Croatian airports to reach 11 million passenger target


Croatia’s nine commercial airports are on course to handle a joint total of over eleven million passengers in 2019 following last year's 10.5 million. Despite a continent-wide slowdown, the Croatian market recorded the seventh largest increase in traveller numbers within the European Union so far this year, behind Austria, Latvia, Portugal, Finland, Hungary and Malta, but ahead of the remaining 21-member states, as well as above average European growth. During the January - August period, Croatian airports welcomed 8.285.615 passengers through their doors, up 8.7%. Dubrovnik added the most travellers when compared to last year, with an additional 240.016 passengers handled. Overall, the Croatian market processed an additional 667.729 travellers.

Croatian airports passenger numbers, JAN - AUG

AirportPAXChange (%)
Split2.497.427 6.5
Zagreb2.276.373 2.4
Dubrovnik2.099.022 12.9
Pula604.191 12.2
Zadar594.314 33.1
Rijeka150.583 11.3
Osijek37.580 34.7
Brač20.749 7.7
Lošinj5.376 4.5

Split Airport continued to hold its position as the country’s busiest. Its General Manager, Lukša Novak, conceded that extreme seasonality may prevent it from overtaking Croatia's main hub in Zagreb on an annual level, but added it was not an impossible task. "Almost half of our annual traffic is achieved during July and August. During the four summer months we have the most passenger traffic in the country. We are extremely seasonal in character but when looking at it on an annual level, we are in second place”, Mr Novak previously said. Zadar Airport continued to post impressive growth on the back of Ryanair's major summer expansion from the coastal city. Apart from the eight new routes introduced by the budget airline, the airport has also seen easyJet double its capacity, while Laudamotion, Transavia, Condor, Air Serbia and Iberia launched new services to the Croatian city.

Osijek Airport’s performance has been hit by Wizz Air’s suspension of its year-round Basel service in mid-June. The route had an 80% average cabin load factor last year, while the budget carrier aims for a 94% load factor. The Prefect of the Osijek-Baranja County, Ivan Anušić, said, “We have held talks with Chinese investors over Osijek Airport. This autumn we will submit a Letter of Intent to the Croatian government. We are yet to define whether the Chinese will take Osijek Airport under a concession, turn it into a distribution centre or do something different”. The airport is currently served seasonally by Croatia Airlines and Eurowings, while Trade Air maintains year-round domestic Public Service Obligation flights, which are up for review at the end of this year.




Comments

  1. Anonymous09:02

    “We have held talks with Chinese investors over Osijek Airport. This autumn we will submit a Letter of Intent to the Croatian government."

    Hope this doesn't end up like with Maribor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:33

      Sounds ominous.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:02

    Congratulations

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous09:04

    ZAG needs to wake up. This winter will be brutal for them while OSI is just depressing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:05

      Brutal in which way?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:35

      Brutal in the sense that they didn't secure that many flights which will boost their numbers. I don't see how in November they can grow by more than 1% or 2%.

      ...or February for that matter.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:38

      There will be an extra flight to BRU by OU. :D

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:07

    I think it will be closer to 12 million actually.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Croatia got over 10 million pax now , including September .So I would agree with your statement.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:09

    Congrats, Split! Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:10

      Sooner or later it will become the busiest in Croatia. It will never have too many passengers during the winter but the volume of traffic during the summer will be enough to secure number 1 position.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:15

      Well one day when they expand their capacities maybe Ryanair can move its seasonal base there and keep a few destinations throughout the year. I am sure they could have one or two.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:21

      If any low cost airline should open a base in Split it is Easy Jet. They are already Split's number 1 airline and operate to over a dozen destinations from Split.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:32

      Split is Croatia's most successful airport. Biggest profit, biggest revenue, busiest during the summer.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:37

      DBV is better managed.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous09:38

      The problem SPU is facing is capacity. Yes, it's nice they have a new terminal but it means nothing until they expand aprons and taxiways. The reason they don't want widebodies there is because it takes up too much space and unables them to handle several smaller narrowbodies.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous09:39

      Last Anon is correct, especially since Dubrovnik is smaller it's success is far more impressive. They are the best managed airport in Croatia.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:11

    Very impressive

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous09:11

    The growth and the majority of passengers are generated on the coast. The only two inland airports are Zagreb and Osijek.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:10

