Croatia Airlines to reach pre-Covid traffic levels in 2024
Croatia Airlines is gearing up for the upcoming third quarter, its busiest of the year, however, the carrier is yet to fully recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Between July and September, the Croatian airline has 813.368 seats on sale, down 13.2% on the same period in 2019, which was its busiest to date. It will operate 7.639 flights, down 12.3%. However, the carrier’s biggest decline in flights and capacity will come at its hub in Zagreb where it faces stiff competition from Ryanair, which opened a base in the city in 2021. Croatia Airlines will run 4.461 Zagreb flights, down 24.7%. Capacity will decrease 26.1% to 474.172 seats.
Since the coronavirus pandemic, Croatia Airlines has not resumed its seasonal operations from Zagreb to Stockholm, Helsinki, Lisbon, Milan, Oslo, Bucharest, Prague and St Petersburg. Furthermore, the carrier is no longer operating flights from the Croatian capital to Dublin during the peak summer months. Out of its existing Zagreb network, the airline has the biggest growth in capacity on services to Copenhagen despite plans to operate the same number of flights as in Q3 2019. It is followed by Mostar and London Heathrow. On the other hand, the biggest decline in capacity, among routes which have not been discontinued, is Frankfurt, followed by Munich.
Croatia Airlines has been putting a bigger focus on its operations out of Split during the summer. Over the third quarter, it is operating 2.609 Split flights, representing an increase of 32.5% on four years ago. A total of 272.882 seats are planed on its Split operations, up 27.2%. The carrier has dropped just one route from its network out of Croatia’s second largest city - Belgrade - compared to 2019, however, it has added a number of new destinations including Stockholm, Bucharest, Dublin, Milan, Amsterdam, Skopje and Oslo. The airline has grown either frequencies or capacity on almost all its Split routes, with the exception being its domestic Zagreb service.
The Croatian flag carrier has said it is on the path to recovery. “The start to 2023 has been better than expected for the company and demand is still growing. Croatia Airlines is continuing to increase its frequencies and launch new routes. Traffic volumes from 2019 have still not been achieved in the aviation industry, but it is increasing and its return to pre-Covid levels is expected in 2024. Carriers across the world, including Croatia Airlines face a number of risks. The main risks which will have the biggest impact on Croatia Airlines’ operations in 2023 are fuel prices, emission unit prices and, consequently, liquidity risks. In the coming period, together with the mitigation of these risks, Croatia Airlines will further focus on implementing its post-Covid strategy”.
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