After the sale of its valuable Heathrow slots, Croatia Airlines will move its London operations to Gatwick.
Several portals (both in Croatian and English language) have recently reported about Croatia Airlines stopping its London flights, this has sent a lot of people into panic and many articles have unfortunately lacked clarity on the subject.
Croatia Airlines are indeed planning to stop flying into London’s seemingly ever expanding Heathrow Airport and will sell off its nine weekly slots. This, however, does NOT mean that the popular national carrier will stop flying to London, perhaps its most lucrative European destination with constantly full planes.
EX-YU Aviation News reported that instead of flying into Heathrow, Croatia Airlines will fly into the equally lucrative Gatwick Airport, which sits around 30 miles outside of the United Kingdom capital, London.
Earlier the airline stated that the Zagreb – Heathrow service was operating at a loss, which was a key factor in deciding to sell off the lucrative slots, and also concerned many people who naturally assumed the flights would simply end.
Kresimier Kucko, CEO of Croatia Airlines told HRT that the money from the Heathrow sale will be used to maintain investments, which will increase the value of Croatia Airlines’ assets.
Croatia Airlines have flown into Gatwick in the past but service stopped back in 2013 and currently there are no services between the Croatian capital of Zagreb and London Gatwick.
The increasingly popular Monarch Airlines will begin their Zagreb – Gatwick service in April 2017.