      Croatian coast is growing and growing each year with impressive double digits.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous09:23

    Good work overall but it's unfortunate that smaller airports are struggling.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous09:24

    If Mostar wakes up and offers cheap flights lfrom next year, it could hurt Split.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:26

      lol yeah I'm sure its really going to hurt them.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:27

      I think he meant that people going to Medjugorje would not go via Split anymore, they would go direct to Mostar.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:28

      Yes but that's a couple of thousand passengers. It would barely impact SPU's numbers.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:18

      Zadar investment of 70 million + 3200 meters runaway + Ryanair and more and more passengers = few thousands from Split

      Brač investment in runaway = few thousands from Split

      Dubrovnik 225 million investment + Peljašac bridge + highway = few thousands from Split

      Mostar LCC, more Medjugorje passengers = few thousands from Split

      And several times few thousands is?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous11:29

      Several times few thousand = 6,5% growth for SPU operating at peak limits.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous15:06

      Still those 3 airports will steal at least 100-200.000 Split passengers in near future. Especially Dubrovnik and Zadar.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous16:55

      As a member of the local community I would appreciate if those airports would take over 1 million pax during summer season.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous09:25

    Why no growth at Brac?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:28

      Because Adria and Luxair did not fly like last summer and there were no new routes.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:30

      One of the issues with Brac is that pilots need special training to land there. At Luxair, they only had 2 pilots with this sort of certification so it was difficult for them to maintain this route. Loads were very good.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:34

      Interesting. Didn't realise there were special conditions for landing at BWK.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:36

      Have they started the runway/terminal epansion at Brac?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:58

      Last anon: very good question

      Prelast anon: quick explanation - that is because of approach runway 04 via Golden Horn/Bol. Approach is extremely scenic and pretty but you land right on top of a big cliff. Just in front of that cliff there are often heavy downwind and crosswinds plus generally prone to bura and landings can get really turbulent. It is very easy you descend too low but theres little margin for error as there is a mountain ridge below the start of the runway.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:05

      As very interesting. Thank you for the info. Didn't know about that.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:25

      when will eurowings start flights to brac?

      Delete
    8. @Anonymous at 09:58
      Thank you for taking the time to write the reply.

      It's very informative and the reason I regularly read hundreds of silly comments (particularly the "Bravo [insert country name here]") to see if there a golden nugget like yours today.

      Thank you!

      Delete
  11. Anonymous09:30

    Seems Silver Air had fewer passengers this year which impacted Losinj :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:42

      Those flights are crazy expensive.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:46

      Those flights are there pretty much just for hotel guests. That's why tickets are 350 euros.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:06

      Regardless of the price I'm happy to see those Losinj flights have not been cancelled and that they get some traffic this summer, even with very small aircraft.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous09:31

    For a relatively small country it is impressive that all 9 airports have commercial flights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:35

      7 of which are coastal. No surprise really.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous09:32

    Honestly I am surprised that Dubrovnik is behind Split. Dubrovnik being such a beautiful city I would expect them to have more tourists then Split and they also have more winter traffic then SPU.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:33

      Dubrovnik is a much smaller city and it's catchment area is smaller.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:36

      Oh I see

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:07

      DBV could attract some passengers from Bosnia and parts of Montenegro if they bothered to do some marketing beyond the tourist markets.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:45

      Agree with last anon.

      Delete
    5. Lol Dubrovnik is the no.1 city in Croatia, and their numbers of pax will be going up and up as time progresses. Take a look at Americans, they only have flights to Dubrovnik not just in Croatia but in all EXYU

      Delete
    6. Anonymous00:29

      Dubrovnik is not the number 1 city in size and DBV is not the number 1 airport by size in Cro. Americans also have a choice of nonstop flight from New York to BEG. It's not like they only fly on US carriers or stay at US hotel brands.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous09:38

    ZAG selected quality over quantity (prestige over passengers).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:40

      And what did they achieve with that?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:47

      I guess they are happy with just 2% more passengers.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous09:48

      KL, AF, A3, LY, BA, LH, EK, KE, TS, AC, QR, TK, IB, SU

      :)

      Delete
    4. Anonymous09:50

      Yes and with all those, growth is minimal. Also I must ask what is prestigious about Air Transat? You do realise Air Transat charges passengers $9.99 on its flights to Zagreb for a blanket.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous09:59

      Yes I am sure your average Croat is thrilled by all this prestige and luxury especially when he has to pay €300 to fly anywhere in Europe.

