October 11, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Split and Pula.

Following Thursday’s announcement that Air Transat is looking to increase their Croatian operations to Split and Dubrovnik, Avio Radar revealed on Friday that Spanish low-cost airline Volotea will run a seasonal service between Athens and Split as part of their 2020 summer flight schedule. 

Thus, Volotea will operate two flights per week between the two cities, on Wednesdays and Sundays, beginning April 19. This seasonal service will compete against Aegean Airlines and Croatia Airlines, both Star Alliance members, who already operate this line. 

Recall, the Dubrovnik-Athens service began operating this year, too. However, next year, the service will begin two weeks earlier, from April 11. The airline will run two flights per week in the preseason, on Wednesdays and Saturdays as they did this year, and from June, they’ll increase frequencies to three flights per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. This year, Volotea only ran three flights per week in August. 

A Boeing 717-200 aircraft will operate on both lines. 

Avio Radar also reports that low-cost carrier Transavia has announced a new flight for Croatia in their 2020 summer flight schedule. Namely, the airline will connect Paris (Orly Airport) and Pula. The new route will begin on April 4, 2020, and run once a week - on Saturdays. The airline will increase frequencies to two flights a week from May until the end of September on Tuesdays and Saturdays. During the heart of the season, in July and August, Transavia will boost operations to three flights per week, with the additional trip on Thursdays. 

A Boeing 737-800 aircraft will fly on this line.

Furthermore, Split Airport handled its three-millionth passenger on Friday, October 4, which is the second time in the 53-year-history of the airport. The lucky passenger arrived on a Croatia Airlines flight from Frankfurt. Split Airport achieved this milestone 21 days earlier than last year. 

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

October 5, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Dubrovnik. 

Avio Radar reports that Norwegian airline Norwegian Air Shuttle has announced they will reduce traffic to Dubrovnik in their summer flight schedule next year. The airline revealed they’ll be closing their base in Madrid, which directly effects the Madrid-Dubrovnik route. 

Namely, the Madrid-Dubrovnik route will cease to operate after the current summer flight schedule. Norwegian currently operates two flights per week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The service will end on October 26, 2019. 

Furthermore, although it has not been officially announced that Norwegian will close its base in Barcelona as well, the Barcelona-Dubrovnik route is also no longer on offer for the 2020 summer flight schedule. According to the planned flight schedule, this service has already been completed for this year. By canceling these two lines, Norwegian will no longer offer any routes between Spain and Croatia. The Boeing 737-800 aircraft was used for both lines. 

Recall, TCN recently reported that Korean Air would not run the Seoul-Zagreb service this winter, though services will resume on April 1, 2020. The service will run between the two capitals only until November 29, 2019. Tickets sales have thus been discontinued. 

LOT announced they’re coming to Rijeka with a new direct seasonal service from Warsaw. The route will run from March 29 to October 18, once a week, on Sundays. The flight lands in Rijeka at 15:30 and departs for Warsaw at 16:20. An Embraer E195 aircraft, which has the capacity for 118 passengers, will service this line. 

Finally, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, a Star Alliance member, added a new Croatian destination to its 2020 summer flight schedule. Namely, the airline will service Zadar in addition to the existing routes to Dubrovnik, Pula, and Split. The new Copenhagen-Zadar route will operate twice a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, from June 30 to August 8, 2020. A Canadair CRJ-900 will be used for this line. 

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

September 27, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Zadar, Dubrovnik, and Zagreb. 

Avio Radar reports that Austrian national carrier Austrian Airlines, a member of the Star Alliance global airline association, is launching a new route to Croatia in the summer of 2020. Namely, Austrian Airlines will connect Vienna and Zadar every day next year. Zadar will be the fourth Austrian Airlines' destination in Croatia, after the long-standing connections to Zagreb, Dubrovnik, and Split. 

This route will begin operating seven flights a week from the first day of the 2020 summer flights schedule, or March 29, 2020. An Airbus A320 aircraft will serve this line. 

