Air Canada will commence operations between Toronto and Zagreb starting June 2, 2022. The carrier will replace its leisure operator Air Canada Rouge on the route, which no longer has wide-body aircraft in its fleet. The service will operate three times per week, departing Canada’s largest city each Monday, Thursday and Saturday, while its return is scheduled for the following day. The flights will be maintained by the 297-seat Airbus A330-300 aircraft, which features 32 seats in business (signature) class, 24 in premium economy and the remaining 241 in the standard economy cabin. The Canadian carrier is in the process of retrofitting its A330s with new seats, mirroring those on its Dreamliner fleet.
Air Canada will compete directly against Air Transat on the route, which will resume its seasonal Zagreb service on May 29, 2022 with the 332-seat A330-200 jet. Canada’s national carrier was to acquire its leisure rival, but the deal fell through this April after the European Commission refused to give its approval, citing competition concerns. There have been no flights between Toronto and Zagreb since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with the last scheduled service between the two cities operating in October 2019.
The Croatia - Canada market is large, comprising of a mix of leisure passengers, as well as those visiting friends and family. The flights have been successful for both Air Canada Rouge and Air Transat. In 2019 they jointly handled 65.486 passengers, a 14.6% increase on the year before. That same year, the number of indirect passengers flying between Croatia and Canada stood at 71.254. Despite there being seasonal nonstop flights between Zagreb and Toronto, the route also had the largest number of indirect passengers, based on OAG data. It was followed by Split - Toronto. In 2019, Air Transat planned to operate the route once per week between June and September, however, cancelled the service a few months prior to its launch due to “commercial reasons”. An A330-200 jet was to be deployed on the route.
Indirect traffic on Croatia - Canada citypairs in 2019
S: Aviation News
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