EasyJet Announces Flights from Zagreb to London and Paris

At today’s press conference, the low-cost airline EasyJet announced the inclusion of Zagreb Airport on the list of 121 airports connected by a total of 189 aircraft on 521 routes.

As highlighted by Peter Voets, EasyJet’s marketing manager for Switzerland, Austria, and Eastern Europe, during its 15 years of operation, EasyJet connected Split with seasonal routes to Europe four years ago, and since last year, Dubrovnik with a total of 18 destinations. Starting from early November 2010, Zagreb will be connected to Paris four times a week via Charles de Gaulle Airport, and to London five times a week, starting from February 11, 2011. During the first year, there will be a promotional price of €31.99 (including airport taxes and other fees) for both routes, and online ticket sales for these routes begin today.

– Although Zagreb is connected to Paris and London by traditional air routes, our goal is not to take passengers away, but to create new travelers who have not used air transport until now through the affordability of our services. During the first year, we plan to transport 65,000 passengers on the Zagreb-London route and 55,000 passengers on the Zagreb-Paris route, thereby gaining 31% and 28% market share on these destinations, said Peter Voets.  The State Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Željko Lenart, welcoming EasyJet’s arrival from the perspective of bringing foreign tourists to Croatia, stated that last year the Ministry allocated €4.7 million to subsidize carriers and agencies with €20 per transported passenger for this purpose, while for this year it plans to spend €7.8 million for the same purpose, for which 115 requests have already been received from tourism entities.

Last year, this funding subsidized the arrival of 360,000 foreign guests, said Lenart, and for this year the plan is to increase it by 62%, that is, to 580,000 passengers. However, neither among last year’s nor this year’s beneficiaries of these funds has there been EasyJet, which does not mean that they will not now appear with their subsidy request. Therefore, added Lenart, EasyJet’s promotional prices for flights to Paris and London do not have a basis in state support, but are part of EasyJet’s strategic decision.

Speaking about EasyJet’s business results and references, Peter Voets stated that with 47 million transported passengers in the last 12 months, this low-cost carrier ranks fourth in size in Europe. Thanks to continuous investment in fleet renewal of 189 aircraft, mainly Airbus 319, 320, and 321, and Boeing 737, with an average age of 3.4 years, EasyJet achieves savings of 25% in fuel consumption compared to traditional carriers, and has reduced CO2 emissions by as much as 27% compared to them. Due to unforeseen circumstances such as an exceptionally snowy winter and subsequent flight suspensions due to volcanic ash clouds, EasyJet suffered losses between £50 million and £75 million, but due to fuel savings effects, the company still plans to end the year, barring any new unforeseen circumstances or sudden spikes in fuel prices, with a profit between £100 million and £150 million.

Such plans are supported by data from the first half of this year, when despite the aforementioned unforeseen circumstances, the number of transported EasyJet passengers increased by 10.6%, the load factor increased by 2.1%, and the market share rose from 6.5% to 7.6%.  Since in Croatia, said Voets, the share of low-cost carriers in total air transport is only 15%, EasyJet believes that this is a sign that there is a lot of room to increase not only that ratio in favor of low-cost carriers, but also that the arrival in Zagreb, as a key destination for the entire network of seasonal flights in Southeast Europe, is a new challenge for attracting new passengers who have so far been averse to air transport. (Mladen Volarić)