Croatia Airlines eyes regional markets to counter Ryanair growth
Croatia Airlines is considering growing its presence on regional markets to offset rising competition from Ryanair, which last week announced a further two new routes from Zagreb for a total of 29. The Croatian flag carrier is looking to capitalise on its transfer pontifical via its hub, which Ryanair is unable to offer. Starting next week, Croatia Airlines will cooperate on the new service between Pristina and Zagreb, which is being operated jointly in cooperation with Trade Air on behalf of MyWings. According to the “Croatia Aviation” portal, the national carrier will not only wet-lease one of its Dash 8 Q400 turboprops for the service, but it will also allocate a certain number of seats on the route, so passengers from Pristina will be able to continue their journey via Zagreb to other destinations in Europe, such as Amsterdam, Paris, Vienna, Copenhagen. Munich, London and Dublin.
The Croatian carrier is also looking into the possibility of linking Skopje and Ljubljana. Over 40.000 passengers flew between Macedonia’s and Slovenia’s capital cities each year prior to the bankruptcy of Adria Airways in late September of 2019. The route has been unserved since. Ljubljana Airport’s operator Fraport Slovenija had previously expressed interest for Croatia Airlines to serve Vienna, Skopje, Prague and Copenhagen. Earlier this year, the carrier’s CEO, Jasmin Bajić, said the airline was in talks with Slovenian authorities over improving Ljubljana’s connectivity. “Croatia Airlines is potentially interested in establishing flights from Ljubljana Airport in order to enable passengers from Slovenia to connect to European destinations”, the carrier said.
Croatia Airlines is also considering expanding its offer on the Macedonian market following talks with the operator of the country’s airports TAV Macedonia, Mr Bajić, noted, “If there is interest from Macedonian tour operators and partners, we are ready to expand our cooperation onto routes other than Zagreb and Skopje, like perhaps Ohrid and Split”. However, Tirana remains Zagreb’s busiest unserved route in the region. Last year, Croatia Airlines considered introducing operations to the Albanian capital prior to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. “Both parties agreed for talks between Croatia Airlines and relevant authorities in Albania to commence immediately in order for this important project [flights] to be realised as soon as possible”, the Albanian Embassy in Zagreb said last year. Based on OAG data, some 6.229 passengers flew indirectly between the two cities on a single itinerary in 2019.
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