Dubrovnik Airport held talks with American Airlines last month as it continues efforts to secure additional nonstop services to the United States. The airport’s Managing Director, Viktor Šober, and Deputy Director, Ivan Maslać, also met with representatives from the Chicago Department of Aviation, which manages O’Hare Airport, as well as officials from the City of Chicago. Commenting on the airport’s ambitions, Mr Šober noted last year, “While we are currently connected to New York, one route is proving insufficient. We need another, similar to what we had a few years ago. The primary challenge is the shortage of aircraft and the delays in new deliveries caused by manufacturing and supply chain issues. It's a complex situation that makes securing these flights difficult. However, I am confident that within the next year or two, we will have something concrete”.
American Airlines previously operated seasonal summer flights between Philadelphia and Dubrovnik, but the service was discontinued in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2019, the airline indicated it was considering launching flights from Chicago to the Croatian coastal city as early as 2021. At the time, the carrier said, “Dubrovnik went really, really well for us. We can connect 95% of the United States over Philadelphia, and none of our competitors’ operations in New York or the Northeast can do anything even remotely close to that”. In 2019, American Airlines carried 17.879 passengers on the Philadelphia–Dubrovnik route, achieving an average cabin load factor of 80.7% on the Boeing 767-300 aircraft.
Croatia is stepping up efforts to expand nonstop connectivity with the United States. Earlier this year, the country’s Foreign Minister, Gordan Grlić Radman, discussed the “potential establishment of nonstop flights between Croatian and American airports” during meetings with local officials in Florida. Since then, United Airlines has announced the launch of seasonal flights from its Newark hub to Split next summer, complementing its existing service to Dubrovnik. The Croatian National Tourist Board has stressed that long-haul markets such as the United States are essential for future growth, emphasising that “we must actively encourage the launch of new routes” in order to strengthen accessibility and support tourism development.
Chicago and American would be a great addition
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteZagrebe, da li i dalje spavas? :)
Naravno da spava. Čemu radit kad se može samo guštat. A plaća ide.
DeleteA tko plaću daje?
DeleteExcellent news
ReplyDeleteSo it's realistic to see them in DBV in 2027?
ReplyDeleteWhy not 2026?
DeleteThey have already announced their new routes for next summer.
DeleteWhich new routes are they starting in Europe?
DeleteFrom Philly, Budapest and Prague
DeleteAlso DFW-ATH.
DeleteAmerican in ATH is literally booming. They operate from JFK, ORD, PHL, CLT and now DFW, crazy to think Athens has daily flights to Charlotte and Croatia can't even has flights to ORD...
DeleteWould prefer Delta to come back
ReplyDeleteWhere did Delta fly from?
DeleteJFK
DeleteDelta can fly from any of the hubs - Atlanta, NYC, Detroit, Minneapolis, Boston, etc. The question is WHY they should fly? If Delta find the purpose, it will fly to make money, not to make some minister happy.
DeleteIf United sees enough demand for both DBV and SPU, then AA should absolutely reconsider Chicago. The diaspora and tourism mix is there, especially in peak season.
ReplyDeleteIt’s about time Dubrovnik pushed harder.
ReplyDeleteAA’s Philly route performed well considering it was on the old 767s. With the 787s coming online, they should be able to restart something eventually.
ReplyDeleteAll Croatian airports are benefitting from the boom in US travellers. United adding Split was a big vote of confidence. Dubrovnik should definitely go for a second U.S. route.
ReplyDeleteThat airport that receives the most passengers originating in the US is Zagreb.
DeleteHow come none of the US airlines is considering ZAG operations then?
DeleteTrash yields
DeleteNemojte se zavaravati; američki turisti su u Hrvatskoj u 2024 boravili u prosjeku tek 2,6 dana, a
Deleteu Zagrebu još manje!
Statistika najbolje pokriva pravo stanje stvari. Prosjek kvare putnici sa kruzera koji ostaju po 1 dan. Ako se njih odbije, ukupni broj Amera u HR je takav da omogućava barem 5 linija, ne jednu ili dvije. Pri čemu se nitko ne zavarava.
DeleteMa da i u Zagrebu turisti s kruzera kvare prosjek!
DeleteDajte se koncentrirajte i ne pričajte svašta...
