Air China Launches Beijing to Zagreb Service, Stopping in Bucharest Along the Way

On September 4, 2026, Air China flew its first service between Beijing and Zagreb, the first scheduled passenger route ever to connect China and Croatia. The Airbus A330-200 landed in the Croatian capital after a three-hour stop in Bucharest, where it was greeted with a ceremonial water-cannon salute.

Why the flight stops in Bucharest

The route runs three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from Beijing Capital to Bucharest’s Henri Coandă Airport and on to Zagreb Airport, a short 497-mile (800 km) final leg. The Airbus widebody is configured with 265 seats, 18 in business class and 247 in economy.

The long layover in Bucharest is not just scheduling convenience. Romania sits outside the Schengen area, while Croatia is inside it, so passengers continuing to Zagreb clear passport control in Bucharest, according to EX-YU Aviation News. That means no immigration stop is needed on arrival in Croatia.

The stopover also revives a route Air China had not flown in decades. Xinhua reported the flight restored direct passenger service between China and Romania after more than 20 years, alongside opening the first-ever link to Croatia.

A route built on tourism and one shared alliance

Zagreb Airport chief operating officer Nicolas Duthilleul called the launch a source of “new opportunities for tourism, business, and cultural exchange between our two countries,” per Xinhua’s report from the arrival ceremony. Croatian Tourist Board director Kristjan Stanicic added that the flight “will bring the Chinese and Croatian people closer together.”

More than 330,000 Chinese visitors traveled to Croatia in 2025, and Croatia’s State Secretary for Tourism, Monika Udovicic, said China and the wider Asian market are “extremely important” to the country’s tourism strategy going forward.

Air China and Croatia’s national carrier, Croatia Airlines, both belong to the Star Alliance, which should smooth connections for passengers transferring beyond Zagreb onto the Croatian carrier’s regional network.

Chinese Ambassador to Croatia Qi Qianjin framed the launch in diplomatic terms, calling it, per Xinhua, “the first direct flight in the history of China-Croatia relations” and “another historic milestone” in the two countries’ cooperation. Beijing has been expanding air links to smaller European markets it previously skipped in favor of larger hubs like Paris, Frankfurt and London.

Zagreb Airport says the new service also gives it winter widebody flying it previously lacked, since most of its long-haul capacity had been concentrated in the summer charter season.

If approved, the rights would let Air China compete for local traffic between the two European capitals on a route it already has to fly regardless, a growing pattern as Chinese carriers use triangular routings to open smaller European markets without dedicating a widebody to each city alone.