Croatia Airlines eyes Southeast Europe network expansion
Croatia Airlines is exploring opportunities at expanding its footprint in Southeastern Europe and linking destinations in the region to the West, as the carrier looks into ways of becoming more competitive on the market. “We will redefine new market opportunities for connecting European destinations with the region of Southeast Europe, maximise future revenue potential and increase aircraft productivity”, the airline noted. Regionally, Croatia Airlines maintains year-round flights from Zagreb to Skopje and Sarajevo, as well as seasonal operations to Athens and Bucharest, the latter having been suspended since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The carrier has also suspended several other seasonal regional routes including Zagreb - Mostar, Split - Belgrade and Split - Athens.
The busiest unserved regional destination from Zagreb Airport in the pre-pandemic 2019 was Sofia, followed by Tirana, Pristina, Podgorica and Thessaloniki. Croatia Airlines scheduled seasonal services to the Bulgarian and Montenegrin capitals in 2020, however, it was forced to cancel its plans due to the coronavirus pandemic. Ryanair, which will open a base in Zagreb in late August, will launch operations to both cities. Furthermore, the Croatian carrier considered introducing services to Tirana in 2020 as well, however, the city didn’t make the final cut for its summer network, which was ultimately upended by the pandemic.
In late 2019 Croatia Airlines said it was looking to establish a greater presence in the region following the collapse of Adria Airways, which had a developed regional network, shuttling passengers through Ljubljana to Star Alliance hubs such as Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Zurich. However, even though the Croatian airline said it would be “good to expand” as a result of Adria’s demise, it noted it was too early to react at that point in time. Further back, in 2016, Croatia Airlines outlined plans to open bases in Sarajevo, Pristina and Skopje, however, these never materialised. At the time the carrier said, "Market research data has shown that there is a potential for the successful opening of additional bases in the Southeastern European region and Croatia Airlines, as a European Union community carrier, has recognised its business interest in this”.
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