September 25, 2020 - The latest news for flights to Croatia as Air Serbia maintains one route to Croatia in October. 

Croatian Aviation reports that Serbian national airline Air Serbia has announced its flight schedule for October this year. Two lines will stop operating - to Dubrovnik and Split.

This summer, Air Serbia operated to Split, Dubrovnik, and Zagreb. Due to the impact of the pandemic, lines from Belgrade to Pula, Rijeka, and Zadar were canceled. Under normal circumstances, Air Serbia operated to Adriatic airports until the end of the summer flight schedule, but this year, that will not happen. Air Serbia will stop operating to Dubrovnik by the end of September, and the line to Split will be canceled at the beginning of October.

Air Serbia will land in Dubrovnik today for the last time this season. On the last flight, a B737-300 aircraft (capacity of 144 seats) was announced. Thus, Air Serbia will conclude operations on the Belgrade - Dubrovnik route for this summer season.

On the Belgrade - Split line, the last flight was announced for Sunday, October 4, and one flight is available before that date, on Friday, October 2. In last year's summer flight schedule, this line operated throughout October. Still, due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic or reduced demand, the company decided to cancel it earlier than planned.

The only Air Serbia route that remains in traffic in the winter flight schedule to Croatia is the line between Belgrade and Zagreb. Although there were 10 flights a week on this route, Air Serbia plans 3 flights per week in October this year, every Monday, Friday, and Sunday in the evening. ATR72 aircraft with a capacity of 70 seats have been announced on this route.

Air Serbia has very often canceled certain departures on flights to Croatia in this year's summer flight schedule, so it remains to be seen whether the three flights per week to Zagreb will take place according to current announcements.

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August 1, 2020 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for flights to Croatia with updates from Zadar, Pula, and Brac.

Croatian Aviation reports that Serbian national airline Air Serbia no longer has direct flights from Belgrade to Pula and Zadar. 

The long-standing seasonal line between Belgrade and Pula should have resumed regular traffic from the beginning of July, but this did not happen. Three flights per week were announced, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while the planned fourth weekly flight (every Sunday) was previously canceled for the entire summer season.

Air Serbia planned to use an ATR 72-500 aircraft on the route, which has a capacity of 70 passengers in the fleet of this carrier.

The company established the Belgrade - Pula line in June 2014 and has been operating on this line regularly so far, but due to the specific situation this year, it decided not to launch it. All flights on this route have been withdrawn from sale for this year, so it is obvious that the company does not intend to operate between these two cities.

Recall that even during the outbreak of the pandemic, Air Serbia completely canceled the line to Rijeka.

The Belgrade - Zadar line was launched in the summer of 2019 with two flights per week (Fridays and Sundays) and was announced for this summer season as well. Just as is the case with the line to Pula, the plan was to launch the line in early July, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, but that did not happen. The company no longer offers direct flights to Zadar.

Air Serbia currently operates to Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik, but cancellations of certain departures on routes to Croatia (especially to Zagreb) are not uncommon.

Furthermore, Croatian Aviation reports that the German charter company Sundair announced a regular charter line between Frankfurt and Brac from mid-July this year. However, there were no flights on this line.

The Frankfurt - Brac line was to be operated twice a week, every Monday and Friday, from July 17 this year until the end of October (October 23, 2020). This would give Brac its first route to Frankfurt, and in addition, a regular guest at this airport would be A319 aircraft.

The line has been completely canceled for this summer season, and since it is a regular charter, it can be assumed that travel agencies that sold holiday arrangements on Brac failed to achieve satisfactory sales.

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May 25, 2020 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for flights to Croatia with updates from Zagreb, Split, Dubrovnik, Pula, Zadar and Rijeka.

Croatian Aviation reports that Serbia's national airline, Air Serbia, announced its preliminary flight schedule for June. 

The Belgrade-Zagreb route is also in the adjusted flight schedule, which will be in traffic again from Tuesday, June 16.

From that date, Air Serbia will fly to Zagreb 4 to 5 times a week through June, while from July, daily flights are announced.

Reservations to other destinations in Croatia are possible as follows:

Belgrade - Pula is announced 3 times a week from July 10 (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays),

Belgrade - Zadar is announced twice a week from July 11 (Tuesdays and Saturdays),

Belgrade - Split is announced from June 28, three times a week (Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays),

Belgrade - Dubrovnik is announced from June 26, three times a week (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays),

Belgrade - Rijeka line is not for sale.

Recall, we recently announced that German leisure company, Condor, would be resuming regular international lines from several German cities to well-known tourist destinations across Europe, including Split.

