Ryanair plans to increase frequencies across a number of routes from Zagreb as it consolidates its position as Croatia’s busiest airline. During the 2027 summer season, the low cost carrier will expand its Zagreb operations to London Stansted, increasing from eleven weekly to twice daily, while an additional weekly service to Malta will bring frequencies on the route to twice daily as well. With an extra weekly flight, operations to Basel will increase to eight weekly, Palma de Mallorca to daily, Paris Beauvais and Dublin to six weekly, Paphos to five weekly, and Alicante, Corfu and Naples to four weekly.
The airline will also maintain its new Zagreb - Warsaw Modlin service, launching today, throughout the 2027 summer season. On the other hand, Eindhoven Airport will temporarily close all flight operations from February 1, 2027, to July 19, 2027, for major runway renovations and infrastructure upgrades. As a result, flights from Zagreb will be suspended during this period, with the first flight scheduled to resume on July 19.
Ryanair marked twenty years of operations in Croatia this month, with the airline now the busiest carrier in the country, having handled 3.6 million passengers in 2024, increasing to almost 4.1 million in 2025. Ryanair first began operations to Croatia back in 2006, with the launch of flights between London Stansted and Pula. In a statement, the airline said, “Since then, Ryanair has transformed Croatia’s air travel market by introducing low-fare competition to longstanding national flag carrier - Croatia Airlines, single-handedly driving post-pandemic traffic recovery, and delivering low cost, high-frequency connectivity to both the capital and coastal hubs”. It added, “The airline has invested over $900 million in Croatia, establishing major aircraft bases at Zagreb Airport, Zadar Airport, and Dubrovnik Airport, while also serving regional airports including Osijek, Pula, Rijeka, and Split. Ryanair is now the largest airline in Croatia with its operations supporting over 3.500 local jobs across the country, including over 270 high-paid, high-skill pilot and cabin crew jobs”.
2 daily flights on two routes is pretty good for an LCC
ReplyDeleteI would have never imagined Malta would become such a big market from Zagreb.
DeleteYou mean in exyu space? Fairly normal in some parts of Europe. Great that Malta works so well.
DeleteMalta has a lot of gastos.
DeleteI mean from ZAG, as I wrote, where there were no flights to Malta until Ryanair came along.
DeleteThere were flights to Malta with Croatia Airlines until Ivan Mišetić surrendered the market to LHG. There were also flights to Manchester, Stockholm, Madrid, Moscow, Istanbul, Tirana, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, Berlin, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart...Everything was cut and passengers funneled to Minken and Vrankvurt, with all further growth halted as well, including original plans to operate New York, Chicago and Toronto. And today we are where we are, humiliated feeder and midget, financed by poor tax payers, and with zero interest of both public and professionals within industry to change it
DeleteIts not humiliation if nobody even pays attention to it. Maybe time for a new word here for your theatrical (although factually fine) statements.
DeleteAgain, Croats can go on nice beaches instead of kamenjar in Dalmatia.
DeleteWhat does Air Malta do wrong????
DeletePMI daily is also great.
Delete11.08
DeletePlease choose between theatrical and factually fine. One excludes the other
Double daily to Stansted is very useful.
ReplyDeleteSTN could go to 3x daily in summer in th enear future.
DeleteWhy not evry 4h 🤦♂️
DeleteCalm down. We got this and its fine!
Not great news for OU which already struggles on LHR flights. Still don't get that they never thought of launching Malta.
ReplyDeleteThat would involve good management
DeleteWell now it is definitely too late with Ryanair offering so many frequencies. Another lost one for OU.
DeleteTheir heathrow flights are a joke.
DeleteAt this point they might as well as sell their remaining slots.
Delete^ the way things are going financially, that's not too far off. OU's financial results for Q3 will be released at the end of the week. And it's not good.
DeleteFour weekly flights to Corfu, Naples and Alicante says a lot about how travel habits in Croatia have changed. These destinations would have been unthinkable from Zagreb not that long ago.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they would if someone actually gave them a try.
DeleteIt's cheaper to holiday abroad than visit the Adriatic
DeleteYes that!
DeleteTravel habits did change but not to that extent as presented or imagined. People used LCC before as well, originating the journey from nearby coastal airports which got FR before, or from nearby foreign airports mostly in Hungary and Italy. I personally flew minumum dozen times from Budapest, Trieste, Treviso, Bologna, even Bergamo before FR came to ZAG and I know plenty of people doing the same
Delete+1 same. Back in the mid 2000s i remember flying to Klagenfurt from Stansted before taking the train to Zagreb which required changing in Villach. Was a wonderful journey, but took a whole day.
DeleteExcellent news
ReplyDeleteWill there be anu new routes (other than Modlin). They haven't really expanded the route network from ZAG for some time now.
ReplyDeleteProbably not unless they applied to the new subsidy scheme.
