Ryanair today announced another major expansion out of Zagreb Airport, serving the capital of Croatia. The news comes on the same day that Ryanair opened its base in Zagreb for the very first time today.

Ryanair opens Zagreb base and announces more routes

Today, Friday 23rd July, Ryanair opened a new base in Zagreb Airport (ZAG), launching flights to Gothenburg (GOT), Rome Ciampino (CIA), and London Stansted (STN) via its subsidiary airline, Lauda Europe.

One Lauda Airbus A320 is already based in Zagreb, to operate flights to these three destinations as well as to Sofia starting in August. The second A320 will arrive in time for Ryanair to launch a further nine routes out of Zagreb Airport in early September.

But that is not all: today, Ryanair announced in a press conference that it will have one more round of route launches from Zagreb Airport this year, in December. Lauda Europe will station yet another Airbus A320 there and launch a further nine routes.

united-states-belarus-ticket-sales-ban-getty
Photo: Getty Images

Nine new routes announced today

To mark the opening of its Zagreb Lauda base, Ryanair hyped up the attention of the national and regional media by announcing nine more route launches for December 2021. Some of the routes are highly surprising.

The new destinations, launching between 1st and 17th December, are as follows:

  • Malaga (AGP)
  • Manchester (MAN)
  • Dublin (DUB)
  • Thessaloniki (SKG)
  • Paphos (PFO)
  • Eindhoven (EIN)
  • Basel (Mulhouse-Freiburg) (BSL)
  • Malta (MLA)
  • Naples (NAP)

All routes will operate with Lauda Europe's Airbus A320 aircraft and all routes are year-round.

Every single one of these new routes is a brand new route for Zagreb Airport with the exception of Dublin, where Ryanair will compete directly with Croatia Airlines for the very first time.

With these new routes, Ryanair now has a greater network out of Zagreb than Croatia's national airline, Croatia Airlines, which has so far not done anything to respond to Ryanair's arrival in Zagreb.

The plane parked at the destination airport. Flying with Lauda Airbus A320 airplane with registration 9H-LMJ during the Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic with passenger and crew wearing facemask. Laudamotion or Lauda is an Austrian low-cost carrier owned by Ryanair and operating by Ryanair codes FR for IATA, RYR for ICAO and RYANAIR callsign. The budget airline carrier is based in Vienna International Airport VIE LOWW or Flughafen Wien-Schwechat in Austria with a fleet of 28 Airbus Aircraft. Vienna, Austria on October 12, 2020 (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Stay informed: Sign up for our daily and weekly aviation news digests.

Ryanair is rapidly expanding in Zagreb

Before today's expansion, Ryanair had, up until now, announced 16 brand new routes from Zagreb Airport. Two launched earlier this summer: Milan Bergamo (BGY) and Brussels Charleroi (CRL).

A further three started today: London Stansted (STN), Rome Ciampino (CIA), and Gothenburg (GOT). This was earlier than had originally been planned.

Another one will start on 3rd August: Sofia (SOF).

In September, a second Lauda Europe Airbus A320 will be based in Zagreb and nine more routes will be launched between 1st and 4th September: Oslo Sandefjord (TRP), Karlsruhe / Baden Baden (FKB), Paris Beauvais (BVA), Memmingen (FMM), Frankfurt Hahn (HHN), Dortmund (DTM), Podgorica (TGD), Malmo (MMX), and Dusseldorf Weeze (NRN).

What do you think of the news that Ryanair is expanding so much in Zagreb? Let us know what you think of this story in the comments below.