Croatia Airlines winter 2008/09 Mass reduction of service from Split

On October 25, 2008 Croatia Airlines, the national airline of Croatia will begin with its winter schedule. As usual for this time of the year Croatia Airlines will be decreasing its regular frequencies however there are a few surprises.

Regionally Croatia Airlines is increasing its 3 weekly flights to Priština to 4 times a week. Flights OU310 will be operated 3 times a week by an Airbus A319 and once by an Airbus A320. Flights from Zagreb to Sarajevo will decrease from 18 weekly flights to 14 with the ATR42 completely removed from the line. Flights to Skopje will decrease only by one to daily flights using the Airbus A319. Other regional destinations will remain with the same number of flights although the ATR42 will be removed from the Podgorica line and replaced with the Dash 400.

Croatia Airlines is cancelling its services from Zagreb to Tel Aviv while it will also see large reductions of services from Split, Pula and Dubrovnik. From Dubrovnik, Croatia Airlines is ending flights to Amsterdam, Dusseldorf (only a seasonal destination), London-Gatwick, Paris, Tel Aviv and Zurich while it will keep flights Dubrovnik-Rome and Dubrovnik-Frankfurt. Similarly, Split will see a major reduction of destinations with flights to Amsterdam, Brussels, Dusseldorf, London-Gatwick, London-Heathrow, Lyon, Munich, Paris, Vienna and Zurich all edning while flights to Frankfurt will be operated on a daily basis and Rome will be operated 5 times per week. The big withdrawal of services from Croatian airports (outside of Zagreb) continue with flight to Amsterdam and London-Gatwick also cut from the schedule from Pula leaving the city only with flights to Zagreb, Zadar and Zurich operated by Croatian Airlines.

Any related updates will be posted. Any question our readers might have regarding the new schedule can be posted by using the “comments” option or contacting us using our e-mail address. Soon B&H Airlines’ 2008/09 winter schedule will be published on the blog.

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Croatian aviation booms

In the first half of the year Croatian airliners have transported over 1 million passenger while both international and domestic airlines have transported over 2 million passengers in Croatia, a record for the country as the tourism industry continues to grow and the standard of living continues to increase. According to data from the Croatian agency of statistics, local Croatian airliners have transported nearly 1.03 million passengers (both domestic and international traffic included), which is a 7.1% increase compared to last year’s result. When including both local and international airlines the number of transported passengers rises to 2.08 million, a 9% increase compared to the same time last year. This only includes passengers that have either boarded or disembarked from scheduled international and domestic destinations by all airlines from or to Croatia.

In the Croatian domestic air market 456.000 passengers were transported, a large increase of 18.8% compared to last year. In the first half of the year 32.000 arrivals and departures were operated by foreign airlines, a 3.6% increase. The number of transported cargo has also significantly increased – by 10%. The large increase in passenger numbers can be largely thanked to the national airline which has introduced new lines, particularly in the region as well as the fact that more people are travelling due to an increase in living standards.

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Aircraft collision at Split

At Split International Airport in Croatia a Russian Tupolev airplane has collided with the tail of an Italian Airbus while entering the airports platform yesterday (as pictured above).The passengers and crew of both planes were unharmed, the Croatian Ministry of Transportation said. The Russian Tu-204 hit the horizontal stabilizer of the Italian jet, and broke it. The Russian plane had 180 passengers and 10 crew members on board, while the Airbus was occupied by 93 passengers and six crew members. The Italian plane will remain in Split until it has been repaired, while the Russian plane will fly to Moscow, pending the approval of Russian and Croatian aviation authorities. Investigation is underway, and the Italian authorities will be duly informed, reports said.

Split is located on the Adriatic Sea in the South of Croatia. The number of passengers passing through Split has increased this year compared to last although this year’s growth was lower then expected. The airport experiences its peek annual traffic in June, July and particularly August due to high tourist numbers and organised charters. The two airlines involved in the collision were a Russian charter airline and the Catania based Wind Jet from Italy.

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