New look seats on Croatia Airlines A319s

Croatia Airlines has begun rolling out its new economy class cabins in its Airbus A319 jets. The cabins feature the Lufthansa Recaro designed slim seats. According to the Croatian carrier, the new seats will provide more comfort to passengers. However, the airline plans to save with the introduction of the new design. Since the seats weigh only five kilograms each, the carrier will save on fuel. Furthermore, Croatia Airlines will be able to introduce an additional two rows of seating.

The new economy class cabin is featured on all four of Croatia Airlines’ Airbus A319s. Although there were plans to introduce the new seats on its A320s as well, it was decided against the move as the aircraft will soon be leaving the Croatia Airlines fleet. The airline also says the new cabins will be enhanced by new catering, to be introduced this summer season, which sets to promote Croatian cuisine.

Meanwhile, Croatia Airlines will have to compete on its Zagreb to Barcelona service this summer as the Spanish airline Vueling has announced three weekly flights between the two cities. Services will be launched on June 22 and will operate on a seasonal basis until September 17. Vueling replaces the recently bankrupt Spanair which used to operate on the route. Flight details can be viewed here. The Spanish national carrier Iberia will also operate seasonal flights to the Croatian capital. Flights from Madrid to Zagreb are set to operate twice per week until September 16. Details are available here.

Weaker February at Zagreb Airport

Zagreb Airport has seen a third consecutive month of declining passenger numbers. In February, Croatia’s busiest airport handled 117.725 passengers, a decrease of 6.6% compared to the same month last year when it welcomed 125.978 passengers through its doors. The number of flights operating to and from the airport significantly decreased, by 9.4%. However, Zagreb, like other airports in the former Yugoslavia wasn’t immune to the snowstorms and bad weather conditions. Many domestic flights were cancelled in February due to the closure of the country’s coastal airports. Furthermore, other carriers such as Turkish Airlines were also forced to cancel flights due to snow in Istanbul.

Last year, Zagreb Airport handled a record number of passengers. However, figures started to decline in December 2011. In the first two months of 2012, the airport welcomed 5.9% less passengers then the same period last year. Other airports in the country also experienced a decline in traffic, details which will be published at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, Croatia Airlines also saw a setback this week. It has been revealed that one of the airline’s Dash 8 jets was dropped while being lifted during maintenance. Consequently, the aircraft has been damaged as it sustained a puncture on the fuselage. It occurred during the March 8 industrial action at the airline which saw mechanics walk off the job as well.

Flight delays and cancelations at Croatia Airlines

Croatia Airlines has been forced to cancel many of its flights today as the union of Croatia Airlines pilots, cabin crew, airline technicians and the “Novi sindikat” planned to begin a 24 hour strike. However, late last night they announced they were cancelling today’s strike. Nevertheless all of the planned flight cancellations remain in place. Despite spending over a year discussing the terms of their collective agreements with the airline’s management, no solution has been found. Today's strike was only supposed to be a warning to the management and further industrial action could be taken in the coming months if no agreement is reached. Despite the fact that the strike was supposed to last from 06.00 this morning until 06.00 tomorrow morning, the Croatian national carrier was forced to cancel its evening service to Sarajevo yesterday, since the aircraft would be unable to return to Zagreb in the morning and several flights will be cancelled tomorrow as well. Furthermore, passengers can expect delays on early morning flights tomorrow until operations resume to their full capacity.

The unions note that Croatia Airlines will be operating 80% of its scheduled services. Today, the airline has cancelled its flights to Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Brussels, Zurich, Dubrovnik, Split, Rome, Priština, Vienna, Munich, Pula, Zadar, Sarajevo and Skopje. As a result, return flights from Pula, Zadar, Sarajevo and Skopje, which are scheduled to operate on March 9 have also been cancelled. It should be noted that on some of these destinations, Croatia Airlines operates more than one daily flight and in most cases only one of the daily flights has been cancelled.

Croatia Airlines’ management is fuming over the planned walk out by staff saying that the industrial action is unnecessary. It has been further angered after employees said that they wouldn't strike with the airline unable to resume normal operations today. The carrier claims that the terms set out by the unions go against the airline’s cost cutting measure while seven of the eleven conditions set out by the unions go against Croatia’s state laws. Furthermore, the management says the strike will cost the airline 200.000 euros. Croatia Airlines is offering passengers the opportunity to be either rebooked on other flights or compensated to the full amount of their ticket price. Latest strike details can be found on the carrier’s website here. Those interested in viewing the collective agreement from 2011 that unions want to be changed can view it here (PDF document - in Croatian).

