May 9, 2022 - The latest flight news to Croatia as FlyDubai Zagreb flights are boosted to five times a week in June, and the seasonal Dubrovnik line begins on June 23!

FlyDubai, a low-cost airline from the United Arab Emirates, currently operates a scheduled flight between Dubai and Zagreb, and a seasonal flight between Dubai and Dubrovnik will be introduced at the end of June, reports Croatian Aviation. 

FlyDubai has been operating regularly to Zagreb for several months now, while flights have been announced and canceled several times in the last two years. The partner company, Emirates, which operated on this line until 2019, canceled this route after the pandemic broke out due to low demand, and instead transferred it to a low-cost carrier.

Regular flights between Dubai and Zagreb are available 4 times a week, every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The weekly rotations will be boosted from the end of June when the line should operate on Sundays as well. FlyDubai plans to maintain this number of weekly rotations until the beginning of September.

The seasonal line between Dubai and Dubrovnik will be in traffic again from June 23, three times a week, every Thursday, Friday, and Sunday until mid-September. The line will stop traffic in early October.

On both routes to Croatia, B737 MAX8 aircraft have been announced, which in the fleet of this airline have a capacity of 166 seats (10 in business and 156 in economy class).

From June to the end of the summer flight schedule, FlyDubai offers 32,204 seats between Dubai and Zagreb, and 13,944 seats between Dubai and Dubrovnik, for a total of 46,148 to and from these two Croatian airports.

FlyDubai has a code-share agreement with Emirates so it is possible to continue the journey via Dubai with this well-known airline to a number of destinations in Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

For more on flights to Croatia and other travel announcements, make sure to check out our dedicated travel section.

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.

January 6, 2021 - The latest news for flights to Croatia as Flydubai delays Zagreb return to May 2021.

Ex Yu Aviation reports that Flydubai has delayed its Zagreb return until May 14, 2021, and will run on a daily basis once restored. Flights between Dubai and Zagreb were initially to resume on March 29.

Recall, Flydubai is replacing the famous Emirates, which has temporarily canceled the line to Zagreb and will not operate on it in 2021, due to the impact of the pandemic.

Flydubai had initially announced it would operate its first flight to Zagreb at the end of March 2021 and would run four times a week on this route through April and May, every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Now, Flydubai should operate daily from its new start date (May 14) until September 5 next year.

It was announced earlier that the number of weekly flights from September 6 will be reduced to four (Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays) until the end of October. 

Flydubai will operate on the Zagreb - Dubai route with narrow-body aircraft type B737-800, and in the summer flight schedule, it plans to perform as many as 164 return flights.

This low-cost airline will offer more than 57,000 seats between Dubai and Zagreb in the summer flight schedule, which is significantly less than in 2019 when Emirates operated on this route with a B777-300ER wide-body aircraft with an average capacity of 358 seats per flight (in 2019, more than 152 thousand seats were available on this line, so the number of seats offered on this line will be lower by over 60% compared to 2019.)

Apart from the smaller capacity, the Dubai - Zagreb line will no longer have a first-class seat offer for which Emirates is world-famous. The number of offered seats in business and economy class will be drastically reduced. Nevertheless, the return of Flydubai to Zagreb will enable Emirates passengers to continue their journey to Zagreb with a partner company, which is very important for the market's recovery next year.

Flydubai also plans to return to its second destination in Croatia - Dubrovnik. The Dubai - Dubrovnik line should operate from May 13, twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays. From June 25, the airline plans to add a third weekly flight (Fridays), and scheduled flights are announced until the end of September next year.

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December 8, 2020 - The latest news for flights to Croatia as Flydubai replaces Emirates in Zagreb next year.

Ex Yu Aviation reports that Flydubai will replace Emirates on the Dubai-Zagreb route next summer!

Recall, Emirates officially canceled the Dubai-Zagreb route for all of 2021 back in October. The airline had planned to operate on the Dubai-Zagreb route in this year's summer flight schedule, but due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the start of operations on this route was first postponed, and then completely canceled for this year.

Emirates then left daily flights on this route on sale for the 2021 summer flight schedule, but ultimately canceled the route entirely. Namely, the airline canceled all flights to Zagreb for the next year, closed its office at Zagreb Airport, and fired its local employees. Emirates also canceled their routes between Dubai - Edinburgh, Dubai - Porto, and Dubai - St. Petersburg.

A logical move, Flydubai will now operate on this route three times a week, beginning February 3, 2021, before running four flights a week from March 28, 2021, and daily from June 1, 2021,

Flydubai will operate using a Boeing 737-800 aircraft, which Ex Yu Aviation says will likely be upgraded to the 737 MAX once it receives regulatory approval to return to the skies. 

However, capacity between Zagreb and Dubai will be significantly reduced compared to 2019, offering 57,420 seats on 330 flights. Recall, in the summer of 2019, Emirates offered 137,510 seats on 380 flights on the three-class Boeing 777 aircraft. Thus, Flydubai will operate with a capacity reduction of 58.2%.

Ex Yu Aviation also reports that Flydubai should resume its seasonal summer service to Dubrovnik from May 13, 2021, which would operate until August 27. FlyDubai had also previously announced regular flights to Zagreb from December this winter, which will no longer happen as the airline withdrew all flights on the route until the beginning of February 2021. It is now only a question of when those flights will also be canceled.

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October 4, 2020 - The latest news for flights to Croatia as flydubai cancels Zagreb for October, November, and most of December... for now.

Croatian Aviation reports that just a few hours after Emirates canceled the Dubai - Zagreb service for all of 2021, its partner company flydubai made changes to its Zagreb route, too.

Recall, Emirates flew to Zagreb in the summer, and flydubai in the winter. The same schedule was announced for this year as well. 

However, Emirates canceled the Dubai - Zagreb route for this year, but the possibility of flydubai returning on the same route at the beginning of the winter flight schedule was still in the works. Airline tickets on this route could be bought literally until Friday, and while we were skeptical about if these flights would return at all, we now have our answer.

flydubai has canceled all flights to Zagreb for October, November, and almost the whole of December. There are currently departures on sale from December 27, with 3 flights announced per week through January, February and March, but the probability that they will be realized is very small.

Given that Emirates has completely canceled the Dubai - Zagreb route for next year, the question arises whether flydubai will operate on it at all. According to the available flight schedule, it will not, but there is enough time left for this low-cost company to include Zagreb in its network of destinations for the 2021 summer flight schedule.

Zagreb does not currently have an announced direct air connection with Dubai for 2021. The line has been operating regularly since 2014, it was launched by flydubai.

Recall, TCN reported on Saturday that Emirates canceled all flights to Zagreb for the next year, closed its office at Zagreb Airport, and fired its employees. The large B777-300ER aircraft in Zagreb every day will not return to the Croatian capital any time soon, which is certainly a financial blow to the airport, given the revenue it generated from the daily landings of this company's aircraft.

The arrival of this airline in Zagreb was truly a success for the management of Zagreb Airport, but its complete withdrawal can certainly be considered a failure. Emirates connected Zagreb with the rest of the world on a daily basis, offering excellent service to passengers on its flights on which it operated modernly equipped aircraft. The departure of this airline is a step backward for Zagreb Airport. 

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

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April 24, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Zadar and Zagreb airports. 

The answer is yes, Flydubai is returning to Zagreb, but only temporarily.