Ryanair will be opening a new base in Zadar Airport on the Croatian Adriatic coast this summer. It will do so with an Airbus A320 aircraft from its subsidiary airline, Lauda. However, Ryanair itself, along with Malta Air and Ryanair Sun (Buzz) will be flying to Zadar this summer too. Last year, Ryanair had planned for Lauda to base three A320 aircraft in Zadar, but the pandemic had spoiled these plans.

Zadar Airport to become a Lauda base after all

Ryanair's booking schedule reveals that its subsidiary airline Lauda will base at least one aircraft in Zadar Airport on the Croatian coast this summer, starting from Thursday 1st July.

Lauda will fly from Zadar to a range of destinations across Europe. On some routes, the Zadar-based aircraft will be the sole operator on the route. On others, it will operate some of the flights on the route while the remaining frequencies will be picked up by one of the other Ryanair airlines. The majority of Ryanair's flights into and out of this Croatian coastal city will be operated by Ryanair itself with its Boeing 737 aircraft.

For one of Lauda's routes out of Zadar, and only for this one, the aircraft will be an Airbus A320 plane that is not based in Zadar, but in Austria. This will be for the Vienna-Zadar route, launching this year on 5th July and operating through to the end of October. On all the other Lauda routes into and out of Zadar, the operating aircraft will be based in Zadar itself, it seems.

What are the routes?

Ryanair's booking schedules currently indicate that the following flights will be operated by a Lauda Airbus A320 aircraft based in Zadar:

• Zadar to Marseilles, launching 7th July: Wednesday flights only. Malta Air will fly the Sunday rotation.
• Zadar to Memmingen, launching 3rd July: all flights, Tuesdays and Saturdays are Lauda only.
• Zadar to Berlin, launching 5th July: all flights, Monday and Friday are Lauda only.
• Zadar to Dusseldorf Weeze, launching 1st July: the Thursday rotation only. Malta Air will fly on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
• Zadar to Paris Beauvais, launching 3rd July: the Wednesday rotation only. Malta Air will fly the route on Saturdays.
• Zadar to Krakow, launching 2nd July: Fridays only. Ryanair Sun (Buzz) will fly on Sundays.
• Zadar to Wroclaw, launching 2nd July: Mondays only. Ryanair Sun (Buzz) will fly on Fridays.
• Zadar to Gothenburg, launching 3rd July: all flights, Tuesdays, and Saturdays are Lauda only.

ZAVENTEM, FLEMISH REGION, BELGIUM - JULY 29 : A Boeing 737 (EI-EVV) of Ryanair is taking off in the Brussels airport on July 29, 2020 in Zaventem, Belgium. Brussels Airport (Brussel-Nationaal / Bruxelles-National / Brussels-National) is an international airport 12 km northeast of Brussels, the capital of Belgium. Ryanair DAC is an Irish budget airline founded in 1984, headquartered in Swords, Dublin, with its primary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports. It forms the largest part of the Ryanair Holdings family of airlines, and has Ryanair UK, Buzz, Malta Air and Lauda as sister airlines. In 2016, Ryanair was the largest European budget airline by scheduled passengers flown, and carried more international passengers than any other airline. (Photo by Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)

Most flights are Ryanair's routes

Ryanair's remaining few routes out of Zadar will all be operated by either Ryanair itself, or its subsidiaries Malta Air and Ryanair Sun (Buzz).

These remaining routes, as the current schedule stands, are Brussels, Prague, Karlsruhe Baden-Baden, Dublin, Naples, Poznan, London Stansted, and Manchester.

Last year, as Simple Flying reported at the time, Lauda intended to base three Airbus A320 aircraft in Zadar Airport following a deal struck between Ryanair, Zadar Airport, and the local tourist board. However, this never came to be because of the pandemic. Ryanair eventually restored some of its routes out of Zadar last summer, but the total seat capacity to and from this airport was just a fraction of what had originally been planned.

Do you think Lauda will end up basing an aircraft in Zadar this summer? Let us know in the comments below.