Dajte Vi uključite mozak i elementarnu logiku, može i bez koncentracije: ako govorite o hrvatskom prosjeku, a to ste napisali, kojega kvari obala gdje putnici s kruzera ostaju po 1 dan, to znači da je prosjek boravka u Zagrebu dulji. Činjenica je da je ZAG aerodrom s najvećim brojem putnika za Ameriku i iz Amerike. To su brojevi i podaci i ne zahtjevaju nikakvo koncentriranje. I ne pričam svašta, pričam brojeve. A to što Vi tražite opravdanje za nemar, nerad, propuštene šanse i sramotno mali broj direktnih letova između Hrvatske i Amerike što je postalo jasno i notorno sporom i neučinkovitom državnom aparatu, to je već Vaš problem
DeleteChicago–Dubrovnik makes so much sense. Huge catchment area, strong outbound traffic and tour operators would fill a good chunk of seats.
ReplyDeleteGood to see the airport actively courting airlines.
ReplyDeleteWould love to see AA return.
ReplyDelete80% LF wasn't great first time round
DeleteI agree, especially for flight to/from Philadelphia.
DeleteFor the first tear of ops it certainly was!
DeleteAnd still AA was happy and decided to increase number of flights to daily in 2020. Bit maybe they should have listed to these experts.
DeletePeople here still think that load factor = route performance.
DeleteLF obviously isn't everything, but why didn't AA resume service after covid? Think about it so called experts/trolls
DeleteAA retired a lot of their planes and now don't have enough with delays...https://simpleflying.com/american-airlines-five-simultaneous-aircraft-retirements-story/
Deletebad decision that hurts their growth
I expect these to materialize in 2027. Good job.
ReplyDeleteIt won't materialize because American is losing tons of money in Chicago and 787 is too big for the route
DeleteHow is AA losing in ORD?
DeleteWell since I don't work for AA idk how but there was an article on simple flying that American just this year lost 100milion dollars in ORD
DeleteMeanwhile ZAG doing absolutely nothing.
ReplyDeleteGreat.
ReplyDeleteWhy not consider United from Chicago?
ReplyDeleteFew Facts: United is already in Croatia,
United headquaters is in Chicago,
Chicago is United second largest Hub by pax# (Denver is first, EWR is #3)
United has more flights at ORD than American.
They can do W rotation easy EWR-DBV-ORD-DBV-EWR.
only thing negative think I can see is not having diverse portfolio, Star Aliance vs Oneworld.
Not so sure ORD and DBV with AA is good combination. Think AA should go for restarting PHL to DBV while UA which is stronger in ORD should start both DBV and ZAG from ORD. Which leaves space for DL to start JFK to ZAG. With current services to North America, that would be minimum to "cover" for today's 800.000 visitors from North America to Croatia, and with Croatia Airlines obviously not willing to enter this huge and the most lucrative market in order to continue filling LHG aircraft and pockets
ReplyDeleteJFK to ZAG with Delta 🤣
DeleteAmerican is good option for Chicago, and Delta should consider flights to Dubrovnik or Split. I doubt there is substantial demand for Delta flights in Zagreb.
Delta is successor of Pan Am, which took almost all ex Pan Am aircraft and routes. Pan Am used to fly to ZAG from JFK 40 years ago, when demand was 10 times less than today. ZAG has no direct service to NY and is the city which receives most of US passengers. Delta hub at JFK is huuuuuge and enables transfers to dozens of cities across the US. Competition among USB3 is big and relevant and with other two starting serious operations to Croatia, DL will definitely not stand aside and watch. Therefore, reduce your sarcasm shown in crying smiley, please, and give some counter argument instead.
DeleteAnd even if AA starts ORD to DBV, it doesn't mean it's the better option than UA. But I don't expect you to understand it.
1. Delta isn't PanAm's successor. PanAm went into bankruptcy in 1991, and was not bought or acquired by Delta. What actually happened was that Delta bought some of PanAm's assets, but definitely not all of them. We should also note that United bought whole Pacific division from PanAm, so they are equally their successor as much is Delta.
Delete2. I'm just saying that there is no way Delta will enter Zagreb. If United and American are entering Dubrovnik and Split, then Delta might do the same and not start operations to Zagreb.
