Air Canada suspends Zagreb flight plans
Air Canada has discontinued ticket sales for its planned new seasonal service between Toronto and Zagreb, which was scheduled to commence next June. The Canadian carrier also omitted Zagreb from its 2022 summer presentation mid last month but continued ticket sales between the two cities until this week. Air Canada will operate seasonal flights from Toronto to several European cities, including Athens, Barcelona, Edinburgh, Lisbon, Manchester, Nice, Reykjavik, Rome and Venice instead. Year-round operations will be maintained to Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, London, Lyon, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris, Vienna and Zurich. Air Canada was to replace its leisure subsidiary Air Canada Rouge on the Zagreb service, as the latter retired all its wide-body aircraft during the height of the coronavirus pandemic last year.
Air Canada initially scheduled to operate three weekly flights between Toronto and Zagreb starting June 2 with its 297-seat Airbus A330-300 aircraft. The carrier planned to run a total of 54 flights each way with 32.076 seats on sale between the two cities. However, the airline itself warned services may be cancelled in line with demand and the Covid-19 situation. Air Canada is now offering alternatives to the Croatian capital via Amsterdam, with its codeshare partner Croatia Airlines operating the inter-European sector. Zagreb Airport’s General Manager, Huseyin Bahadir Bedir, recently said, “It is no secret the resumption of medium and long haul flights primarily depend on travel restriction imposed by different countries. Zagreb Airport had a notable number of passengers from the Far East, Australia and North America. The return of these flights will depend on boarder restrictions. We expect the gradual resumption of these services between 2022 and 2025”.
Despite Air Canada shelving its planned Zagreb service, the Croatian capital will see the resumption of flights to Toronto in 2022 following a two-year hiatus. At a presentation of its 2022 network yesterday, Air Transat confirmed it would restore operations between the two cities next year. The airline will resume flights between Toronto and Zagreb on May 2 with a one weekly service, before increasing to two weekly on June 7. The service will operate with the A330-200 jet until the end of the summer season in late October. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the airline planned to introduce a third weekly departure between the two cities in 2020, however the flights never materialised due to the global health emergency.
Busiest Croatia - Canada citypairs in 2019
Despite the temporary decline in demand, the Croatia - Canada market is large, comprising of a mix of leisure passengers, as well as those visiting friends and family. The Croatian market has been successful for both Rouge and Air Transat in the past. In 2019 they jointly handled 65.486 passengers, a 14.6% increase on the year before. That same year, based on OAG data, the number of indirect passengers flying between Croatia and Canada stood at 71.254. Despite there being seasonal nonstop flights between Zagreb and Toronto, the route also had the largest number of indirect passengers. It was followed by Split - Toronto. In 2019, Air Transat planned to operate the route once per week between June and September, however, cancelled the service a few months prior to its launch due to “commercial reasons”. An Airbus A330-200 jet was to be deployed on the service.
Among airlines carrying indirect passengers travelling between Croatia and Canada, Air Canada was the main carrier of choice, accounting for 29% of the market. Croatia Airlines also benefited, thanks to its wide-ranging codeshare agreement with Air Canada, as well as Lufthansa. Others carrying a notable number of transfer passengers between the two countries with a market share of 5% included British Airways and LOT Polish Airlines.
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