March 26, 2023 - Ryanair posts some impressive Zagreb results for 2022, as Zagreb Airport launches incentives for airlines to connect to an additional 16 destinations. 

For years, Zagreb did not have a low-cost carrier of note, save for a couple of (often seasonal) routes. 

The arrival of Ryanair, which established a base in the Croatian capital in 2021, changed all that. 

The strongest challenge that Croatia Airlines has perhaps faced, the Irish airline started with a very impressive schedule, connecting Zagreb dozens of destinations all over Europe.

Last year, the low-cost carrier noted:

“Currently, we are really satisfied with the majority of the markets served out of Zagreb. For example, the UK market performs really well, as well as Ireland with the Dublin route. Then we see German markets, Swedish markets … so we are very happy with the current demand. There are some tourist destinations in the future that are of interest to us too. We really believe that Zagreb can be attractive all-year round, not just for families and the diaspora, but for tourists as well, so we want to use all these opportunities in the future”.

And it seems that not only has Ryanair been a big success, but Zagreb Airport has announced incentives to attract flights to 16 additional destinations. 

As ExYuAviation reports, Ryanair served some 816,500 passengers on 23 of its 27 Zagreb routes last year, in numbers recently posted. More than 100,000 of those were carried on the most successful route - from London Stansted to Zagreb, followed by Bergamo, Charleroi, Malta and Gothenburg. Data for two routes the Irish carrier competes with Croatia Airlines - Rome and Dublin - were not posted, and seasonal routes to Brindisi and Corfu were also missing. The routes with the east traffic were Sofia, Bratislava, Sandefjord, and Thessaloniki.  

Meanwhile, Zagreb Airport will introduce a new incentive scheme on June 1, aiming to connect more European capitals.

 “The Connecting Capital Cities Incentive Model is designed to link Zagreb to unserved capital cities located in the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) member states, as well as Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine and Moldova, which have signed a Common Aviation Area Agreement with the European Union”, the airport said. Routes that will be eligible for incentives are those from Zagreb to Prague, Tallinn, Berlin, Budapest, Riga, Vilnius, Luxembourg, Stockholm (Arlanda or Skavsta airports), Tirana, Pristina, Reykjavik, Tbilisi, Kiev, Chisinau and Yerevan.

The low-cost airline revolution in Croatia continues. 

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January 9, 2023 - The famous Irish low-budget flight operator, Ryanair leaves passengers stranded. Several Ryanair passengers missed their flight last week after being locked in a windowless airport corridor. The flight from London's Stansted to Zagreb took off, leaving 23 passengers behind after both sides of the aisle were locked, trapping the passengers inside.

"The children were crying; it became claustrophobic."

As Index / The Evening Standard / Business Insider write, a Ryanair spokesperson commented that there was a "human error," which meant passengers could not "exit the pre-boarding door" and unfortunately missed their flight. Devina Raval, one of the passengers who said she was trapped in the corridor, told MyLondon she felt like she was being "held hostage." Insider could not immediately reach Raval for comment.

People were banging on the walls calling for help, Raval told MyLondon. "Kids were crying, and the whole place became really claustrophobic. It scares me to think what would happen if someone had a heart attack or something."

After about half an hour, one of the passengers set off the fire alarm, alerting a member of staff who asked them what they were doing in the corridor. "At that moment, I was just shocked that they didn't realise we were there. We were told the plane took off without us," added Raval.

Ryanair claims human error

The passengers were sent to a nearby hotel for the night and boarded a flight to Croatia on the following day at 6 a.m.

"Due to human error by staff at London Stansted Airport, a small number of passengers were unable to exit through the pre-boarding gate and unfortunately missed their flight to Zagreb (January 2). The error was caught when the flight had already taken off," a Ryanair spokesperson told Business Insider.

"Ryanair has provided overnight accommodation for the affected passengers and moved them on the next available flights," the airline said in a statement.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated News section.

August 9, 2022 - How will the Ryanair Zagreb base work its winter operations this year? A look at how the capital city airport will transform into a weekend-only base for the low-cost airline. 