But that’s not the only news coming from Austria. 

Furthermore, Ex-Yu Aviation reports that Austrian low-cost airline Lauda will launch seasonal flights between Vienna and Dubrovnik from March 29 next year, operating two times a week, on Thursdays and Sundays. This new route will compete directly against Austrian Airlines and Level. 

The Lauda line will leave Vienna on Thursdays at 14:55, arriving in Dubrovnik at 16:20, while it will leave on Sunday at 6:00, arriving in Dubrovnik at 7:25. 

Ryanair's B737-800 equipment will operate on this service, even though the flights are marketed by Lauda.

To end this week of travel, Avio Radar reports that Franjo Tudjman Airport was recognized in the category of airports with less than 4 million passengers at the 25th World Routes Aviation Forum held in Adelaide, Australia. 

The annual World Routes Awards were held at the Adelaide Convention Center on September 23, 2019. The awards are highly regarded in the aviation industry for recognizing marketing services that support new and existing airport services, as well as excellence and innovation in route development. 

Zagreb Airport recorded 3.34 million passengers last year, which is an increase of 8%, following a 12% increase in 2017. After introducing Emirates in 2017, three new carriers have been launched from Zagreb in 2018, of which two operate long-haul flights and bring a number of new destinations. Firstly, in the spring, Aegean Airlines introduced direct flights to Athens, while Croatia Airlines opened two new destinations - Dublin and Mostar. In June, Air Canada Rouge opened its second direct line between Zagreb and Toronto, and in September 2018, the first flights to the Far East began thanks to Korean Air, connecting Zagreb and Seoul throughout the year. 

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

September 19, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Zadar and Split.

Dutch low-cost airline Transavia has announced their 2020 flight schedule. Flights to Croatian destinations remain mostly with the same number of flights as this year, though the airline has chosen to boost operations to Zadar next year. 

Namely, Avio Radar reports that the route between Rotterdam/The Hague and Zadar began operating this year from July with two flights a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Next year, this line will begin operations two months earlier, from April 18. In the preseason, there will be two flights a week, and in July and August, an additional third flight per week on Mondays. A Boeing 737-700 aircraft or larger Boeing 737-800 will service this line. 

Furthermore, Avio Radar reports that larger aircraft will fly on the charter lines of Scandinavian travel agency Apollo next year. Namely, Apollo has contracted charter flights for Croatia with the Danish airline JetTime for the 2020 flight schedule. This includes two lines - Gothenburg - Split and Copenhagen - Split. Both charter lines will run once a week, on Saturdays, From May 9 to October 3, 2020. A Boeing 737-700 aircraft is expected to service this route, while a smaller British Aerospace ARJ-100 flew this year by Swedish regional airline Braathens. 

Croatia’s nine commercial airports are on schedule to handle over eleven million passengers in 2019, which is an increase compared to 2018’s 10.5 million. 

Ex Yu Aviation reports that Croatia recorded the 7th largest passenger growth in the European Union so far this year, behind Austria, Latvia, Portugal, Finland, Hungary, and Malta, but ahead of the remaining 21-member states. Namely, from January to August, Croatian airports handled 8,285,615 travelers, which is up 8.7%. 

Dubrovnik Airport recorded an additional 240,016 passengers compared to last year, though Split Airport continues to be the busiest in Croatia. 

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

September 16, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Zagreb and Split.

Avio Radar reports that Korean national carrier Korean Air, a member of the SkyTeam Airline Alliance, will reduce aircraft capacity slightly on its route between Seoul (Incheon Airport) and Zagreb in the coming winter flight schedule. 

Thus, instead of the new and larger Boeing 787-7 Dreamliner aircraft, which flew last winter and this summer, the upcoming winter season will feature the Airbus A330-200, which has the capacity for 218 passengers. The winter schedule will run from November 2019 to March 2020. 

Additionally, Korean Air will continue to operate on the Seoul-Zagreb-Zurich-Seoul route this winter. 

