S7 Airlines to launch Zagreb operations

Russia’s S7 Airlines will commence flights from Moscow Domodedovo Airport to Zagreb from January 23. The carrier intends on initially operating one weekly flight, each Sunday. Services will run with the 174-seat Airbus A320 aircraft, featuring an all-economy class layout. S7 Airlines will become the third carrier to maintain operations between the two cities and the third new Russian airline to launch operations to the Croatian capital this year following Nordwind Airlines and Azur Air, although the later has discontinued its service. It will also become only the third Oneworld alliance member to maintain flights to Zagreb over the winter months after British Airways and Qatar Airways.

There has been increased demand for services between Moscow and Zagreb in recent months due to the availability of coronavirus vaccines for foreigners in Croatia. Russian citizens, who can only be vaccinated against Covid-19 with Russian-manufactured vaccines in their home country, are increasingly seeking different types of jabs in order to be able to travel throughout Europe and the United States, which, for the most part, do not recognise the Russian Sputnik vaccine. Furthermore, Croatia also provides the one-dose Janssen vaccine, which is appealing to foreigners as it cuts down on their required stay. As a result, Aeroflot also scheduled additional capacity over the past week by deploying its 296-seat Airbus A330-300 jet on select days to Zagreb. It will also utilise the aircraft on December 16, 18 and 23.

Zagreb - Moscow - Zagreb passenger performance by year

The Zagreb - Russia market has growth potential, with a notable number of passengers - 19.925 of them - flying indirectly between the Croatian capital and Russia during the pre-pandemic 2019, according to OAG. Despite Zagreb having flights to both Moscow and St Petersburg in 2019, the latter being operated seasonally by Croatia Airlines at the time, both cities also had the most indirect traffic. They were followed by Kazan, Krasnodar and Yekaterinburg. Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport was most commonly used as a transfer point for reaching destinations in Russia from Zagreb and vice versa. It was proceeded by Vienna, Munich, Frankfurt and Belgrade. Aeroflot was the busiest connecting airline, followed by Lufthansa, Croatia Airlines and Air Serbia.

Indirect traffic between Zagreb and Russia in 2019