Rijeka Airport is expected to buck the trend this year compared to others in Croatia and handle fewer passengers than it did in 2022. While most airports in the region are forecasting their busiest year yet, Rijeka Airport will be hit by LOT Polish Airlines’ decision not to restore seasonal flights from four Polish cities, including Warsaw. Lufthansa will reduce its operations to Rijeka by 30% since it will not be operating one of its two weekly flights from Frankfurt. Ryanair will run 7% fewer flights, despite the introduction of a new service from Bergamo this July. The budget carrier will resume its seasonal summer operations to Rijeka later than last year, resulting in the decline in the overall number of flights.
In a statement to the “Novi list” daily, Rijeka Airport said that while it is likely to handle fewer passengers in 2023 compared to last year, the majority of airlines that maintain seasonal operations to the city will restore their flights this year too. They include Eurowings, Condor Airlines, airBaltic, Transavia, Air Serbia and easyJet. Croatia Airlines will see a 5% increase in its Rijeka operations this year, with the carrier maintaining flights to Munich.
Rijeka Airport handled 164.086 passengers in 2022, down 18.6% on the record pre-pandemic 2019 when it welcomed 201.697 travellers through its doors. This January it handled 566 passengers, which is above last year’s result when it processed just 147 customers. Similar to other airports in the country, Rijeka is preparing for Croatia’s Schengen Area travel arrangements to come into force in the aviation sector in late March. As a result, the airport is investing between 15.000 and 20.000 euros in its infrastructure. Passport control for arriving passengers will remain unchanged and will only be used for flights arriving from outside of the Schengen Area while departing passengers will be separated by partitions.
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Pity
ReplyDeleteI think ZAG is too close.
ReplyDeleteThere's little demand for air travel to Rijeka when you have Pula next door, which is a holiday destination.
DeletePula is just 100km away.
DeleteDid RJK have a lot of traffic from Russia and Ukraine before the war?
ReplyDeleteNo, nothing
DeleteZero. RJK never had a single scheduled flight to Russia and Ukraine, not even during Yugo times
DeleteRijeka ranked 6th busiest airport in Hrvatska in 2022, bringing the total to more than 9,5 million passengers:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_Croatia
As for RJK, numbers were almost the same every year.
The airport says it will have less traffic than last year which is bad.
DeleteThe best solution would be to get easyjet to launch more routes. Considering Ryanair base proximity in Zagreb, I wouldn't rely on them too much.
ReplyDeleteOr try to attract completely new airline like Wizz Air for example.
DeleteThere were talks a few years ago about Eurowings opening a base in RJK but nothing happened.
DeleteDidn't that Croatian airline Limitless Airways have a base in Rijeka?
DeleteRijeka was the first airport in Croatia, and entire ex-yu, to have Easyjet flights. Iniative was not from the airport side, it was from Easyjet. They planned RJK to cover traffic to RJK aerea itself, Zagreb, Istria, Slovenia, Lika (Plitvice) and northern Dalmatia. They started seriously, with 7 weekly flights to London and Bristol and wanted to grow. But airport response was a joke, for example it used to happen that the plane lands and everything on the airport is closed, no exchange office, no caffe bar, no ground transportation, no taxi. And despite the excellent LF they had, they left RJK and went to other airports - PUY, ZAD, LJU. Actually I was very surprised last year to see them again in RJK, knowing all the problems they had before. But ok, current management is better than the former one
DeleteWhen did they start flights to RJK?
Delete2005 if I remember correctly
DeleteJust looking at some old news reading that Easyjet started RJK in 2006, while LJU started in 2004. So LJU is the first destination for Easyjet in EX-YU, not RJK.
Delete1.5.2004 easyjet started flights from london to ljubljana
DeleteIf it was like that, I have no problems with it. Even if RJK was the second in ex-yu, after LJU, does not change the fact that it was the first in Croatia, that Easyjet had big and serious plans for RJK, and that it's been chased away.
Deletechill, we just corrected your statement.
DeleteWhy is LOT cutting so many flights to the Croatian coast this year?
ReplyDeleteI would say they are facing fierce competition from Ryanair and Enter Air. Don't forget that Tirana and the Albanian coast is now also a real competition. Weekly charter packages are damn cheap. More Poles are going there. LOT are even launching flights from the 3rd Warsaw airport - Radom to Tirana this summer.