Unhappy unions plan flight disruptions

Four Croatia Airlines unions will go on strike next Thursday, March 8, if their demands for a revised collective agreement are not met. The four trade unions count approximately 650 employees. They have put up ten demands to the airline’s management. If their demands were to be met, Croatia Airlines will have to fork out an additional 2.3 million euros in 2012 and a further 3 million euros in 2013. The additional costs would offset the carrier’s plans to further cut down on its losses. The airline finished 2011 with a loss of 10 million euros, which is down 52% on 2010.

There has been growing discontent amongst Croatia Airlines’ pilots who are unhappy with work conditions and what it sees as incompetent management. Their hundred page revival plan for the company was struck down by the management earlier in the year. Things were made worse when a daily newspaper published an article claiming that Croatia Airlines’ pilots are overpaid and work the least in Europe, an article the pilots believe was planted by the management. It came after pilots told the media that the carrier’s Dash 8s are unsafe and experience constant technical faults. Besides the pilots, cabin crew are also unhappy with their work conditions. Only the airline’s technicians and engineers have managed to come to an agreement with the management.

Croatia Airlines claims that if the strike action goes ahead on March 8 it will cost the carrier 200.000 euros and disrupt flights and passengers. Meanwhile, the Croatian government yesterday formally awarded Aéroports de Paris the concession over Zagreb Airport, much to the discontent of the airport’s unions.

Unions unhappy with Zagreb concession

Trade unions at Zagreb Airport have angrily reacted to the government’s decision to award a concession for Croatia’s busiest airport to Aéroports de Paris. The French are to run Zagreb Airport for the next thirty years and build a multi million euro terminal. Unions say that the entire concession model is unsustainable. The head of the union representing Zagreb Airport employees, Ante Dujić, said at a press conference that workers expected the government to terminate the tender procedure because the concession will harm the airport and its employees. He added that Zagreb Airport has the means to fund the expansion project itself.

The union claims that estimates for Zagreb Airport to handle up to 8.5 million passengers annually, as outlined by Aérports de Paris, are inaccurate. They warn that during the past month two airlines operating flights to Zagreb have declared bankruptcy while Croatia Airlines itself is on shaky grounds. Unions are now requesting an urgent meeting with the government and warn that industrial action could be taken if their concerns are not acknowledged. “The commission which decided to award the concession had no time to review the documentation in order to bring a proper decision. There is a problem and our destinies depend on its resolution”, Dujić said.

Aéroports de Paris, which bid under the name Zagreb Airport International, will build the new terminal at Zagreb from scratch and pay 87 million euros in concession fees over the next three decades. The new terminal should be in use by 2015. The offer by Aéroports de Paris outlines that during the first phase of the project a new terminal will be built with the capacity to handle five million passengers.

Dubrovnik underperforms as other airports grow

In the first month of 2012, the airports in Zagreb and Dubrovnik saw passenger numbers slide after a record breaking 2011. Other airports in Croatia managed to record passenger growth.

Croatia’s busiest airport Zagreb welcomed 131.068 passengers, a decrease in of 5.6% compared to the same month last year. Zagreb’s slow start was followed by a significant fall in the number of transit passengers passing through the airport. Dubrovnik, which was Croatia’s second busiest airport in 2011 and the fifth busiest in the former Yugoslavia, saw an even bigger decline than its counterpart in Zagreb. Dubrovnik handled 17.843 compared to 21.288 passengers in 2011, a decrease of almost 20%.

Other airports in Croatia had better luck with Split, Pula, Zadar and Osijek all recording a passenger growth. Split’s numbers were better than those of Dubrovnik as the airport welcomed 24.678 passengers through its doors. Pula Airport will be content with its January performance as it recorded a passenger increase of 24.2%. Both Rijeka and Brač airports saw triple digit growth but together handled only 47 passengers.

Below you can review the performance of Croatia’s airports in January 2012. Overall, Croatian airports handled 176.929 passengers, a decrease of 5.6% compared to January 2011. The statistics have been provided by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics.

