Wizz Air: Zagreb Airport and coast too expensive
Wizz Air's CEO, Jozsef Varadi, has described as "unfortunate" the carrier's limited presence in Croatia, noting that high costs at Zagreb Airport and the coastline, as well as seasonality, are deterring the carrier from expanding its operations in the country. Speaking to EX-YU Aviation News, Mr Varadi said, "Unfortunately, if you look at the Croatian coastline it is a very seasonal business. It is intact for a few months and then sort of dies out for the rest of the year. Zagreb Airport is quite in a similar situation as Belgrade Airport in terms of costs, so I think it is a high-priced airport environment with fluctuating demand. Should the costs come down, I think they would attract us".
Wizz Air maintains limited services to Split, with flights from London Luton, Warsaw and Katowice, but is well behind other low cost competitors on the Croatian market, such as easyJet, Eurowings, Ryanair, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Volotea. Over the years, Wizz has also operated a number of other services into Croatia including Dubrovnik and Zagreb. The airline initially launched operations to the Croatian capital in 2009 with flights from Dortmund but later suspended the service. This winter season, only one low cost carrier, Eurowings, is maintaining flights to Zagreb. However, it too noted last year that the airport's charges are "significantly higher than most major European airports, making it less appealing for low cost carriers". Croatia's busiest airport hiked its fees following the opening of its new passenger terminal in 2017 by two euros per each international passenger for a total of seventeen euros. Wizz Air also ran flights from London to Dubrovnik, which were terminated in 2012.
Mr Varadi noted that overpriced airports are a problem throughout the former Yugoslavia. "For whatever reason, it is still kind of an inherited issue in the region to price airports very high and this is not the recipe for success. The recipe for success is take down airport costs. As a result, you are attracting a lot more capacity into the airport and that capacity will stimulate the marketplace and you will recoup that investment through volume". He added, "I think there is still a lot of legacy thinking with regards to airport management and airport costs. If you look even at some of the privatised airports, not in the former Yugoslavia, but for example in Tirana, it is a privatised airport but we have the same issue in Tirana. To some extent, Skopje is a privatised airport and the development of Skopje is not aided because of the airport, it is more aided by the government's intervention. I think those strategies have to be thought through. But clearly, you have millions of examples in mainland Europe what recipes to follow if you really want drive your aviation and airline industry and, I think, in the former Yugoslavia it revolves around airport costs and the airport operating environment".
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