Moving from the capital to the coast, Avio Radar also reports that Czech carrier Smartwings will increase operations on their service between Poland and Split for the 2020 summer season. Namely, the airline will run three flights per week on both lines - Warsaw (Frederic Chopin Airport) and Split-Katowice. 

In addition to this year’s one flight per week, which took off on Thursdays, two flights have been added per week on both routes - on Mondays and Saturdays. These new lines will begin working on May 25, 2020. The end of traffic on these routes is still unknown, though tickets are currently on sale until September 7, 2020. Smartwings will operate both routes using a Boeing 737-800 aircraft. 

Recall, TCN recently reported that national carrier Croatia Airlines would add a one flight per week between Brussels and Zagreb this winter, 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. 

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

August 4, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Dubrovnik, Split and Pula. 

All Nippon Airways (ANA), known as Japan’s largest airline, comes back to Dubrovnik this summer with charter services from Tokyo and Osaka, reports Ex Yu Aviation.

The charters, which are operated by Japan’s largest tour operator, will run from Dubrovnik to Tokyo on September 7 and Osaka on September 21. Flights will depart at 20.30 and 20.55. ANA will operate this service using a Boeing 787-9 aircraft with a capacity of up to 395 passengers. 

Recall, Croatia and Japan are looking to launch non-stop flights in the future. 

"Discussions between the aeronautical authorities of Japan and the Republic of Croatia are continuing. A tentative framework has been reached until the conclusion of an Air Services Agreement between the two countries. Considering the possibility and forecasts, there is sufficient air traffic demand for scheduled air services between Japan and the Republic of Croatia in the future,” the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said after the first round of negotiations were last in November 2018. 

In other flight news, Avio Radar reports that Irish national carrier Aer Lingus has announced its 2020 flight schedule, which neither boosts nor decreases operations to Croatia. Even though their low-cost competition Ryanair launched two new routes this year from Dublin to Dubrovnik and Split, bringing four new flights a week on both routes, Aer Lingus has maintained the same number of flights. 

Namely, Aer Lingus will operate the same schedule as this year, with two flights on the Dubrovnik-Cork line, daily on the Dubrovnik-Dublin line and four times a week on the Pula-Dublin route. The Dubrovnik-Dublin route will begin operating two weeks earlier than this year, on April 3, 2020. 

The Irish airline will maintain four flights a week on the Dublin-Split route, though the flight days will change. Thus, since both airlines operated this route four times a week on the same days this year (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays), Aer Lingus will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays in 2020 instead. Ryanair’s 2020 summer flight schedule is still unknown. 

Tickets are currently on sale until June 2020, so the end of the summer flight schedule is presently unknown. The Airbus A320 will fly on all lines.

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

July 29, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Zagreb and Pula airports. 

Ex Yu Aviation reports that LOT Polish Airlines could soon operate a route between Budapest and Zagreb, as well as to Belgrade, Prague and Sofia, as the airline works on building its hub in the capital of Hungary. The new routes are expected to launch this September, though more information will be known after a press conference this Wednesday. 

With this expansion, LOT would become one of the main hub airlines at the Budapest Airport. These new routes would be in addition to the already scheduled Brussels and Bucharest lines.

Furthermore, this new line would resume the Budapest-Zagreb route for the first time in five years. With this addition, the airline hopes to target business passengers traveling between European capitals and passengers with onward connections, like the routes from Budapest to New York and Chicago. 

Recall, Qatar Airways once operated between Doha and Zagreb via Budapest, while Hungary’s former national carrier Malev once ran 18 flights per week between the two cities until it folded in 2012. 

LOT currently works between Zagreb and Warsaw two times a day. 

In other news, Avio Radar reports that S7 Airlines, which is a member of the global airline association OneWorld, announced that it would boost the Moscow-Domodedovo-Pula line for the 2020 summer. The airline plans for six flights per week, on every day apart from Thursday. The new flights will be added on Sundays, and this year’s Thursday flight will change to a new flight on Tuesdays next year. 

