Belgrade has maintained its position as Zagreb’s busiest capital city route among the republics which once formed the former Yugoslavia after overtaking Skopje for the first time in six years in 2023. The pair were followed by Sarajevo and Podgorica, the latter being maintained on a seasonal summer basis. Air Serbia, as the sole operator on the Belgrade - Zagreb route, handled 62.703 passengers between the two capitals in 2024, up just 0.8% on the year before. Although the airline saw its passenger numbers rise over 13% during the first three quarters of the year, it registered a sharp decline in the fourth due to a reduction in flights from seventeen weekly last winter to eleven weekly. This coming summer season, Air Serbia will operate between twelve and fifteen weekly flights between the two cities, down from twelve to sixteen weekly last year.
Roundtrip passenger performance on Zagreb flights, 2024
Croatia Airlines, as the only operator on the Zagreb - Skopje service, welcomed 60.262 passengers on board its aircraft. The airline maintained a total of 1.006 flights between the two cities, up from 966 in 2023, registering an average cabin load factor of 58.1% over the twelve-month period. Last year, Croatia Airlines continued operations on its seasonal service between Split and Skopje, which was launched in 2023. Croatia Airlines plans to maintain nine weekly flights between the two cities this summer, the same as last year.
Croatia Airlines handled 56.248 passengers between Zagreb and Sarajevo, up 7.9% year-on-year. During 2024 it performed a total of 1.352 flights, which is the same as the previous year. Its average cabin load factor over the twelve months stood at 54%. This summer, Croatia Airlines plans to operate between eleven and thirteen weekly flights on the route, down by one weekly rotation for the majority of the season. The only other capital from the former Yugoslavia served out of Zagreb is Podgorica, however, the route, operated by Ryanair, was turned into a seasonal service in October 2023. Last year, the budget airline handled 30.813 passengers between the two cities, with an average cabin load factor of 86.5%. The carrier has decided to discontinue the route, and it is not scheduled to return this summer.
Why are OU's numbers so below pre Covid period? They are operating the same amount of flights...
ReplyDeleteThey failed to fight off competition in this markets, especially LH in SKP
DeleteIt seems to be across the board since their overall passenger numbers last year were 15% below 2019.
DeletePoor management, strategy, sales and the belief the A220 will magically solve all the company's internal issues.
DeleteChanging fleet from 74 seats aircraft to 149 seats means different business adaptations. Unfortunately it is hard in the beginning of a change.
DeleteI think its down to OU offering less transfer options from ZAG than before.
DeleteI think Lufthansa killed them in SKP
DeleteThey focus too much on point to point. They could really improve their LF if they had a good go at the transfer market. But for this to happen, they would have to change the entire scheduling. Maybe with lack of slots at major airports, this is easier said than done.
Delete@12.23 Nah, its the lack of transfer options from ZAG. Even MUC is not anymore a daily option transfer wise
DeleteDamn that's a weak regional performance by ZAG
ReplyDeleteNot really. The table doesn't include any domestic Croatian flights and there are more than 10 per day in the summer.
DeleteYes and out of those domestic only DBV & SPU have some ok numbers. Rest is very modest.
DeleteSome ok numbers? What does that even mean?
DeleteNotable
DeleteBEG and SKP are close. Will be interesting to see if SKP can overtake this year
ReplyDelete61.4% load factor for the whole year is too low.
ReplyDeleteOn ATR72 that's actually ok.
DeleteIt's not for a ATR used on this route by Air Serbia. Not perfect, but it's OK.
DeleteI wandering what is LF LJU-BEG since JU has almost the same frequencies.
DeleteIt stood at 68.8% last year.
DeleteThat is okay performance for an ATR route.
DeletePlus both flights are short so costs are low for JU
DeleteWith such high prices (150€ for a return flight) the loads are actually good.
DeleteActually, they need ATR42-600
DeleteHad an impression that LF from LJU is higher. Thanks for the data, Admin. Regional flights via BEG to ex-YU destinations from LJU can be extremely expensive. In lots of cases LH group can be cheaper, e.g. LJU-SKP is competitively priced only on a dates with direct WIZZ flights, otherwise LH group can be easily cheaper, SJJ can get to 400+ EUR one way.
DeleteAt this point who's flying LJU-SJJ doe. It takes longer than by car which is generally a cheaper, more flexible and more comfortable way of travel
DeleteWho is flying? Look at the structure of JU and OU passengers. Driving more comfortable? And faster?
Delete@10:36
DeleteATR 42-600 is profitable only for PSO routes.
Montenegro keeps winning!
ReplyDelete60k passengers in Ex-yu is a serious numbers.
