BUSINESS & TECH Airlines are massively canceling flights and closing offices in Croatia. What will this mean for tourism? We spoke with Andrea Andrijanić, the owner of the Aviatica agency MR MARKO REPECKI 08:49 128 RECOMMENDATIONS 2 COMMENTS LAST AMENDMENT: OCT 8, 2020 Several airlines have recently announced the cancellation of flights to Croatia or the closure of a local office, which many have interpreted as a danger to Croatian tourism. Thus, for example, the German Lufthansa has reduced the number of daily flights to Croatian destinations. Special attention was drawn to Emirates, which canceled all flights for next year, closed the office at Zagreb Airport and fired all employees. IN THIS SITUATION, IT MAKES NO SENSE TO KEEP THE DRIVE COOL Andrea Andrijanić , owner of the Aviatica agency, who has many years of experience in organizing air transport of passengers, says that Croatia is not an isolated case, that cancellations due to the coronavirus pandemic started in March, but also that the fact that a company closes an office in a country means they will no longer fly to that destination. "In this situation in which there is a ninety percent drop in traffic, it makes no sense to keep a cool drive. Independently of COVID, some companies have long since closed their representative offices, but are still flying to Croatia. It is not necessary to have your own office. For example, LOT no longer has an office in Zagreb - they had it many years ago, but it was closed - but they have a flight to Warsaw ", says Andrijanić. He explains that airlines in some markets can delegate some of the work around passengers to others, and a lot of that is done online today. “Nowadays when everyone is trying to cut costs, there is really no need for a“ walk in ”office anymore. Of the airline representative offices in Zagreb, a very small percentage actually receive clients in their offices. Basically everyone relies on online sales, an agent network and their call centers. It's not just from the lockdown to here, but this whole trend has been going on for years ", explains Andrijanić. THE CLOSURE OF THE EMIRATES OFFICE SPARKED PANIC The closure of the Emirates office has caused quite a panic that everyone is leaving Croatia, but the owner of Aviatica says that this is not true, that it is a wrong impression. "As for the flights themselves, in the winter flight schedule (from November 1 to April 1), the number of flights has been reduced. The flight schedule changes twice a year, and it is logical that there is a greater demand for flights in the summer, so companies are introducing them accordingly. With the winter flight schedule, the need for tourist destinations decreases, but the demand for long-distance travel increases, mainly in tropical destinations, especially around Christmas and New Year, when people take vacations. As far as Emirates is concerned, in the winter flight schedule, they did not fly to Zagreb anyway, but to FlyDubai ", says Andrijanić. THE TEXT CONTINUES AFTER THE AD Sponsored content Now is the right time to become a member of Arena Casino as new players have 7 days of free spins. Midas - Native Internet Advertising A good part of the economy of the United Arab Emirates, as he says, "floats on the cloud of that airline", because it poured huge capital into the fleet, which made Emirates the largest airline in the world. "The crisis in which the entire planet finds itself has hit the entire UAE economy quite badly, precisely for the stated reason, and that is that the economy relies heavily on this branch of industry," explains Andrijanić. THE PROBLEM OF SELF-ISOLATION AND RIGOROUS CONTROLS The reduction in travel was due to the fact that a good part of the countries have mandatory self-isolation and rigorous controls due to the virus, and thus the number of passengers has been reduced. Business trips were also canceled. Most companies that have had a huge number of business trips, have a ban on flying until further notice, or no business trips at all. There are simply no passengers and consequently airlines have no reason to fly. "The whole of Europe has the same problems and flights are canceled on a daily basis, passengers with purchased tickets are transferred to other flights or vouchers are issued, in the hope that better times will come and they will be able to use them in the future. Refunds are made, which is an extremely big pressure on airlines, because it directly affects the cash flow, which is already thin. Most of the companies have only recently started to return unused tickets (due to canceled flights), so in recent months we have all been dealing with thinking and magic on how to return money to passengers ", says Andrijanić. THE SITUATION WILL QUICKLY NORMALIZE WHEN THE RESTRICTIONS ARE LIFTED He also says that the situation, when the restrictions are lifted, could be normalized very quickly. He says the most expensive flights are those on the ground, the most expensive seat on a plane is an empty seat. "Airlines can return to all destinations almost instantly, it's just a matter of market need. Given that I am on the front line, I can say that the Croats are currently flying the least. As demand for flights to certain destinations grows, so will airlines adapt to the market and return flights. We hope that it will be as soon as possible, because if it lasts too long, we can count on a considerable number of bankruptcies, and not only the airline ", says Andrijanić. FLIGHT CANCELLATIONS WILL NOT AFFECT THE SEASON As for Croatian tourism, he says that we are lucky that we are conveniently positioned and that it is very easy to get everywhere in the country and that airlines increase flights to our destinations in the summer, so this season was no exception. “Low cost companies like EasyJet, RyanAir, Eurowings, etc., had a fair number of flights to seaside cities, and despite COVID, they were full. In the summer flight schedule, there are always a lot more flights to the Croatian coast, so even if flights are canceled (eg Dubai), it will certainly not affect the season so much, ”he says. He adds that there are still enough flights, but currently our biggest problem is returning to our home country. "Someone who came to Dubrovnik from the UK for a long weekend must be in self-isolation after returning to the UK. I believe this is a much bigger problem than the lack of flights. I am sure that there will be enough flights, and even if it is established that the demand is higher than the supply, additional flights will be introduced ", concludes Andrijanić. Andrea Andrijanic , Aviatica , Emirates , Lufthansa