written by: Dražen Katalinić
At the end of last week, a direct air route Zagreb – Beijing was established, via Bucharest, connecting the capital of Croatia directly with another distant, transoceanic destination, alongside Toronto and Montreal. With a total of three long-haul destinations, Zagreb falls into the so-called third league of airports along with the airports in Belgrade, Tirana, and Ljubljana, which are mainly composed of airports in the region and neighboring areas.
In comparison to the rest of Europe, Belgrade, Zagreb, and Tirana fall into the category of smaller to medium-sized European airports based on the number of long-haul transoceanic destinations.
Belgrade is the clear leader with its six year-round long routes, effectively “skipping” its category and having more distant destinations than significantly larger capitals such as Sofia, Budapest, Prague, or Bucharest, which in 2026 have only a few or no regular transoceanic routes operated by domestic carriers and mainly rely on foreign Asian companies.
Belgrade Airport is thus connected to New York, Chicago, Toronto (route introduced this year), Shanghai, and Tianjin, and has developed into the main regional hub for long-haul flights thanks to the wide-body fleet of the national carrier Air Serbia.
As for the other airports in the region, the capital of Albania is connected to only one long-haul destination, Toronto, and only during the warmer part of the year, but the airport in Tirana is experiencing explosive traffic growth as its flight network primarily relies on European low-cost carriers.
Zagreb has an advantage in connections with major European hubs
Ljubljana, on the other hand, is not connected to any distant transoceanic destination, but is excellently connected to major European hubs, such as Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, and Istanbul, through which passengers undertake long journeys, with the longest flights from Ljubljana heading towards the Middle East.
Zagreb is significantly better connected to major European hubs than Ljubljana as it has more daily flights to the largest European airports and functions as a much larger and more stable entry point for network (legacy) carriers, making it significantly easier and cheaper for passengers from Zagreb to “connect” connecting flights to distant destinations. Additionally, a significant advantage for Zagreb comes from Croatia Airlines’ membership in the Star Alliance, which is based in Zagreb and closely collaborates with the German Lufthansa.
This allows Zagreb to have 4-5 daily flights to Frankfurt and Munich, covering all waves of transoceanic departures. Ljubljana, on the other hand, lost its domestic support with the loss of Adria Airways and is completely dependent on aircraft from foreign companies. Research and passenger trends in 2026 show that flights through major hubs from Zagreb are often hundreds of euros cheaper than from Ljubljana, which is why a large number of passengers from Slovenia use organized shuttle services to the airport in Zagreb, which, alongside strong traditional carriers, also has a large base of low-cost Ryanair. Although Ljubljana has strengthened its connections with cities like Barcelona, Madrid, and Manchester this year, the frequency of flights still favors Zagreb.
Although the newly established year-round line to Beijing and seasonal lines to Canada will place Zagreb significantly ahead of its direct neighbors in the region – Ljubljana, Sarajevo, Skopje, and Podgorica, which have no transoceanic routes, Zagreb still remains in the aforementioned third league of airports with a small number of distant destinations.
The first league consists of European mega-hubs such as London, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, and Madrid, which have between 50 and over 100 direct distant destinations connecting Europe with all continents on a daily basis. The second league consists of medium-sized capitals, and this group includes wealthier metropolises or cities with strong national carriers that have between 10 and 30 distant destinations, such as Vienna, Brussels, Warsaw, Copenhagen, Rome, and Athens.
Why Zagreb does not have more long-haul flights
There are several reasons why Zagreb and the neighboring airports do not have a larger number of transoceanic flights, with the most significant being the lack of passengers in business class, as the decision to introduce flights is not made by the airports themselves, but by airlines, which are guided solely by the mathematics of profitability.
Companies like Lufthansa, British Airways, or Air France generate the majority of their profits on transoceanic flights precisely from the sale of tickets in business and first class, which are purchased by corporate clients. On the other hand, our region (Croatia, Slovenia, BiH, Serbia) is primarily a tourist market and a diaspora market, and such passengers buy the cheapest tickets in economy class; an airplane can be completely full of tourists, but the company can still lose money on it if the business class is not filled.
Furthermore, tourist demand for our region explodes in the summer but drastically falls in the winter, and a transoceanic aircraft like the Airbus A350 or Boeing 787 costs hundreds of millions of euros and only generates profit when it flies constantly, so it is not profitable for companies to open routes that will only be profitable from June to September.
Additionally, the airports in the region have been “sucked in” by European mega-hubs. For a transoceanic route to function, the airport must be a hub where smaller planes from surrounding countries land and fill that large transoceanic aircraft, which is not the case with Zagreb, while Air Serbia in Belgrade has managed to create that model as it has a fleet of smaller aircraft that bring passengers from Sarajevo, Skopje, Tirana, Athens, and Podgorica to fill flights to New York, Chicago, or China. Finally, it should be noted that Dubrovnik is the only airport in Croatia that currently maintains a direct seasonal line to New York.
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