British Airways will suspend its flights between London Heathrow and Zagreb over the upcoming 2025/26 winter season, which begins on October 26 and runs until March 28 of next year. EX-YU Aviation News has received official confirmation the route will not operate over the winter and ticket sales have now been discontinued. The airline plans to resume seasonal summer operations on March 29. Since relaunching flights in December 2012 following a ten-year hiatus, British Airways has maintained a year-round service between London and the Croatian capital, with some disruption during the pandemic. The Oneworld member originally planned to run four weekly rotations between the two cities this coming winter.
Zagreb will retain air connectivity to London, with Croatia Airlines maintaining three weekly flights to Heathrow and Ryanair operating ten weekly services to Stansted. The route to Heathrow has seen a decline in passenger numbers since Ryanair entered the London market in summer 2021 with four weekly flights. Demand for the Heathrow service has failed to recover post-pandemic in the wake of the low cost carrier’s arrival. During the first quarter of 2025, British Airways and Croatia Airlines handled a combined total of 6.667 passengers, down 29.4% on the same period last year. In comparison, Ryanair welcomed 13.239 travellers on its Stansted route, up 19.9% on Q1 2024.
Passenger numbers between Zagreb and London Heathrow
For the first time in years, British Airways will not serve any markets in the former Yugoslavia during the upcoming winter season. The withdrawal follows the discontinuation of its Heathrow - Belgrade service last year, as well as the downgrading of its Ljubljana route to a summer-only operation. The airline had previously terminated its Pristina service in 2022 and downgraded its Dubrovnik route to summer seasonal in 2023. British Airways is focusing on strengthening operations in core European markets and expanding long-haul capacity, particularly to North America and Asia.
Say what you will but they seem to have completely failed in this region. Flying from a major hub such as LHR they can't keep a single route in ex-Yu year round.
ReplyDeleteThe result of Brexit!
DeleteWhat on Earth does Brexit have to do with it?
DeleteFor P2P pax, BA is too expensive vs. its direct competitors, and for connecting & long-haul pax, they don't offer enough flexibility due to a limited number of frequencies. In addition to that, they have decimated their loyalty programme and their soft product in Europe is rubbish.
Sad to see British Airways retreat from the region.
DeleteHard to believe, considering how active they once were in the region.
DeleteBrexit = international business activity. BA for sure has higher share of business pax than Ryanair.
DeleteOh noo.. anyway 😁
DeleteThis situation is not just for Zagreb. BA has failed all over the place. It was once the gold standard of airlines but has really been in a major decline for the last decade. Poor management and poor leadership.
DeleteBad news for Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteGreat news for Croatia Airlines.
ReplyDeleteYeah right.
DeleteThey sold slots in LHR so they can't increase frequencies to LHR.
It's a pity they can't increase frequnecies to LHR (not that they would even if they could).
Delete"not that they would even if they could"
DeleteHahahahahahha
The biggest mistake OU has made in it's history!
DeleteAgree, a very shortsighted move in order to show profit that one single year.
DeleteIt would've been an okay move if they actually used that money but everything seemingly went to shit
DeleteOkay, they can buy them back
DeleteOh, wait…
Delete09.07
DeleteWrong. The biggest mistake in history is decision on single type fleet.
With millions in debt, I doubt they have the capacity to buy any significant slots, least of all Heathrow slots, which are very pricey and generally unavailable.
DeleteExcellent news for OU!
ReplyDeleteTime for OU to start London City with the A220.
ReplyDeleteA220-300 is not licensed to land at LCY, unfortunately. Although the airport management said they plan to expand it for that purpose
DeleteBut the -100 is
Delete+1, but this is too clever of a move for OU to make
DeleteIt’s not clever at all. All transfers are at LHR, p2p already use RyanAir
DeleteLHR transfers are minimal compared to FRA, MUC, and AMS. The smaller capacity A220-100 would perfectly serve business travellers willing to pay a premium not to fly Ryanair to Stansted + to land in central London.
DeleteWhat business travel? Zagreb is a mainly a tourist route and serving Croats in the Uk. London City is also not easy to get slots for. For summer charters however...OU might be wise to try London City-Dubrovnik
DeleteThey’re so uninterested in Balkans…
ReplyDeleteDefine Balkans please. They fly to Bucharest , Sofia , Tirana and an impressive 6 daily to Athens in summer season !
DeleteIstanbul.
DeleteWestern Balkans, as per our latest classification by the "collective west".
DeleteThe Ryanair effect.
ReplyDelete*laughs in Ryanair*
ReplyDeleteI don't really understand. It's probably not a capacity issue it being winter and all
ReplyDeleteThey can use the slots for a more higher yielding service.
