agree.
Seems capacity will be shifted from Western into Eastern Europe
ReplyDeleteLooking at the economy in the West and the upcoming tarriffs we need to see what impact they will have.
DeleteBecause Poland is not reliant on trade with the west lol
DeleteNot as much since it doesn't have an auto industry like France, Germany, Hungary, Romania or Slovakia do. Here's an example of how bad things are becoming
Deletehttps://www.dw.com/en/germanys-unemployment-rate-rises-to-63-in-march/a-72067880
There is simply no demand because it is created by western tour operators, not Croatia. Their companies and their people go for three months in large numbers and that's it.
ReplyDeleteBristol was not announced and isn’t a destination to Zadar
ReplyDeleteTypo. It was meant to say Bari. Corrected.
DeleteAdd how expensive Croatia now is and it won't be a good year.
ReplyDeleteExpensive isn’t a problem, IMHO. It’s the value for money that matters, and Croatia provides very little of that.
DeleteI'm happy to pay for quality, but I struggle in Croatia to get value for money.
DeleteExpensive is relative, as is nothing for money. The clear blue water, the scent, the sights, the food and the price is a good enough reason for Westerners to come visit.
DeleteObviously it wasn't enough outside the 3-4 summer months.
DeleteWell yes, of course. Why would you go on holiday and be miserable in the rain?
DeleteSan Sebastian has 180-220 days of rain and is full of tourists also off season. Not at all miserable. Tourists don't come just for sun and sea.
DeleteAgree with Anon 13.10. Croatia is a destination with very low value for money. It is also a destination that does not care much about repeat guests. Unlike destinations that build on their regular guests who come to the same rooms at the same times for decades, Croatian tourism workers do not care at all whether the guests will return, and therefore they do not care about a tourism product that will be such that guests will want to return.
DeleteIt's possible they didn't get money from the tourism board for it.
ReplyDeleteLet li od 15.05. za Bolognu,Pisu, Firenzu ili Milan ?
ReplyDeleteDisappointing to see the April cuts, especially right before the season kicks in. Hopefully this doesn’t affect early tourism too much
ReplyDeleteThis is why relying on a single airline for 80%+ of your traffic is risky. Zadar needs to diversify its carriers.
ReplyDeleteTko prati tisak mogao je da vidi da su se danas Zadranke poskidale u brushaltere na rivi dok kisa obilato pada u Slavoniji, Bosni i Srbiji.
ReplyDeleteFR will fly where there is money. Croatia outside June to early September is a basket case. The locals are lazy and do not want to work, instead they choose to rob people in "the season"
ReplyDeleteDa budem iskren: Zadarsko podrucje nudi jako malo sadrzaja dok temperatura zraka ne predje 26-27 stepeni, a ona mora MINIMUM 20-21 stepen. U aprilu/maju je Dalmacija samo interesantna bivsim Jugoslovenima! Cak je I Dubrovnik ugrozen zimi: od kraja oktobra do pocetka aprila nekad samo polete 3 ili 4 aviona na dan. Sve je to teski deficit, jer 3 leta idu pod subvencijama za Zagreb.
ReplyDelete