Ryanair targets over thirty routes from Zagreb next summer

Ryanair will expand operations out of its Zagreb base next year with plans to serve over thirty destinations during the 2024 summer season, up from 27 this year. Speaking at a press conference in the Croatian capital, Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer, Jason McGuinness, said, “Last year we carried just over 900.000 passengers on our Zagreb flights, this year it will be closer to 1.2 million and the plan is to continue growing in Zagreb. We are boosting connectivity and the economy and driving tourism. It’s all about direct connections. We had close to thirty destinations from Zagreb this summer, 27 to be more precise, and we will try to get that to over thirty for summer 2024. We are working with Huseyin [Bahadir Bedir, Zagreb Airport General Manager] and his team and that is because Ryanair is the only airline growing in Europe with the lowest fares and the lowest base costs”.

As previously reported by EX-YU Aviation News, Ryanair will maintain flights to nineteen destinations this winter season, which begins on October 29, with an increase in frequencies on seven routes. The airline will introduce an additional two weekly flights for a total of four to both Malaga and Malta, as well as an extra service to Dublin, for a total of four. Basel, Beauvais, Gothenburg and Memmingen will all be operated three instead of two weekly. These do not include an increase in flights on most routes during the two-week Christmas holiday period. The carrier will also inaugurate operations to Lanzarote. “Our busiest routes out of Zagreb are London Stansted, Bergamo and Dublin. This record winter schedule will be operated on Ryanair’s three Zagreb-based aircraft, representing a 300 million US dollar investment”. Mr McGuinness noted.

Asked to comment on the public spat over the increase in Zagreb Airport’s fees earlier this year, Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer said, “We are satisfied with conditions in Zagreb, although any increase in fees affects costs, which we try to minimise”. Although Mr McGuinness did not go into detail as to which new routes may be introduced from Zagreb, the airport recently launched an incentive scheme for airlines with the aim of connecting the city to a number of key European capitals. Routes that are eligible for incentives are those to Prague, Tallinn, Berlin, Budapest, Riga, Vilnius, Luxembourg, Stockholm (Arlanda or Skavsta airports), Tirana, Pristina, Reykjavik, Tbilisi, Kiev (upon the reopening of Ukrainian airspace), Chisinau and Yerevan.