DeleteToo much capacity in winter and not enough demand
Delete"The route to Heathrow has seen a decline in passenger numbers since Ryanair entered the London market in summer 2021 with four weekly flights. Demand for the Heathrow service has failed to recover post-pandemic in the wake of the low cost carrier’s arrival. During the first quarter of 2025, British Airways and Croatia Airlines handled a combined total of 6 667 passengers, down 29.4% on the same period last year. In comparison"
Why fly at 80% LF to Zag when you can fly for 95% LF to Chambery or Marrakech
DeleteTrue dat.
DeleteThis might be a loss for Zagreb but OU will now carry all business travel and more tourists so they should have higher loads
ReplyDeleteWell, since they operate three times per week, I suppose LH will take over most of those passengers. That`s how it goes.
DeleteAgree.
DeleteOU does 4 weekly in Q1, let's hope OU can use this in their advantage
DeleteThey don't do return service for the fourth flight.
DeleteSo neither Ljubljana or Zagreb will be served in winter??
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteHow many frequencies did BA have?
ReplyDelete6 weekly I think.
DeleteIt says in the article. 4 weekly. Do people read beyond the headline? Just read a comment in the article about QR using B787 on 2 flights to ZAG where the person is complaining he will no longer fly QR because he prefers Airbus over Boeing...
DeleteConnectivity will be hit hard in ZAG.
ReplyDeleteWill they launch Skopje now, since we are best friends now with the UK :)
ReplyDeleteThey actually flew to SKP before
DeleteThey showed in ex YU that they can't compete against more serious airlines.
ReplyDeleteAs long as they had only OU in ZAG they were flying regularly during the whole year but now when serious player set the rules BA is leaving...during the winter for the time being, but who knows...
In Belgrade also they could not compete against JU and W6 that had last summer in total 20 flights to LTN and LHR. BA wanted to play some role with their 3 weekly flights.
Funny.
***Correction***
DeleteJU+W6 had last summer in total 16 flights to LHR and LTN.
Well, LH group now controls the central north-south axis of Europe from Baltic to Mediterranean, one may say they are unbeatable when it comes to securing connections and frequencies eastward... The others are complete and utter underdogs.
DeleteRyanair has completely reshaped the market dynamics in Zagreb. BA just couldn’t keep up with the aggressive pricing and frequency.
ReplyDeletePity
ReplyDeleteZagreb need more UK flight options.
ReplyDeletefrequency matters too. Ryanair’s 10 weekly flights offer far more flexibility than BA ever did.
ReplyDeleteWould be interesting to know how much of BA’s traffic was point-to-point vs. connecting through LHR on this route.
ReplyDeleteThe Heathrow route will never recover while Ryanair continues to undercut prices with far more capacity. It’s a losing game for legacy carriers.
ReplyDeleteWhat about business travellers who rely on LHR’s global connections?
DeleteThere obviously weren't enough of those types of passengers if BA is suspending flights in winter.
DeleteI remember when BA, Lufthansa, and Austrian dominated this region. Now it’s Ryanair, Wizz and easyJet — the new reality.
ReplyDeleteMuch better now
DeleteSad
ReplyDeleteNo big loss
ReplyDeleteReally?
DeleteHuge loss I would say...
DeleteBut several other airlines are increasing flights to ZAG this winter as has been reported here, so it won't lead to any passenger loss.
DeleteHope they do actually return next summer.
ReplyDeleteLet's see...
Delete...and that's how real airlines deal with seasonality...
ReplyDeleteLjubljana is going down from 8 weekly to nothing within 20 days... I just don't see how
ReplyDeleteAh LJU went from having 4 flights on some days to barely double daily. So no surprise here. Bravo Fraport!
DeleteThe funny thing is that many here in this blog believe that they failed because of competition instead of admiting that the ex-yu market is too small for them .
ReplyDeleteYeah right.
DeleteIt became suddenly too small only few seasons after FR discovered ZAG.
Or BEG became too small with highest numbers ever.
Sure.
It would be nice to see OU respond by increasing frequencies to 5 weekly. Adding 2 extra flights a week can't be that impossible for them?? 😅
ReplyDeleteNo chance considering they would need to acquire slots which is very difficult and expensive at Heathrow. They sold half of their own slots to Delta a few years ago so they could show a profit for that single year.
Deleteou will be happy. They will get all the BA rebooked pax
ReplyDeleteThere will be no rebooked pax because the airline has no obligation to rebook you if the flights are cancelled more than two weeks in advance.
DeleteTrue, I forgot about that
DeleteCrazy they FR has more passengers on this route than BA and OU combined.
ReplyDelete*that not they, sorry
Delete