Simply Flying has revealed what the Ryanair Zagreb base has in store once the seasons change - precisely, the airline's plan to transform the capital city airport into a weekend-only base this winter. A first for the airline. 

Namely, the Irish low-cost airline will not reduce the number of aircraft based in Zagreb, with its three Lauda Europe Airbus A320s staying at Zagreb Airport, but what will change is the number of days the planes fly. Making it a weekend base means that the planes will only operate from Friday to Monday this winter. Thus, all flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays will be operated from other Ryanair bases.

So, how will this work?

Simply Flying reveals that all routes launched as year-round routes remain on sale and operate throughout the week, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, with Boeing aircraft from its other bases around Europe. The busiest London Stansted-Zagreb route will also continue to run daily. 

Currently, all the three Lauda Europe A320s in Zagreb operate a full day of flights all week. The changes will be made with the end of the summer schedule at the end of October when nearly all routes will be at least partially operated by aircraft from other bases. As it stands now, only the Bratislava, Milan Bergamo, and Malta routes see aircraft from other bases. 

Simply Flying adds that this should not impact the capacity of flights, as Boeing planes actually offer higher capacity than the Lauda Europe Airbus A320s, but since frequencies will decrease after summer, so will the number of seats on offer. 

"Most interestingly, even aircraft that connect Zagreb Airport to airports that are not Ryanair’s bases will see non-Zagreb-based aircraft there.

This will be done with the help of a w-rotation, whereby an aircraft from one base will operate four flight segments on two rotations on two different routes from Zagreb Airport," adds Simply Flying. 

This will be done with a 'w-rotation', or when aircraft from one base operates four flight segments on two rotations on two different routes from Zagreb Airport. You can find examples of how that will look here. 

The July stats for Zagreb Airport are also in, with 329,203 passengers traveling through the capital last month - almost 175 thousand more than in July last year. When compared to the busiest year, Zagreb Airport hit 90% of the July 2019 figures. 

Zagreb Airport accepted and dispatched 1,628,437 passengers in the first seven months of this year, approximately 100 thousand more passengers compared to Split Airport, reports Croatian Aviation. 

A total of 1,782,871 passengers passed through 8 Croatian airports (Zagreb, Pula, Rijeka, Zadar, Split, Brač, Dubrovnik, and Osijek) in July this year.

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

July 11, 2022 - The latest flight news to Croatia as Trade Air domestic lines are delayed further until August 1, and Ryanair plans to restore its Zagreb network after months of flight reductions and suspensions. 

Croatian private airline Trade Air has once again postponed its domestic PSO lines, which was previously announced on July 18, reports Croatian Aviation. 

As stated in the announcement on the airline's official website, Trade Air is once again postponing the start of operations on domestic PSO lines. The mentioned lines have been suspended since May, and the beginning of operations was first announced for June, then July 1, then July 18, and now the lines won't run until August 1 of this year.

The announcement states that the airline will start the routes on the specified date after all the confirmations from the relevant authorities have been collected. Information was also provided that the tickets will not go on sale before July 20 this year.

These lines are crucial for Osijek Airport and other airports, especially in the winter flight schedule.

Osijek - Zagreb - Osijek,

Osijek - Pula - Split - Pula - Osijek,

Osijek - Rijeka - Osijek,

Osijek - Zadar - Osijek,

Zadar - Rijeka - Zadar,

Rijeka - Split - Dubrovnik - Split - Rijeka.

Poland's Sprint Air will operate on the Trade Air lines mentioned, and passengers can only hope that this is the last delay in re-establishing the mentioned lines, adds Croatian Aviation. 

In other news, Ex Yu Aviation reports that Ryanair plans to restore its Zagreb network after months of reductions and suspensions.

The airline thus plans to bring back its third aircraft to resume operations to Basel, Sofia, and Brindisi and restore frequencies on many routes, including to Baden Baden, Bergamo, Beauvais, Charleroi, Gothenburg, Hahn, Malaga, Malmo, Malta, Memmingen, Paphos, Sandefjord, and Weeze. In addition, the route between Zagreb and Corfu will remain at one weekly rotation. 

