The national flag carrier Croatia Airlines (CA) on Monday issued a statement noting that it wants Zagreb International Airport (MZLZ) to adjust its terms of use of the airport to those offered to the Irish airline Ryanair, which on 30 March announced the opening of a base in Zagreb.

“As the largest, long-standing user of MZLZ’s services, accounting for more than 50% of its annual passenger turnover, Croatia Airlines wants its partner to adjust the agreed terms for airport services to make them better than the commercial terms offered to the new rival in Zagreb, Ireland’s Ryanair. Croatia Airlines expects to agree better terms for itself at coming meetings,” the airline said.

It noted that under the terms offered to Ryanair, Croatia Airlines in 2019 would have paid MZLZ HRK 135.4 million less than the amount actually paid, which means that instead of a net loss of some HRK 80 million, the company would have posted a net profit of more than HRK 55 million.

The terms offered to Ryanair are in line with information on the MZLZ website, which features the recently published Growth Incentive Model, a precondition for Ryanair’s arrival. That model, CA notes, ‘camouflages the announced Ryanair flights also to destinations Croatia Airlines (and other carriers) fly to.”

Croatia Airlines believes this is a breach of fair market competition and potentially harmful activity.

“Efficient market competition in certain markets requires equal possibilities of market access and survival, which is ensured through domestic as well as international legislation, notably at EU level. The relevant markets are in this specific case cities and regions, routes and destinations that are part of Ryanair’s announcement – Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Paris, Rome, Milan, Munich and Oslo. Croatia Airlines has developed all those markets on its own and invested in them for years, or even decades,” CA said.

“We appreciate MZLZ’s efforts to ensure new turnover but it should be done exclusively on the basis of impartiality, with the same regulated terms for all companies and without any favouring,” it said, noting that it expected MZLZ to adjust terms for Croatia Airlines to those offered to Ryanair, taking into account the number of lines and passengers.

Failure to grant Croatia Airlines greater discounts than those granted to Ryanair, considering the number of passengers and destinations, undermines fair competition and directly harms it, it says.

“Since in 2020 CA had a 62% share in MZLZ’s passenger transport, we want to stress that CA does not consider it necessary to finance its competition and that it expects to reach agreement with MZLZ on better commercial terms so as to be able to provide for the Croatian public and its passengers what they rightfully expect,” the company said in a statement.

CA recalls that in the 2016-2019 period it started flying to ten new destinations from Zagreb, for which it received from MZLZ subsidies in the amount of HRK 1.46 million, while Ryanair is set to obtain 30 times the amount for 12 routes, of which most are not new.

Also, Ryanair announced the opening of a base in Zagreb with only two planes, while CA has 12-14 planes with which it has flown successfully for decades, complying with the highest safety and professional standards, the national flag carrier said.