September 3, 2021 - After announcing 9 new Ryanair destinations from Zagreb earlier this week, a second aircraft of the low-cost carrier has been stationed at the capital city airport. Better yet, a third aircraft should be based at Zagreb Airport from December 1!

Ryanair has based its second aircraft at Zagreb Airport, following the opening of its base in July. The deployment of a third aircraft is planned for December. As travel recovers and approaches pre-pandemic coronavirus levels, Ryanair’s expansion encourages traffic and tourism recovery across Europe, reports Avio Radar.

Ryanair's total investment for Zagreb is $300 million, and the carrier will offer more than 40 outbound flights a week on 15 different routes, including 9 new routes to European destinations - Sandefjord, Baden Baden, Beauvais, Memmingen, Hahn, Dortmund, Podgorica, Weeze and Malmo,

Also, nine more new routes will be launched this winter based on the third aircraft expected on December 1. 

Travelers from Croatia can book a vacation for the end of the summer on one of Ryanair's new routes, such as Dortmund, London, Oslo, Paris, and many others.

After welcoming the second aircraft in Zagreb and announcing 9 new routes, Ryanair's head of sales and marketing for countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans, Olga Pawlonka, said:

"We are delighted to base another aircraft in Zagreb as part of our expansion plan in Croatia. This is part of a $300 million investment that will play an important role in supporting tourism recovery in the Croatian capital. Ryanair provides connectivity to several Zagreb destinations throughout the year.

With nine new summer lines starting this week, or a total of 24 lines during the winter, our passengers will have a great choice when planning late summer holidays in cities like Sofia, Paris, Rome, and many others.”

Yavuz Aytis, route manager for Zagreb International Airport, said:

"We are happy to welcome another aircraft at the Ryanair base at Zagreb Airport and are proud to announce 9 new Ryanair flights to Zagreb from this week. As a result, citizens of Zagreb and the surrounding area will have more opportunities to fly directly to various destinations. We believe that the increased availability of Zagreb will lead to a faster recovery of tourism and the economy.

Zagreb International Airport will continue its efforts to expand the network of direct flights from Zagreb because the citizens and visitors of our city deserve a wide range of affordable flights. We expect these efforts to contribute to an even stronger positioning of our beautiful capital as an attractive destination for many European travelers."

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July 27, 2021 - After opening its base in Zagreb, Ryanair domestic flights in Croatia are on the horizon. 

Ex Yu Aviation reports that Ryanair is looking to launch domestic flights in Croatia after its new Zagreb base officially launched earlier this month. The airline's CEO, Eddie Wilson, noted it could be done without subsidies. 

“At the moment, all the domestic routes are subsidised. Seems bizarre that you must pay an airline to fly up and down Croatia when Dubrovnik is such a nice place to go to. We would have no difficulty flying internally with zero subsidies. We have just done that in Ireland, where there was one of these Public Service Obligation routes, which is just a way of channelling money to airlines. Why should the taxpayer pay for that on 300 euros fares to Dubrovnik in the height of summer when commercial airlines can do that for no subsidies? We would be quite prepared to do those routes”.

European funds are available for 'unprofitable domestic routes deemed vital for the economic development of the region they serve' through the Public Service Obligation (PSO) scheme in Croatia. Croatia Airlines and Trade Air hold the existing PSO contracts, and new contracts should be opened by the Croatian government later this year. 

As part of the current PSO contracts, Croatia Airlines covers routes from Zagreb to Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, Pula, and Brač, and Trade Air from Osijek to Dubrovnik, Split, Pula, Zagreb, and Rijeka. Croatia Airlines annually receives 10.3 million euros for domestic services, while Trade Air receives 2.6 million euros per year. 

The Ryanair Zagreb base will operate on 24 lines to and from 16 countries - Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. In the first year of flying on routes from and to Zagreb, Ryanair will transport about 700,000 passengers.

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ZAGREB, 23 July 2021 - Low-cost airline Ryanair opened its base at Zagreb Airport on Friday, announcing that it expected to increase the number of its aircraft from the present one to three by the end of the year and bring about 700,000 passengers by April 2022.

Speaking at a press conference, Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson said that Zagreb had great potential for their business development and that, with investment of $300 million, they hoped to turn it into an even stronger tourist destination.

He said that during the winter flight schedule Ryanair would operate 60 flights out of Zagreb a week to 24 foreign destinations, including nine new ones. In summer, the airline connects Zagreb with 15 European destinations.

We want to fly all year round and improve our business in Croatia. We have our bases in Zadar and Zagreb, and we also fly to Pula where we are seeing very good results, Wilson said.

Asked if he thought that the inclusion of Croatia's Adriatic coast in the orange zone on the COVID-19 map of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) would hurt the tourism industry, he said that this is less important and that more important is how many people in the country have been vaccinated.

