Ryanair yesterday announced plans for a major expansion out of Zagreb, the Croatian capital. The news comes on the same day the airline opened its base in Zagreb for the very first time.
Opens Zagreb base and announces more routes
Ryanair yesterday (23rd July 2021) opened a new base at Zagreb Airport. The low-cost carrier launched flights to Gothenburg, Rome Ciampino and London Stansted via its subsidiary airline, Lauda Europe.
One Lauda Airbus A320 is already based at Zagreb Airport to operate flights to the aforementioned destinations as well as to Sofia, Bulgaria starting in August 2021. Ryanair will deploy a second Airbus A320 in early September that will help the airline to launch a further nine routes.
Nine new routes
To celebrate the opening of its Zagreb Lauda base, Ryanair hyped up the attention of the national and regional media by announcing nine new routes that will start in December 2021.
The new destinations, launching between 1st and 17th December, are:
- Malta
- Naples
- Malaga
- Manchester
- Paphos
- Thessaloniki
- Dublin
- Eindhoven
- Basel (Mulhouse-Freiburg)
All of these year-round routes will be operated by Lauda Europe’s Airbus A320 aircraft.
Every single one of these new routes is a brand new route for Zagreb Airport with the exception of Dublin, where Ryanair will compete directly with Croatia Airlines for the very first time.
What’s interesting is that with the addition of these nine new routes, Ryanair now has a greater network out of Zagreb than Croatia’s national airline, Croatia Airlines.
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Ryanair rapidly expanding in Zagreb
Up until now and before yesterday’s expansion, Ryanair had announced 16 brand new routes from Zagreb Airport. Two launched earlier this summer: Milan Bergamo and Brussels Charleroi.
As aforementioned, three of these routes started yesterday: Gothenburg, Rome Ciampino and London Stansted. A brand-new route to Sofia will start on 3rd August 2021.
In September, a second Lauda Europe Airbus A320 will be based in Zagreb and nine more routes will be launched between 1st and 4th September. These are:
- Oslo Sandefjord
- Karlsruhe / Baden Baden
- Paris Beauvais
- Memmingem
- Frankfurt Hahn
- Dortmund
- Podgorica
- Malmo
- Düsseldorf Weeze
Featured image by Bloomberg
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