ReplyDeleteBtw Any infor for Skopje-Split route ?
Worth to mentioned that OU first A220 is sended regulary to SKP since they launch the plane , first Ex yu airport served :))
ReplyDeleteWhy did Ryanair discontinue TGD with these numbers?
ReplyDeleteBecause it isn't about passenger numbers but about making profit. They were selling tickets for under 10 euros on an A320. You can sell tickets on an A380 for 1 euro and have a full aircraft but you will make a massive loss.
Delete
Delete^ +1000
Are you sure 09.07? You saw FR financial results on TGD? Ever heard of FR cutting multiple destinations from TGD? Ever heard of tax increase?
DeleteZagreb is the only Ryanair route discontinued from Podgorica.
Deletehow is Split-Skopje doing? who is using this route
ReplyDeleteTourists travelling to Dalmatia, and I would also imagine people working on the coast if ticket prices make sense for their budgets.
DeleteTourists and people who work in Dalmatia through the summer season. Tickets are little more expensive then bus maybe 100eur but way better then traveling almost a day.
DeleteYeah, the road infrastructure between Macedonia and Dalmatia isn't the best. There should be a project for a highway connecting Skopje and Tirana, and then hopefully the Adriatic-Ionian connection gets realized finally.
DeleteThe way things are, the fastest way to drive to the Croatian coast, is actually via Kosovo... going north to Pristina, then Tirana and then the local roads to and through Montenegro - with Dubrovnik still not being fully connected to the Croatian highway network.
Skopje-Ljubljana on Wizz might have had an impact on numbers.
ReplyDeleteIs the Skopje route mostly used by transfers or point to point passengers?
DeleteTransfers
DeleteNow imagine if an LCC started all these routes. They would destroy the national airlines.
ReplyDeleteNot really, as we can see Ryanair didn't manage to turn a profit. There is a huge difference if you are operating a route with an A320 and if you are operating with an ATR or Dash. Not to mention that many of these routes are transfer heavy.
DeleteAny chance ZAG-PRN will ever come back?
ReplyDeleteMaybe
DeleteFrom one month ago
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2025/02/croatia-airlines-discusses-potential.html
I doubt OU needs another regional route with a 50% LF
DeleteHope not. Just another loss making route.
DeleteRegarding OU, it is clear without a stronger European network for transfers, their regional routes will be unprofitable, as there is no demand for enough P2P routes to fill those planes.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteOU should launch routes to TZL and TGD from ZAG. Both would work very well for transfers.
ReplyDeleteZAG-TZL route would be such a nonsense. Way too close.
DeleteIt's not true; TZL is almost the same distance to ZAG as SJJ. Also, there is a lack of legacy airlines in TZL, and adding ZAG flights would be a great move for OU.
DeleteTZL is not any closer to Zagreb than ZAD, PUY or SPU. In fact it's more far away, and there's an EU border in between.
DeleteI doubt ZAD and PUY to Zagreb turn much profit (if any) for OU. They are needed for internal connectivity. Flying to TZL would be a total disaster for Croatia Airlines. To be frank the city and region around it isn't rich enough to support the kind of numbers of passengers who would pay to connect via Zagreb even if Croatia Airlines had the kind of network to support that. Once BiH has improved road connections I wouldn't be shocked if Sarajevo - Zagreb eventually was dropped. Not anytime soon, but it's not impossible to envision.
DeleteTZL needs JU. The issue is that TZL-BEG is way too short. However, I believe that BEG-TZL-BNX-TZL-BEG could work. With ATR of course.
DeleteBEG-TZL-BNX-TZL-BEG would perfectly fit into JU's network.
DeleteDeparture from BEG at 07:45 and 18:00, perfectly enabling connections.
..and make a huge loss financially.
DeleteSarajevo-Zagreb road is perfectly fine, 80% of it are highways and the rest is a good quality road
DeleteTZL should provide subsidies, same as BNX for JU services. It's a win-win, both airport desperately need connections to some hub.
DeleteInteresting numbers
ReplyDeleteI am wondering if the cost of these local flights which are price sensitive are too high?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely!
DeleteThat's why LCCs would make a big difference, as they did on the Podgorica route which was once operated by OU.
DeleteI agree. The fares to all these local destinations are larger than most other destinations to western Europe.
DeleteLCCs don't have appropriate aircraft for these routes to offer high frequency service.
DeleteOU has excessively high prices, few destinations, and poor connectivity. They operate flights with "only one-third occupancy", while the Croatian diaspora in Germany is loyal to "Mutti." OU drains huge resources from taxpayers.
ReplyDelete"Croatia full of other Airlines."
Hope the success of LJU-SKP encourages Wizz to think further on adding more intra-ex-Yu flights.