“Ryanair is Europe’s and Croatia’s number one airline. We have seen strong summer bookings to date from Zagreb with a total of 27 routes. Ryanair’s three Zagreb-based aircraft represent an investment of 300 million US dollars, which will support over ninety highly paid aviation jobs and over 1.000 total jobs in Zagreb. As we look forward with a strong summer of bookings to/from Zagreb, Ryanair will operate almost eighty weekly flights (over thirty more than last year) to give our Zagreb customers an abundance of choices to top European destinations like London, Milan, and Paris or popular holiday hotspots like Brindisi, Corfu and Malaga, whilst giving Zagreb inbound tourism a boost after two lost years," said the airline. 

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

June 9, 2022 - The latest flight news to Croatia as more Ryanair Zagreb flight cancellations have been announced in July, totaling to 56 return flights on 15 international routes.

Irish low-cost airline Ryanair has canceled several scheduled flights from Zagreb in July, while flights for May and June were canceled earlier, reports Croatian Aviation.

Namely, Ryanair has canceled the following flights from its Zagreb base:

Brussels Charleroi, 2 times a week (instead of 5) until 18 July,

Sofia, all flights are canceled until July 19,

Paphos, once a week (instead of 3), until July 18,

Dusseldorf Weeze, 2 times a week (instead of 3) until July 19,

Frankfurt Hahn, 2 times a week (instead of 3), until July 18,

Karlsruhe, once a week (instead of 3), until July 19,

Memmingen, 2 times a week (instead of 3) until July 18,

Brindisi, all flights are canceled until July 20,

Milan Bergamo, 4 times a week (instead of 5) until July 19,

Malta, 2 times a week (instead of 3), until July 19,

Oslo Torp, once a week (instead of 2), until July 20,

Malaga, once a week (instead of 2), until July 20,

Gothenburg, 2 times a week (instead of 3), until July 18,

Malmö, 2 times a week (instead of 3), until July 19,

Basel, all flights are canceled until July 18.

From the beginning to the middle of July, Ryanair canceled 56 return flights on the 15 mentioned international routes, which reduced the number of available seats by 20,160.

The Irish airline traditionally does not go public with the reasons for cancellations, but given the many problems for airports and airlines recently, it is obvious that this airline also has operational problems that lead to flight cancellations.

Given that more flights were canceled in May and June, and even in the first half of July, which is the peak season, it is expected that in the next few weeks the Irish airline will reduce the flight schedule for the second half of July. Passengers who had tickets on canceled Ryanair flights received an apology email and were offered several options, such as a refund or a change in travel date.

Croatian Aviation concludes that one thing is for sure - the frequent Ryanair cancellations in Zagreb will certainly not positively affect the company's reputation among passengers.

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

June 3, 2022 - The latest flight news to Croatia as Ryanair Zagreb flight reductions continue into the middle of next month. 

Several Ryanair Zagreb destinations will see further reductions and temporary route suspensions into mid-July, reports Ex Yu Aviation. 

Passengers already witnessed reductions in May, and while the airline was to conclude the network cutbacks in June, it is now extending the suspension of some of its Zagreb lines into next month - namely to Basel, Sofia, and Brindisi until July 18. 

Ex Yu Aviation adds that Sandefjord, Malaga, and Paphos flights will only run once a week until mid-July and that reductions on the lines to Bergamo, Charleroi, Hahn, Gothenburg, Malmo, Malta, Memmingen, and Weeze will also be extended. Furthermore, the Corfu line will not run until the beginning of July and will operate just one flight a week. This line was supposed to launch in June. 

But this is no surprise. Recall that in January, 16 Ryanair Zagreb flights were temporarily suspended because of reduced demand due to the pandemic. This is now the fifth month this year that Ryanair has either temporarily suspended or reduced its Zagreb flights.

Thus, in June, Ryanair reduced its capacity in Zagreb by 35,000. This time, however, the Irish low-cost airline has not provided an explanation for its decision. Ex Yu Aviation writes that staffing issues and lack of equipment could carry some of the blame. The airline has two aircraft based in Zagreb when there were plans to have three. 

