October the 23rd, 2026 – Austrian Airlines is scrapping its direct Zagreb-Vienna route after 40 years, leaving the question of who will take on the Zagreb-Vienna route open.
Austrian Airlines will discontinue its long-standing route between Vienna and Zagreb next year. Index reports that the last flight between the two capitals is planned for the 10th of January 2027, and the Star Alliance member has confirmed that it will not reinstate the route even during the summer season of 2027.
“We can confirm that our flights between Vienna and Zagreb will, unfortunately, not continue during the summer season,” Austrian Airlines spokesperson Andrea Hansal told EX-YU Aviation News. With this, the carrier will leave Zagreb after more than four decades of operation. It introduced flights to the Croatian capital in the mid-1980s and interrupted services during the war and the COVID-19 pandemic.
the number of flights has already allegedly been reduced by austrian airlines
In recent years, Austrian Airlines has significantly reduced the number of flights operating on the Vienna–Zagreb route. The carrier previously operated up to 12 flights a week, but during the summer season of 2026 it reduced them to one daily flight. This represented a 37.5 percent reduction in the number of flights and a 27 percent reduction in available seat capacity compared with the previous year. The reduction in the number of flights during the winter began as early as the end of 2024, when the company thinned out departures and introduced smaller turboprop aircraft. At the same time, Croatia Airlines, also a Star Alliance member, expanded its offer on this route. During the summer of 2026 it doubled the number of flights to Vienna, to a total of ten per week.
Croatia Airlines will continue flying between Zagreb and Vienna during the upcoming winter season, which starts this Sunday, and will retain two daily flights, as it did last winter.
zagreb airport continues to expand its destination network and bring in new airlines
Austrian Airlines, on the other hand, will continue to operate daily flights until the route is discontinued in January. Many of them will be operated by aircraft of the company Air Dolomiti, which Austrian Airlines uses under a wet-lease agreement. All of this is happening at a time when Zagreb International Airport is trying to attract new carriers and expand its destination network. The airport is participating in the Routes World conference currently being held in Frankfurt. Zagreb Airport is represented there by President of the Management Board and CEO Huseyin Bahadır Bedir and Head of Route Development Yavuz Aytis.
The post Austrian Airlines is Scrapping Zagreb-Vienna Route After 40 Years appeared first on Total Croatia.