This summer we expect a longer season than last year, in Croatia too, which is now in a good situation, and we hope it will stay that way, Wilson said.

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June 8, 2021 - The latest flight news to Croatia as there are plans for 10 aircraft at the Ryanair Zagreb base, the airline's CEO recently announced. 

Ex Yu Aviation reports that Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair is planning to base up to 10 aircraft at Zagreb Airport. Recall, the airline will launch 15 routes to Zagreb this year. 

“As many as ten Boeing 737-800s could eventually be based at Zagreb. We started with two aircraft. Zagreb is the capital city … and remember, when we arrive in certain cities, they become [passenger] destinations," Ryanair CEO, David O’Brien, said for “Routes Digest”. The first jet will be stationed in Zagreb already this August, followed by a second in September and a third at the start of the winter schedule at the end of October. 

Ryanair will grow from the initial 15 routes to an eventual 40 and expects to carry around 3 million passengers annually. 

“We will grow exponentially in the years to come. The key for Zagreb is going to be the number of airports we have on offer in Europe. We made a bold decision to launch a base straight away. This shows our confidence in Zagreb. This will transform the city and we will become the largest airline in Zagreb and Croatia within a very short period of time," said Ryanair. 

The Irish low-cost airline landed at Zagreb Airport for the first time on Wednesday, June 2 from Charleroi Airport near Brussels. This line will be in traffic twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays, and from September 3, it will be intensified by the third flight a week, on Fridays.

Ryanair announced the base in Zagreb with 12 new lines. Three more were added later. 

The base in Zagreb will operate to Gothenburg, Rome ("Ciampino" airport), London ("Stansted" airport), Paris (Beuvais Airport), Dortmund, Dusseldorf (Niederrhein-Weeze Airport), Frankfurt (Hahn Airport), Karlsruhe, Memmingen, Malmö, Oslo (Sandefjord-Torp Airport) ") and Podgorica. 

Ryanair announced the Zagreb-Sofia flight as its 15th route to the capital city network last week, operating twice a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays from August 3.  

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May 15, 2021 - The Ryanair Zagreb base expects two to three million passengers over the next three years, and will open the Zagreb base earlier than planned due to great interest and demand, the company's commercial director Jason McGuinness revealed. 

McGuinness says that Ryanair decided to open the Zagreb base two months earlier than originally planned due to many reservations and requests from Zagreb and the high demand for flights to Zagreb, reports Index.hr.

At the Ryanair Zagreb base, which opens at the end of July, the airline will have one aircraft by the end of August, and plans to introduce another in September, says McGuinness.

He also reveals that following the demand; the airline is considering the possibility of introducing a third aircraft during the winter if reservations show good results because it plans flights to Zagreb all year round and already has 14 destinations planned from Zagreb from November this year. By the summer of 2022, there are plans for about 30.

"I will not give you information on reservations by individual routes, but I will repeat what I emphasized at the press conference at the end of March when we announced our arrival: Zagreb has been underrepresented for years. For example, Zagreb and Dublin are cities of similar size. Still, before the arrival of Ryanair, Zagreb had flights to 38 destinations, and Dublin to about 200, and Zagreb is much more beautiful and interesting than Dublin," McGuinness said about the state of reservations and sales of flights to Zagreb.

He says that he is surprised by the bookings from Zagreb. However, expectations this year are still conditioned by the pandemic and travel restrictions. There is a lot of competition for flights to sunny destinations such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Croatia.

He adds that Ryanair will not operate traffic to Zagreb only with "Zagreb" planes because it has 450 planes and can fly to Zagreb from the other 80 bases throughout Europe.

When asked how long they intend to have a base in Zagreb, he answered that they see great potential in Zagreb and that it will dedicate itself to its own and the growth of Zagreb Airport.

"We will follow developments and decide on routes, where costs are one of the main points in our decisions. We are the company with the lowest low-cost price in Europe, and we are so precisely because of our primary cost orientation. We work with partners on efficient operation, and it is the costs that determine our future decisions," says McGuinness.

As previously announced, they will need about 60 workers at the Ryanair Zagreb base. McGuinness explains that each aircraft needs about 30 people to service it, from pilots and cabin crew to engineers and support.

When asked if they will look for these employees on the local market or bring them from other countries, he said that they already have many pilots and cabin crew from Croatia and a lot of people who would like to live in Croatia because of the climate.

"We work in about 40 countries at 230 airports and have workers of various nationalities. For example, members of about 30 nationalities work in our base in Dublin. In Zagreb and Zadar, where we will also have a base this summer, people from Zagreb and Zadar, but also from other countries that want to live and work in Croatia," says McGuinness.

Apart from employing themselves, he points out that we should not forget the indirect jobs that their flights bring to a destination, i.e., the benefits that taxi services, buses, catering, hotels, and others have from passengers.

