Croatia Airlines faces LCC battle
Croatia Airlines is expected to face significant competition this summer from Ryanair and potentiality other low cost carriers (LCCs) which have expressed interest in serving Zagreb after the airport began actively engaging with budget airlines to steer its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. This summer, the Croatian carrier plans to maintain flights to just eighteen European destinations from Zagreb, Split, Dubrovnik and Rijeka. During April, it is it is operating services to thirteen international destinations. This in comparison to Ryanair which will run a total of 56 routes from Croatia, including 37 from Zadar, twelve from Zagreb, four from Pula, two from Dubrovnik and one from Split.
Commenting on its operations, Croatia's national carrier said, "Croatia Airlines is adjusting its network to existing demand and the epidemiological situation. Comparing the 2019 summer season to that of 2020 or 2021 is unrealistic and makes no sense. During the pandemic, Croatia Airlines is not terminating routes. It is gradually restoring them while monitoring the epidemiological situation on a daily basis, as well as market demand. The company is focusing on those markets where there is sufficient demand and we are constantly optimising our schedule. As a result, we are ready to restore certain routes and increase frequencies on existing services if there is an uptick in demand for flights".
Although Ryanair will be introducing twelve new routes from Zagreb, eight are to secondary airports for destinations already served by Croatia Airlines - London, Brussels, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Munich, Rome and Oslo. Some of those have been temporarily suspended by Croatia Airlines due to the pandemic. Overall, at this point, Croatia Airlines has put 1.539.238 seats on sale for the summer, while Ryanair is pushing towards a million. The Croatian carrier will offer the most flights from Zagreb to Split, Dubrovnik, Frankfurt, Sarajevo, Zadar and Pula, while the most capacity will be offered from Zagreb to Dubrovnik, followed by Frankfurt, Split, Skopje and Amsterdam.
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