Zagreb sees potential for more Polish routes
Zagreb Airport has seen growing air travel demand from secondary cities in Poland, some of which could be potentially served by LOT Polish Airlines or Ryanair. LOT has been operating flights between Warsaw and Zagreb since late 2014, with the carrier growing its presence across Croatia ever since. This summer, it commenced four new seasonal routes to the Croatian coast. “The Polish market is among the top five most important for us. According to the latest data, 79% of Poles want to travel to Croatia, which, you will agree, is a great result. With more and more flights, we can expect a significant number of Poles visiting Croatia this year and next”, the head of the Croatian Tourism Board, Kristijan Staničić, recently said.
Based on pre-pandemic 2019 data provided by OAG, Zagreb saw a notable number of indirect traffic from Poland’s second largest city of Krakow. Over 5.000 people travelled between the two that year on a single itinerary. It was followed by Gdansk, Wroclaw, Poznan and Katowice. LOT maintains bases in both Krakow and Katowice, which would enable the carrier to serve the Croatian capital with seventy to eighty-seater aircraft such as the Embraer E170, E175 and the Dash 8 turboprop. On the other hand, Ryanair, which opened a base in Zagreb this summer, has aircraft stationed in Krakow, Katowice, Poznan, Gdansk and Wroclaw. The budget airline is looking to base another two jets in the Croatian capital next year.
Indirect passenger traffic between Zagreb and Polish cities in 2019
The majority of passengers flying from Poland’s secondary cities to Zagreb do so during the summertime. LOT is adding more primary destinations in the region from its focus cities. It flies seasonally from Katowice to Podgorica and Tirana, and maintains summer charters to Ohrid and Tivat too. "Croatia is becoming more and more popular among our passengers each year and is becoming of interest for travellers outside of Warsaw as well. As we continue to increase our offer, both Zagreb and Croatia as a whole are becoming popular for short weekend breaks as well”, the company’s CEO, Rafał Milczarski, said while visiting Croatia this summer. Mr Milczarski added, "We want to be the preferred airline in Central and Eastern Europe. This region suffers from an insufficient number of connections. If in fact, we can be the first choice in the region, it certainly will involve further route announcements".
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