After Air Transat announced it would be running between Toronto and Zagreb next year, Air Canada has suspended ticket sales for the same route next summer. The airline was meant to re-establish flights in June. Recall, Air Canada was meant to take over the Air Canada Rouge Zagreb service, after all wide-body aircraft was axed due to the pandemic, reports Ex Yu Aviation.
The Air Canada route was to run from June 2, 2022, three times a week, with 54 flights and 32,076 seats between the two cities. The route would have been serviced with the 297-seat Airbus A330-300 aircraft.
Air Canada will, however, run summer flights to many cities around Europe – Athens, Barcelona, Edinburgh, Lisbon, Manchester, Nice, Reykjavik, Rome, and Venice, with Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, London, Lyon, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris, Vienna, and Zurich running year-round.
Fortunately, Air Canada can still get passengers to Zagreb with a connection in Amsterdam
“It is no secret the resumption of medium and long haul flights primarily depend on travel restriction imposed by different countries. Zagreb Airport had a notable number of passengers from the Far East, Australia, and North America. The return of these flights will depend on border restrictions. We expect the gradual resumption of these services between 2022 and 2025,” said Zagreb Airport’s General Manager, Huseyin Bahadir Bedir.
Canadian leisure airline Air Transat announced earlier this week it would reintroduce the seasonal route between Toronto and Zagreb when announcing next summer’s flight schedule. Zagreb is among the 44 international destinations in its network, reported Croatian Aviation.
The airline plans to operate to almost all destinations as before the global pandemic, adding new ones, mainly in the United States, with 13 international routes to Europe, including to Zagreb.
The first flight from Toronto to Zagreb has been announced for Saturday, May 7, 2022. A month later, from June 7, the second weekly flight with departure from Toronto on Tuesday will be introduced. Two-weekly flights are currently announced until the end of the next summer season – October 29, 2022.
A330-200 aircraft have been announced for the Toronto-Zagreb route, with a capacity of 332 to 345 seats. Thus, Air Transat will offer more than 31 thousand seats between Toronto and Zagreb next summer.
It is no surprise that the Canadian market is important for Croatia. In 2019, Air Transat and Air Canada Rouge handled 65,486 passengers, or a 14.6% increase on 2018.
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