Croatia Airlines will maintain broadly unchanged flight levels during the 2026/27 winter season but offer fewer seats on scheduled services than last year as a result of the greater deployment of smaller aircraft. Based on the carrier’s current schedule, it will operate approximately 9.412 scheduled flights between October 25, 2026 and March 27, 2027, representing a marginal increase of 0.2% on the comparable 2025/26 period. However, capacity will decline 8.3% to approximately 1.069 million seats.
The decline in capacity despite the slight increase in flights is due to the greater use of smaller aircraft. The Airbus A220 will account for close to 58% of all operations, while the Dash 8 will operate 28.5% and the ATR72-600 a further 13.9%. As a result, turboprops will be used on more than four in ten flights.
The largest frequency reductions from Zagreb will affect Sarajevo and Skopje. Sarajevo will generally be served ten times per week, with several weeks featuring nine rotations, compared to up to fourteen weekly flights last winter. Skopje will be maintained five times per week throughout the season. Although the same frequency was in place during the latter part of last winter, the route operated up to eleven times per week during the first half of the 2025/26 season. As a result, the overall number of flights between the two capitals will decline by 35.5%.
Stockholm will be extended across the entire winter and maintained three times per week, doubling the number of operations compared to last season, when flights were suspended from mid-January. Madrid, which was not served last winter, will run three times per week until mid-January and return during the final two weeks of the season following a six-week pause. Most of Croatia Airlines’ core routes from Zagreb will maintain unchanged frequencies. Amsterdam, Paris and Copenhagen will continue to operate daily, Frankfurt three times per day, and Munich, Vienna and Zurich twice daily. Barcelona will remain at three weekly flights, while London Heathrow will operate three times per week until early January and four times per week thereafter. Mostar will continue to be served three times per week.
From Split, the biggest increase will be recorded on the Istanbul route. The service will operate three times per week throughout the winter, compared to a lengthy suspension during the middle of the 2025/26 season. The limited weekly Copenhagen and London Heathrow services will again operate until early January. Dubrovnik will benefit from a stronger Frankfurt schedule, with three weekly flights planned during almost the entire winter. The total number of operations will increase by 47.7%, as last season featured several frequency reductions and temporary suspensions. Rome will remain at two weekly flights.
Zadar will benefit from the extension of its Munich service across the entire winter season. Flights will operate twice per week, more than doubling the total number of rotations compared to last winter, when the route ran only during the first half of the season. Osijek - Munich will remain at two weekly flights. In contrast, Croatia Airlines will not restore its two weekly Rijeka - Munich service, which operated during the 2025/26 winter.
The schedule remains subject to change.
"As a result, turboprops will be used on more than four in ten flights."
ReplyDeleteSo much for single type fleet
ATR should be that single type
DeleteIn the biggest ex-yu aviation market with 14 million passengers? Are you sure your comment is aviation related?
DeleteAny reason for such a decrease in Skopje? Poor yields? Nothing to transfer to?
ReplyDeleteWizz from SKP to LJU
DeleteThere is that. I wonder if it is the main reason.
DeleteWhat is the reason for Sarajevo decline?
Deleteprimarily hardly anywhere to connect to. You are free to take some time and play with OUs booking engine and search for flights from SKP to anywhere from their "network".
DeleteSKP->AMS, CPH, ARN, LHR are a two stop connection (forget about it) with CDG it gives you an website error (no connnections at all),
and so on
^ terrible
DeleteBravo OU
ReplyDeleteOn what?
DeleteHaving and operating state of the art airplanes and not leasing 20 years old airplanes !
DeleteGuess you don't need much to cheer.
Delete+1
Delete09.13
DeleteAre engines state of the art too?
Or maybe corrosion? Most of the state of the art fleet grounded, with opened engine covers? Constant returns to departure airport after take off? Millions and millions wasted on such state of the art aircraft? Or you are happy that such state of the art fleet is used to feed LHG at Minken and Vrankvurt predominantly? Are you really so slow not to be able to see all other things behind state of the art regional junk? Or you simply write from the third floor in Buzin or from Središnjica?
The corrosion on the engines doesn't affect OU as the issue was resolved by the time they started using the A220. By the end of this year the issue will be resolved on all the engines worldwide. So PIR check your facts before spreading lies.
