NEWS FLASH
Croatia Airlines has discontinued its seasonal service between Zagreb and Tirana, with all flights between the two capitals now removed from the booking system. The route had been scheduled to resume on May 24, following an earlier postponement. Services were set to operate three times per week. As a result, Tirana becomes the sixth route to be dropped this summer. It joins previously discontinued services from Zagreb to Milan and Bucharest, as well as from Split to Amsterdam, Skopje and Bucharest. Flights between Zagreb and Tirana were launched in 2024. All services on the route during the 2026 summer season were scheduled with the Airbus A319, A220-100 and A220-300 aircraft.
What will they do with 15 planes, when they fly on about 6 destinations?
ReplyDeleteOffer them to LH to replace CityLine
DeleteWelcome back adria
DeleteWhere is Bravo Hrvatska guy 🥺
DeleteAttending meeting at Centralni Komitet, oh, sorry, Središnjica
DeleteTotal dominance from Croatia Airlines! Bajić is showing the world how it’s done. Cutting routes is a strategic power move. Keep leading the way, Jasmin—you’re an absolute beast and a legend!
DeleteTrue. Jasmin do the best he can for OU. He is lion, magician and fighter who need support from us, because he read this forum. And accept our ideas sometimes. Jasmin need to cut losses. Nantes will be smart move . OU kicked Volotea already.
DeleteJasmin has been told: this year you have to make minimal losses comparing to previous year, and he got it; the less OU flies, the losses are smaller! Win-win!
DeleteI looked many times in the booking system and the prices for the flights were cheap (around 65€ one way). But as I said many times, people from our region prefer Ryanair and they rather book with them from Trst.
ReplyDeleteIf Ryanair, on the other hand, takes over this flight from Zagreb, the flights will be full. Although the price difference is not big.That is the reality.
DeleteA big problem was the marketing and OU unwillingness to work with touristic agencies. Someone can go to bus station everyday and see how many people lose 15h+ just to get home and it costs them the same as OU flight ticket.
DeleteEvery destination hets its plane :-D bravo croatia.
ReplyDeleteSolid base for growth in summer madness. OU is ready
DeleteSuggestion to @ex-yu aviation: why don't you write about panel at Westin "honoured" by attendance of Oleg Butković and Ivan Mišetić, where Croatia Airlines was attributed as main drive of croatian economy and tourism and their stellar achievments presented, followed by frenetic applauses of attendees, mostly Party people and aparatchiks. It resembled a lot to similar events held in North Korea. Just for people to understand the situation a bit better
ReplyDeleteReally? Wow. Well, to be fair to Croatia, it’s not the only one reminiscing of NK these days, in the global west.
DeleteNe pišu o Vučiću pa ne bi trebali pisati ni o Butkoviću. Toliko o tome.
DeleteVučić is terrible for a million reasons but Air Serbia isn't one of them. He is a very positive influence.
DeleteKakve veze ima Vucic sa OU?
DeleteSome people, actually only one, believe that the whole JU/BEG growth in the past 12-13 years is a result of that politician's drive to artificially and non-organically grow JU/BEG to take the top Ex-Yu regional spot away from OU/ZAG where, according to self-proclaimed expert, it naturally belongs.
DeleteYes that one is very dumb and limited
DeleteIs there anyone on here who understands the whole strategy? And I am serious. I just dont see any logic in any move OU does.
ReplyDeleteNope, not here.....
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDelete😂😂😂
DeleteHe's alive!🤣
DeleteCan you guys help me understand something? Why Belgrade-Tirana is working year round, and there are even 2 daily flights to Tirana from Belgrade but Zagreb - Tirana failed?
ReplyDeleteBecause JU offers transfers to close to 100 destinations, including New York which ia full of Albanian passengers.
DeleteDoesn’t TRS have 2 airlines flying to TIA?
DeleteMost of Tirana -New York traffic is via Frankfurt or Zurich.
DeleteIt can be via whatever it constitutes the majority of JU's TIA traffic. In fact it was reported here in an article that the JU CEO said that the TIA route is entirely transfer driven.
DeleteEntirely transfer driven? They should discontinue the route. Transfers are loss making!
DeleteSure they are.
DeleteBEG - TIA is entirely transfer driven. Many use it for ZAG-BEG-TIA, including me. If OU had an ATR, engage with companies employing Albanians in Croatia and engage with agencies that do city breaks, ZAG-TIA would work year round.
DeleteTIA itself is a great weekend break destination. Great food for peanuts, awesome service, very friendly people and carismatic city. I was there last year in Novembre and I totally loved it.
DeleteBelgrade three times bigger city than Zagreb. Many other reasons. Good prices and connections via BEG also.
DeleteBelgrade Is not 3 times bigger then Zagreb. Maybe two Times.
DeleteNot even two times, but stop with the comparisons. Its like a 12 year old in the playground.@13:57 are you serious? I'll assume you're just ignorant of aviation then.
DeleteThere is some point to point traffic between Belgrade and Tirana (myself included), but its a great route for transfers and JU offer a really solid reliable connection. OU without transfers was always going to struggle on such a routing. Its a pity, because regional connectivity is very important for business. Hey ho, they just cant work out what their role is.
you can hardly connect from/to anywhere via ZAG
ReplyDeleteNot only that but OU actively does not sell many routes where transferring is actually possible. I don't know why.
DeleteLast one to turn off the light, please
ReplyDeleteThe funny/sad thing about this is that they said they have a whole list of new routes they will open when they get their first A220s. As it turns out, their network is now smaller than before the A220s.
