Zagreb’s busiest unserved European routes

PREMIUM

Zagreb Airport is expected to see strong passenger growth in the coming years with Ryanair recently announcing plans to station two aircraft in the city through its subsidiary Lauda Europe as of September with the launch of twelve new routes. However, the budget carrier plans to have between thirty to forty destinations in its Zagreb network in the coming years. Despite being Croatia’s busiest airport, Zagreb lacks nonstop year-round connections to some of Europe’s largest cities. The situation worsened last year when Croatia Airlines suspended a number of routes as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, most of which will not be restored this year either.

Although Ryanair will be introducing twelve new routes, eight are secondary airports for destinations already served by Croatia Airlines - London, Brussels, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Munich, Rome and Oslo. Zagreb Airport’s top unserved routes on the European continent differed greatly in 2019 and 2020, primarily because last year saw the termination or temporary suspension of many destinations. Only one new European service - Kiev - was launched in 2020 compared to 2019. The Ukrainian capital was one of Zagreb Airport’s top unserved routes. During 2019, Sofia was the busiest unserved European destination out of Zagreb. Croatia Airlines was to launch the service last year but shelved its plans due to Covid-19.

Zagreb Airport's top unserved destinations in Europe in 2019

In the pandemic-stricken 2020, Stockholm was Zagreb’s busiest unserved route. The Swedish capital is usually maintained by Croatia Airlines on a seasonal summer basis, however, it was suspended last year and will not be restored in 2021 either. Indirect traffic to Lisbon was also high last year, with TAP Air Portugal to launch the service on June 2. Croatia Airlines used to maintain seasonal operations between the two cities but the route was terminated last year. North European destinations, including Oslo and Helsinki, both previously served by the Croatian carrier, saw notable passenger flow to and from Zagreb last year. Neither are expected to be restored in 2021. The table below only displays cities which were not served for the entirety of 2020.

Zagreb Airport's top unserved destinations in Europe in 2020

Europe will be the main driver of Zagreb Airport’s traffic this year. With Korean Air, Air Transat, Air Canada Rouge and Emirates all terminating or temporarily suspending their operations to the Croatian capital this year, Zagreb’s only scheduled flights outside of the continent this summer will be Doha, operated by Qatar Airways, and Dubai run by Flydubai.