Ryanair to handle over a million passengers in Zagreb in 2023

Ryanair has had an exceptionally strong year in Zagreb with the low cost carrier set to handle well above one million passengers at Croatia’s busiest airport. Within the first ten months of the year, for which data is currently available, the airline welcomed close to 900.000 travellers on board its aircraft. The carrier has also notably outperformed Croatia Airlines on several routes the two compete on indirectly. The budget carrier welcomed 97.985 passengers on its London Stansted service during the January - October period, more than the 85.593 travellers handled by Croatia Airlines and British Airways combined on their respective London Heathrow flights. In addition, Ryanair saw 70.108 customers on its Charleroi route over the same timeframe, ahead of Croatia Airlines’ 40.754 passengers on its Brussels service.

Ryanair Zagreb route performance, JAN - OCT 2024

During 2023, Ryanair introduced flights from Zagreb to Kos in Greece, and Lanzarote in Spain, the latter having launched last month. The airline performed strongly on its leisure destinations out of Zagreb during the year, which was one of the key factors in its decision to introduce several new sun destinations in 2024. Its most popular leisure route was Malta, with over 50.000 passengers, followed by Paphos in Cyprus. On the other hand, Croatia Airlines has shied away from developing leisure routes from Zagreb, primarily focusing on bringing more inbound tourists to Croatia’s coast.

Ryanair will further grow its presence in Zagreb next year with plans to station a fourth Airbus A320 aircraft in the city, introduce new destinations and increase frequencies on existing services. The carrier will launch flights to Alicante, Girona and Palma de Mallorca in Spain, Pisa in Italy, as well as Marseille in France, starting March 31, 2024. The airline is placing a strong focus on operations between Zagreb and Spain, following the success of other routes including Malaga, which will see frequencies increase next year, as well as the recently introduced Lanzarote route, initially launched as a winter seasonal service, which will now operate year-round.