May 26, 2022 - The latest flight news to Croatia as the Qatar Airways Zagreb route is boosted for the 2022 World Cup later this year. 

Qatar Airways, a member of the One World Alliance, has made changes to the type of aircraft on more than 80 international routes in the last two days, including the route to Zagreb. These are operational changes have been made due to the World Cup, which expects great demand for flights to this country, reports Croatian Aviation.

Due to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Qatar Airways is increasing the number of flights to Zagreb and will also use wide-body aircraft on the route.

Namely, from November 17 to December 20 this year, Qatar Airways will operate daily between Zagreb and Doha, with evening departures from Zagreb. Furthermore, instead of the narrow-body aircraft type A320, the wide-body aircraft type Boeing 787-8 will operate on the route.

The World Cup will be held in Qatar from November 20 to December 18 this year, and the national airline is preparing for high demand for its flights. Thus, as mentioned earlier, only in the past two days has the airline made operational changes on more than 80 international lines

Between Doha and Zagreb, the B787-8 will operate a total of 34 return flights, offering Qatar Airways a total of 17,136 seats, of which almost 1,500 seats are available in business class.

Qatar Airways B787-8 aircraft in the business class have a 1-2-1 configuration, while in economy class in the classic 3-3-3 configuration. Recall that before the pandemic in the summer of 2019, Qatar Airways operated twice a day between Zagreb and Doha, and the wide-bodied B787-8 was supposed to arrive in Zagreb in the 2020 summer flight schedule, but that did not happen due to the pandemic. 

The Croatia national team will play this November at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in Group F against Morocco, Canada, and Belgium. Croatia will open the tournament against Morocco on November 23 at 11 am local time at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor. The second round is scheduled four days later, on November 27, when Croatia plays Canada at 5 pm at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha. The Group F derby is played on December 1, when Croatia and Belgium will play at 4 pm at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan.

If Croatia is one of the first two national teams in their group, they will cross paths with Group E, where Spain and Germany are the favorites to pass, while the group also includes Japan and either Costa Rica or New Zealand. 

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

March 23, 2021 - The latest flight news to Croatia as Qatar Airways flights to Zagreb will be operated twice a week from the end of this month. 

Croatian Aviation reports that Qatar Airways will introduce the second weekly flight on the Doha - Zagreb - Doha route on the first days of the airline's summer flight schedule.

Qatar Airways has been operating only once a week (every Friday) between Doha and Zagreb for months. From Monday, March 29, the airline will operate on this route twice a week, every Monday and Saturday, on A320 aircraft, the smallest in the fleet of this well-known airline.

Only 8 return flights were announced in April, 4 more than in previous months (January, February, and March). A total of 1,920 seats between the two mentioned cities are available in April.

Until a few days ago, the airline offered two flights a day between Zagreb and Doha from June, but that has also changed and they are currently only offering three flights a week (Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays), which is certainly far more realistic to be achieved in the season ahead. 

Two flights a week have also been announced in May, and there is a great possibility that the airline will further adjust its flight schedule to Zagreb for June, but we will know more soon.

With two flights a day to Zagreb, Qatar Airways offered great opportunities in terms of connections to Asia, Australia, and Oceania, which is certainly not possible with either one or two flights a week.

Recall, Qatar Airways made changes to its flight schedule for the rest of the winter and the start of the regular flight schedule back in January. 

This airline had announced an increase in the number of weekly flights to Zagreb during the Christmas and New Year holidays, launching the second weekly flight on this route. Due to weak demand, they were not realized, so they operated on the Zagreb line only once a week, every Friday.

Qatar Airways did not have the capacity to fill its smallest aircraft in the fleet (A320) to Zagreb, all due to the impact of the global pandemic and passenger restrictions between countries. 

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January 7, 2021 - The latest news for flights to Croatia as Qatar Airways reduces traffic to Zagreb.

Croatian Aviation reports that Qatar Airways has updated its flight schedule on the Doha - Zagreb - Doha route. The airline has further reduced the number of weekly flights on its only route to Croatia.

Namely, Qatar Airways has made changes to its flight schedule for the rest of the winter and the start of the regular flight schedule.

This airline had announced an increase in the number of weekly flights to Zagreb during the Christmas and New Year holidays, launching the second weekly flight on this route. Due to weak demand, they were not realized, so they continue to operate on the Zagreb line only once a week, every Friday.

