October 16, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Rijeka and Croatia Airlines.
Avio Radar reports that Serbian national carrier Air Serbia has made changes to the upcoming winter flight schedule on the Belgrade-Rijeka route. As announced, this line will remain in service throughout the winter with two flights per week. The winter timetable will be in effect from October 27, 2019, to March 28, 2020.
Instead of running on Tuesdays and Fridays as it did in the summer flight schedule, this service will run on Mondays and Thursdays throughout winter. This line will not operate in the middle of the day as it did this summer, but on Mondays in the evening and Thursdays in the morning. An ATR-72 aircraft will fly on this line.
Furthermore, Avio Radar reports that British carrier TUI Airways has increased capacity in their post-season route from London (Gatwick) to Rijeka. Specifically, in October, the larger Boeing 757-200 aircraft has run on this line, instead of the smaller Boeing 737-800, with three arrivals on Thursdays from October 3 to 17.
TUI Airways’ aircraft will finally run on this line. Namely, since the route launched in May, the aircraft has been leased from other airlines, mostly the Boeing 737-800 from Norwegian Air Shuttle.
The Boeing 757-200 aircraft often arrives on the TUI Airways route to Dubrovnik and Pula. TUI Airways has only 12 Boeing 757-200 aircraft in its fleet.
Croatia Airlines has also announced some small changes to its flight schedule this year.
Recall, Croatia will assume the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from January 1, 2020. With that said, Ex Yu Aviation reported last month that the national carrier would add one flight per week between Brussels and Zagreb, totaling to 12 per week. Furthermore, the seasonal service between Zagreb and Dublin will work until January 26, 2020, while its operations between Zagreb and Lisbon will end at the end of October.
Croatia Airlines will maintain the same winter operations for other Croatian cities this year, which include flights from Split to Frankfurt, Munich and Rome, Dubrovnik to Frankfurt, and Rijeka to Munich. Croatia Airlines has also announced no changes to its winter operations between Croatian locations.
Recall, Croatia Airlines is currently undergoing a privatization process, which the Croatian Minister for Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butković, previously said should be completed by the end of the year. “I believe we will deliver within the set timeframe,” the Minister said. Privredna banka Zagreb (PBZ) and Germany's DVB Bank are advising the airline in the process.
While the national carrier projects a 5% increase in passenger traffic by the end of 2019, there are no plans to make any significant changes to its services until the privatization process is complete.
Ex Yu Aviation adds that Croatia Airlines even dropped its plans to extend the wet-lease for one of Air Nostrum's Bombardier CRJ1000 jets into the winter months, which would have lengthened some of its seasonal routes. Croatia Airlines currently maintains twelve routes from Zagreb during the summer.
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