Influence of low-cost airlines on Zagreb airport traffic performance

The number of low-cost airlines in the world is increasing yearly. Currently, there are sixty operating in Europe and the share of low-cost airlines is expected to rise until the end of 2009 to more than 30 per cent among air carriers. This trend has not avoided Croatia. The number of airlines flying to Croatia is significantly increasing. For some airports their arrival meant that they would not have to face almost certain traffic isolation. Low-cost airlines use in the majority of cases minor secondary and regional airports because of their many advantages. Usually these are airports of up to 2 million passengers. Since Zagreb Airport has exceeded the limit of 2 million passengers, it cannot be in any way classified into the category of secondary airports. High share in the realization of this number of passengers belongs to low-cost airlines that even today compete in a way outside their home airports (hubs). The advent of low-cost air carriers has positively affected the policy of fares of scheduled air carriers who are forced to introduce new tariff systems with significantly lower ticket prices. However, in order to protect in a way the market of scheduled airlines with higher standards of air traffic, the airports have made a cut by the categorization of the quality of service, thus showing that better and higher quality service is still paid for by a higher price, and that airlines such as the low-cost ones cannot compete in quality and service with the scheduled air traffic. The paper will analyze the influence of the operative of these companies on air traffic in the Republic of Croatia with special reference to the traffic performance and development of Zagreb Airport.