Ryanair begins latest Zagreb expansion, plans further growth
Low cost carrier Ryanair has begun its latest round of expansion from its base in Zagreb by stationing a third Airbus A320 aircraft from its subsidiary Lauda Europe and commencing the first of its nine new routes. The carrier is inaugurating operations from the Croatian capital to Malaga today, followed by Manchester, Dublin, and Thessaloniki tomorrow, Paphos, Eindhoven and Basel on Friday, as well as Malta on Saturday. In addition, services to Naples will commence on December 17. The budget airline, now Zagreb’s second largest carrier behind only Croatia Airlines, will also add frequencies on a number of routes for the Christmas and New Year holiday period, from mid-December until early January. These include the new service to the Irish capital, which will be increased from three to four per week, flights to Gothenburg which will grow from three to six per week, as well as services to Malaga, Sandefjord and Malmo, which will be increased from two to three weekly rotations.
Ryanair will not have direct competition on any of its new routes, with exception to Dublin, which is also served by Croatia Airlines. The low cost carrier will provide capacity on busy unserved routes and open up nonstop flights from Zagreb to two new markets which are currently unserved - Malta and Cyprus. Out of the nine new routes to be introduced this month, Manchester is among Zagreb’s busiest currently lacking nonstop flights. Based on OAG data, in the pre-pandemic 2019, it was the fourth busiest unserved European destination from the Croatian capital with 8.825 indirect passengers travelling on a single itinerary. On the other hand, Ryanair primarily serves Cyprus through Paphos Airport rather than the country’s main gateway of Larnaca. In 2019, Larnaca was Zagreb Airport’s tenth busiest unserved route in Europe with 6.017 indirect travellers. Prior to the pandemic, a total of 3.989 passengers flew indirectly between Zagreb and Malta, followed closely by Malaga with 3.577 indirect travellers. Thessaloniki saw 3.350 passengers on connecting flights to and from Zagreb, while there was a total of 2.114 indirect travellers to Italy’s third largest city of Naples.
Ryanair is planning further growth from Zagreb next year. The airline has already increased planned frequencies on a number of routes for the 2022 summer season. These include Charleroi and Bergamo, which will grow from four to five times per week, Gothenburg and Hahn from three to four rotations, as well as Basel, Malta, Memmingen, Paphos and Weeze, which will be increased from two to three weekly over the summer. The growth in frequencies will come into effect from March 31, with exception to the Gothenburg service, which will be increased from May. Talks between Ryanair and Zagreb Airport are currently underway over the stationing of a further two aircraft next summer, in addition to the existing three. “We are not focusing on routes covered by Croatia Airlines but those that are not served from Zagreb. We plan on carrying over ten million passengers in cooperation with Zagreb Airport over the next five to six years”, the company’s Group CEO, Michael O'Leary, said. Ryanair bases that remain unserved from Zagreb but have a high volume of indirect traffic with the Croatian capital, include Porto, Riga, Vilnius, Bologna, Krakow and Stockholm, all of which could be potentially added to its network as it looks to have up to ten jets stationed in the Croatian capital.
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