      Also how many of those you listed actually fly the whole year?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:02

      Almost everyone fly the whole year in ZAG.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous10:06

      A3 doesn't
      EK doesn't
      TS doesn't
      AC doesn't
      LY doesn't

      So 9/14 do

      Delete
    8. Anonymous10:11

      Your elementary math is great, congrats!

      Delete
    9. Anonymous10:57

      Thank you Anon 10.11

      Delete
    10. @An.9.38
      I don't like to be rude but your "prestige" is BS. ZAG is disaster in any sense. In the old building and old management at least toilets were clean My last 3 times in ZAG they were stinking and full of sh.., literally. That much about the prestige. And about "selection" : the only thing they selected is to protect the biggest disgrace of Croatia in terms of aviation - Croatia Airlines

      Delete
    11. Anonymous11:23

      Please no hard feelings. Prestige is only sarcasam, there is nothing more let about ZAG to say

      Delete
    12. Anonymous11:40

      Well ZAG should have at least 6 million passengers per year. It is one of 9 international airports in a country of 4 million citizens in close density.

      3,5 million is way to low. They should open up for LCC. I guess 10 million is realistic.

      Delete
    13. Anonymous13:18

      What's with ex-YU and toilets... first SJJ then BEG and now ZAG. Maybe it's time to bring baba sera back. :D

      Delete
    14. Anonymous15:08

      That is so not true about toilets. Zagreb airport is really very clean.

      Delete
    15. Anonymous15:36

      Why would Pozdrav iz Rijeke lie?

      Delete
    16. Maybe because I 'm "hater" LOL

      Delete
    17. Anonymous22:51

      Anonymous18 September 2019 at 11:40

      Why would 6 million people travel to Zagreb and not directly to Dalmatia or Istria? 10 million? Don't make me laugh.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous09:39

    Great year for Croatian airports all round.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:47

      Huh? You think it was a great year for OSI?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous09:48

      The overall majority of airports are performing well to offset Osijek's decline.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous09:47

    Would be great if a European LCC stated flights within Croatia. Numbers would skyrocket.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:51

      Not going to happen. Croatian domestic ops. are subsidised. I.e they are not profitable.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous09:55

    Croatia needs to reduce seasonality.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:59

      For winter DBV for example sees respectable traffic.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:05

      I think that generally seasonality has been decreased but a lot of work left to do still.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:05

      Split is reducing its seasonality a lot. May and September are almost as busy as the peak summer months.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:47

      All ex-Yu airports need to reduce seasonality.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:57

      They can't without transfer passengers.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous12:40

      In this case BEG is in the best position from all ex-Yu airports as the most passengers use that airport for transfer traffic.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:19

      Of course but that's because Air Serbia is the only ex-YU airline that's doing something. No month has 200.000 passengers which is a big success for BEG. If OU did its job then ZAG would be doing much better.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous10:00

    Losinj needs to lengthen the runway if they want more pax

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous10:08

    Zadar is doing extremely well. 8 new Ryan routes and all those new airlines have obviously resulted in bigger passenger numbers. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous10:11

    Its nice to see Rijeka as a positive surprise last and this summer, finally, after many years of disappointments.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:54

      It was a very promising airport years ago when Easy Jet started flights there.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:09

      ^ True. Thankfully things have slowly improved this year after so much wasted potential.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:55

      Does RJK pay to any other airline except JU to fly there?

      Delete
  21. Anonymous10:17

    Can Split stay number 1 airport until the end of the year?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:24

      Split overtaking Zagreb would be a massive achievement but I'm not sure they will be able to make it to be honest. Zagreb will also grow and has significant winter traffic.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:39

      Zagreb will grow this year max 1.5 - 2% - even that is questionable.

      From the other side if SPU managed to improve results in last 3 months of the year we might expect SPU to overtake Zagreb

      Delete
  22. Anonymous10:18

    That is almost three air passengers per citizen.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous10:19

    Looking good

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous10:23

    Really sad about Osijek. I don't think Chinese will save it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:43

      They should have lowered their fees and attracted Ryan, Wizz, easyjet. Might have woken up Zagreb in the process as well.

