Croatia recorded strong passenger growth on routes to Spain during the January - May period, with most traffic originating from Zagreb. Over the five months, four airlines operated flights between the two countries, with Ryanair leading the market, followed by Iberia, Vueling and Croatia Airlines. From Zagreb, seven Spanish destinations were served: Madrid, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Girona, Alicante, Malaga, and Lanzarote. Additionally, Split and Dubrovnik each maintained services to Madrid and Barcelona. In total, 141.304 passengers travelled between Croatia and Spain during the first five months of the year, marking a 21.4% increase, or an additional 24.917 travellers compared to the same period last year.
Two-way passenger traffic between Croatia and Spain, January - May 2025
Ryanair has been the main driver of passenger growth between Croatia and Spain, largely due to the expansion of its network from Zagreb. In 2024, the airline launched three new routes from the Croatian capital to Spain - Palma de Mallorca, Alicante and Girona. This expansion has impacted the performance of the Zagreb - Madrid service, as travellers now have direct access to some of Spain’s most popular leisure destinations without the need to transfer through Iberia’s hub. Ryanair registered an average cabin load factor of over 90% on four of its five routes between Zagreb and Spain during the first five months of the year. The low cost airline saw average loads of 93.4% on the Malaga route, 92.2% on the Palma service, 91.9% on the Alicante flights, 91.3% on its Lanzarote rotations and 80.3% on its Girona flights.
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| Croatia Airlines launched flights between Zagreb and Madrid last week |
Croatia’s connectivity with Spain is set to expand further this summer. Iberia is extending its seasonal Madrid - Zagreb service by an additional month, operating through to November. Last week, Croatia Airlines launched a new seasonal route between the two capitals, with three weekly flights running until the end of October. Additionally, between late June and mid-July, Croatia Airlines is operating charter services between Zagreb and Girona, complementing Ryanair’s scheduled flights on the same route.
Bravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteInteresting numbers
ReplyDeleteImpressive load factors, especially considering that it is out of summer high season.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteAll those Ryan routes from Zagreb could have been operated by Croatia Airlines.
ReplyDeleteNo they could not. And that is why FR has so many aircraft, bases and routes around Europe. Because national carriers could never offer so many city pairs at prices most people can afford.
Delete@Anon 09:10
Delete+1
Croatia Airlines hasn't even attempted one of those routes for 35 years.
DeleteIt is too early.
DeleteThey are also unable to keep a single route to Spain year round.
DeleteOU could have done it, but nobody in Europe can do it under the terms Ryan does it. Financial support, fleet renewal cost, operational cost is simply unparalleled. Your post makes no sense.
DeletePost makes no sense? Ryanair started flying from Zagreb 4 years ago. Croatia Airlines had 30 years before that to do something. Instead it welcomed Ryanair at its weakest and after over a hundred million was given to it to "restrcture" and become strong and profitable.
DeleteBringing Ryanair in Franjo Tudman airport has been the best decision for Croatian tourism and travelers!
ReplyDeleteNo other airline in Europe could have achieved this much growth in so little time.
Ryanair is bad for airports!
DeleteRyanair is great for airports, cities and travelers.
DeleteThey are bad for inefficient national carriers with overpaid and underworked workforce.
It is only this people and those wishing to also become employees of said state dinosaurs that hate airlines like FR, UR, W6 etc.
^ He was being sarcastic. Give it a break.
DeleteDid not expect Malaga to be in top.
ReplyDelete*on top
DeleteMalaga has consistently been one of the top performing routes of all airlines in Zagreb.
DeleteGood to see. I'm assuming it's outbound leisure tourism?
DeleteIf you consider Girona and Barcelona are the same catchment area, then its on the top actually. But yes, Malaga really generates a lot of pax out of ZAG.
DeleteVery good numbers. And great loads for Ryanair.
ReplyDeleteVery impressive
DeleteCurious to see how Croatia Airlines will perform on new Madrid route against Iberia.
