Pula is Croatia’s worst performer this year
As October draws to a close, the Croatian ministry for sea, transport and infrastructure has published the country’s airport figures for the month of September. Although some airports are reporting good growth, Zagreb is yet to stage a recovery. Other airports which are worse off than last year are Split, Dubrovnik and Pula. Meanwhile, Zadar, Osijek and Rijeka are reporting growth.Zagreb’s passenger figures in September fell by 6.8% when compared to the same month last year. The airport welcomed 198.364 passengers this September, compared to 212.735 last year. The airport is also reporting a substantial reduction in transit passengers, which fell by 81%. Split saw an 11.6% passenger decrease while 159.724 passengers passed through Dubrovnik, 14.296 passengers less than in September 2008. Pula Airport is reporting the greatest passenger decrease, continuing the negative trends which began a few months ago. The airport reported a 24.4% passenger decrease.
Osijek continues to report growth. In September the airport saw a 113% passenger increase, although this brings the number of passengers up to only 3.302 this September. Zadar saw 28.734 passengers, 51.6% passengers more than in September 2008. Rijeka saw a moderate increase of 5.6%.
So far, in the elapsed 9 months of the year, Pula has seen the greatest passenger decline of up to 20.9%. Osijek is reporting the greatest increase, of up to 34.7% while Zagreb has seen a 4.2% passenger decline this year. The bankruptcy of SkyEurope has had a significant effect on some airports in Croatia.
I'd just like to say about Zadar airport, I flew toZadar and from Zadar this year with Ryanair and the airport is great(for that capacity and size! I wish them all the best and congrats to Ryanair as they are bringing "dead" airports up to really good results! Shame for Pula, Pula could do much better, as that region is absolutely beautiful! I am surpsrised that Ryanair haven't offered more flights this year from pila like they have done from Zadar. regarding Osijek, again, well done Ryanair, lets be honest, how many people knew osijek had International airport, and Ryanair has done such a great thing! I think that Osijek could do with flight throughout the year(at the end of the day it is not a seaside city and it should work during winter too....)
ReplyDeleteI hear Zadar is expanding their airport, is this because Ryanair will commit long term? I don't see Croatia Airlines offering anything useful from the airport
ReplyDeleteRemember that these figures all need to be viewed relatively: we've just seen one of the severest hits to the aviation sector in a long time. This time next year, we'll be reading how PUY has had a 250% increase on the same month last year due to x additional flights in the place, and better recovery in the sector.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of PUY and ZAD, there must be more done to promote these as destinations.
*OU (with enough planes) should look to separate the PUY-ZAD-ZAG triangles which used to occur due to lack of fleet (and as nationalised, subsidised routes could almost appear profitable on paper)
*PUY-OSI should be started up (even if only weekly) to offer more options for Slavonija, and long-term even operate some late night/early morning flights OSI-ZAG connecting with the waves at ZAG.
The trick of course is to get PUY as a year-round airport to hold the numbers up; JU wanted year-round flights BEG-PUY and perhaps a twice- or thrice-weekly would help this significantly
LCCs are often seasonal, and would treat seaside airports (such as PUY, ZAD etc) as such - how could demand be stimulated outside summer? Should the Tourism Boards in each of these zupanji be working more closely with the airlines?
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Off topic, great to see OU operating direct flights ZAG-FCO next year with the Qs and connecting with the morning wave out of ZAG!