Croatia Airlines Removes 14 Summer Routes in 2021

Ex Yu Aviation reports that just two weeks away from the start of the summer flight schedule, Croatia Airlines removed flights from Zagreb to Barcelona, Bucharest, Dublin, Helsinki, Lisbon, Milan, Mostar, Oslo, Prague, St Petersburg, Stockholm, and Tel Aviv, all of which operated in the 2019 summer schedule, as well as services between Dubrovnik – Dusseldorf, and Split – Belgrade.

The aviation portal reveals that bookings should not really pick up until later this spring, even though a better season is expected in Croatia this year.

“We have drafted several scenarios for the summer season, but considering the circumstances, which are changing on a daily basis, we will completely optimise our timetable in accordance to existing conditions and demand. We anticipate a better tourist season compared to 2020, but the question is when exactly it will start. It is already apparent it will not begin at the start of the 2021 summer flight season but rather in mid-May or early June. In line with those circumstances, we will optimise our capacity and will have to undertake a permanent optimisation process,” said the head of Croatia Airlines’ Commercial Division, Slaven Žabo, at the Aviation Arena summit.

“Unfortunately, we cannot talk about the post-Covid strategy for this summer because the coronavirus pandemic is still having a significant impact on aviation, primarily because of entry restrictions at border crossings within the European Union. Under normal circumstances we would already be taking bookings for the summer season and selling our capacity, however, these bookings are completely lacking this year. Already in February we saw a significant impact on bookings for the summer. We expect that late bookings will come, and we are ready for them at Croatia Airlines. However, it is questionable whether those late booking will be able to substitute the lack of bookings we are seeing now. It is obvious that the expected increase in demand at the start of the summer season, which coincides with the Easter holidays this year, is completely absent and we were forced to modify our planned timetable for this period,” Žabo said about reduced summer bookings thus far.

Further changes in the summer flight schedule are possible, considering demand and the endlessly evolving COVID-19 regulations in place.

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