Airport	Passengers JAN 2012	Passengers JAN 2011	Change (%)
Zagreb	131.068	138.370	▼ 5.6
Dubrovnik	17.843	21.288	▼ 19.3
Split	24.678	24.428	▲ 1.1
Zadar	2.216	1.848	▲ 16.6
Pula	995	754	▲ 24.2
Rijeka	31	11	▲ 64.5
Osijek	56	35	▲ 60.0
Brač	16	1	▲ 1500.0
Mali Lošinj	26	72	▼ 63.9

New beginnings

The Croatian Deputy Prime Minister, Radimir Čačić, has said that the government will accept an offer from Aeroports de Paris to run Zagreb Airport and build the long awaited new terminal. The French group, which bid under the name Zagreb Airport International, will build the new terminal from scratch and pay 87 million Euros in concession fees over the next thirty years. The new terminal should be in use by 2015.

Speaking to the press, Čačić said the new terminal will help boost tourism and will also provide a chance for Croatia to become a regional hub in the Balkans. “Construction work will start by the end of the year”, Čačić added. The offer by Aeroports de Paris outlines that during the first phase of the project a new terminal will be built with the capacity to handle five million passengers. The price tag of the project will amount to approximately 190 million Euros, although the exact expenses will be finalised within 180 days after the bid is officially accepted by the government. A further 29 million Euros will be invested after passenger traffic through the airport exceeds five million travellers.

The French offer was the only one received after a controversial year-long tender in 2011. Plans to build a new terminal at Zagreb Airport have been floating around for more than a decade. In 2011, Zagreb Airport handled 2.319.098 passengers, an increase of almost 12% on 2010.

B&H continues flight cancellations

B&H Airlines has today cancelled all of its scheduled departures from Sarajevo. They include two flights to Istanbul and its service to Zurich via Banja Luka. B&H will operate one single flight as its A319, which left Sarajevo for Istanbul on Thursday morning, will return on Friday evening. On Wednesday the government approved a cash injection to cover the carrier’s operational costs.

easyjet dumps Dortmund service

The low cost airline easyJet will suspend its flights from Dortmund to Zagreb from May 20, leaving the no frills carrier only with services from London Gatwick to the Croatian capital. The flights from Dortmund in western Germany operated twice per week over the winter and will increase to three weekly flights from March 25 until their suspension two months later. It follows a decision made by easyJet in December last year to terminate flights from Paris to both Zagreb and Ljubljana. Germany has the most flights and seat capacity out of Zagreb.

It will be the second time Zagreb has lost a link to Dortmund. Previously, in 2010, Wizz Air scheduled flights from Dortmund to Zagreb but cancelled the route. The news will be warmly welcomed by Croatia Airlines which has previously accused Zagreb Airport of giving special waivers to low cost airlines operating to the airport. It even threatened to suspend routes on which it competed with low cost airlines. In late 2010 Tonči Peović, the head of Zagreb Airport, told the press that he offered easyJet to operate flights to Zagreb out of six different cities, although the airline settled only for Paris and London and later introduced Dortmund. easyJet will maintain five weekly flights between London Gatwick and Zagreb over the coming summer.

Despite pulling out on the Dortmund - Zagreb service, easyJet will launch several seasonal flights to both Dubrovnik and Split. They include flights to Dubrovnik from Berlin, Madrid, Milan, Rome, Geneva, Paris and London as well as flights to Split from Amsterdam, Berlin, Bristol, Geneva, London, Milan, Paris and Rome.

Passenger numbers slide at Zagreb Airport

Zagreb Airport has recorded a second consecutive month of declining passenger numbers, on the back of a weaker performance by its main customer Croatia Airlines. While the passenger slump in December 2011 was only slight, standing at 0.2%, the gap widened in January when Zagreb handled 131.068 passengers. Therefore, the airport saw a decrease of 5.3% compared to last January when it welcomed 138.370 passengers. The number of flights operating to and from the Croatian capital increased marginally, by 0.4%, in the first month of 2012.

Other airports in Croatia also underperformed in January with numbers significantly down at Dubrovnik, which handled only 17.843 passengers, a decrease of 16.2% compared to last year making it its worst January performance since 2008. Full January results for all of Croatia’s airports will be published by the end of the month.

Zagreb Airport will hope to overturn its results soon. This summer, Croatia’s busiest airport will enjoy new seasonal summer services and charters by Croatia Airlines. The airport will also see Lufthansa inaugurate flights from Berlin while Qatar Airways introduces daily flights from Doha via Budapest.

