Croatia Airlines considers return to former markets
Croatia Airlines is studying the potential resumption of flights from Zagreb to several markets it discontinued as a result of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, which are yet to be restored. The carrier is primarily looking at destinations in the region for the coming summer season. Croatia Airlines suspended services to Barcelona, Bucharest, Helsinki, Lisbon, Milan, Mostar, Oslo, Prague, St Petersburg, Stockholm and Tel Aviv, and shelved plans to launch operations to Sofia and Podgorica. So far, the Croatian carrier has only announced its return to Barcelona. Initially the airline was to resume flights in late March but has now pushed back its return to Spain’s second largest city to June.
Several foreign carriers have used Croatia Airlines’ absence to launch flights to Zagreb, which were previously operated by the flag carrier. TAP Air Portugal introduced seasonal services from Lisbon last summer, which will resume at the end of next month with an extra weekly rotation for a total of four weekly flights. Finnair will launch seasonal operations between Helsinki and the Croatian capital from May 1, with up to three weekly services to run through to September. Aeroflot and its subsidiary Rossiya Airlines now operate between St Petersburg and Zagreb, while Ryanair has taken over Croatia Airlines’ planned services to Podgorica and Sofia.
Croatia Airlines’ CEO, Jasmin Bajić, recently said the carrier will adapt its summer network based on demand, with the company to remain flexible with its schedule. “Traffic will continue to be contingent on external factors, beyond the company’s control, such as restrictions, bans and other measures, which directly impact on people’s ability to travel both domestically and internationally. Accordingly, we will focus on flexible planning of our network. Our goal is to achieve optimal load factors with average fares in existing conditions of reduced capacity. Therefore, in 2022 our focus will be on greater rationalisation of costs and the implementation of the company’s defined post-Covid strategy”, Mr Bajić said.
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