Most of the US visitors to Croatia are coming to the coast, not ZAG, despite what so-called experts claim.
DeleteZagreb is a city at the same importance level as Bratislava and Ljubljana, whereas some of the prettiest places in the Mediterranean are in Dalmatia, hence interest for visiting this part of Croatia resulted with the introduction of direct flights from the US.
ZAG is not seeing any of these.
17.27
DeleteWhy should be we in Europe interested in Pacific division? What we talk about was acquired by Delta.
Zagreb is definitely the same importance as Bratislava or Ljubljana, being the capital of the country where all those Mediterranean pretty places are, what BTS and LJU are not, and taking into account very big croatian ethnic community located preciseley in New York and New Jersey, which is again very much opposite to LJU and BTS. If OU were real airline and not shameful feeder and midget, New York flights from ZAG were supposed to be reality long ago, but with american airlines starting "discovering" Croatia, we shall see these flights soon, you like it or not
Well, if one of the American airlines wants to fly to beautiful Mediterranean, it can fly there directly, and not in Zagreb. Exactly that is happening right now.
DeleteUnited already flies directly to the beautiful Mediterranean in Croatia, to two destinations. The second airline coming, is today's article. Logical continuation is ZAG, which can be year-round, unlike beautiful Mediterranean. The reasons why it hasn't happened yet are plentiful and many times explained. But it's just about to change, again you like it or not.
DeleteWhat is going to change? Delta who can't even make Geneva work will start flying year round to Zagreb? 🤣
DeleteBefore labeling your comments with sarcastic crying smiley, please learn Delta is not "who" but which or that. Oh, btw T'way is not flying to Geneve as well
DeleteT'way has nothing to do with Delta. Delta is cancelling their Geneva route so I doubt they will make Zagreb work.
DeleteT'way does not fly to Geneve and it flies to Zagreb. So can Delta. And you understand very well what I was saying but just playing dumb. And just btw, Geneve is smaller city than Zagreb and Swiss operates daily GVA to JFK. So once again, no crying smiley needed, ZAG is getting US flights, Delta or other carrier
DeleteDelta is starting flights to Malta next year. I can't understand Malta has more demand than Zagreb. It's simply impossible. Hello Delta, what are you waiting for???
DeleteT'way is crappy LCC carrier and no one wants it. Delta on the other hand is not.
DeleteZagreb might be bigger then Geneve but it's surely smaller than Voronezh.
14.29
ReplyDeleteNo need for W rotations when you have base in both airports of origin. Especially with daily flights, which is the case with EWR-DBV on UA. And usually long-haul don't operate with W rotations. It is normally short haul operation.
Agree about Star/One, that's why proposed as above.
Absolutely untrue. United does loads of W-operations, especially in Heathrow where aircraft go all over the place across the US.
DeleteDo you have an idea at all what "W" ops are?
DeleteThe commentor at 15:22 clearly does not.
DeleteYes but they have a London crew base so it's completely different
DeleteThe plane does W rotation the crew is changing for every flight.
DeleteDelta does it All the time,
Just tracked A330. Flight history,
ATL-AMS-DTW-AMS-ATL.
Another one,
DTW-CDG-JFK-CDG-DTW.
new crew for every flight cause of the duration, but it is a W rotation for the plane.
It is posibility for United in the early and late season when there no daily flights, W rotation for plane not crew, as anon 14:29 mentioned
EWR-DBV-ORD-DBV-EWR, as EWR & ORD are both United major hubs, Saves a lot on downtime, Crew, Maintenance, Aircraft availabily & repositioning. Very important for USB3. Not that will happen but just an option.
Bravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteIm baffled how no one in banski dvori whos begging for direct flights to the US don't go to their uhljeb friends in Buzin and sort something there I know its unrealistic for OU to start any long haul flights anytime soon despite their 321XLR fantasies and would just rather feed LH they could at least try wet lease a330 and launch some flights I know they would love the attention they would get from the media for this and it would be nice for them to get some media coverage since their marketing department is non existant
ReplyDeleteBanski Dvori and Ivan Mišetić are part of the same criminal organization which sold croatian air market to Germans, for their benefits. Nothing to be baffled about, they destroy OU on purpose and until totaly destroyed it will remain humiliated LHG servant
Delete