Croatia Airlines launches new seasonal and summer flights

Croatia Airlines will launch new seasonal flights from Rijeka to Barcelona and Zadar to Frankfurt. The flights from Rijeka to Barcelona will launch on June 5, becoming Croatia Airlines’ second destination from the city. It will accompany the existing seasonal service to London Heathrow Airport. Flights to Barcelona will operate once per week with an Airbus A319 until October 23. Details can be found here. Croatia Airlines will also inaugurate flights from Zadar to Frankfurt on April 27. However, the Croatian carrier will have to compete on the line with Ryanair, although the no frills airline offers flights to the distant Hahn Airport. Flights to Frankfurt will run until the end of the summer season twice per week. All flight information can be found here.

After intense criticism from the airline’s pilots union for suspending summer charters in the past few years, the airline’s management has decided to resume them in 2012. Croatia Airlines plans to operate summer charters from Split to both Kristiansand and Kristiansund in Norway and Erfurt in Germany. Furthermore, the airline will also inaugurate charters from Zagreb and Osijek to Antalya in Turkey.

In 2011, Croatia Airlines saw record passenger numbers and is hoping to maintain the growth in 2012. However, in December the airline saw a surprising slump in passenger numbers. The carrier welcomed 98.800 passengers onboard, down 4.3% on December 2010. January 2012 results are yet to be announced.

Will the French build Zagreb’s dream terminal?

There is just over a month left for an expert commission to decide whether to award Aeroports de Paris a concession to run Zagreb Airport and build a new multi million Euro terminal. The French offer, the only one received after a controversial year-long tender in 2011, has the support of Tomislav Mihotić, the State Secretary for Infrastructure. He believes the offer is good and would benefit Croatia as it would pump millions into the local economy.

While details of the French bid have not been disclosed to the public it is believed that they have offered to build, in the first phase of the project, a terminal with the capacity to handle five million passengers, a major strong point of the bid. During the tender, the government requested for a terminal with a capacity to handle 3.5 passengers to be built in the first stage. The French have outlined their plans to make Zagreb a regional hub and believe strong passenger growth would be seen in the first few years since being granted the concession. As a result, they also believe Croatia Airlines would benefit since the airport would become transit point in South East Europe.

On the other hand there is also staunch opposition to the French offer and there have been calls for the entire tender procedure to be repeated. Recently, GMR Infrastructure, one of the ten tender bidders said, “We evaluated, then we decided not to go ahead. Looking at the project's economics, they were not working out". Some consortiums participating in the tender claimed it was mismanaged and that participants were misguided. During the tender process, bidders found out that the government had already chosen a design for the new terminal, despite not specifying so in the original tender documentation. Furthermore, the cost of the project was also reported to be too high for many of the bidders. This ultimately led the government to delay the final tender deadline three times.

EX-YU cities loose Budapest flights after Malev collapse

Following Malev’s demise on Friday, EX-YU cities have been left without direct air links to Hungary’s capital Budapest, which, amongst other things, attracted many transit passengers. None of the national carriers of the former Yugoslavia have attempted to introduce flights to Budapest and try to scoop stranded passengers. On Friday Lufthansa, easyJet, Wizz Air and Air Berlin were quick to react and increase frequencies while Ryanair announced over thirty new destinations to the Hungarian capital.

Malev had an extensive network in the former Yugoslavia operating flights to Belgrade, Priština, Podgorica, Sarajevo, Skopje and Zagreb. The Hungarian national carrier operated nine weekly flights to Belgrade. Recently, the airline had seen sliding passenger numbers on the route as more competition saw fewer transit passengers. The airline planed to reduce the service to one daily flight from the 2012 summer season. Malev operated two daily flights to Priština and thirteen weekly to Skopje, from which it saw numerous transit passengers. There were no plans to either increase or reduce flights over the coming summer. Sarajevo enjoyed daily flights and Podgorica six weekly while nearby Zagreb saw 18 weekly services between the two cities this winter. None of the former Yugoslav national carriers operate flights to the Hungarian capital and none have jumped at the opportunity to inaugurate services between the two cities since Malev’s demise. While the Hungarian low cost airline Wizz Air is based in Belgrade, it is unlikely it will be tempted to launch flights between the two cities as its aircraft are too big and inter Eastern European flights have proved unsuccessful for the airline in the past.

