January 15, 2022 - The latest flight news to Croatia as Emirates Zagreb flights hope to be restored in the future. 

Ex Yu Aviation reports that Emirates hopes to bring back Dubai-Zagreb flights, which have not run since the beginning of the pandemic. 

“Zagreb is one amongst many cities where Emirates operations remain suspended due to ongoing travel or flight restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic. At this time, travellers in Croatia can book with our codeshare partner Flydubai to travel to Dubai and onwards on the broader Emirates network. We hope to restart our operations in Zagreb when it is commercially and operationally feasible to do so in the future, and we will make a formal announcement if there are any developments in this regard," the airline told Ex Yu Aviation. 

Emirates first launched year-round operations to the Croatian capital in 2017, which ran daily that summer on Boeing 777 aircraft. The following year, the line was reduced to a seasonal route and shared with Flydubai - Emirates operated in the summer and Flydubai in the winter. 

The airline last operated to Zagreb in October 2019, terminating the line a year later during the pandemic and closing its sales office in Zagreb. 

Ex Yu Aviation reminds that Emirates and Flydubai recorded 130,937 passengers on the Dubai-Zagreb route before the pandemic in 2019. Behind Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, Croatia Airlines, and Turkish Airlines, Emirates was the fifth largest Zagreb Airport transfer airline. The line was primarily used by passengers from Asia and Australia and was the second busiest airline in Zagreb (behind Qatar Airways) for connecting travelers to and from Asia. 

As most countries in East and Southeast Asia closed for non-essential inbound and outbound travel during the pandemic, with Australia still closed off from international arrivals, there was little chance of this line surviving. 

Emirates, however, has resumed operations to over 90% of its pre-pandemic network, with more than 120 destinations worldwide.

And the other good news? Flydubai will operate daily to Zagreb this summer, which is a boost from its 4-weekly service before! 

For more, check out our dedicated travel section.

June 5, 2020 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for flights to Croatia with updates from Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik, Rijeka and Pula. 

Croatian Aviation reports that in its latest statement, Emirates further postponed the start of traffic on the Dubai-Zagreb route.

The company first postponed the line to July, then to August, and the latest news is September. Emirates is currently offering sales on the Dubai-Zagreb route from September 1 this year, four times a week; on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Boeing 777-300ER aircraft have been announced on the route, which has several different configurations in the fleet of this airline, so depending on the registration of the aircraft, they can carry between 354 and 442 passengers.

Considering that Emirates turned the Zagreb line into a seasonal service, and that the partner FlyDubai operates on the route in the winter flight schedule, the chance that Emirates will return to Zagreb this summer is slim. According to the plan, the already mentioned FlyDubai should take over the line from the end of October.

Qatar Airways, a competitor to Emirates (along with Etihad), is still on sale for 3 weeks from the beginning of July to Zagreb, but changes are also possible with this airline in the next two weeks.

The largest aircraft (both in terms of technical specifications and the number of seats in the passenger cabin) in Zagreb was Emirates, while Air Canada Rouge and Korean Air flew with long-range and capacity aircraft to the Croatian capital. However, both have canceled their flights completely for this summer. Air Transat still has a line between Toronto and Zagreb on sale, 3 times a week since the beginning of July.

Furthermore, Avio Radar reports that Swiss airline Edelweiss Air resumed its service from Zurich to Split on June 4. The week, Edelweiss will also arrive on Sunday, June 7. By the end of June, this line will be in service twice a week,  on Thursdays and Sundays, with the Airbus A320 aircraft. From July, the route will operate 5 times a week, or every day except Wednesday and Friday. 

The other two Edelweiss lines for Croatia are planned from July, i.e., the Zurich-Dubrovnik line twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays from July 3, and the Zurich-Pula line, also twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays from July 1. 

Finally, Avio Radar reports that Latvian airline Air Baltic will establish a route between Riga and Rijeka from June 17. Flights from Riga were scheduled for July 29, but the carrier decided to launch a month and a half earlier despite the current corona situation. The line will operate on Wednesdays with an Airbus A220-300 instead of last year’s Boeing 737-300.

Air Baltic also announces flights to Split and Dubrovnik from June 20.

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

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April 13, 2020 - Emirates has delayed its seasonal service between Zagreb and Dubai until July 2020. 

After Ex Yu Aviation announced that American Airlines and Qatar Airways would suspend their seasonal services to Dubrovnik until 2021 due to the current coronavirus pandemic, our hope of a 2020 tourism season was dwindling. 

However, is the recent announcement from Emirates reassuring?

Namely, Ex Yu Aviation reports that Emirates has delayed the start date of its daily seasonal service between Dubai and Zagreb from May 1 to July 1, 2020, instead of suspending the service for an entire year, like the others have thus far. 

“Emirates has published a tentative schedule outlining its operations for the coming months. The airline is expected to resume the majority of its services, albeit at a reduced frequency, from late May and early June. Starting July, flights to Zagreb will be maintained on a daily basis with the carrier’s Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, which has the capacity to seat 354 passengers. Further changes remain possible,” writes Ex Yu Aviation on its website. 

