Croatia Airlines put tickets on sale for flights between Zagreb and Mostar yesterday with the inaugural service scheduled for May 3. The carrier is anticipating improved loads on the route compared to when it previously maintained operations between the two cities.
As previously reported by EX-YU Aviation News, flights will run three times per week with a split schedule, enabling better connectivity for travellers originating from Mostar to transfer onto Croatian Airlines’ Europe-bound fights via Zagreb. The route will be maintained with the 76-seat Dash 8 turboprop aircraft. The financial viability of the route has been secured through a subsidy by the City of Mostar of just over half a million euros for this year.
Croatia Airlines last operated services between the two cities from May 2018 until the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. Back then, flights were maintained twice per week. However, at the time, Mostar Airport conceded there was low demand for the service, which was also subsidised. The Croatian carrier has now tweaked its schedule compared to several years ago, enabling travellers originating from Mostar to connect onto the airline’s flights from Zagreb to Vienna, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Paris, Frankfurt and Zurich within two and a half hours of landing. The schedule represents an improvement on the airline’s previous attempt at its Mostar flights which missed most of its Europe-bound connections.
Flights between Zagreb and Mostar have been maintained on and off for two decades. Prior to its service from 2018, Croatia Airlines flew to Mostar in 2003. In January 2006, the now defunct B&H Airlines launched three weekly flights between the two cities with its ATR72 turboprop aircraft. The service was codeshared by Croatia Airlines. However, the route was short-lived, and flights were terminated at the end of the 2006 summer season, after the Croatian carrier pulled out of its arrangement with B&H Airlines.
At the time, B&H cited poor loads for the route’s termination. In 2015, start-up carrier Air Croatia announced plans to launch flights between the two cities and put tickets on sale. However, the airline collapsed prior to the planned launch. It was to run the service three times per week with a 52-seat ATR42 turboprop. Mostar becomes Croatia Airlines’ second destination in Bosnia and Herzegovina after Sarajevo.
The airline runs thirteen weekly flights between Zagreb and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital. It handled 33.762 passengers on the route last year.