DeleteI would love to see FR launch Bristol and Tenerife to Zagreb. Purely from personal reasons :)
DeleteWhat Zagreb really needs now is more frequencies to existing destinations during the winter. The summer network is already quite good, but the difference between July and January remains enormous.
ReplyDeleteRyanair has done more for Zagreb in five years than Croatia Airlines has done in decades.
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteWill they replace Eindhoven with some other destination, like Wizz is doing with Maastricht from some cities?
ReplyDeleteNo plans to do that for now
DeleteThey are not that 'close' its a good 3.5 hours on public transport to get to Amsterdam.
DeleteI find it interesting that Ryanair is adding flights to Basel and Paris Beauvais but not introducing more German destinations. Surely there is demand for additional links to Germany from Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteThey are generally reducing Germany all around due to fees, so no surprise.
Deletenot really just shifting capacity around. BER is not an easy market (all FR routes they have suspended have been replaced now with other competitors). also croatian gastos from D use their cars
DeleteDid they pull out of several German airports?
Delete* didn't they
Deleteyes but also added new ones. Hello FDH and Saarbrücken, more flights from FMM
DeleteCroatia Airlines should be looking very carefully at what Ryanair is doing. Instead of competing on price, OU needs to offer something different, particularly with connections through Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteExactly. They need to offer waves and connections. The only thing they can actually do and they are not doing it!
DeleteIt's too early
Delete@09:25 they 'need to', they tried that in the past. Didnt do it very well and now the ship has sailed. Game over.
DeleteWell, their financial results were better when they did then they are now. They are now at their worst ever.
DeleteIt's quite telling that Ryanair is celebrating twenty years in Croatia by specifically mentioning the competition it introduced against Croatia Airlines. They clearly see themselves as the country's main airline now.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is praising Ryanair but let's not forget that part of its growth is supported by airport incentives. The real question is how sustainable the network would be without those arrangements.
ReplyDeleteThat can be stated for many airports. And?
Deletethe same guy posting the same question for how mayn years now?
DeleteIf an airline leaves after the incentives period = you know the answer
If an airline stays after the incentives period = you know the answer
Are these incentives permanent? How is OU supposed to compete against these conditions?
Delete@9:30 & 9:42 +1000
Delete@9.53 they get millions from the state each year. Next state aid payment is already scheduled for January 2027.
DeleteIronically the incentives that Ryanair gets are fully fair and transparent and anyone can apply to them in Zagreb airport. Meanwhile the state aid that Croatia Airlines gets is not fair, not transparent, and blatantly breaks the rules of the free market.
DeleteThe Government of Croatias financial dealing when it comes to OU is very murky.
DeletePalma daily, Malta twice daily, Paphos five weekly. Zagreb is developing a surprisingly strong leisure network. I wonder how much traffic is originating in Croatia compared to inbound tourism.
ReplyDeleteMostly outbound. Zagreb is a fairly wealthy place after all.
DeleteBut there were none of these flights just 3 to 4 years ago. In fact almost no leisure flights.
DeleteFull of Slovenes
DeleteWell thanks to the wonder of Schengen even people from south west Hungary.
Delete@Anonymous 09:45
DeleteWhy don't they fly to LJU then?
Wonder if LOT feels any impact from the new Ryanair route. Is Modlin really far away from the city?
ReplyDeleteIt is far away. 45-60 minutes.
DeleteHardly 'far' if the price is right.
DeleteModlin WMI - 40 kms from the city centre, travel time 1h15-1h30
DeleteWarsaw - Chopin WAW - 8 kms from the city centre 20-35 mins
They will get a few P2P passengers but I assume most of LOT's passengers are transfers anyway.
Delete@09:46 who cares if the price is right. If its 40e to Modlin nobody cares the travel time from the airport.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete@Anon 09:53 time is money too
DeleteWell im sure you are rich enough to pay to fly from a close airport. Great :)
DeleteObviously, Gini C. is high in Croatia.
DeleteWhere is Sofia? Why not anymore? Low load?
ReplyDeleteIt was discontinued a while ago.
DeleteThe short regional routes did not work out for Ryanair from Zagreb.
DeleteSOF was an odd choice after all
DeleteSOF and TGD.
Deleteand SKG
DeleteTGD will soon return on Air Montenegro.
DeleteSponsored by Montenegro taxpayers.
DeleteSKG is not discontinued.
DeleteVery good that they keep densifying frequencies from ZAG year after year. Not very common for LCCs.
ReplyDeleteIt's because they're waiting for further incentives for new route launches. Until they get those, they are optimising their network by adding capacity where they make money and removing it where they don't.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteAnd now imagine how big Bravo it could be if we had decent flag carrier instead humiliated feeder and midget. As you can see for yourself, the market is there. Why don't they use potentials of it and creating new demand? Can you, just maybe, think of it, instead hailing empty and ridiculous Bravos to foreigners taking care of croatian market, thanks to traitors you obviously support?
Delete"The market is there" from every village in Europe if Ryanair offers their prices. Look at how many flights from ZAG for example Aegean has to Athens and Iberia to Madrid in winter and compare that to how many there were if Ryanair decided to launch them.
