KLM becomes Zagreb's busiest foreign carrier

KLM has become the busiest foreign airline maintaining flights to the Croatian capital this November, with the carrier accounting for 5.3% of all traffic from Zagreb. The airline is maintaining daily services between Amsterdam and the Croatian capital, offering 4.176 one-way seats with 28 of its flights operated by the Boeing 737-700 aircraft and the remaining two with the Embraer E190 jet. KLM has pulled ahead of Lufthansa, Air France, Eurowings and Turkish Airlines as the busiest foreign airline in the city. It is becoming an increasingly popular choice for transfer passengers to and from the United States and Canada, despite ongoing entry restrictions, as other carriers, which had traditionally been more successful in capturing a larger share of transfer traffic, reduce their operations.

Top twelve airlines by frequency in Zagreb, November 2020

KLM codeshares on its flights to Zagreb with both Croatia Airlines and Delta Air Lines. The Croatian carrier also maintains services to Amsterdam and has scheduled thirty flights between the two cities this month, offering 3.164 seats using a mix of Dash 8 turboprops and Airbus A319 aircraft on the route. Overall, KLM has increased its operations to Zagreb this November when compared to last year despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It is running an additional five flights this month and has added an extra 1.676 seats on the market compared to the same period last year. Equipment has also been upgraded with the airline having exclusively utilised the E190 jet last November.

Despite KLM seeing better than expected results and operating more flights than last year, November is expected to be exceptionally difficult for Zagreb Airport. In October, it handled 55.289 passengers, representing a decrease of 83.3% compared to the same month last year. The number of flight operations fell by 56.2% to 1.772. During the month, Croatia Airlines, as the airport’s busiest carrier, operated 59.9% fewer flights than October of 2019. Overall, Zagreb Airport welcomed 840.610 travellers through its doors during the January - October period, down 71.6%. The airport estimates it will handle around one million passengers this year, down from 3.4 million in 2019.

Month	PAX	Change (%)
JAN	203.305	▲ 6.1
FEB	184.236	▲ 1.7
MAR	97.063	▼ 58.3
APR	5.118	▼ 98.2
MAY	13.881	▼ 95.5
JUN	44.402	▼ 86.8
JUL	78.070	▼ 78.7
AUG	93.553	▼ 75.1
SEP	65.963	▼ 81.2
OCT	55.589	▼ 83.3