The situation is similar with Zadar, where they will have two planes at the base during the summer season this year, for which, as in Zagreb, they are investing 200 million euros.

Asked how he would invest given the losses he, like many other companies, has in the pandemic, McGuinness said it should be "put in context."

"In the past two months, Ryanair has opened ten new bases in Paris, Venice, the Greek islands, Denmark, Riga in Latvia, and Stockholm's Arland. You know we are the strongest company in Europe, and we don't get help from the state and funds, as is the case with other companies, including Croatian Airlines. We do not receive such assistance, and we have the strongest balance sheet in Europe, and we have merged the strongest airlines. We are the only European company that has achieved growth in air traffic over several years. We see that, for example, Croatia Airlines has postponed the purchase of new aircraft, while Ryanair has confirmed orders for 210 new Boeing 200 aircraft, which are the strongest in that class," McGuinness says.

Regarding the purchase of new aircraft, he says he will take them over in the next four years, increasing the fleet to more than 600 aircraft, which they plan to carry about 200 million passengers a year.

To achieve this and overcome pandemic and other challenges, he is currently working with partners across Europe to find opportunities for recovery, which he considers very important.

"We are doing this in Croatia, where we have been flying since 2006, which means that this year we have our 15th anniversary, during which we transported about five million passengers to and from Croatia, which we are very pleased with. We also know how important tourism is to the Croatian economy and that it makes up about 20 percent of the national GDP. In cooperation with the airports in Zagreb and Zadar and others, we also bring investments. We consider this to be the right way in which we can help recover traffic at this time," says Ryanair’s commercial director.

Apart from Zadar and Zagreb, this summer, they will also fly to Pula, i.e., they will have 58 routes to Croatia, of which 33 are new.

There are a couple of routes to Dubrovnik and Split, but as the fees at the airports in those cities are too high for them, he says that they are talking to partners about further conditions and that it is unlikely that an agreement will be reached.

When asked if they are satisfied with the agreement reached with Zagreb Airport, he said only that "agreements can always be better," that they are committed to Zagreb, but also that their focus is always on price.

"Ryanair is quite an opportunistic company, and there are a lot of places we don't fly to, and people ask why. According to our conditions, we have many places where we could place our capacities and where there is a market gap for us, and one of them was Zagreb. I am happy that we have reached an agreement and that we will fly to Zagreb and set up our base there earlier than planned," McGuinness says.

In the region closer to Croatia, they introduce innovations this year, such as two flights to Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They also operate in Banja Luka and Podgorica in Montenegro and Nis in Serbia.

They are satisfied with the business in the Balkans and hope that they will continue to grow there as well, while they have the largest base closer to Croatia, and otherwise the largest, in Italy with 70 aircraft.

They also operate in Hungary, Greece, Israel, and Cyprus.

On the company’s business as a low-cost carrier, McGuinness says only one model is suitable for airlines and good business, and that is low cost.

"I repeat that we are the strongest airline in Europe and that we do not receive state aid for our investments, including the purchase of new aircraft, which we consider extremely important in a situation where companies across Europe have received around 30 billion euros in aid since the pandemic. It is illegal. and we really appeal and challenge because this situation can destroy the market, which is bad for consumers, and it can destroy competition. We will continue to fight for consumers across Europe and 'challenge' all these illegal actions in the courts across Europe," comments McGuinness.

Despite everything, and unlike many companies that have received grants, their prices remain extremely low throughout Europe.

When asked about the owners of Ryanair, he states that the public companies are listed on the London, Dublin, and New York Stock Exchanges, which have many shareholders around the world, mostly large institutional funds, institutions, and others.

He says that flights and trips on their planes during the pandemic are safe in every sense, including health, because safety is their priority.

"Aircraft are disinfected every 24 hours, everyone who has to be around and in the aircraft pays attention to health safety measures following international rules, and the air quality in the aircraft is like in the operating room. Therefore, all available seats can be booked in on the plane, and passengers and staff must wear masks," McGuinness emphasizes.

He also considers EU Covid passports to be a good idea, which will make travel easier for people from this summer, and Ryanair has already made its so-called covid-wallet or passport, in which all the necessary information can be entered via the application and the website about testing, proof of vaccination and the like.

Asked to comment on Croatia Airlines' complaints, McGuinness said it was inappropriate to complain at all, as they had "received millions of euros," in his opinion, of illegal state aid.

"The fact is that Croatia Airlines has not achieved growth and profit in the past four years. Ryanair will bring 14 new routes to Zagreb this year, and Croatia Airlines has brought three in the past four years. We think Croatia Airlines must do its homework again and new calculations," comments McGuinness.

When asked if Croatia Airlines is their competition in Croatia and how they generally deal with competitors, he reiterated that they operate in 40 countries, concluding that they always consider competition good for consumers, airports, and Ryanair, as well as for Croatia, Zagreb, its airport and the people of Zagreb.

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