DeleteSo this means ZAG pax numbers will decline this winter? Is there any increases planned for the airport?
ReplyDeleteMaybe others increased so there won't be a drop. ZAG capacity should be up this winter.
DeleteI don't think there are many increases this winter
DeleteZagreb's winter capacity is currently flat but this is subject to change.
DeleteIt's sad that SKP and SJJ are the only two regional routes they have left. They could have applied for Montenegro PSO to fly TGD
ReplyDeleteThey always had poor regional connectivity. Adria was much better at it, then again Adria is bust.
DeleteDon't forget OMO!
DeletePoor, mainly because they have so many additional aircraft than usual.
ReplyDeleteThat will be very low aircraft utilization
ReplyDeleteSame story every winter.
DeleteWhy not MAD for entire winter?
ReplyDeleteSo if the math is right, 40% of their flights are operated with 3 turboprops - 2 dashes and 1 ATR? Which means they should only need like 5 or 6 A220s during the winter, when they have 10 active ones that they are paying leasing fees for?
ReplyDeleteTime to start wet leasing them out.
DeleteI think 2 A220s are out of service. Some will probably go for maintenance
Delete@9.11 airbaltic bankruptcy would be fantastic news for OU.
Delete^ true. But they will be in a very similar situation soon.
DeleteNever the taxpayers is always here to patrioticly pay for OU
DeleteTaxpayers are not happy to "pay patrioticly" for OU. And they are not asked anything. Mafia is robbing and destroying Croatia. OU is just one of many cases
DeleteI can't believe A320 family will really be gone by winter. End of an era.
ReplyDeleteIt has already been proven that the less OU flies the better their financial results. So I'm not surprised by this.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read PIR's perspective on this 😀
ReplyDeletePIR's perspective is very wellknown : Croatia has potentials. It's the biggest ex-yu aviation market. With the most of passengers from distant markets. Croatia as a country is not democracy, it's Party and Mafia run hybrid. OU is Party and Mafia entity. Instead having minimum 30 and not 13 percent market share, wide network with 3 tines mire destinations in Croatia, Europe, North America and Asia, proper waves enabling transfers, ZAG as its real hub, three types fleet, strong marketing, adequate pricing policy, and top professional management, instead of all of the listed, OU remains shame and catastrophy run by Party which continuously serves only as Party uhljebs sanctuary and cash machine for few selected Mafiosos
DeleteWhat excatly in your opinion OU should do to be economically sustainable? We can all agree with all the written, but imagine leadership would be different. Croatia has potential, undoubtedly, but probable such a big carrier is not needed nor is OU capable serving so much destionations in these (demanding) days.
DeleteGood luck. Won't be an easy winter.
ReplyDeleteI actually think this schedule looks fairly sensible. Keep the core European business routes stable and use capacity more cautiously elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteStockholm operating throughout the winter is a positive development. Hopefully that route can eventually grow beyond three weekly.
ReplyDeleteScandinavia has been relatively underdeveloped from Zagreb for years.
DeleteThree times a week to many major European cities is rather sad tbh. I would rather they are wound up and Ryanair brought in with 5/6 737s.
DeleteIf only they used ZAG as a hub...
ReplyDelete+1
Delete@09:30 once the ship has sailed its not easy to get it back on course. Just what OU would connect with what considering point to point flying is nowadays so well developed in the region is beyond me. PIR believes it can be done, but as he notes it would need VAST and proper political support. I don't think Croatia has that capacity and drive to do that so Zagreb's future needs to be more like Budapest. Get the LCCs in, and get them linking everywhere.
DeleteThat is quite a significant capacity decline.
ReplyDeleteMore flights with fewer seats could actually be beneficial if it improves frequencies and gives passengers more choice.
ReplyDeleteExcept in this case frequencies are also being cut on Sarajevo and Skopje, so it is not simply a case of replacing large aircraft with smaller ones.
DeleteUsing smaller aircraft is not necessarily a bad thing. Better to operate a 127 seat A220 with a healthy load factor than fly around half empty A320s.
ReplyDeleteTrue dat
DeleteFive weekly to Skopje is weak. There should be enough business and connecting demand for at least daily flights.
ReplyDeleteAs people have said there is nowhere to connect to. Business? What Business, its not like its some businessman express of a route.
