EasyJet is asking for input

[Donald]

EasyJet are requesting customer input on possible new destinations out of London Luton. The form can be found on:

www.easyjet.com/en/book/ltncompetition.asp

It is also a competition. I would encourage all to fill it in with Croatian destinations - it's in our interest!

[Mala]

Please, please follow this advice and email Easyjet!

[Lily]

I have a very simple question - why are you all making such a fuss about Ryanair and EasyJet when the Air Adriatic flights via Hidden Croatia were available this year at £99 inclusive of taxes and they still weren't full?

On occasion, they were more than £100 cheaper than Ryanair's flights to Trieste. So why aren't you cheering?

[Mira]

Lily

The reason we are all so excited is because more competition, means better choice which is better for all of us.

Hidden Croatia prices start at £99 to Krk and £149 to Dubrovnik (according to their add). In the high season the prices can go up considerably. However, if you are flexible and book in advance you can get some great deals with low cost airlines. For example, I flew to Trieste last year and paid £66 for 2 return fight (not 1 but 2 flights). My husband and I wanted to explore the beauty of the Croatian cost so we drove all the way to Dubrovnik. At the moment if you wanted to go to Trieste with Ryanair for two weeks, lets say on 19/9 returning on 3/10 it would cost you £76 per person. I wanted to go to Split and checked prices with Croatia Airlines for end of September. The quote was £799 for two flight!!!!! I call that day light robbery. Alternative is to fly to Zagreb and take connecting flight. If you are going for a short break (in my case house hunting) you do not want to spend all of your time travelling.

Also, in August a friend of my wanted to go to Trogir (private accommodation) but flights were so expensive (when we found one) she went to Spain where for the price of flight to Croatia she had 3 star accommodation and flight included. I have tried calling Hidden Croatia few times now and always get recorded message saying they are too busy at the moment, leave a message and we will call you back. Personally I prefer to book on line and not have to call or have someone call me back.

[emma]

I would second all of the above, and furthermore we may get more of a uk airport choice

[margie]

I cannot keep away from the place! Spent 2 weeks there in the early spring, then 7 weeks late spring/summer...and just about to go for another 8 days - all via ryanir, tickets costing iro £50/60 return for TWO people.

Ryanair £1 per person to Trieste at the moment - beat that easyjet!

I love Croatia, and I love ryanair!

[Graham - Bosmere]

The other week I tried to get a Ryanair light from Trieste back to Stansted - fare came up as £169 plus taxes and the fare from Treviso was not a lot less. Easyjet from Venice Marco Polo worked out at £30 inc taxes and Marco Polo is a 1 euro bus ride from Venice. Even with the cost of the catamaran to Venice it still worked out a lot cheaper than Trieste and I managed to get a full day in Venice as well.

There will be a lot more charter flights to Croatia next year as well as the scheduled services of BA to Dubrovnik. Air Lingus flights from Dublin will also take some of the load off the UK flights.

If things work out over the next week or so we should be able to offer high speed services from Rimini and Ancona to Zadar. We would like to offer Venice to Zadar, but we have doubts about the amount of support that we can get from the UK market for such as route.

If anyone is thinking about flying to Sarajevo they might be interested to know that we read that Air Bosna have gone bancrupt, but how a state run company can go that way I am not sure. If anyone has any further details as to what has happened or is going to happen I would be interested, as there were some very good fares last season

By the way the Easyjet request a new route thing has been going on and off for over a year now with no signs of them offering a route to Croatia

[BL]

"The Bosnian airline Air Bosnia has suspended all its flights because of an accumulated debt of 7 million Euro. Air Bosnia has problems in paying the lease of its only aeroplane and the salaries of its 110 employees. Nevertheless, Air Bosnia managed to transport 51,000 passengers since the beginning of the year, versus only 39,000 fo the whole year 2002."

[David B]

I'm not surprised they had financial difficulties if they had 110 staff and only one plane up there earning revenue.

According to the Ryanair website, it has 74 planes and 1,800 staff - a much more profitable ratio of 24 staff to every plane.