ReplyDeleteWith less frequencies, worse flight times, infinitely smaller connection options and much higher prices? Croatia Airlines has no chance.
Delete"much higher prices"
DeleteFor round trips Croatia is often cheaper.
I don't get what the issue with OU prices are, there are routes that cost 180 eur round trip which is cheap, flights to Split from ZAG are 70 eur.
DeleteDomestic routes in Croatia are subjected to PDV (+25% tax). This is not the case with international routes.
Delete@10:51 give me some example of this "often". I'm waiting.
DeleteI'm not the person that posted but if you mean from Zagreb, Croatia airlines is from my experience of using Zagreb 6 times yearly always cheaper to fly to Frankfurt, Amsterdam or Paris to catch connection than using KLM or LH
DeleteThose load factors from Ryanair are insane! Girona aside, everything is above 90%. Shows how much potential there is for even more growth.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI hope we eventually get year round flights to Madrid from Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's ironoc that there is a year round flight to Malaga and not between the two capital cities.
DeleteWhy would that be ironic? Madrid is cold in the winter, Malaga is not.
DeleteSurprised there are no direct flights to Valencia or Seville yet. If demand keeps growing, maybe next summer?
ReplyDeleteHope so.
DeleteIt depends what Ryanair does
DeleteCroatia Airlines is playing catch up again. They really need to move faster with route launches or risk becoming irrelevant on key markets like Spain.
ReplyDeleteThey are irrelevant between these two markets.
DeleteIt’s a shame Croatia Airlines only enters the game after low cost carriers prove the demand. They should be leading, not following.
DeleteIt is Slovenes who mainly fly Ryanair from Zagreb.
DeleteYeah, right. Stop BS. Yes, there are Slovenes in ZAG, and not only on FR. But they are far far far far far away from being ones flying MAINLY. Malomescanski kompleksi.
DeleteBtw. if what you are saying was true, FR would have had at least a couple of services from LJU or MBX. Let me remind you they have ZERO. Probably because of all that huuuge numbers of Slovenes flying mostly from everywhere. Probably you think FR based aircraft in Trieste because of Slovenes as well who also fly mainly on FR from TRS as well
DeleteA 21% increase year-on-year is huge. Shows that outbound travel from Croatia is booming, and Spanish tourism appeal isn’t fading.
ReplyDeleteI don't get people who write comments like this. How exactly do these numbers show that? How do you know the makeup of the passengers on these routes?
DeleteWell the numbers are growing, and growing by a lot.
DeleteOf course they are growing when there were no flights before and now there are.
DeleteI flew the Alicante route in April. The plane was packed both ways. Ryanair definitely tapped into the right kind of leisure market.
ReplyDeleteZagreb’s network is looking a lot healthier this year. Spain is just one example of how things are finally starting to improve under FR.
ReplyDeleteAgree with you. This kind of connectivity is what Zagreb Airport was missing for years.
DeleteLanzarote is a surprising destination from Zagreb. Wouldn’t have expected enough demand for that, but clearly Ryanair knows what they’re doing.
ReplyDeleteThe route is popular with Slovenians. We will se what happens now that Las Palmas starts from LJU this winter.
Delete^Lies, there are no Slovenes on ZAG flights.
Delete10.00
DeleteThey will stop operating Lanzarote, the same flydubai stopped operating Dubai from ZAG when they started LJU 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
10.58
DeleteNo one ever said there were no Slovenes in ZAG, both on FR and other airlines. People were just saying they are not majority on ZAG flights, which some malomescani claimed here. If you can't make the diferrence, you are stupid. But of course you can make diferrence and you are not stupid. You are only evil, mean and cocky, typical malomescan
@11.16 nowghere did I say they will stop operating Lanzarote so you can calm down and stop fabricating statements.
Deleteanonymous11:16 - they didnt stop but they are way below what it was
Delete12.49
DeleteNo, they are not. FZ operated daily before and they operate daily now. And passengers numbers are increasing. Talking post covid, of course, and since FZ opened LJU
Still waiting for nonstop flights to places like Bilbao. Spain is more than just the beach and capital cities.