ReplyDeleteI think lots of ex-YU LCC routs would be very successful.
DeleteBEG-LJU
DeleteAny chance OU launching Belgrade?
ReplyDeleteThey tried SPU-BEG and failed.
DeleteThey didn't fail. Covid happened and its one of the many pre-covid routes that has not resumed.
DeleteOU is lacking strategy on every corner including in their sales on regional ops. These results show. In 2024 they were nowhere near even close to reaching pre Covid traffic levels on these routes.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit surprised. I would have expected Sarajevo to be first.
ReplyDeleteThere are almost no ticket sales promotions from OU and the cities are getting increasingly closer, it's less than 5h by car now
DeleteThat's a really good load factor on Ryanair!
ReplyDeleteWith 10 EUR tkts no surprise. Also no surprise they first downgraded the route to seasonal and later discontinued it.
DeleteTickets were never 10 euros, and they downgraded it to punish Podgorica.
DeleteTickets were literally 10 euros since I bought it at this price 3 times! And no one is being punished. The route is not downgraded it is discontinued. It lasted just a year as year-round, then it went seasonal and then it was discontinued.
DeleteI remember reading here from certain experts many many years ago how no one from Zagreb would transfer via BEG to anywhere. Now the route is number 1 ex-Yu route from ZAG.
ReplyDeleteWe recently had a work conference in Sofia and all our Croatian colleagues, over 10 of them flew with JU via Belgrade. Then this week we had a conference in Podgorica and again all of them flew with JU.
DeleteMakes sense to be honest. Backtracking via Frankfurt, Munich or Vienna would be a bit crazy.
DeleteFar from it
DeleteI would be interesting to see where to/from do the transfers come on these routes.
ReplyDeleteZagreb city does a lot of promotion in Belgrade. Most recently there was a big ad campaign for the light festival in Zagreb. I'm guessing these sort of campaigns increase point to point demand, although I assume the majority of people still go by car.
ReplyDeleteIf this region had an advanced rail network many of these routes would not be necessary.
ReplyDeleteNone of these routes would be necessary if there was proper public transport in Ex-Yu.
DeleteNonsense. VIE-BUD has a great rail connection but OS still flies three times per day.
DeleteThat's because Budapest is a major tourist/business city and I can guarantee you almost nobody flies that city-pair out of choice or economics. Its the same as Amsterdam-Brussels. Flights exist, but almost exclusively for connections. I agree that even with drastically improved rail and road links the geography of Ex-Yu lends itself to regional flying especially from Macedonia - Slovenia and Zagreb and from Belgrade to the coast. The routes most at threat by hypothetical good rail links (and lets face it that wont really occur in the near future) would actually be domestic flying within Croatia, and along the Belgrade-Skopje corridor.
DeletePotentially with improved economics and political situation there is room for more regional flying within what was once Yugoslavia. Skopje - Pula is a route that springs to mind.
Ljubljana and Zagreb will soon be connected with a high-er speed railway. It's not technically high speed because it won't be going at over 200km/h. Basically the best we can hope for within Croatia are speeds of 160km/h and internal routes at max speeds up to 200km/h.
DeleteAt any event, it would be cool to have a similar connection to Belgrade. Ljubljana - Zagreb - Belgrade at 160 - 200km/h would be awesome. Basically you could get on the train in the center of Zagreb and be in the center of Belgrade in 2 and a half to 3 hours.
*and international routes at max speeds of up to 200km/h
DeleteThose will do superbly with the new A220!!!
ReplyDeleteYou forgot bright and shiny. And of course everything related to your beloved OU is superbly. Except two minor things, totally irrelevant to commercial aviation, (poor) load factor and financial losses
Deletei looked recently at one way ZAG-BWK earlyJune on OU. was 140 euros! will check again if any change..far too expensive..Will they operate that route with bigger A220? ive never seen it full..maybe it is in august?
ReplyDeleteA220-300 can't be used at Brac. When they get A220-100 they can. So maybe from next year
DeleteBravo SJJ!
ReplyDelete@anon
ReplyDeleteDo you have any info for ZAG-TIA?
Funny to notice how people are greeting 61.4% Belgrade perfomance, but 58.1% Skopje perfomance is bad likewise.
ReplyDeleteBEG has even more frequencies than SKP, with smaller plane than OU
The difference being that one airline had a network wide load factor of 80% in 2024 and the other had 65%.
DeleteThat only boosts my observation. Thank you!
DeleteGenerally low figures on these routes
ReplyDeleteCould ZAG-TIV work?
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteSkopje numbers will improve this year with A220 use.
ReplyDeleteNice.
ReplyDelete