      Delete
  25. Anonymous10:38

    Any predictions for next year?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:42

      It's hard to predict. The global economy is quite volatile at the moment.

      Delete
  26. Anonymous10:42

    We need a proper LCC to base planes in ZAG.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:11

      Would be great if someone in Croatia setup a low cost carrier.

      Delete
  27. Anonymous10:46

    Impressive. Could we expect 20 million passenger by 2025?

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous10:48

    Split Airport looks great on the photo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:10

      It is impressive to see that 3 of Croatia's largest airports all have new infrastructure.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:10

      4 not 3. Zadar also build brand new terminal end extension of it.

      Delete
  29. Anonymous10:54

    It could actually come close to 12 million.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous14:21

    Croatia can do something to improve its air travels per tourist ratio.

    In 2018 Croatia had 20 m tourists but only 10.6m air passengers

    Greece had 30 m tourists and 63 million passengers.


    Spain got 83 million tourists and 264m ait travelers (okay theyre a very strong economy beyond tourism)

    Bulgaria got 13m tourists and 12.6m air travelers (they do have ski resorts that Croatia does not, but their coastline is way behind and its shorter).
    Montenegro got around 2.5 million foreign tourists and roughly the same number of air travelers.

    Croatia is favorite for those who come by car and spend very little. The country wasted huge money to build motorways to bring those, whilst airports remained neglected for decades all until few years ago. Air travelers bring much more money than those who come by car and bring virtuallyeverything with themselves to Croatian coast.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous15:12

      Bulgaria is at least 6 more hours driving than Croatia, Greece 10. And to there most of them have to leave EU. That is why most of tourist have to fly there. To Croatia they don't have to.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous15:38

      That's a pretty lame excuse and we all know it. Better off people would simply fly to Croatia if they were going there just like they fly to Athens, Mykonos, Naples or whatever.

      For someone who lives in Sweden, north Germany, Benelux, France... Croatia is not so close.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous16:58

      Mind your own business and stop looking into the pockets of our tourists. People arriving by car spend more as they pay for the highway, for the fuel, they also travel more going around instead locking themselves into the hotel.

      Delete
    4. Hello guys I am from Greece and me and my wife whenever we can we get some pre Christmas holidays because we have a restaurant and we must work in Christmas season. This year we decided to come to Zagreb for six days and booked just two days ago. From December 5 to December 10. The price was 251 euro return. What I am saying is that coming from a country with lots of LCC carriers, this price may be a little bit expensive. And if the price is right Croatia could have more winter tourists. Anyway I believe we will have a blast of a holiday and of course we will visit Ljubljana for one day.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous18:42

      Having too many visitors is not a blessing. There has to be the right number, otherwise you get crowds and nobody enjoys it. Have yourself great holidays!

      Delete
    6. Anonymous09:44

      I think what he meant is that air fares to Croatia in winter are uncompetitive compared to other European markets. I tend to agree as there are only little direct flights in winter except overpriced S.A. monopoly routes.

      Having said that, prices in summer are also not low either considering Croatia is often a short flight from Germany, Austria, Benelux, UK compared to Turkey, Greece, Canaries etc.

      Affordable air tickets you can get in average for April and October.

      Delete
  31. Anonymous17:53

    Osijek does not make much sense with Belgrade and Tuzla around the corner .
    Wizzair already left and Eurowings will also consider joining its operations with the one (or two) to Belgrade .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous20:47

      Which second destination ?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23:21

      Dusseldorf

      Delete
  32. Anonymous20:22

    Fantastic result, Dubrovnik added 240k passengers during months 1-8 of 2019 compared to same period last year, more than any other airport in the region (excluding BEG 281k). What makes Dubrovnik result even more spectacular is they actualy added more passengers than bigger airports SPU and ZAG. Stellar perfomance for DBV, looking forward to more good news in 2020!

    ReplyDelete
  33. Anonymous22:27

    All combined still much less than Budapest. Just to put things into perspective to see how much work still needs to be done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous23:01

      Budapest is just a small fraction of London Heathrow. LHR is much smaller than Atlanta ATL. So what?

      Delete
    2. Nonsense. Why not take into account the population of Hungary in comparison to the population of Croatia? What is the ration of pax number per capita?

      Delete

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