Officials at Budapest Airport, one of the biggest losers of Malev’s grounding, said it doubts the flights will ever be reinstated. "There are some estimates that over 20 or 23 routes of Malev will never be served by other airlines", airport spokesmen Mihaly Hardy said. It is believed that the Hungarian government will work to set up a new national carrier by the start of the 2012 summer season, which begins in over a month. It remains to be seen whether EX-YU destinations, on which Malev had a complete monopoly, will be resumed.

Flight delays and cancelations across EX-YU

UPDATED 21.00 CET

Snowstorms, fog and freezing weather have disrupted flight operations across the former Yugoslavia. Podgorica has been closed on and off for the past three days while Sarajevo Airport closed its doors this morning until 20.00 CET. In Belgrade meanwhile, the airport was evacuated when an anonymous call came that there was a bomb on board Air France's jet, which turned out to be false.

Both snow and fog are proving to be a problem at Sarajevo Airport. Sarajevo closed this morning with all departures cancelled for the day. Nearly all flights from Sarajevo were cancelled yesterday as well. Only early morning departures and B&H Airlines’ flights to Zurich and Istanbul were unaffected. Austrian was forced to divert its evening Sarajevo service to Belgrade. Operations resumed in the evening hours with Austrian, Jat and Croatia Airlines performing their flights as normal.

Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport saw short delays throughout the day however there was some panic after an anonymous phone caller said there was a bomb onboard an Air France jet which was being prepared for its return flight to Paris. The airport was forced to evacuate and the flight cancelled although no bomb was found. The caller, a 62 year old from Bor, was later arrested. He said he was “only having some fun”. It was later disclosed that the man in question is mentally challenged.

In Montenegro, most flights to and from Podgorica Airport have been cancelled for the last three days due to heavy snowfall. There is now a big backlog of passengers on the Podgorica - Belgrade - Podgorica service with both Montenegro Airlines and Jat Airways cancelling most flights between the two cities. The two airlines attempted to operate flights to Tivat yesterday but before making their descent into the coastal city were forced to turn back to Belgrade. In order to clear the backlog of passengers Jat planned to operate an early morning service to the Montenegrin capital at 4.40 today but has cancelled the flight.

In Skopje, Priština and Ljubljana, flights have been operating normally (other than those to Montenegro) although all with an average forty minute delay. Out of all the airports in the former Yugoslav region, Zagreb was operating most smoothly with nearly all flights taking off from the airport yesterday, registering only minor delays. Split Airport has been closed due to snow and extreme winds reaching up to 180 kilometres per hour.

All of Eastern Europe is grappling with a Siberian freeze which is spreading westwards. Freezing conditions, which have claimed hundreds of lives across the continent, are set to persist for days to come.

Priština overtakes Ljubljana as third busiest airport in the former Yugoslavia

Priština has finished 2011 as the third busiest airport in the former Yugoslavia, for the first time since it opened its doors in 1965. The dethroned Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport fell into fourth place with Dubrovnik Airport hot on its heels. A total of six airports managed to handle more than one million passengers.

Ljubljana Airport was affected by Adria Airways’ crisis last year and its significant reduction of flights, which were felt during the months of August, November and December. Since January the airport has recorded declining or break even numbers compared to those from 2010, with the exception of April when the airport saw significant growth. As a result, Slovenia’s capital city airport welcomed just under 1.370.000 passengers, a decrease of 1.3% compared to 2010. It should be taken into account that Ljubljana was closed for almost an entire month in 2010. Since 2008, when Ljubljana saw record traffic by handling 1.673.050 passengers, its figures have steadily decreased each year. Ljubljana Airport expects lower traffic volumes and revenue in 2012. Still, the airport says that Adria’s decline should be substituted by foreign airlines and charter flights this year.

Priština Airport handled 1.422.302 passengers, an increase of almost 9%. The three busiest airlines operating out of Priština were Edelweiss, Adria Airways and Belle Air. The most popular destinations out of the city were Zurich, Vienna and Dusseldorf. As has previously been reported, Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is well ahead of its competition and in 2011 strengthened its position as the busiest airport in the former Yugoslavia. Other notable achievements were recorded by Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Skopje, Ohrid and Tivat. Joining Ljubljana as the only EX-YU capital city airport to see its figures decline in 2011 was Podgorica.