ReplyDeleteI’d love to see this kind of expansion mirrored with Portugal next. Lisbon and Porto deserve better connectivity from Croatia.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteInterestingly Split was the first to get Portugese route with easy flights from Porto.
DeleteOdd that FR has not introduced Spain flights from Zadar.
ReplyDeleteRyanair flies from Zadar to Barcelona.
DeleteAh I see. Good. They don't fly during the JAN-MAY period which the numbers are for,
DeleteThis is magnificent development in aviation. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteOk!
ReplyDeleteGood to see both legacy and low cost carriers investing in this market. They are targeting different segments of the market.
ReplyDeleteWe only needed Ryanair...
DeleteThe Croatian coast has always been popular with Spaniards, but I’m glad to see traffic moving the other way too.
ReplyDeleteRyanair’s performance proves there was untapped demand for Spain from Zagreb. Hopefully next year we’ll see even more routes.
ReplyDeleteWhat else could be launched in Spain from Zagreb?
DeleteIbiza, Seville and Bilbao are good options.
DeleteRyanair could introduce Ibiza and Seville. They don't fly to Bilbao.
DeleteVillabajo and Villariba...?
DeleteNice pic :)
ReplyDeleteSummery :)
DeleteCompletely observational rather than supported by numbers, I spotted a large number of Spanish tourists during two weeks spent in Istria in June 2025.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that passenger movement is not just from Croatia to Spain.
Can anyone dig these numbers?
I don't have number but spanish tourists are very heard in Zagreb and on the coast
Delete@12:20 That doesn't even make sense because you cannot fly from Spain to either Pula or Rijeka.
DeleteOMG 19.44, Rijeka is hour and a half by car or two and a half by bus from Zagreb. You really think it doesn't make sense to visit both, plus Istria, for Spanyards in Croatia?
DeleteDid OU publish their H1 passenger numbers? If yes, how many did they have in the first half?
ReplyDeleteNo they have not. They publish them at the end of July.
DeleteNice article. Any change we get one for BEG too? I'm curious to see how the Spanish market is performing.
ReplyDeleteSorry that was meant to say *chance
DeleteYes, there will be an article.
DeleteThank you! Looking forward to it
DeleteThis will be good to see what is the percentage of the diaspora imo only Madrid from BEG is diaspora?
DeleteNot a lot of diaspora in Spain
DeleteWhat was LF on first flight to Madrid?
ReplyDeleteIs Madrid service over 50% croatian tourists or this route is transfers to South America +spanish tourists? Or most of them are croatians to Spain? Also BCN, AGP are really 100% with croatians? If is right this is really good, on this logic Spain is more popular than Italy for croatians.
ReplyDeleteItaly you can drive to. Spain you cannot.
DeleteAlicante, Thessaloniki, Pisa, Lanzarote, Malaga, Malta, Palermo, Paphos, Corfu, Girona, Kos, Marseille, Naples, Palma de Mallorca. Ryanair really does wonders in Zagreb, if we go back a little, for example in 2016, the difference is huge. A lot of missed opportunities from OU. And just think how much more potential there is in the development of leisure destinations....
ReplyDeleteStill no AYT service.Turkiye is not popular in Croatia.
DeleteWhat about Prague and Sofia? Prague may be with tourists, while Sofia is a mix of travelers for LJU and ZAG and even some Austrian cities. More likely business trips.
DeletePrague I think you're right but Sofia I think is mostly Croats visiting and vice versa although as someone who fly 130 flights a year Ill confirm that most people in serious companies would never fly FR for work
DeletePoblación
ReplyDeleteCroacia
2024
Barcelona 593
Madrid 381
Palmas, Las 193
Balears, Illes 191
Santa Cruz de Tenerife 178
Alicante/Alacant 169
Málaga 151
Valencia/València 140
Diáspora in Spain
Wow, there are over 30,000 Romanians in Mallorca. That is, the traffic from Croatia to Spain is only tourists
DeleteVery good results
ReplyDelete