Qatar Airways currently does not have the capacity to fill its smallest aircraft in the fleet (A320) to Zagreb, all due to the impact of the global pandemic and passenger restrictions between countries. 

Until a few days ago, the airline offered two daily flights to Zagreb from the end of March, which is actually the schedule that existed before the global pandemic and has not changed so far.

These two daily flights are no longer available for booking on the airline's website. Instead of twice a day, the airline plans to operate twice a week (Tuesdays and Saturdays) between Zagreb and Doha, from the end of March to the end of May 2021.

As of June, two daily flights are available. Still, it is expected that the airline will withdraw these flights from sale in the coming weeks and reduce the frequency to two to three flights a week, depending on the epidemiological situation and the demand itself.

In January and February 2020, before the outbreak of the global pandemic, Qatar Airways flew to Zagreb twice a day on A320 aircraft and offered over 31,000 seats between Doha and Zagreb in those two months. In January and February this year, Qatar is offering just one weekly flight (Fridays) for a total of just over 2,100 seats. This is a drastic reduction in the available seats on this line by as much as 93%. 

The small number of weekly Qatar Airways flights is not a surprise - the line to Zagreb has been used by many tourists from all over Asia, Australia, and Oceania. There are almost no such passengers in Croatia since the outbreak of the pandemic. The line from Zagreb is also used by a large number of Slovenian citizens who do not have a direct line from Qatar Airways from Ljubljana. Still, at the moment, Slovenian citizens also do not travel in large numbers, so we will have to wait for a slightly larger number of weekly flights.

In February 2020, Qatar Airways planned to increase capacity on its afternoon flights to Zagreb and operate a B787-8 wide-body aircraft (254 instead of 132 seats) instead of the narrow-body A320, but this did not happen due to the global pandemic.

Before the pandemic, the airline also announced the introduction of the seasonal line Doha - Dubrovnik - Doha, which is currently not on sale for the summer flight schedule in 2021.

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November 25, 2020 - The latest news for flights to Croatia as Qatar Airways increases traffic to Zagreb in December.

Croatian AviationCroatian Aviation reports that Qatar Airways, the national carrier of Qatar, will increase the number of weekly flights on the Doha - Zagreb route in December.

Qatar Airways currently operates on the Doha - Zagreb - Doha route only once a week, every Friday, on A320 aircraft. These are drastically fewer weekly flights as a direct result of weak demand caused by the global pandemic.

Last summer, Qatar Airways operated on this route as many as 14 times a week, and this summer the route to Dubrovnik was supposed to begin.

Qatar Airways stopped traffic to Zagreb during the pandemic, and the airline brought back the route on July 1 with three flights per week. Due to low demand, flights were suspended even during the summer season for two weeks, in August and September. Qatar has since stayed on one flight a week to Zagreb.

An extra flight on Wednesdays in December

The airline will briefly increase the number of weekly flights on this route. In addition to the flight on Friday, a flight is reintroduced on Wednesdays in December. Both flights will be operated weekly by A320 aircraft with a capacity of 132 seats in the carrier's fleet; 12 in business and 120 in economy class. The extra flight will operate according to the same schedule, with an afternoon departure from Zagreb Airport.

Doha 07:45 - 11:45 Zagreb 15:35 - 23:00 Doha

The temporary increase of Qatar Airways during the Christmas and New Year holidays is certainly a logical move by the company, considering that Croatian citizens will want to travel to Croatia at this time, and it is generally known that a large number of Slovenian citizens use this line.

From 1,188 to 2,376 available seats on this line in December

The question remains what Qatar Airways will do with the Zagreb route in January and February, or the traditionally bad months when demand is relatively low even under normal circumstances. The airline planned to connect the Zagreb line with Vienna, but that did not happen.

One thing is for sure - if Croatia's biggest markets, primarily from Asia, are reactivated in the summer flight schedule next year, Qatar Airways will certainly react by increasing the weekly frequencies on this route. A minimum of four flights a week should not be in question, especially when we take into account that Emirates will not fly to Zagreb next summer, and probably not Korean Air either.

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October 28, 2020 - The latest news for flights to Croatia as Qatar Airways operates only once a week to Zagreb in November. 

Croatian Aviation reports that Qatar Airways reduced its traffic to Zagreb at the end of September, and the line will operate with a minimum number of weekly operations in November.

Qatar Airways canceled departures on Mondays and Wednesdays and will operate on the Doha-Zagreb route only once a week, on Fridays throughout November.