Before the outbreak of the pandemic, this German airline regularly flew on seasonal routes from German airports to Rijeka, Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik, but in the current summer flight schedule, the lines have not yet started operating.

In its last announcement, the company announced the resumption of operations, and the first line to Croatia will be introduced from the end of June.

From June 26, Condor will fly on two routes to Split:

Frankfurt - Split, from June 26, twice a week (Fridays and Sundays),

Dusseldorf - Split, from June 26, twice a week (Fridays and Sundays).

In addition to these two direct routes, the company, in cooperation with Lufthansa, also offers flights to Hamburg and Munich with short transfers. The mentioned lines will be operated by A320 aircraft, with a capacity of 180 seats.

Tickets are already on sale on the airline's official website. Split will thus be connected to Dusseldorf 3 times a week, considering that Eurowings, as we announced earlier, will fly between these two cities from June 20.

The airline has not yet confirmed the start of traffic from German cities to Zadar, Rijeka and Dubrovnik.

Furthermore, Aegean Airlines announced new start dates for operations to destinations in Croatia.

The Greek airline plans to fly to 3 destinations in Croatia: Dubrovnik, Split and Zagreb in the current summer flight schedule. The line to Zadar was canceled in 2019.

Athens-Dubrovnik will be in operation twice a week from June 25, wit A320 aircraft. Aircraft of this type at Aegean has a capacity of 174 seats. The increase to five-week flights is planned for July 3.

The Athens-Split line has been announced four times a week from July 6, with the A319 aircraft, with a capacity of 144 seats.

The Athens-Zagreb route will again operate from July 1, three times a week, on A319 and A320 aircraft (capacity 144 and 174 seats, respectively).

Finally, Emirates, an airline from the United Arab Emirates, has additionally canceled the start of operations on the Zagreb-Dubai route.

Although this seasonal line was supposed to start operating on the first day of the summer flight schedule, this did not happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After that, the company repeatedly delayed the start of operations on this line, and the latest information was that this well-known company would come to the Croatian capital again from July 1 this year.

Emirates usually flies on the Dubai-Zagreb route every day, but due to reduced demand, flights are now postponed until August 1, when the line should start operating with only four flights per week (Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays). B47-300ER aircraft with a capacity of 354 seats have been announced on the route.

Given that this is the only seasonal Emirates route in the entire destination network, there is a high probability that this airline will not return to Zagreb this season.

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October 16, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Rijeka and Croatia Airlines. 

Avio Radar reports that Serbian national carrier Air Serbia has made changes to the upcoming winter flight schedule on the Belgrade-Rijeka route. As announced, this line will remain in service throughout the winter with two flights per week. The winter timetable will be in effect from October 27, 2019, to March 28, 2020. 

Instead of running on Tuesdays and Fridays as it did in the summer flight schedule, this service will run on Mondays and Thursdays throughout winter. This line will not operate in the middle of the day as it did this summer, but on Mondays in the evening and Thursdays in the morning. An ATR-72 aircraft will fly on this line. 

Furthermore, Avio Radar reports that British carrier TUI Airways has increased capacity in their post-season route from London (Gatwick) to Rijeka. Specifically, in October, the larger Boeing 757-200 aircraft has run on this line, instead of the smaller Boeing 737-800, with three arrivals on Thursdays from October 3 to 17. 

TUI Airways’ aircraft will finally run on this line. Namely, since the route launched in May, the aircraft has been leased from other airlines, mostly the Boeing 737-800 from Norwegian Air Shuttle. 

The Boeing 757-200 aircraft often arrives on the TUI Airways route to Dubrovnik and Pula. TUI Airways has only 12 Boeing 757-200 aircraft in its fleet. 

Croatia Airlines has also announced some small changes to its flight schedule this year. 

Recall, Croatia will assume the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from January 1, 2020. With that said, Ex Yu Aviation reported last month that the national carrier would add one flight per week between Brussels and Zagreb, totaling to 12 per week. Furthermore, the seasonal service between Zagreb and Dublin will work until January 26, 2020, while its operations between Zagreb and Lisbon will end at the end of October. 

Croatia Airlines will maintain the same winter operations for other Croatian cities this year, which include flights from Split to Frankfurt, Munich and Rome, Dubrovnik to Frankfurt, and Rijeka to Munich. Croatia Airlines has also announced no changes to its winter operations between Croatian locations. 

