May 8, 2020 - Korean Air has stopped ticket sales to Zagreb, while Air Transat has pushed back its Zagreb service to July. 

Ex Yu Aviation announced that Korean Air will not resume its seasonal service between Seoul and Zagreb from September 1, and has officially stopped ticket sales. 

This isn’t entirely surprising given the COVID-19 pandemic, as Korean Air will only operate at 20% of its usual international capacity, or only 32 of its 110 international routes (just 146 flights per week). In May, Korean Air is running only 13 routes, or 55 per week. 

Recall, the Seoul-Zagreb service should have resumed in March but was delayed first until June, and then September as the coronavirus spread globally. 

In 2019, Korean Air handled 43,123 passengers on the Seoul-Zagreb service. 

Furthermore, Ex Yu Aviation reports that Canadian carrier Air Transat has delayed its seasonal service between Toronto and Zagreb by a month, until July 2. The airline has plans to fly to Zagreb three times per week until mid-September, and then two times per week until late October. However, nothing is guaranteed. 

Because of COVID-19, the Canadian airline has suspended all services until June 30. 

"These are extraordinary circumstances, when all airlines and travel companies have been forced to temporarily halt or drastically reduce their operations while governments have decided to close their borders. This unprecedented situation is well beyond our control,” Air Transat said in a statement. 

Recall, Air Canada Rouge already suspended its service between Toronto and Zagreb this year.

If you're wondering about how the future of flights to Croatia will look in the post-corona world, TCN caught up with Max Oldorf, COO of the aviation data company, ch-aviation. You can read our interview here.

Need to find the latest Croatia COVID-19 travel advice? When will borders open, flights take off, and tourism finally begin? Check out our overview of what we know at the moment here.

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April 17, 2020 - After the news that Emirates would delay its Zagreb-Dubai service from May to July, Korean Air and Air Canada Rouge announced changes in their services to the Croatian capital.

Namely, Ex Yu Aviation reports that while Korean Air originally planned to resume operations in June, the non-stop service between Seoul and Zagreb is now delayed until September due to the coronavirus pandemic. Bookings are closed until September 1.

Ex Yu Aviation adds that Korean Air will resume the service with three flights per week, with departures from Seoul on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

The route will operate with the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, with capacity for 269 passengers, and could potentially work into the winter months. 

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Korean Air will put 70% of its 19,000 staff members on temporary leave from April 16 until the middle of October. Furthermore, 390 foreign pilots are on three months of unpaid leave from April 1. The airline has also suspended more than 90% of its flights on international routes and currently only maintains services Paris and London.

Korean Air will, however, offer alternatives to Zagreb via other European destinations until September. 

“We will see what happens with this entire situation. We sincerely hope that all of this will be over as soon as possible and for us to be able to resume normal operations to some extent in April,” Zagreb Airport said at the beginning of April. The airport is currently only handling flights from Croatia Airlines and Eurowings and is the only airport with commercial flights in Croatia and the wider region at the moment. 

Furthermore, Ex Yu Aviation reports that while operations were to resume on June 4 this year, Air Canada Rouge will not run between Toronto and Zagreb this summer, with services expected to resume in 2021. Its other seasonal summer flights in the region have also been canceled.

“Passengers will still be able to reach Zagreb from Toronto with Air Canada thanks to its wide-ranging codeshare partnership with Croatia Airlines, once both carriers resume the majority of their operations. Air Canada codeshares on its counterparts’ flights from Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, London Heathrow, Paris and Zurich to the Croatian capital. At this point, the Canadian carrier plans to resume services to these European destinations in June and July. Air Canada is not offering refunds for cancelled flights but is instead providing credits which can be used for another flight within the next 24 months. The Canadian Transportation Agency says airlines are not obliged to pay back passengers for trips suspended due to the coronavirus and “should not be expected to take steps that could threaten their economic viability,” writes Ex Yu Aviation. 

The Air Transat service between Toronto and Zagreb, however, is still scheduled to resume flights on June 2.

Recall, Ex Yu Aviation reported last week that Emirates 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, as many 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.

American Airlines and Qatar Airways are suspending their seasonal services to Dubrovnik until 2021. 

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, 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.

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