Zagreb Airport sees untapped French potential
Zagreb Airport has been run by a consortium headed by French operator Aeroports de Paris since 2013, however, connectivity between Zagreb and the country has been solely concentrated on the French capital, despite encouraging trends for nonstop flights to be launched to secondary cities. Passenger numbers between Zagreb and Paris have grown steadily, with Air France and Croatia Airlines increasing their operations between the two over the previous years. In 2020, the French national carrier was to serve Zagreb with two daily flights, however, shelved those plans as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. On the other hand, Croatia Airlines was to run daily services. This summer they have both operated one daily flight.
Zagreb - Paris - Zagreb route passenger performance by year
Indirect traffic between Zagreb and points in France show potential for at least seasonal operations to a secondary French city. According to OAG data, Nice was the most popular destination after Paris, with over 5.000 travellers commuting to and from Zagreb in 2019. It was followed by Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse. A number of other French cities also saw indirect traffic from the Croatian capital, with Bastia, Biarritz, Brest, Pau and Toulon among them, although passenger figures on these routes were negligible. Croatia Airlines serves Lyon seasonally out of Split and maintains summer operations from both Split and Dubrovnik to Paris. It also briefly maintained operations between Dubrovnik and Nice several years ago. Numerous low cost carriers operate flights from secondary French cities to the Croatian coast. The figures below indicate passengers who either boarded or disembarked their flight in Zagreb on a single ticket. As a result, figures would be significantly greater once transfer passengers were to be factored in, with potential for many to use Zagreb as their connecting point to the Croatian coast.
Indirect passenger traffic between Zagreb and cities in France in 2019
In 2017, Air France - KLM’s low cost subsidiary, Transavia France, held talks with the Croatian Ministry for Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, during which it informed them of plans to commence operations to Zagreb in 2018. Similarly, Volotea noted it planned to commence flights to the Croatian capital from at least one French city by 2020. However, neither materialised, with Zagreb Airport’s high fees believed to have been a deterrent. Since the Covid-19 outbreak, Zagreb has revised its pricing policy and introduced incentives, particularly targeting low cost airlines. As a result, Ryanair has commenced operations between Zagreb and Beauvais, near Paris, with two weekly rotations.
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