Recall, Croatia Airlines is currently undergoing a privatization process, which the Croatian Minister for Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butković, previously said should be completed by the end of the year. “I believe we will deliver within the set timeframe,” the Minister said. Privredna banka Zagreb (PBZ) and Germany's DVB Bank are advising the airline in the process.

While the national carrier projects a 5% increase in passenger traffic by the end of 2019, there are no plans to make any significant changes to its services until the privatization process is complete. 

Ex Yu Aviation adds that Croatia Airlines even dropped its plans to extend the wet-lease for one of Air Nostrum's Bombardier CRJ1000 jets into the winter months, which would have lengthened some of its seasonal routes. Croatia Airlines currently maintains twelve routes from Zagreb during the summer.

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Just a few days ago, Lufthansa landed at Rijeka Airport for the first time and thus established a permanent line with Munich. And now, on June 4, 2019, Air Serbia landed at Rijeka Airport. Therefore, for the first time in almost 30 years, Rijeka is once again linked to Belgrade with a direct flight, reports Otok-Krk.org on June 4, 2019. 

The new airline was welcomed with a traditional inauguration ceremony and water cannon salute. Representatives of the Rijeka Airport attended the ceremony with chief representatives of Air Serbia Goran Grozdanić, Chief Marketing Officer Maja Šotra, Regional Manager for Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina Damir Rigo, and Area Controller in charge of Rijeka Airport Zlatko Kuzmanović.

Thirty passengers were on the flight from Belgrade and were welcomed with homemade cakes and folk dancing by the young KUD Ive Jurjević from Omišalj. The tape was cut collectively by Air Serbia representative Goran Grozdanić and head of the RJ Plan and development of the Rijeka Airport Vedrana Čubranić.

This new line has established a direct air link between Rijeka and Belgrade, which will take place twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays throughout the year. This will, as Vedrana Čubranić pointed out, cut travel time between the two cities from six hours on the highway to only eighty minutes in the air. 

Traffic on the Belgrade-Rijeka line will be operated by the ATR 72 which can accommodate 66 passengers. During the high season, the A319 aircraft will work with a capacity of 144 seats.

Air Serbia is Serbia's national airline flying to a total of 49 destinations in Europe and the Mediterranean, with direct lines to the Middle East and North America, and direct flights from Belgrade to international destinations in Asia, Australia, and Africa.

“Introducing a direct year-round regular line between Rijeka and Belgrade represents a very significant step forward for the Kvarner region, since it was introduced after almost 30 years when it was traded twice a day in the former Yugoslavia. This line is of great significance as it will travel throughout the year, and introducing lines that will travel for 12 months are the foundation for the further sustainable development of the Rijeka Airport, as it reduces its seasonality and passengers can connect with larger centers throughout the year,” concluded Čubranić.

Air Serbia will also soon begin flights to Zadar, which will operate twice a week, on Fridays and Sundays, from June 21 to September 15, 2019. 

Recall, Air Serbia has already operated seasonal flights from Belgrade to Dubrovnik, Split and Pula, while the airline flies to Zagreb throughout the year. This summer, however, the Serbian airline will cover Croatia’s entire Adriatic coast, plus Zagreb, with its new flight announcements. 

Airline expert Alen Šćuric revealed that Air Serbia would have 31 flights per week to Croatia on the summer flight schedule, which is 4.5 flights a day, while they will run 12 flights a week in the off-season. The airline will offer about 165,000 seats annually, in both directions, on their total flights to Croatia, said Šćuric.

“This means that around 1.5 percent of all Croatian air passengers will travel through Belgrade,” says Šćuric. Though Croatia’s tourists may find that these lines are primarily used to bring Serbian tourists to the Adriatic, Šćuric believes that 70 percent of those passengers will travel across Belgrade to other destinations where Air Serbia operates. 

On the other hand, the Croatian national carrier Croatia Airlines has only one line for Serbia and Belgrade from Split in the summer, where it offers a total of 5800 seats. And it will stay that way for now. Croatia Airlines said that Belgrade has been part of the regular evaluation of the company's network planning department for a long time, but also that the new lines introduced in the last three years showed a higher demand, and accordingly gained an advantage when opening new routes.

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

The latest news from around Croatia’s airports, for new flights to Croatia with updates from Air Serbia. 

Of the other airlines flying into Croatia, Ryanair and Norwegian both received a lower than four star rating.

''The extended runway enables the beginning of the cooperation with Air Serbia, with whom we've been negotiating for a long time,'' stated Peović.

The Serbian national airline is set to begin direct flights to New York from Belgrade next week

Not such smooth sailing for Air Serbia in Croatia.