Deletelol sure @9.30
DeleteThis is disappointing especially since Rijeka Airport actively participates in the Udruzeno oglasavanje scheme.
ReplyDeleteThat airport building needs an upgrade. Hasn't changed since it was built.
ReplyDeleteWell what has the management been doing?
ReplyDeleteNot much by the looks of things.
DeleteThis airport has a lot of untapped potential.
ReplyDeleteAgree. The city has a great potential and is one of the richest cities in Croatia.
DeleteSurprising there isn't more traffic since Rijeka is the cheapest airport on the Adriatic coast and is more central than ZAD and PUY..
ReplyDeleteMore central? Rijeka Airport is not even on the continent, it is on an island. It should be called Krk Airport.
DeleteStrictly formally speaking, RJK is on an island. But actually, in real life, that Island, Krk, is connected to mainland with the bridge, and highway junction is immediately after the bridge on mainland side, while the airport is immediately after the bridge on the "island" side, so being located formally on Krk is not disadvantage.
DeleteDidn't ECA fly to Rijeka? Their collapse probably had some impact on numbers too.
ReplyDeleteECA collapsed years ago. They did fly to Rijeka but ECA could handle 10 passengers per flight. I really don't think that had such an impact.
DeleteECA has nothing to do with current situation.
DeleteRijeka has so much potential and under serviced.
ReplyDeleteCroatia Airlines could and should have done much more with RJK.
ReplyDeleteThey used to fly Rijeka-Heathrow once upon a time before they sold their Heathrow slots.
DeleteThey used to fly RJK to Barcelona as well, but, hey, it's OU we talk about. What else to expect from them but reductions and cancellations
DeleteIf OU was normal airline it would fly 0 flights out of Rijeka.
DeleteFully agree
DeleteI think there is a good chance for Rijeka to become a seasonal base for some LCC at least. The number of German on Kvarner is large. On top of that LDRI is quite cheap in terms of taxes and compared to other airports on the Adriatic.
ReplyDeletewith schengen its even easier to drive ...
DeleteNot surprised. I still remember what they did to easyJet. Rijeka was their first destination in Croatia, they had extremely good loads and plans to significantly expand operations to Rijeka. They did make some demands from the airport regarding investments and they did absolutely nothing. The management practically chased them away and after around two years easy picked up and left, moved to other airports in Croatia which were much more cooperative. They only came back last year with two seasonal routes.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't even. They cancelled Gatwick pretty quickly last year.
DeleteSad, Rijeka is my favorite croatian city. I guess Pula is stealing their thunder.
ReplyDeleteRJK is Wizz material
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't like Wizz and I believe it's the worst of all european LCC's. But not because of my preference, but because of the actual situation, with Ryanair, Easyjet, Transavia, Eurowings and Air Baltic already there (Volotea and Norwegian were also there but stopped operating), I think Wizz chances to come to RJK are very very slim. Not ruling out completely, but think will not happen, or at least not soon
Deleteinteresting how strong Zadar has developed, despite the proximity to booming Split. In contrast to weak Pula Airport and disastrous Rijeka Airport.
DeleteIndeed.
DeleteSenior Easyjet management at the time of introduction of LGW-RJK ( 2007 I believe) told me airport support was appalling..sometimes airport closed, agreed bus from.airport to.opatija,rarely appeared. No promotion of region and ( apparently) many used the cheap flight to go straight to jadrolinija to take ferry to split and dubrovnik as cheaper way.
ReplyDeleteyes Pula as fine for Opatija Riviera tourism resorts but its still closer to RJK.. as for Crikvenica Riviera , islands of Rab, Losinj and of course Krk..RJK is much closer.
From uk and Scandinavia people dont like 2 hour transfers as in from zagreb . all a mystery really.. UK, Belgium, Scandinavia potential and just Ryanair..apart from Easyjet from.LGW. they cancelled so much last year..I think I was on last flight 9 July.. because of staff shortages. This year they will cancel if LF poor.. and starting late March...? insane. could be snowing ?
What a suprise that a so small airport like Rijeka has small number od passengers... anyway its better than Mostar with 5 passengers 😂
ReplyDeleteCroatia Airlines should pay more antention, but its not bad at all?
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