The European low fares airline Ryanair will commence its first route from Zadar to London-Stansted on the 23rd of April 2007, stated Ryanair’s Sales & Marketing Executive for Central Europe, Tomasz Kulakowski and the General Manager of the Zadar Airport, Katica Pupić Bakrač, at today’s press conference.
The three weekly services will be operated with brand new Boeing 737 800 series aircraft taking on board up to 189 passengers. Kulakowski also explained that that Ryanair decided to start out with a promotional price, offering one way fares at € 0.01 and return tickets for € 35 to 40, including all airport taxes and charges.
According to schedule planes will fly from Zadar to Stansted on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 21.00 and from Stansted to Zadar on Saturdays at 17.10. Further it will be possible to start scheduling flights via the Ryanair web pages, starting from 7 February at 15.00.
Kulakowski also said that Ryanair expected to carry more than 40,000 passengers in the first year of its operations on that service. A large percentage of those passengers would be high spending British tourists creating at least 40 new jobs in the local economy of Zadar, also providing a large boost to tourism.
Pupić Bakrač pointed out that it was a historical day for the Zadar Airport, since it was the first time the airport introduced an international line which would operate during the whole year. She concluded that the number of passengers at the Zadar Airport would double thanks to the arrival of Ryanair.
The route from Zadar to London will be the third Ryanair’s highly successful route from Croatia. In October 2006 Ryanair commenced operations from Pula to London-Stansted. On the 8th of February Ryanair will also commence services from Pula to Dublin.