The Boeing 737-800 aircraft have been announced for next year instead of the Airbus A320 aircraft.

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

June 23, 2019 - Ryanair was the budget airline pioneer in Croatia back in 2007 before others took bigger slices of the market. Is that about to change, a change that will include Zagreb?

I am not an airline expert by any means, and one thing which has always confused me about the flight market in Croatia is the position of Ryanair. 

Having lived in Croatia full-time since 2003, I fondly remember the collective expat joy when the Irish airline started operations from London to Zadar back in 2007, offering a much more convenient connection for UK travellers. It is interesting to listen to people today complaining at the lack of winter flights to Split and other such destinations - compared to what was on offer a decade ago, the change has been incredible. 

But having entered the market and transformed Zadar, things did not expand as one might have expected, and other budget airlines, most notably easyJet and Eurowings, quickly overtook Ryanair. In an interesting article today on ExYuAviation about Ryanair being set for expansion in Croatia, the percentages of market share show this quite clearly. 

The low-cost airline has the fifth largest market share in the country this summer, standing at 4.4%. It is behind Croatia Airlines on 31%, easyJet on 9.9%, Eurowings on 8.6% and Lufthansa with a 4.8% market share.

But are things changing, and are we set for a rapid expansion of Ryanair flights to Split, Dubrovnik and Zagreb, to name but three?

It took 12 years after that Zadar launch for Ryanair to commence flights to both Split and Dubrovnik, with flights from Dublin only starting this summer. According to the ExYuAviation report, both routes have already been extended into the first week of winter, an encouraging sign for a new route. Ryanair is not the type of airline which services an airport with just one route, so I would expect more Ryanair routes for 2020. Getting into Split and Dubrovnik is the hard part, and now that they have managed that and extended their inaugural schedules, expect more to follow. 

The report also highlights cooperation with the Croatian National Tourist Board, which has resulted in a 50% increase in the airline's passenger numbers to Zadar, a successful strategy which one would expect to continue. The airline expects to handle 550,000 passengers this year in the Croatian market. 

The most intriguing part of the report, however, is this:

"Ryanair has held positive discussions with the Croatian Minister for Tourism regarding longer-term traffic growth and route development at its existing Croatian airports as well as potential new airports like Zagreb", the company said recently. For its part, Zagreb Airport noted it was seeking models which would allow low-cost carriers to increase their presence in the Croatian capital. 

The quote itself is not new, it was cited by the website mentioning Split as well back in November, but it comes at a time when industry insiders are suggesting that there are talks underway to reopen the old Zagreb terminal and run it as a parallel low-cost hub. As I wrote recently, the two airlines supposedly in discussions are Eurowings and Lauda. You can read the article here. 

And other major budget airlines have confirmed their interest, should Zagreb be able to provide a solution for low-cost airlines:

Commenting on its absence in Zagreb, Wizz Air's CEO, Jozsef Varadi, said recently, "It is a high-priced airport environment with fluctuating demand. Should the costs come down, I think they would attract us".

Such a move would be bad news for Croatia Airlines, of course, but one only has to look a few hundred kilometres north to Budapest to see how an airport can flourish with the passing of a national airline. Jost Lammers, CEO of Budapest Airport, was kind enough to explain to TCN how things changed in Hungary when Malev went bankrupt in 2012. 

If Zagreb had short-haul connectivity anywhere close to what Budapest has, the economic benefits to the Croatian economy would be considerable. The medical tourism industry would be much more competitive, for example, a lucrative industry which experts agree Croatia has the potential to be in the top ten in the world within ten years. And with the explosive growth of the digital nomad market looking to spend their money in countries which offer great connectivity and lifestyle, a budget hub in Zagreb would be one more important step to develop Croatia's place in this equally lucrative market.

And while the official word from Zagreb Airport did not confirm that any of this was happening, it was also not ruled out. 

