Croatia Airlines says that the focus on the coast is not related to Ryanair’s base in Zagreb
Croatia Airlines announced that its continued focus on expanding the route network from the country’s coastal airports is unrelated to Ryanair, which opened a base in Zagreb in 2021 and now accounts for more than 30% of total traffic from the capital. Since 2019, Croatia Airlines has not introduced any new destinations from Zagreb and so far has not scheduled any new routes from its main hub. Instead, this summer the carrier will introduce new flights from Split to Skopje and Oslo, from Brač to Munich, as well as from Dubrovnik to Prague. Last year, the airline launched seasonal flights from Split to Amsterdam, Bucharest, Dublin, Milan and Stockholm, and based Airbus A319 and Dash 8 aircraft in the second largest Croatian city, which enabled it to increase frequencies for numerous destinations. The continuation of flights from Split to Bucharest and Milan has yet to be planned for this summer, but it has increased the planned frequencies for Prague from one to two per week.
The airline’s greater focus on the Croatian coast since last year coincided with the opening of Ryanair’s base in Zagreb and the launch of more than twenty new routes from the city. “Croatia Airlines has been facing strong competition since 2006, when the liberalization of the Croatian market began. During the last sixteen years, all major legacy and low-cost carriers are present in Croatia, especially during the summer season, and Croatia Airlines has learned to deal with the competition and, as a member of the Star Alliance, to cooperate with the competition,” the company said. It added: “Croatia Airlines provides passengers with a high-quality legacy carrier service, offering flights to major European gateways and connecting flights to more than 150 destinations worldwide. The business relationship we have with Zagreb Airport, our home airport, reflects our traffic volume and related commercial conditions”.
Commenting on the focus on the coast, Croatia Airlines points out that the new destinations introduced last year were in line with expectations and that tourist trips recovered significantly faster from the Covid-19 pandemic than business trips, which are more frequent from Zagreb. “We tried to adapt our flight network to the needs of our passengers and to support Croatian tourism. The company sees room for progress and innovative steps in strategic positioning. Our summer timetable for 2023 will strongly contribute to Croatia’s position on the world tourist map. During the coming summer season, we plan to connect Croatia with 22 international destinations with flights on 47 international lines. Specifically, we plan to make 17,000 flights and offer more than 1,820,000 seats,” the airline said.