The latest news from around Croatia’s airports, for new flights to Croatia with updates from Air Serbia.
The Serbian national air carrier, Air Serbia, added two more Croatian cities – Zadar and Rijeka – to their summer network of destinations. Zadar will be seasonally connected with Belgrade, while the Serbian capital will be connected with Rijeka throughout the year, reports Večernji List on January 27, 2019.
Air Serbia has already operated seasonal flights from Belgrade to Dubrovnik, Split and Pula, while the airline flies to Zagreb throughout the year. This summer, however, the Serbian airline will cover Croatia’s entire Adriatic coast, plus Zagreb, with its new flight announcements.
Airline expert Alen Šćuric revealed that Air Serbia will have 31 flights per week to Croatia on the summer flight schedule, which is 4.5 flights a day, while they will run 12 flights a week in the off-season. The airline will offer about 165,000 seats annually, in both directions, on their total flights to Croatia, said Šćuric.
“This means that around 1.5 percent of all Croatian air passengers will travel through Belgrade,” says Šćuric. Though Croatia’s tourists may find that these lines are primarily used to bring Serbian tourists to the Adriatic, Šćuric believes that 70 percent of those passengers will travel across Belgrade to other destinations where Air Serbia operates.
On the other hand, the Croatian national carrier Croatia Airlines has only one line for Serbia and Belgrade from Split in the summer, where it offers a total of 5800 seats. And it will stay that way for now. Croatia Airlines said that Belgrade has been part of the regular evaluation of the company’s network planning department for a long time, but also that the new lines introduced in the last three years showed a higher demand, and accordingly gained advantage when opening new routes.
Croatia Airlines reminds that in the last three years they have expanded their network of international flights by introducing 10 new destinations, or 12 new lines. So in 2016, direct flights from Zagreb to Lisbon, Milan, Prague and St. Petersburg were introduced, and in 2017, flights from Zagreb to Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki and Bucharest.
Last year, Croatia Airines introduced flights from Zagreb to Dublin and Mostar, as well as seasonal lines Split – Copenhagen and Dubrovnik – Munich. The Croatian airline says they will fly on all these routes during this year’s tourist season. Croatia Airlines does not plan on expanding the European destinations network this year, because, as alleged, there are restrictions on the fleet capacity available, consisting of 12 of their own aircraft and two aircraft to be rented for the tourist season.
To take any step forward in opening new lines, Croatia Airlines would need additional aircraft, and it is precisely in the National Program of Government Reform that the expansion of the network of flights and the increase in market share require a recapitalization of the company, said Croatia Airlines.
Croatian Airlines will fly to a total of 39 destinations in 24 countries in regular passenger traffic this tourist season. Air Serbia will introduce nine new lines this year, with seven year-round and two seasonal. They will fly to 49 destinations total this year.
Last year, Croatia Airlines carried a total of 2.16 million passengers, and Air Serbia, with a fleet of 21 aircraft, carried 2.6 million.
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