But Zagreb isn't the only city affected. The low-cost airline has delayed many new routes from the Zadar base, too. Namely, the Helsinki, Turin, and Bournemouth routes will be pushed back by another two weeks. These lines had already been delayed until the beginning of June. Ryanair will however bring much-needed traffic to Zadar Airport this summer, operating 120 flights to 46 destinations! 

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

May 2, 2022 - The Ryanair Zadar-Vienna winter flight announced last week by the airline may still be too good to be true, as ticket sales on this winter route were removed from sale over the weekend. 

Although Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair released tickets for the winter flight schedule this year less than a week ago, offering regular flights between Zadar and Vienna, tickets on this winter route are no longer available to book, reports Croatian Aviation.

Although Ryanair released tickets for most of its lines in the winter flight schedule, which takes effect at the end of October, additional changes were made over the weekend. Namely, as was announced last week, Ryanair released tickets between Zadar and Vienna throughout the winter, which was certainly great news for Zadar Airport, but, as Croatian Aviation stated in its original announcement of the news, they ensured readers that operational changes should be expected - and that happened just a few days ago. 

In less than a week, Ryanair withdrew this line from sale and it is no longer available for booking in the winter flight schedule. As a reminder, the line was to be offered twice a week, every Friday and Sunday throughout the winter.

The question is whether there will be certain changes in the coming months and the possible announcement of winter routes to Zadar Airport, from which Ryanair operates on several international routes but currently exclusively in the summer flight schedule, from late March to late October.

Croatian Aviation reported initially that this line would be extremely important for the airport and tourism in the region and that Ryanair would announce more winter routes to Zadar Airport. This also falls in line with the Split winter tourism initiative, which is pushing for flights to be extended into the Split Airport winter schedule. You can read more about that here. 

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

April 21, 2022 - The latest flight news to Croatia as more Ryanair Zagreb summer flights have been canceled, this time in June, after the airline already reduced and canceled many flights in May.

Just a few days after several Ryanair flights from Zagreb were canceled in May this year, this airline has made additional changes in its flight schedule for this summer season and canceled a number of flights on international routes to and from Zagreb in June, too, reports Croatian Aviation.

The Irish low-cost airline has reduced the number of operations for June this year on the following routes:

Brussels Charleroi - two flights a week instead of five, 

Paphos - one flight a week instead of three,

Dusseldorf Weeze - two flights a week instead of three, 

Frankfurt Hahn - two flights a week instead of three, 

Karlsruhe - two flights a week instead of three, 

Memmingen - two flights a week instead of three, 

Corfu - all flights canceled,

Brindisi - all flights canceled,

Milan Bergamo - four flights a week instead of five, 

Malta - two flights a week instead of three, 

Oslo Torp - one flight a week instead of two, 

Malaga - one flight a week instead of two, 

Gothenburg - two flights a week instead of three, 

Malmo - two flights a week instead of three, 

Basel - all flights canceled.

In June alone, more than 190 flights were canceled on 15 of these routes, which is 35,000 fewer seats to and from Zagreb compared to the airline's original plan.

See Ryanair canceled/reduced flights canceled in May below:

From Zagreb to:

Brussels Charleroi - two flights a week instead of five in May,

Sofia - all flights canceled in June,

Paphos - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Dusseldorf Weeze - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Frankfurt Hahn - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Karlsruhe - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Memmingen - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Corfu - all flights canceled in May and June,

Dublin - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Brindisi - all flights canceled in May and June,

Milan Bergamo - canceled flights on Sundays in May,

Rome - two flights a week instead of four in May,

Malta - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Gothenburg - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Malmö - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Basel - all flights canceled in May and June,

London - four flights a week instead of seven in May.

The airline offers passengers the possibility to refund the ticket and change the date of travel according to availability on other flights. 

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

April 14, 2022 - The latest flight news to Croatia as several Ryanair Zagreb flights have been canceled in May and June, with passengers informed in the last 24 hours. 

