Zagreb Airport eyes strong growth as new routes expected

Zagreb Airport is estimating an increase in passenger numbers throughout 2023, noting its traffic figures are already growing above the European industry average. The forecast comes despite the airport still lacking a single new route announcement for 2023. However, this is expected to change in the coming period. Furthermore, frequencies on several existing routes will be strengthened this summer, with Finnair resuming seasonal flights from Helsinki in April, boosting its presence from three to four weekly rotations, while Lufthansa will add an additional daily service from Munich for a total of two daily flights from March 26. The German carrier will also boost capacity to the Croatian capital from both Munich and Frankfurt.

Greece’s Aegean Airlines will add a third weekly rotation from Athens to Zagreb starting mid-June, up from two last summer. The carrier has also tentatively upgraded the service to year-round flights, although this is subject to change. Qatar Airways plans to increase its frequencies from Doha to daily from late March, while El Al’s leisure brand Sun d’Ór will maintain two weekly services instead of one, with the additional rotation to be introduced from late April. Furthermore, Ryanair plans to run services to all destinations within in its Zagreb network, in contrast to last summer, when it faced significant operational issues, forcing it to suspend a select number of routes and decrease frequencies on others.

Croatia Airlines does not plan to introduce new destinations from its Zagreb hub this summer for a third year in a row, despite being the airport’s biggest customer The airline has opted instead to roll out new seasonal flights from the country’s coastal airports. “The business relationship we have with Zagreb Airport, our home airport, reflects our traffic volume, and related commercial conditions”, the Croatian carrier said recently. Another segment which has lagged in recovery at Zagreb Airport is long haul traffic. This summer, Air Transat will restore its pre-pandemic three weekly service, however, due to a shorter season than last year, will have similar capacity on offer. On the other hand, its rival Air Canada does not intend on launching services to the Croatian capital this year. Korean Air, which is in the process of restoring its entire European network has so far omitted Zagreb from its plans. Zagreb Airport previously said its long haul operations would recover by 2025.

EX-YU Aviation News

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