DeleteRyanair can NOT show you realistically if the market is there or not. If there is no market for ULCC to London and Malta from a city with 1 million people, and for the ticket prices of 30€, then I really don't know what to say. The real question is if the "market is there" for legacy carriers, who charge 300€ for return trip to Athens, Thessaloniki, Madrid or Lanzarote.
Delete13.15
DeleteThe market is there. I didn't specify the services or asked OU to fly to "european villages" and FR destinations. And many times before, I wrote Balkans and long-haul are missing big time in OU, combined with its tourism, and very similar to JU model. Also I used FR as an example that ZAG can grow if served by serious and dedicated airline, irrespective of its business model. And OU is neither serious nor dedicated. Results can be seen every day.
I did not say OU has to fly to any European village. All I said was, that Ryanair can fly from any European village to destinations like Stansted or Beauvais if it sells tickets for 30€. The proof of a real market will be, when Iberia starts 5pw flights to Lanzarote or Finnair comes with 7pw to Helsinki or Aegean with 14pw Athens.
DeleteIberia doesn't fly 5 times per week from Lanzarote to ANYWHERE so your comment makes no sense.
DeleteFinnair 7 times per week?? The same frequencies as Munich-Helsinki??
If Ryanair is there to show if market is there, then it means Klagenfurt has more demand and market potential as Graz (it has Ryanair to Stansted and Palma, until recently also Alicante - Graz has none of this). It also means Bratislava has bigger market then Vienna, since ULCCs are booming there. Let's see if Iberia or someone with normaln pricing, not like Ryanair, can come to Klagenfurt and replace Alicante, since Ryanair showed that the market is there.
DeleteAll you write has nothing to do with Bravo Hrvatska comment I answered, pointing Bravo will be deserved once flag carrier starts to take advantages of the market what OU is not and FR is doing. No more and no less. Why attention is driven from the point of my post to other direction, is not up to me to comment
Delete@14:17:
DeleteExactly. You confirmed the point. The market for ULCCs and other carriers is not the same. Some others can not do what Ryanair and Wizzair can, if you like it or not. And if Ryanair suceeds in one route, it doesn't automatically mean someone else can.
@PIR: OU can NOT do what FR is doing. Nor can Aegean. Nor can Iberia. Nor can Austrian. Nor can Airbaltic, LOT, ...
Delete15.00
DeleteOnce again you didn't understand me. Or you pretend you don't understand me. Or you don't want to understand me. And what I said and what you should understand, is very briefly, the following: Ryanair (together with Easy, Wizz, and many more) took care of LCC and P2P segments of croatian market. Croatia Airlines COULD and SHOULD take care of long-haul and Balkans and transfers segments. Not that difficult to understand, unless you are here for other reasons and with diferrent purpose
Totally agree with comments that legacy carriers cannot win the battles on same routes LCC are flying. It is the question of state incentives and airport management how hardly they support LCC, therefore FR is not in Slovenia, for instance. All in all it is the question of profitability/economics vs wider connectivity the politics should achieve in order to offer more flights to their citizens.
DeleteWhat stands out is that Ryanair is increasing frequencies on so many routes at once. This suggests Zagreb is becoming a mature base rather than one where the airline is simply experimenting with new destinations.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteRyanair has reached the point where Zagreb can support more daily services instead of the usual two or three weekly flights. That's a very positive development.
sure but you can also spin it this way that they are on the limit on opening new routes
DeleteSpain seems to be becoming a very important market for Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to compare Ryanair's seat capacity from Zagreb in summer 2027 with Croatia Airlines. The gap must be narrowing considerably.
ReplyDeleteMaybe time to change their livery?
ReplyDeleteRyanair is the king of frequencies.
ReplyDeleteSuch a contrast to Belgrade that has many more destinations but rarely daily flights.
Neither with Air Serbia nor with Wizz.
Ryanair really does wonders for Zagreb.
Skidam kapu!
I really don't understand how someone can write such nonsense.
DeleteWinter 2026/27
Daily or more frequencies
BEG - 41 destinations
ZAG - 21 destinations (2 domestic)
Daily or more frequencies by JU from BEG
30 destinations
Daily or more frequencies by W6 from BEG
1 destination
Daily or more frequencies by OU from ZAG
11 destinations (2 domestic)
Daily or more frequencies by FR from ZAG
2 destinations
Skidam kapu!
Rarely daily flights?
DeleteAmsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Bergamo, Berlin, Brussels, Bucarest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dortmund, Dubai, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Larnaca, Ljubljana, London, Madrid, Malta, Memmingen, Milan, Moscow, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Podgorica, Prague, Rome, Sarajevo, Skopje, Sofia, St.Petersburg, Thessaloniki, Tirana, Tivat, Vienna, Zagreb, Zurich.
Some people truly need reality check.
Anyone know the loads on the inaugural Modlin flights?
ReplyDelete