State sides with Croatia Airlines in Ryanair spat
The Croatian government has said the national carrier must be offered similar terms and conditions at Zagreb Airport as Ryanair. It comes after Croatia Airlines accused Zagreb Airport of favouritism towards the budget carrier which will station two aircraft in the city this September. “You can’t give Ryanair discounts, while you have different criteria for Croatia Airlines, on which you depend the most”, the Croatian Minister for Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butković, said. He added the two sides will hold another meeting in the coming days in an attempt to reach an agreement, noting there is “good will” on both sides for the matter to be resolved.
Ryanair will launch flights to Zagreb with one route each in June and July. This will be followed by the introduction of an additional ten destination in September and the stationing of two aircraft from its subsidiary Lauda Europe. Based on existing schedules, Ryanair will become Zagreb Airport’s second biggest airline based on offered capacity this summer season. It has 134.190 seats on sale to and from the Croatian capital until October 31. At the same time, Croatia Airlines has 1.014.608, although this will be revised as the carrier modifies its schedule on a monthly basis. Ryanair has said it intends on launching new routes from Zagreb next year and becoming the city’s largest airline.
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| Market share by capacity at Zagreb Airport, summer 2021 |
Commenting on Ryanair’s arrival and Croatia Airlines’ criticism, Zagreb Airport’s General Manager, Huseyin Bahadir Bedir, said, “Ryanair’s business model often provokes different comments all over the world, especially from legacy carriers. That is exactly what happened in Zagreb. That is the nature of our business in today’s world. Competition brings with it risk of declining revenue and profitability and requires certain adjustments to new market conditions”. He added, “Nevertheless, Croatia Airlines is our largest and most important business partner and it is absolutely in the interest of Zagreb Airport to see it succeed. We can and want to help out our national carrier and will offer them our know-how and valuable statistical data, because Zagreb Airport is part of a large group of airports managed by our shareholders, which jointly handled over 250 million passengers in 2019”.
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