Croatia Airlines removes fourteen routes for upcoming summer
Croatia Airlines is preparing for a difficult summer season, which begins in just over two weeks. Although Croatia’s tourist season is likely to perform significantly better this year than last, bookings are not expected to pick up until later on in the spring. At this point, the carrier has removed flights from Zagreb to Barcelona, Bucharest, Dublin, Helsinki, Lisbon, Milan, Mostar, Oslo, Prague, St Petersburg, Stockholm and Tel Aviv, which all operated in the summer of 2019, as well as the Dubrovnik - Dusseldorf and Split - Belgrade service. Further modifications at this stage remain possible as the carrier alters its schedule in line with projected demand and market conditions.
Speaking at the Aviation Arena summit on the challenges facing the aviation industry, the head of Croatia Airlines’ Commercial Division, Slaven Žabo, said, “We have drafted several scenarios for the summer season, but considering the circumstances, which are changing on a daily basis, we will completely optimise our timetable in accordance to existing conditions and demand. We anticipate a better tourist season compared to 2020, but the question is when exactly it will start. It is already apparent it will not begin at the start of the 2021 summer flight season but rather in mid-May or early June. In line with those circumstances, we will optimise our capacity and will have to undertake a permanent optimisation process”.
Mr Žabo noted the airline has seen reduced summer booking volumes so far. “Unfortunately, we cannot talk about the post-Covid strategy for this summer because the coronavirus pandemic is still having a significant impact on aviation, primarily because of entry restrictions at border crossings within the European Union. Under normal circumstances we would already be taking bookings for the summer season and selling our capacity, however, these bookings are completely lacking this year. Already in February we saw a significant impact on bookings for the summer. We expect that late bookings will come, and we are ready for them at Croatia Airlines. However, it is questionable whether those late booking will be able to substitute the lack of bookings we are seeing now. It is obvious that the expected increase in demand at the start of the summer season, which coincides with the Easter holidays this year, is completely absent and we were forced to modify our planned timetable for this period”.
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