Below you can review the number of handled passengers by the ten busiest airports in the former Yugoslavia in 2011:

Airport	Passengers 2011	Passengers 2010	Change (%)
Belgrade	3.124.633	2.698.730	▲ 15.8
Zagreb	2.319.098	2.071.561	▲ 11.9
Priština	1.422.302	1.305.532	▲ 8.9
Ljubljana	1.370.000	1.388.651	▼ 1.3
Dubrovnik	1.349.501	1.270.062	▲ 6.3
Split	1.300.381	1.219.741	▲ 8.1
Skopje	759.928	681.080	▲ 11.6
Tivat	647.169	542.000	▲ 19.4
Podgorica	611.666	651.478	▼ 6.1
Sarajevo	599.996	563.266	▲ 6.5

Spanair ceases all operations

At midnight Spanair, Spain’s second largest airline, ceased operations after the carrier failed to find a buyer. On Friday, Qatar Airways had walked away from talks to take over the money losing airline after months of negotiations. The government of Spain's Catalonia region is Spanair's main shareholder, while Spanair's former owner, Scandinavian airline SAS, still owns an 11.9% stake. However, the Catalan government says it can no longer finance the airline.

Spanair has ceased all operations, suspending with it scheduled flights to Belgrade and its planned seasonal summer service to Zagreb and Dubrovnik. During this winter season, Spanair operated three weekly flights between Barcelona and Belgrade and on Friday morning announced it would increase the service to four times per week during the summer. Furthermore, the airline has also operated seasonal flights from Madrid to the Serbian capital in the past. Zagreb Airport will also be at a loss as Spanair operated seasonal flights to the Croatian capital from its Barcelona base. Last summer, Spanair also operated flights from Barcelona and Madrid to Dubrovnik. As Star Alliance partners, Spanair and Croatia Airlines code shared on each others' flights.

As a result, Jat Airways is now likely to resume seasonal summer flights to Girona while Iberia and Vueling Airlines will be operating flights from several Spanish cities to Dubrovnik and Split. Croatia Airlines should resume seasonal summer flights from Zagreb to Barcelona.

Croatia Airlines unlikely to launch Zagreb - Belgrade

Despite Croatia Airlines’ CEO announcing last December that the carrier will operate seasonal flights between Zagreb and Belgrade in 2012 and a recent confirmation by the airline to the “Večernji list” daily, Croatia Airlines is now saying that no decision has been made in regards to the service. Croatia Airlines spokesperson Davor Janušić says, “We still haven’t made the decision to extend seasonal flights from Dubrovnik to Belgrade this year or to introduce any other new line between Croatia and Serbia”. It will come as bad news for all of those that hoped for flights between the two largest cities of the former Yugoslavia to resume after twenty one year. Last year Croatia Airlines competed against Jat Airways on the Dubrovnik - Belgrade - Dubrovnik service, with Jat managing slightly better figures than its rival. The route proved popular with Serbian tourists in 2011 with traditional holiday destinations like Tunisia and Egypt off limits. It remains to be seen whether the return of these markets in 2012 will impact the aforementioned route.

On the other hand, Jat Airways has no plans to resume flights to the Croatian capital. It maintains that the two cities are too close and are connected by efficient road infrastructure, rendering flights unnecessary. The airline will operate seasonal flights from Belgrade to Dubrovnik, Pula and Split in Croatia this summer. Tickets for all of the flights have gone on sale this week.

Zagreb and Belgrade were once connected by several flights per day. In 1989, which represented Yugoslav Airlines’ final year of normal operations (in 1990 the airline was hit by the breakup of the Eastern Bloc and a severe economic crisis within the country), Zagreb was JAT’s second hub. That summer season it operated nonstop international flights from Zagreb to Algiers, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Cairo, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, London, Lyon, Los Angeles (via Chicago), Madrid, Munich, Milan, Montreal, New York, Paris, Prague, Stuttgart, Toronto (via Montreal), Vienna and Zurich. Domestically, besides Belgrade, flights in 1989 operated to Dubrovnik, Split, Pula, Skopje, Zadar, Niš, Sarajevo and Mostar.

Soon in Zagreb

Qatar Airways has delivered on its promise from late last year and will launch flights from Doha to Zagreb on Wednesday, May 9. Services between the Qatari and Croatian capitals will operate every day via Budapest in neighbouring Hungary. The carrier does not have commercial rights on the Budapest - Zagreb - Budapest sectors. All flights will operate with an Airbus A320 with details available here.

The news will be warmly welcomed by Zagreb Airport management which will look to extend the commendable growth the airport has seen in 2011. Furthermore, the new service will allow passengers from Croatia to transit via Doha and connect onto Qatar Airways’ flights to Asia but also further afield to Melbourne and Perth.