Deletesays someobody who hasnt been on the flight yet. Half of OUs O&D between ZAG and SKP is business related
Delete^ which would equate two two dozen passengers at best.
Deletewhich is not that bad. its bad who is missing on these flights, connecting passengers to european destinations, folks on city break (see Wizz LJU route), frequent VFR pax, all due to the high fare or no existing onward connections
DeleteAt least there seems to be some effort to strengthen winter flying outside Zagreb, especially from Split, Dubrovnik and Zadar.
ReplyDeleteWere Zadar offering bigger subsidy than Rijeka?
DeleteThe negative part is that the main hub itself is not really seeing any meaningful expansion.
Deletefairly conservative winter schedule. No major expansion, a few selective improvements and capacity being tightly controlled.
ReplyDeleteEvery single winter for the past 15 years have been exactly the same.
DeleteWhat stands out to me is how little real network growth there is despite the fleet renewal programme
ReplyDeleteThey never had fleet shortage in winter. In fact every winter they park aircraft. So they could have done something and grown even before they got the new planes, but they didn't.
DeleteLondon Heathrow should be daily at the very least.
ReplyDeleteKucko sold the slots
DeleteMišetić sold entire croatian aviation market and made OU shameful feeder and pathetic midget. He left OU totally devastated because he was taking care of his personal benefits only. Kučko might not have been perfect either but what he had to do were firefighting measures to cure the consequences and heritage of gravedigger of croatian aviation, Ivan Mišetić. Kučko managed to bring OU to "positive zero" and to prepare it for growth on healthy bases. Then, Criminal Organization took over again. Their results can be seen today, in full glitter
DeleteKucko would have made OU great again 😔 no doubt. Especially if PIR is so adamant in defending him at every chance, it must mean something.
DeleteStable frequencies with lower capacity could prove to be exactly what the airline needs financially.
ReplyDeleteI think people are underestimating how significant an 8.3% capacity cut actually is.
DeleteGet OU in the bin and give the massive subsidies to FR and W6 to run winter routes.
ReplyDeleteSome will criticise the Lufthansa dependence, but those connections are probably among the most commercially important flights Croatia Airlines operates.
ReplyDeleteif they are protibale
Deleteprofitable*
DeleteWhat happened to beautiful maps and tables showing winter changes? I don't have ADHD but don't want to read through all this, so I asked ChatGPT to create table based on the text, and here it is (had to remove table formatting):
ReplyDeleteOrigin Route 2026/27 winter frequency Change vs. 2025/26
Zagreb Sarajevo Usually 10 flights/week; 9 in some weeks Decrease — last winter peaked at 14/week
Zagreb Skopje 5/week Decrease — same as the latter part of last winter, but below the peak of 11/week; total flights fall 35.5%
Zagreb Stockholm 3/week throughout winter Increase — twice last season’s operations; last winter service stopped from mid-January
Zagreb Madrid 3/week until mid-January; resumes for the final 2 weeks after a 6-week pause Increase — not served last winter
Zagreb Amsterdam 7/week (daily) Same
Zagreb Paris 7/week (daily) Same
Zagreb Copenhagen 7/week (daily) Same
Zagreb Frankfurt 21/week (3 daily) Same
Zagreb Munich 14/week (twice daily) Same
Zagreb Vienna 14/week (twice daily) Same
Zagreb Zurich 14/week (twice daily) Same
Zagreb Barcelona 3/week Same
Zagreb London Heathrow 3/week until early January, then 4/week Not specified
Zagreb Mostar 3/week Same
Split Istanbul 3/week throughout winter Increase — last season had a lengthy suspension; exact overall comparison not given
Split Copenhagen Limited weekly service until early January Not specified
Split London Heathrow Limited weekly service until early January Not specified
Dubrovnik Frankfurt 3/week during almost the entire winter Increase — total operations rise 47.7%
Dubrovnik Rome 2/week Same
Zadar Munich 2/week throughout winter Increase — more than doubles total rotations; last winter it operated only during the first half
Osijek Munich 2/week Same
Rijeka Munich No service Decrease — the 2/week service from last winter is not restored
You came onto a.news aviation site and are complaining because you don't want to read. New level of crazy.
Delete