Air Canada undecided over Zagreb service

Air Canada is yet to make a decision whether it will commence seasonal operations between Toronto and Zagreb next summer season after cancelling plans to launch the route this year. The Canadian carrier was to initially replace its leisure subsidiary Air Canada Rouge on the Zagreb service, as the latter retired all of its wide-body aircraft during the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Furthermore, a planned takeover of Air Transat, which runs its own seasonal services to the Croatian capital, fell through. Asked whether it would restore its Zagreb flight plans for 2023, Air Canada said it is still in the process of finalising its network for next summer, which would be dependent on demand and other market conditions. Air Canada has struggled with staffing shortages throughout the summer, cancelling hundreds of flights.

Canada’s flag carrier initially scheduled to operate three weekly rotations between Toronto and Zagreb starting June 2 of this year with its 297-seat Airbus A330-300 aircraft. It planned to run a total of 54 flights each way, originally placing 32.076 seats on sale between the two cities, before cancelling the flights. Despite this, the Croatian capital still saw the resumption of services to Toronto this summer following a two-year hiatus after Air Transat made a return on the Croatian market.

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.

EX-YU Aviation News

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