Flydubai, Emirates partner, which runs to Dubrovnik, will resume regular services “when the time is right”, but until then, it will fly for repatriation purposes. Flydubai has been operating repatriation flights to Zagreb over the last few weeks for travelers to continue to their destinations via Croatia Airlines flights.

"We look forward to resuming our operations when the time is right and we are working closely with the authorities,” said Chief Commercial Officer, Hamad Obaidalla.

In other flight news, Air Canada Rouge has postponed its seasonal service between Toronto and Zagreb by a month, or moved the start date to July 1, instead of June 4, 2020. Croatia Airlines has suspended operations to London Heathrow until at least April 19, though the national carrier is still operating flights to Frankfurt and Brussels

Lufthansa Group confirmed the Germanwings closure last week, which is another important player in the Croatian low-cost market, and AirBaltic has canceled the newly announced flights between Lithuania and Croatia. 

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

February 19, 2020 - After a five-month break, Emirates and Korean Air will resume their seasonal services to Croatia next month. 

Namely, Ex Yu Aviation reports that Emirates will once again fly to Zagreb on March 29, on the route that has been operated by Flydubai for the winter. Ex Yu Aviation adds that the Zagreb service was the first time these two airlines shared a single route. 

"Zagreb is an example of how much our cooperation with Flydubai managed to improve our results. We served the route in winter with our Boeing 777 aircraft. However, it emerged that this route is not as strong in winter, so now we can still continue serving Zagreb well through Flydubai,” said Emirates’ Area Manager, Martin Gross. 

“Zagreb is corresponding with our development in Europe. We have wide coverage in Europe, and we understood that Croatia has big potential for two reasons. First, it is a destination that is really interesting for travel from Asia, Australia, China and Taiwan. Therefore, there is a lot of incoming traffic to Zagreb and the entire country in general. From Croatia it is a way to offer the local population a link to our Dubai hub. There is a lot of demand from Croatia to the world. This is primarily to Dubai but also beyond, for example, to destinations in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, such as Phuket in Thailand”, Emirates said about the future of the Dubai - Zagreb service.

We will also see the return of Korean Air to Zagreb from March 31. The airline will increase capacity on this route this year and use the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which has capacity for 269 passengers. Korean Air will run on the Seoul-Zagreb route three times per week.

Recall, Korean Air previously ran year-round to Zagreb, though it cut back its winter operations in 2019. 

“We have not yet decided whether suspending the flights during the winter season will be continued in the future,” the airline said for Ex Yu Aviation.

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

November 6, 2019 - Emirates’ Senior Vice President for Commercial Operations in Europe, Thierry Aucoc, talks about the potential of the service to Zagreb and further developing Croatia in the future.

Emirates launched a daily service to the Croatian capital from Dubai back in June 2017, which worked from May 31 to the end of October this year. The winter timetable on this service is operated by Emirates' partner flydubai, which reduced the number of flights this winter from seven to four per week on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. However, during the Christmas and New Year holidays, flydubai will increase the number of flights to six a week. 

Ex Yu Aviation reports that Emirates sees potential in the Dubai-Zagreb service, and is even monitoring the progress of Dubrovnik. 

“We decided to launch Zagreb a bit more than two years ago and it is corresponding with our development in Europe. We have a wide coverage in Europe, and we understood that Croatia has big potential for two reasons. First, it is a destination that is really interesting for travel from Asia, Australia, China and Taiwan. Therefore, there is a lot of incoming traffic to Zagreb and the entire country in general. From Croatia it is a way to offer the local population a link to our Dubai hub. There is a lot of demand from Croatia to the world. This is primarily to Dubai but also beyond, for example, to destinations in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, such as Phuket in Thailand,” said Emirates’ Senior Vice President for Commercial Operations in Europe, Thierry Aucoc.

Aucoc added:

“I was checking the results of airports in Croatia and I was amazed to see that many have double-digit growth. I noticed that Zagreb is now at 3.5 million passengers per year, which is a very good result. We are monitoring other airports in the country too. We are closely following the performance in Dubrovnik because we are offering seasonal flights to this city through Flydubai”. Aucoc went on to say that 258 Croatian nationals work at Emirates.

On October 26, 2019, the Emirates seasonal service between Dubai and Zagreb concluded. Emirates' partner flydubai operates the winter service. Aucoc said that Zagreb was the first to implement the new route-sharing strategy between the two airlines. 

“Zagreb is an example of how much our cooperation with Flydubai managed to improve our results. We served the route in winter with our Boeing 777 aircraft. Then last year, the route was maintained for five months by Flydubai aircraft. This winter, Flydubai will operate for the entire winter season because it emerged that this route is not as strong in winter, so we can still continue serving Zagreb well,” said Martin Gross, Emirates’ Area Manager. 

Gross also spoke about reducing the number of flights to Zagreb this winter, which is down to four flights per week. 

 "Zagreb was operated with Boeing 737 MAX equipment but had to be moved to the B737-800. Therefore, the entire flight plan had to change and has been partially reduced. Now we have to see when the B737 MAX is allowed to fly again.”

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

April 3, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Zadar, Pula, and Zagreb.

Emirates Zagreb might be getting an Indian boost, EX-YU aviation reports.

Emirates, one of the largest airline companies in the world, will land in Croatia for the first time on June 1st, 2017.