Under normal circumstances, the Doha-Zagreb route operated twice a day, with A320 and A321 aircraft, but since the outbreak of the global pandemic, this airline has very often changed its flight schedule to Zagreb, canceling operations in July and August for two to three weeks.

Since September, the airline has operated on this line only once a week, on Fridays, and one flight a week has been announced for November.

Qatar Airways will have a morning departure from Doha to Zagreb in November, while the departure from Zagreb is planned at 3:35 pm. Arrival in Doha is at 11 pm, which allows passengers from the Croatian capital to transfer to numerous flights to a number of destinations in Asia.

However, only one flight a week is not satisfactory, and the airline thus does not offer passengers flexibility in choosing the date of travel, so the low occupancy of this line (with the pandemic and travel restrictions) is not a surprise.

It is likely that when the situation calms down, Qatar Airways will return to Zagreb with a significantly higher number of weekly flights, but we will have to wait and see. A temporary suspension of traffic on this line is certainly possible, especially in the winter months ahead.

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September 4, 2020 - The latest news for flights to Croatia with as Qatar Airways cancels Zagreb once again.

Croatian Aviation reports that Qatar Airways has again canceled flights on the Doha - Zagreb route in the next two weeks, just as it was in July and August this year.

Just a few days after we learned about the percentage of canceled flights on the Doha - Zagreb route, new bad news followed - Qatar Airways has canceled all flights on this route until September 19 this year.

On September 2, the company operated a flight on this route and due to low demand, canceled all planned flights until September 19 this year. The Qatar Airways Doha - Zagreb line primarily serves a large number of tourists from Asia who use it to come to Croatia in the summer season (but also outside it). It is already generally known that there are no passengers from the Asian market this year, and due to its favorable prices and numerous destinations, Qatar was also the choice of many Croatian and Slovenian citizens for trips to distant destinations, but few choose such trips today. 

It is for these reasons that Qatar Airways is unable to achieve a satisfactory charge of its aircraft on this route which ultimately leads to frequent cancellations. As has been stated several times, the companies generally adjust their flight schedule in the period from 2 to 3 weeks in advance, so Qatar Airways did the same, canceling all scheduled flights on this route in the next two weeks.

The question is whether Qatar will return to Zagreb this fall and winter. If in July, August and September they cannot achieve a satisfactory load factor (percentage of occupancy of the passenger cabin), then it is almost certain that this will not be possible in the months ahead, when the average occupancy on the line is already lower than summer months.

If Qatar Airways decides to maintain this route anyway, one thing is for sure - numerous cancellations of individual flights will continue, as has been the case so far. And until when? Until the recovery of the market, which will certainly not happen in the months ahead.

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December 17, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Dubrovnik.

Avio Radar reports that Qatar Airways, a OneWorld global airline association member, has announced two Mediterranean destinations in its 2020 summer flight schedule. Furthermore, the airline will introduce an additional 66 weekly flights to 20 existing destinations in its network. 

Dubrovnik will be Qatar Airways’ second destination in Croatia next to Zagreb, and flights on the new Doha-Dubrovnik route will begin operations on April 20 with three flights a week. And in the busier period, from May 18 to September 30, this line will be enhanced to run five flights per week! The airline will also run to Santorini, Greece, with four flights a week starting May 20. 

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker was pleased to announce the news: 

“We are pleased to announce Santorini, Greece and Dubrovnik, Croatia, will be joining our global network in 2020. We are committed to offering our passengers as many seamless one-stop connection choices as possible. With the addition of these new routes, our network will expand to 170 passenger destinations, further consolidating our position as one of the world’s most connected airlines. 

We also invite all passengers to enjoy the extra capacity and the flexibility provided by the 66 additional weekly frequencies we are adding to 20 d destinations in our network.  We are dedicated to giving our customers more options and flexibility when planning their business and leisure trips. These new flights are being added in response to market demand and are a testament to our hard working team at Qatar Airways who connote to set the benchmark in the industry from customer service to catering and in-flight entertainment.”

An Airbus A320, with 12 business-class seats and 132 economy seats, will service the seasonal services to Santorini and Dubrovnik. 

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There will be two daily flights connecting Zagreb and Doha in July and August.

Qatar Airways will be introducing additional flights starting this Saturday, EX-YU Aviation reports.

Qatar Airways spokesperson hinted at the possibility of the Qatari carrier doubling its daily service from Zagreb to Dubai, EX-YU Aviation reports.