ReplyDeleteNo one expact war in Ukraine, Iran, Israel etc
Deletelol as if those 3 markets have ever had something to do with OU
DeleteOU (and Croatia) could actually benefit form the current mess in the middle East
DeleteОно што се каже: Добар изговор пара вреди. Да не кажем оно друго о длаци и сметњама.
DeleteWell OU has, very high kerosine prices for example. Give me a break.
DeleteYeah right, only OU pays expensive fuel. You give us a break and go back to the 3rd floor in Buzin
DeleteJU pay lower price for fuel from government reserves.
DeleteWhich only proves how incompetent, ignorant and inert "management" of OU is, doing nothing, never ever, giving excuses and stealing public money right out of our pockets
DeleteWhat was the load factor on these flights?
ReplyDeleteThe airline handled 6.138 passengers on the route in 2025, with an average cabin load factor of 49%.
Deletewell that explains a lot.
Deleteexplains a lot because they were sending a320s, if it was ATRs it would be over 70.
DeleteAnd if they send Saab 2000 LF would be 150%!
DeleteATRs are/were a real and sensible option, instead of all a220 fleet. Saab was out eu airlines ages ago. JU with its network flies mostly the ATRs. You think OU with just point to point make this viable with 150-180 aircrafts
DeleteAnonymous 19:29 well he's right. JU flies to Tirana mostly with ATR 72-600 which is a great aircraft for short and regional routes
DeleteUseless route. Why did they even open it?
ReplyDeleteĆorava koky, kind of strategy.
DeleteNot really useless, they had no strategy to promote it. That's what they said for Belgrade connection too with Air Serbia in 2013 but it's working pretty good.
DeleteThanks Jasmin. I wrote last week, that OU can close one more route in summer and one i winter time. And Jasmin accepted my suggestion. Jasmin read here and get good ideas. I know it is the best for OU and he need to rid off unprofitable lines.
ReplyDeleteBulgaria air is in level with OU. Bulgaria bigger market, almost same tourist visits, twice and more bigger population, similar living standard and wages. And Croats complain??? OU do the best to survive and thanks to Jasmin for managing that!!
ReplyDeleteBulgaria has 12 mil tourists, Croatia 22. Bulgaria has almost no tourists from distant markets, Croatia has 2 mil. Croatia and Bulgaria are totally diferrent in history, geography, mentality, mindset, living standards. Salaries in Croatia are waaay higher than in Bulgaria. These two markets are totally incomparable but you know it very well and for the xth time you deliberately write lies here. Praising Jasmin is cherry on the cake and show your intentions and why are you here
DeleteYou lot fight like cats in a sack lol
DeleteBulgaria 14 million tourists and passangers by plane.
Delete..and more pax by plane in total. Bulgaria twice bigger population, Only Sofia has 8 million pax. Most of the tourists in Croatia coming by car from neighbor countries. Croatia 21.3 million tourists. I will give you one good example. American airlines 1017 planes and 353 destinations, mostly within USA, and country 360 million people. Croatia 100 times smaller country in terms of population, meaning AA standard 10 planes and 3.5 destinations. OU has 15 planes and 31 destinations. And you say it is not sucess!!1 Point is that national carrier in both cases connected almost every city within the country. So Jasmin do great job and you dont appreciate his fight and management.
DeleteI finally got it. You are having good time making jokes here 🤣🤣🤣
DeleteIn case people aren't aware on here there is a Jet fuel crisis coming in the next few weeks. All Airlines including Air Serbia, Ryanair, easyJet, Lufthansa, KLM Air France will be cutting flights.
ReplyDelete...and OU won't? It's for some reason missing from your list...
DeleteOU is cutting for organically driven reasons and that is why they won't be affected that much!
DeleteHello fellow aviation experts, followers and fans. It's been another tough week here in Buzin. My masters have informed I need to cut costs again, i'm in a real pickle here. TIA just had to go as nobody wants to fly the damn route. Does anyone know what to do with 15 new shiny planes? The govermnent has had to put up taxes on tobacco to help OU fly the nationalist flag with pride, I appreciate this hasn't gone down well. At least Nantes the biggy for this year will be a success.
ReplyDeleteYours truly
Jasmin B
Hello Jasmin, full support from us!! Keep fighting lion!! Lease planes to other companies for example. Nantes will be full hit!!!! Maybe open Lille and Bordeaux . That would be exotic And also cut at least one more line from Zagreb, until the end of the year. Cut costs.
DeleteMaybe cut Pula - Zadar or Zagreb Osijek, or Zagreb Brac. Pointless lines. Line Zag Madrid is also bad.
DeleteBut the taxpayer funds PUY-ZAD and ZAG-BWK for OU. Obviously cant cut ZAG-OSI as was a Trade Air flight and the government have stuffed up the PSO. Get your facts correct please.
DeleteOk, Thank you. Lets suggest close of another lines SPU Bordeaux, ZAG SKP, ZAG HAM or ZAG PRG
DeleteI don't know who you Jasmin are but that's a big mistake what OU has done. Every airline has strategies for marketing and promoting their destinations. Except for the part when Tirana was announced as a new destination in 2024, I haven't seen anything else, any post or as I said any marketing for these destinations. That's because people don't wanna use this line. Also, try getting the example like JU is doing with regional routes, flying with ATR 72-600 . OU keeps cutting these routes for nothing when it's not even trying itself. Hope Ryanair steps in and announce a direct flight between these two countries.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteHow big idiot one must be to write Bravo Hrvatska under this article and under all above comments?
Deletelol PIR
Delete