Ryanair plans up to ten aircraft at Zagreb base
Low cost carrier Ryanair, which is in the process of launching fifteen routes from Zagreb and establishing a base in the city, has said it plans to station up to ten aircraft in the Croatian capital. “As many as ten Boeing 737-800s could eventually be based at Zagreb. We started with two aircraft. Zagreb is the capital city … and remember, when we arrive in certain cities, they become [passenger] destinations”, the airline’s CEO, David O’Brien, told “Routes Digest”. The carrier plans to station its first jet in Zagreb at the end of August, a second in early September, while a third could join at the start of the 2020/2021 winter season in late October.
Mr O’Brien noted that Croatia Airlines’ weakness has played no role in its decision to open a base in Zagreb, “Croatia Airlines is irrelevant for our decision making. It is not a factor”, the CEO said. Last month the airline told the Croatian national carrier it should “do its homework” rather than complain over the agreement reached between Ryanair and Zagreb Airport. “The fact of the matter is that Croatia Airlines has not achieved growth and profit in the past four years. Ryanair will bring dozens of new routes to Zagreb this year, and Croatia Airlines has brought three in the past four years. We think Croatia Airlines must do its homework again”.
Ryanair has said it eventually plans to maintain between thirty and forty routes out of Zagreb and handle two to three million passengers per year. “We will grow exponentially in the years to come. The key for Zagreb is going to be the number of airports we have on offer in Europe. We made a bold decision to launch a base straight away. This shows our confidence in Zagreb. This will transform the city and we will become the largest airline in Zagreb and Croatia within a very short period of time”, the budget carrier said. The General Manager of Zagreb Airport, Huseyin Bahadir Bedir, previously noted that becoming a Ryanair base was a strategic decision in order to elevate the airport into a regional hub and speed up its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
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