Lidia Capkovic Martinek, Advisor to the Director of International Airport Jsc. was kind enough to promptly reply to my questions about Eurowings and the use of the old terminal for low-cost carriers. 

"Eurowings currently operates 18 weekly flights to ZAG from 5 different destinations in Germany. As the concessionaire of Zagreb Airport, we are continuously in contact with our existing partners and other carriers, in order to improve air connectivity at Zagreb Airport.

"Currently there is no official plan to use old terminal building for low-cost carriers. But as a private company we would like to utilize our resources at maximum efficiency, therefore we always brainstorm about new ideas and projects."

For the latest flight news from Croatia, follow the dedicated TCN section.

June 21, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Split and Zagreb airports. 

Avio Radar reports that the Lithuanian airline Getjet Airlines will operate its first charter line to Croatia. This will be a post-season charter that will connect Lithuania and Split from Vilnius, once a week on Sundays this September. The Airbus A320 will run on this service. 

Getjet was established back in 2016 with its main operating base in Vilnius. Until last autumn, Getjet was based on the wet-lease of aircraft with crew to other airlines - and they also flew on short-term leases for Croatia Airlines. 

After the collapse of the Lithuanian carrier Small Planet Airlines, they acquired part of their aircraft and began trading on their own charter lines according to the needs of travel agencies in the Baltics. 

The Getjet fleet currently consists of 15 aircraft - three Boeing 737-300, five Boeing 737-400, six Airbus A320 and one Airbus A330-300 aircraft. Two Airbus A320 aircraft also fly on the TUI Netherlands Airlines Amsterdam-Pula route.

In other news, Avio Radar reports that German carrier Lufthansa, a member of the global Star Alliance airline association, would cease operations with the Spanish regional carrier Air Nostrum on Friday, June 21. Lufthansa currently has two Air Nostrum aircraft Canadair CJ-1000 registered with the label EC-LJT and EC-MNR. Both planes flew on lease to Croatia Airlines for the last two summer seasons. 

Ceasing this operation also applies to the line to Croatia, as these aircraft flew from April this year on both daily Lufthansa flights between Zagreb and Frankfurt. Now, from Saturday, June 22, Lufthansa will fly to Zagreb with the Airbus A319. There will also be minor changes in the departure and arrival times on select flights. 

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

June 19, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Dubrovnik, Zagreb, and Pula.

Ex Yu Aviation reports on June 19, 2019, that the national airline of Spain, Iberia, will end its winter service between Madrid and Dubrovnik but will maintain its summer service. Recall, Iberia operated between Madrid and Dubrovnik two times a week last winter season. 

However, not all hope is lost for Croatia this winter, as the Spanish airline will instead increase operations to Zagreb to three flights per week.  The additional service will operate on Sundays. 

Iberia has shown Croatia quite a bit of love this year, which all started with them adding another 204,586 seats between Spain and Croatia compared to last year. 

"Most of our passengers to and from Croatia fly point to point, but we also have connecting traffic. Among the cities that feed more passengers to our flights from/to Dubrovnik, Split and Zagreb last year were New York, Lisbon, Bilbao, Porto, Chicago, Boston, and Miami,” Iberia said to Ex Yu Aviation at the beginning of the year. You can read the story here. 

In other news, Avio Radar reports that for the first time in its history, Pula Airport welcomed two Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft at the same time. Namely,  on Tuesday, June 18, two British airline TUI Airways aircraft flew on the BY4278 route from London Gatwick Airport and the BY2206 route from Manchester after 12:20, just three minutes apart. 

The Boeing 787-9 G-TUIM airplane flew from London, while the smaller Boeing 787-8 G-TUII flew from Manchester. The two flights did not plan on arriving in Pula at the same time, though the plane from Manchester was three hours late. 

On May 23rd this year, Dubrovnik Airport welcomed three Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft at the same time, from London, Manchester,  and Bristol.

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