Zagreb Airport on track for near-full recovery
Zagreb Airport welcomed 485.286 passengers during the first quarter of the year, down just 19.8% on the pre-pandemic 2019 and an improvement of 0.2% on 2020, during which the coronavirus pandemic hit in March. The figures come on the back of Ryanair, which opened a base in the Croatian capital last summer and operated over twenty routes during the first quarter of the year. In addition, foreign carriers have also increased frequencies to Zagreb. The airport’s passenger figures this March were at 84.2% of its pre-pandemic performance, giving hope of a potential full recovery this year.
This summer season, Croatia Airlines remains Zagreb Airport’s largest, with over one million seats on sale until the end of October. It is followed by Ryanair with over 850.000 seats. Over the summer, Zagreb Airport will be linked to sixty destinations in thirty countries. These include six domestic and 54 international points. A total of 22 carriers will maintain operations to the Croatian capital. This summer will also mark the resumption of Lufthansa’s service from Munich, Air Transat’s from Toronto and Norwegian Air Shuttle’s from Copenhagen, although the latter discontinued its flights to Zagreb prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, Finnair will introduce new seasonal services from Helsinki.
Commenting on its outlook for this year, Zagreb Airport said, “After a period of great decline and traffic stagnation, caused by the coronavirus pandemic, today, Zagreb Airport is recording a slight, gradual traffic recovery. We believe that the recently launched summer timetable will deliver a resurgence, despite traffic having not yet reached levels prior to the pandemic. We believe that fresh growth in these current, challenging circumstances is ahead of us”. Zagreb Airport registered its busiest year in 2019 when it handled 3.435.531 passengers through its doors and recorded 45.061 aircraft movements.
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