In the last 24 hours, Irish low-cost airline Ryanair has informed passengers about the cancellation of a number of flights on regular flights to and from Zagreb International Airport, reports Croatian Aviation. 

Namely, Ryanair has canceled several flights on international routes to and from Zagreb Airport for May and June this year.

From Zagreb to:

Brussels Charleroi - two flights a week instead of five in May,

Sofia - all flights canceled in June,

Paphos - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Dusseldorf Weeze - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Frankfurt Hahn - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Karlsruhe - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Memmingen - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Corfu - all flights canceled in May and June,

Dublin - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Brindisi - all flights canceled in May and June,

Milan Bergamo - canceled flights on Sundays in May,

Rome - two flights a week instead of four in May,

Malta - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Gothenburg - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Malmö - two flights a week instead of three in May,

Basel - all flights canceled in May and June,

London - four flights a week instead of seven in May.

On most routes, certain weekly rotations were canceled, and the airline cited commercial terms in the passenger notice. Namely, Ryanair has been selling very cheap tickets on these routes for months, from 5 to 10 euros one way, and now it is canceling those flights and offering passengers the possibility of vouchers or changing travel dates.

Croatian Aviation adds that the same thing happened earlier with the route to Milan. The airline then returned the flights to sale a few days later, but at much higher prices, so it should not be surprising if this is what happens on most of the above routes. Due to the early announcement, passengers are not entitled to compensation in accordance with EU regulations 261, and the airline leaves room for additional earnings by reselling the now canceled flights.

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

April 4, 2022 - Ryanair Rijeka flights were canceled on Sunday without any e-mail notification or other possibilities for passengers at Rijeka Airport. A look into what happened. 

On Sunday, Rijeka Airport announced three Ryanair return flights from Charleroi, London, and Stockholm. However,  only the plane from Stockholm landed and took off from Rijeka airport, and the other two flights were canceled, reports Croatian Aviation.

Due to the strong wind in Rijeka on Sunday morning, flights to London and Brussels were canceled, which in itself would not be news if the problem did not arise in communication between the airline and passengers.

Namely, several passengers who were supposed to travel from Rijeka to Charleroi Airport saw that their flight was canceled. And due to the strong wind at Rijeka Airport, the Ryanair plane landed at Pula Airport instead of Krk.

At 11 am, the plane took off from Pula for Rijeka, where it was supposed to land, pick up passengers for Brussels and, with a two-hour delay, bring them to their destination in Belgium. As the wind did not calm down, the plane flew back to Charleroi without the Rijeka passengers.

About 30 passengers awaited the arrival of the plane at Rijeka Airport, and according to information from the airport, they were informed that, in the worst case, if the plane fails to reach Rijeka, they will be transported by bus to Pula and go to their planned destination from there. In the end, neither happened - Rijeka passengers did not go to Pula, and Ryanair's plane eventually failed to land in Rijeka.

Only a little later, the same story happened with the Ryanair flight between London and Rijeka. Due to the wind, the plane diverted to Pula and then took off from Pula to Stansted Airport without the passengers in Rijeka.

According to EU Regulation 261/2004, in case of flight cancellation due to bad weather conditions, passengers are not entitled to compensation but have the right to care, refund, and be redirected under similar conditions to the earliest flight to the planned destination. As Ryanair's next flight from Rijeka to Charleroi is only on April 7, passengers will probably make their trip from nearby airports, Zagreb and Zadar, from where Ryanair also operates to the airport.

However, the passengers did not receive any notification via e-mail about the flight cancellation and other possibilities, or that an additional flight from Rijeka was mentioned on Monday to transport passengers to their destinations, which was an information error.

As all this happened due to force majeure. Ryanair made the best option for itself as an airline - it canceled flights for which it knows it will not have to pay a fee of 250 euros per passenger and offered passengers the next direct flight, which is a business move. Passengers could still be transported from Rijeka by bus to Pula, from where they would travel to their destinations on the same day with a certain delay, but Ryanair did not do so due to additional costs, and above all not to jeopardize the implementation of its other scheduled flights on Sunday with just those planes.

For more, check out our travel section.