The rapidly growing Qatar Airways has outlined it will launch up to fifteen new routes in 2012. Its CEO, Akbar Al Baker, recently said, “New routes and new aircraft are being introduced at an unprecedented rate to further strengthen what is truly a global network airline. Our mission has been to operate to key business and leisure destinations around the world, but also to underserved markets where others dare not venture into”. The “world’s five star airline” currently operates a network of 109 destinations.

Zagreb to Belgrade after 21 years

The CEO of Croatia Airlines, Srećko Šimunović, announced at a recent Star Alliance meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Abeba, that the national carrier will launch seasonal flights from Zagreb to Belgrade this summer. It will mark a resumption of services between the two cities after twenty one years. No flight details for the planned service were revealed. Last February, at a meeting between the Serbian and Croatian national carriers, it was initially arranged for Croatia Airlines to operate flights between the two capital cities, although little of the agreements made back then were carried through.

JAT Yugoslav Airlines operated its final service from Zagreb to Belgrade on August 6, 1991. There have been no revenue flights between the two cities since. Most flights were operated with the DC9s although due to the amount of frequencies and connecting services, the flights also saw B727s, B737s and DC10s. During the 1980s, the Belgrade - Zagreb - Belgrade service was the airline’s second busiest, trailing behind the Belgrade - Dubrovnik - Belgrade flights.

If all plans are carried through, Belgrade will be served from four cities in Croatia - Zagreb (Croatia Airlines), Dubrovnik (Jat/Croatia Airlines), Split (Jat) and Pula (Jat) this summer season, all of which will be operated on a seasonal basis. Meanwhile, Croatia Airlines has suspended plans to launch new services from Dubrovnik to Munich. They were scheduled to be launched on April 16, two times per week.

Croatia Airline expands into Eastern Europe

The CEO of Croatia Airlines, Srećko Šimunović, has said that the national carrier plans to expand its services into Eastern Europe by 2014. As has previously been reported, Croatia Airlines will inaugurate flights to Moscow this summer season. In 2014 the airline will be launching flights to Sofia and St. Petersburg, which should coincide with the arrival of new aircraft. Although the first of four ordered Airbus A319s are set to begin arriving from 2013 through to 2014, there are indications that the arrivals could be pushed back until 2015 and 2016.

Despite frequency increases throughout the network over the summer and the introduction of flights to Moscow, plans are also being made for the carrier to suspend several loss making routes. The action is needed in order for Croatia Airlines to reach its goal of operating with a profit in 2012. Last year showed encouraging trends as the airline managed to slash its losses.

Croatia Airlines has also made an announcement that it will resume its seasonal summer flights from Dubrovnik to Belgrade, launched last year. It will once again compete against Jat Airways on the route. On its new Zagreb to Moscow service, Croatia Airlines will face competition from Aeroflot.

Passenger plunge at Dubrovnik Airport

Despite a record breaking year for most Croatian airports, growth somewhat slowed in November compared to the same month last year. The number of passengers using Croatia’s main airports decreased by half of a percent compared to the same month last year.

Zagreb Airport, which launched a new look website earlier this week, continued to report positive figures by handling 156.755 passengers, up 3.2%. Overall, growth this year has amounted to 8% with 2.083.366 passengers passing through its doors. In November, Zagreb was joined by Split, Rijeka and Mali Lošinj as the other airports also to record growth. In Rijeka it amounted to 753% with the airport handling 111 passengers (up from 13 last year), while growth at Mali Lošinj reached 304% with 97 passenger welcomed.

On the other hand, Dubrovnik saw disappointing results. The coastal airport handled 26.007 passengers, down 20.3% on last year. Numbers were also down in Pula which saw only 1.051 passengers.

Below you can review the performance of Croatia’s airports in November 2011. Overall, Croatian airports handled 212.410 passengers, a decrease of 0.5% compared to November 2010. The statistics have been provided by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics.

Airport	Passengers NOV 2011	Passengers NOV 2010	Change (%)
Zagreb	156.755	151.908	▲ 3.2
Dubrovnik	26.007	32.626	▼ 20.3
Pula	1.051	1.201	▼ 12.5
Split	26.666	25.905	▲ 2.9
Zadar	1.657	1.672	▼ 0.9
Osijek	66	130	▼ 49.2
Rijeka	111	13	▲ 753.9
Mali Lošinj	97	24	▲ 304.2