Dubrovnik Airport sees slowest year since 1999

GLOBAL AVIATION NEWS

Qantas resumes international flights

Emotions were high on Monday as excited passengers set off on the first flights between Australia and New Zealand as part of a quarantine-free Covid-19 “travel bubble”, allowing families long separated by the pandemic to reunite and enabling Australia’s Qantas to restore scheduled international flights after more than a year. “(I’ll) yell, scream cry, hug, kiss, (feel) happy - all of these emotions at once”, Denise O’Donoghue, 63, said at Sydney Airport as she prepared to board her flight. The arrangement means passengers can make the three-hour flight across the Tasman Sea without having to complete a mandatory Covid-19 quarantine when they arrive. Television footage showed emotional scenes at the airports with families reuniting and hundreds of passengers thronging the international departure terminals at Australian airports. “It is the first time in 400 days that people can travel quarantine-free and we are adding 16 return flights a day to New Zealand, and they are full”, Qantas Chief Executive, Alan Joyce, said. Qantas will increase flights between the countries to about 200 each week, while Air New Zealand said it had quadrupled its flights to 30 on Monday, with its airplanes flying into New Zealand at 97% capacity. “It is truly exciting to start quarantine-free travel with Australia. Be it returning family, friends or holiday-makers, New Zealand says: ‘Welcome and enjoy yourself’”, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, said. Australia was New Zealand’s largest source of international tourists before the pandemic, accounting for about 1.5 million arrivals or 40% of total visitors in 2019. The border opening received saturation coverage from media in both countries, with live television reporting from airports providing regular updates on the progress of flights. On a grass embankment at the foot of Wellington Airport’s runway, the words “Welcome Whanau” (family) were spelled out in giant letters. More than half a million New Zealand-born people live in Australia, just more than 2% of Australia’s population of nearly 26 million.
Source: Al Jazeera

Dubrovnik Airport sees slowest year since 1999

NEWS FLASH

Dubrovnik Airport handled 330.147 passengers in 2020 representing a decrease of 88.6% on the year before and its worst result since 1999. The airport was closed for commercial traffic almost two months due to the coronavirus pandemic. The number of aircraft movements was down 67.3% to 8.486. Speaking to EX-YU Aviation News recently, Dubrovnik Airport’s General Manager, Frano Luetić, said, “Announcements for the upcoming season are excellent. The number of planned flights are very big, while at the recently held SLOT conference, we finalised up to four million seats in and out of Dubrovnik for next summer. Therefore, we will have flights from more than sixty destinations. However, it all depends on how bookings will evolve. Those working in the tourism sector must now do their part in order to fill these seats. Because, if that doesn’t happen, airlines will simply cancel flights”.

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Dubrovnik Airport sees slowest year since 1999

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