Emirates to Add Croatia to Europe Network
Emirates is adding another Europe gateway for New Zealand travellers – the airline’s 39th in Europe - with the
introduction of a daily flight to Zagreb (ZAG), the capital of Croatia, from June 1, 2017.
The new southeast European destination will be served by an Emirates Boeing 777-300 aircraft, with direct connections at
Dubai from the airline’s five daily A380 services from New Zealand.
“Emirates has had a commercial presence in Croatia since 2003, so to launch full operations is a natural progression,”
said Thierry Antinori, Emirates’ Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer.
“Emirates is pleased to have this opportunity to add such a picturesque destination to our global route network. We look
forward to working with our partners and stakeholders in Croatia to provide our world renowned service to our customers
on our young, modern fleet of aircraft. We are also committed to our contribution to growing the trade and tourism flows
between Croatia and Dubai, as well as encouraging incoming tourism from the Middle East and Asia Pacific, where Emirates
operates 45 destinations,”
The new Zagreb flight opens a whole new exciting region for Emirates’ passengers to explore. The city itself is steeped
in culture and history, with an abundance of charming pavement cafes and restaurants to be enjoyed during the spring and
summer months. Located in the northwest of the country, the capital city offers easy access to the mountains and
national parks for energetic travellers to hike, or visitors can simply admire the natural beauty and capture the
stunning vistas for Instagram or the holiday photo album. During the winter months, the ski resort of Sljeme on
Medvednica mountain is just a 20-minute drive away and is a great alternative to the busy Alpine slopes.
On Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast, the picturesque resort of Split and the exclusive islands of Hvar and Brac can be found.
Further down the coast, the UNESCO protected historical centre of Dubrovnik tempts visitors with its baroque cathedral
and distinctive walled Old Town, which may have caught the eye of TV fans as ‘King’s Landing’ in the HBO hit series Game
of Thrones. The city’s stunning architecture has also been selected by Disney as a filming location for the latest in
the Star Wars franchise, Episode VIII, out later in 2017.
The new flights will not only benefit travellers going to Croatia, but also those heading to neighbouring Slovenia and
even the southern regions of Hungary and Austria, making it more convenient to travel with Emirates from Dubai and
beyond.
The wide-bodied, three-class configured Emirates Boeing 777-300 which will operate on the route offers 12 lie-flat seats
in First Class, 42 seats in Business Class and 310 spacious seats in Economy Class. Passengers can enjoy up to 2,500
channels of on demand audio and visual entertainment on Emirates’ award winning ice entertainment system and gourmet a
la carte cuisine in all classes. Emirates’ famed service and hospitality will be provided by multi-national cabin crew
from over 130 countries, including 234 crew members from Croatia.
Business travellers into Zagreb will appreciate the convenient early afternoon landing into Franjo Tuđman (Pleso)
International Airport from Dubai. Dubbed the new ‘Silicon Valley’ owing to its reputation for being an incubator for
tech start-ups thanks to a growing population of highly-educated young professionals, Zagreb is central to industry in
the region. In addition to new technology and telecoms, many of the largest Croatian and Central European companies and
conglomerates have their headquarters or regional offices in the city centre.
Scheduled flight times for EK129 (departing Dubai at 08:15hours and arriving in Zagreb at 12:20hours local time) and the
return flight EK130 (departing Zagreb at 15:35hours and arriving in Dubai at 23:05hours).
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