Croatia Airlines has over the past week suspended ticket sales on select flights scheduled to operate from Zagreb to Sarajevo and Skopje during the upcoming winter season, which begins on October 25. The preliminary changes have seen the airline zero out a number of weekly services in its booking system, meaning the flights remain visible in the reservation system but cannot be booked. Under the revisions, services to Sarajevo have been reduced from the initially planned two daily flights to a single daily service.
Flights to Skopje have been cut from the originally scheduled eleven weekly rotations to four per week. The carrier has removed all evening departures from Zagreb, as well as the corresponding early morning return flights from Skopje. These services typically involved Croatia Airlines aircraft overnighting in the Macedonian capital, or remaining on the ground there for just over six hours.
Both Sarajevo and Skopje have seen sustained frequency reductions in recent months. However, with more than five months remaining until the start of the winter season, the changes should be viewed as preliminary and remain subject to further revision.
Croatia Airlines’ management met with officials from Sarajevo Airport just ten days ago. The talks were “focused on further strengthening cooperation, enhancing operational and commercial activities, and exchanging insights on the current challenges facing the aviation industry”, according to Sarajevo Airport.
The Croatia Airlines delegation was led by President and CEO Jasmin Bajić, the carrier’s Chief Commercial Officer, the Head of Croatia Airlines in Sarajevo, Croatia’s State Secretary for Road Transport, Road Infrastructure and Inspection and Civil Aviation, as well as the President of record label Croatia Records. Sarajevo Airport noted, “The meeting provided an opportunity to present new development plans while underlining the importance of the long-standing, stable and successful partnership between Sarajevo Airport and Croatia Airlines. Particular emphasis was placed on Croatia Airlines’ historic role as the first airline to launch services between Zagreb and Sarajevo in 1996, immediately after Sarajevo Airport reopened, helping reconnect the city with Europe and the wider world”. The two will mark thirty years of service and cooperation this September.
