October the 23rd, 2026 – Negotiations are continuing between Zagreb Airport and Wizz Air, with the popular airline citing cost issues being the primary remaining obstacle.
During September, 455,530 passengers passed through the airport, while the growth rate for the first nine months of the year fell to just 1.1 percent. As is somewhat seasonally appropriate, the capital’s airport recorded its third consecutive monthly drop in passenger numbers; in September traffic fell by 3.3 percent, continuing the slowdown that began back in July. Sinisa Malus reports for Poslovni that during that month, 455,530 passengers passed through the airport, while the growth rate for the first nine months of the year shrank to only 1.1 percent. The latest figures come at a time when Croatia Airlines is reducing capacity during the process of renewing its fleet.
new routes and a new incentive scheme
Passenger numbers at the airport are expected to fall again in October, followed by a gradual recovery in November, while December, according to estimates, should remain at last year’s levels, reports Ex-Yu Aviation News. Zagreb Airport has attracted four new routes this year, including those to Warsaw (Modlin), Tel Aviv and Beijing (via Bucharest). By comparison, six new routes were introduced in 2025 and ten back in 2024. During 2026, the airport also lost four routes, three of which were operated by Croatia Airlines. Several factors have influenced the slowdown in growth: rising fuel prices, which make airlines more cautious about launching new routes; the stall in the expansion of Croatia Airlines’ network; and the increase in almost all basic airport charges and fees at Zagreb Airport.
Zagreb Airport is trying to return to stronger growth and has launched a new incentive scheme for which airlines can apply until the 31st of December. This new model significantly lowers the threshold for obtaining incentives compared with the previous system – in which the wildly popular Ryanair was the only beneficiary, and carriers were required to achieve at least 35,000 passengers per year. This change is expected to make the system more accessible, especially for smaller markets and airlines considering routes with lower passenger volumes. Another key difference concerns the duration and flexibility of the programme.
ongoing negotiations with wizz air
The previous model was designed for a five-year period, while the new one is limited to four years but introduces mechanisms that reward better results in the initial phase. Carriers that exceed the figure of 100,000 or 150,000 passengers in the first five years of operations can secure the continuation of incentives without the obligation to meet annual thresholds. As part of its new growth incentive model, Zagreb Airport is excluding certain destinations from the list of eligible ones, as they are considered either sufficiently developed or strategically less important within this programme.
Despite interest in Zagreb, Wizz Air announced this summer that costs associated with the airport remain the main obstacle to establishing a base in Croatia’s capital. Nevertheless, they have not ruled out the possibility of introducing flights to Zagreb and confirmed that negotiations are ongoing. Zagreb Airport ended last year with a record of almost 4.7 million passengers, an increase of 9.2 percent compared with 2024. Based on currently reported capacities on scheduled routes, Zagreb Airport is expected to record an overall capacity increase of 1.8 percent in November.
This is mainly contributed by Ryanair, which will offer just over 17,000 additional seats, as well as the new Air China route and capacity increases by Austrian Airlines, KLM and Air Serbia. For December, stagnation is currently forecast, with around 100 fewer seats than in the same month last year. Capacity reductions at Croatia Airlines, Lufthansa and Qatar Airways are the main factors negatively affecting growth during the last month of the year.
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