Eurowings, which is part of the Lufthansa Group, has big plans for Croatia in the next four years, and the country is registering the biggest growth rates in our network, Eurowings regional manager Markus Leopold told a news conference, announcing an increase in the company's market share in Croatia as well as in Europe, where, he said, it was the fastest growing company and the third low-cost airline.
In 2016 Eurowings transported 24 million passengers, 26% more than in 2015, Leopold said, adding that the airline operated 200 planes and that in 2018 it planned to increase the total number of passengers to 35 million and employ 3,000 new workers.
The Zagreb news conference was held ahead of today's inaugural flight connecting Zagreb and Duesseldorf, which will be a year-round service, as will flights connecting Rijeka and Cologne and Pula and Duesseldorf, to start in the first days of November.
This will make Eurowings one of the few companies operating year-round flights to and from Croatia.
Eurowings destination development manager Ivan Orec said that the demand for Eurowings services was high and that next year the airline planned to introduce a year-round service connecting Osijek and Stuttgart as well as introduce more lines for Zagreb.
Eurowings brings most of Croatia-bound passengers to Zagreb, and this year it brought 170,000. Zagreb is followed by Dubrovnik, Split, Pula, Zadar, Osijek and Rijeka, he said.
Orec added that the company was finalising negotiations to introduce flights to the island of Brac, where Eurowings planes will start flying to next year.
Croatia is among the top ten markets for Eurowings, Orec said, noting that the company transported most passengers to Spain, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland and Austria.