Company insight Beat the traffic
Hüseyin Bahadir Bedir, CEO of International Airport Zagreb, explains the airport’s traffic recovery strategy and how it handled its busiest summer to date.
We are at the beginning of winter timetable 2022–23, what are the results of summer 2022? Is Zagreb returning to traffic levels before the pandemic?
Hüseyin Bahadir Bedir: Zagreb Airport has been recording a trend of gradual traffic recovery since the beginning of 2022. While the first months of 2022 recorded 70–80% of 2019 level, summer months reached 90% recovery rate, with 95% having been reached in September. We recorded the two millionth passenger in 2022 by the early days of September, and if the epidemiological situation remains stable, we expect more than three million passengers, which is twice as many as 2021.
We witnessed a significant increase in demand for flights this summer after the pandemic period. How did it affect traffic in Zagreb? Croatia is a well-known and popular tourist destination. In addition to airports located on the coast, Zagreb as the capital of the Republic of Croatia is a popular city break destination. We can say that Zagreb Airport has responded to the demands of the market and, this summer, Zagreb Airport had the largest number of destinations in regular traffic in its history. Zagreb was connected to 60 destinations operated by 22 airlines – six destinations in domestic traffic and 54 destinations in international traffic in a total of 30 countries.
Ryanair’s subsidiary Lauda has a fast-growing base at Zagreb Airport.
Finnair started Helsinki to Zagreb flights in S22. Qatar Airways, Fly Dubai, Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa have also contributed to gradual traffic recovery at Zagreb airport. Also, the majority of airlines contributed to the traffic recovery, gradually increasing their flight frequencies and seat capacities compared with pre-pandemic levels, including Air France, KLM, Turkish Airlines, LOT and British Airways. During the peak season, Air France doubled its capacity by introducing the second daily flight on their regular route between Zagreb and Paris. KLM has been increasing its capacity since the beginning of 2021. Turkish Airlines maintained 14 weekly flights between Zagreb and Istanbul, which is the same number of flights it had during
“This summer, Zagreb Airport had the largest number of destinations in regular traffic in its history.”
That’s great. Can you tell us which airlines the mostly contributed to the traffic recovery? Significant number of airlines have returned after the pandemic: Aegean Airlines between Zagreb and Athens, Sun d’Or between Zagreb and Tel Aviv, Air Transat between Zagreb and Toronto are some of the resumptions in 2022. Moreover,
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summer season of 2019. Polish LOT had 14 weekly flights connecting Zagreb and Warsaw during summer, which is the same number of flights it had before the pandemic. Due to their operational difficulties, and despite having announced they will double the number of their flights, British Airways operated between six and ten flights a week, which is also an increase
when compared with pre-pandemic period, when they ran seven weekly flights on the Zagreb to London (Heathrow) route. Croatia Airlines connects Zagreb with the largest European hubs throughout the year, as well as Ryanair, which during 2021, had the biggest expansion compared to all other airlines operating at Zagreb Airport. During this period, Ryanair has based three of their aircraft in Zagreb, opened 27 new lines with over 70 weekly departures from Zagreb, offering a large selection of popular destinations at favourable prices.
Have you had problems with staff and crowds during the summer season, as we have seen in many European airports?
Zagreb Airport did not have major problems due to lack of staff because we have been well prepared for the season and expected traffic increase. Namely, during the pandemic we tried to save every job position and there were no layoffs. However, the problems that occurred in many airports in Europe during summer, were reflected in Zagreb in the form of delays and problems with lost luggage. However, we put in effort to offer the best possible service to all our passengers. ●
www.zagreb-airport.hr 29
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