Travelling to Croatia Archives

2011 to be a busy year for Split Airport

30th March 2011/0 Comments/in Split, Travelling to Croatia

Following my previous posts this month on how 2011 looks to be a promising year for Zadar Airport and on Split looking forward to a great season, here’s a post that combines those two – looking at how Split Airport is also looking to have a good year!

Today’s Slobodna Dalmacija reports that this year, the city will be connected by air to 75 cities in 21 different European countries, with routes established to 10 more cities this year than in 2010. 11 low-cost airlines will be operating flights to Split this year, whilst there will be 50 regular or charter airlines also flying to the city. New figures show that there should be a total of 11,500 take-offs and landings at the airport, which would mean a total capacity of 1.48 million seats on all of those flights. These numbers have been established from currently confirmed routes, although during April, an additional 10 companies may also confirm operation of seasonal flights.

The largest growth in new airline companies operating routes comes from Russia (and the Ukraine), with there to be as many as ten airlines operating flights to Split. For the third year running, Aeroflot has flights from Moscow to Split – the only route from Moscow to the Adriatic. (The airline recently pulled out of a planned new air route to Dubrovnik this year.)

Scandinavian cities will also have great links to Split, with there to be 20 cities with air routes to Split this year. Croatia’s national airline, Croatia Airlines, will also have routes from 17 European cities to Split.

Amongst the new routes that are to be introduced this year include Adria Airways‘s flights from Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana and Condor‘s flights from Frankfurt. The article also mentions a Spanair route from Barcelona and a Finnair route from Helsinki, plus a service from Ancona in Italy (just a short hop over the Adriatic!) by Italian airline Belleair – though I must admit, I had trouble finding any additional info on these routes! Nevertheless, these may be something to keep an eye, as airlines do sometimes announce new routes relatively late – and are in the process of announcing their Summer 2011 timetable.

More info on flights to Split from the UK and Europe: Getting to Split

Source: Slobodna Dalmacija

2011 already looks to be a successful year for Zadar Airport

10th March 2011/1 Comment/in Travelling to Croatia, Zadar

Today’s Slobodna Dalmacija reports that records are already falling for Zadar Airport. Next month, 183 flights are expected at the airport, up from 124 for the same month in 2010. This is a significant jump, and relatively remarkable considering that April is still some months off high season.

A large part of this increase flights is down to Ryanair. This April, they will operate 83 flights, compared to last April’s 39. Although they operate routes from “only” seven European destinations, they are to increase the frequency of some of these routes this year – such as upping their flights between London Stansted and Zadar to five times a week from last year’s three. (This route begins operating on 27th March 2011.)

Croatia Airlines will also return to operating international flights from Zadar, with two flights per week to both Zurich and Munich, flying from May to September.

The director of Zadar Airport, Katica Pupic Bakrac, suggests that traffic through the airport may be up by between 20 to 28% on last year. In 2010, 275,000 passengers passed through the airport.

See our guides to Flying to Croatia from the UK and Getting to Zadar (which lists flights from European cities) for travel planning information.

Source: Slobodna Dalmacija

Zagreb Airport looks forward to 2011; could a direct route to New York be on the cards?

24th December 2010/0 Comments/in Blog, Travelling to Croatia, Zagreb

This morning’s Vjesnik has a report on the progress of Zagreb Airport during 2010, and its plans for the coming year. Airport director Tonci Peovic states that by the year end, 10,000 more passengers will have passed through the airport than 2009, which adds up to a total of 2.07 million passengers for the entire year. However, this increase was about 40,000 less than expected, mainly due to a number of airlines cancelling their flights during the ash cloud crisis in Europe in April this year.

Mr Peovic expects that passenger numbers will rise by 5% during 2011, and is proud of the fact that the airport has agreed routes with three new airlines – Spanair, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Easyjet, the latter of which has or will start three new routes. (Easyjet commenced flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle in November, and will start services to London Gatwick and Dortmund in February 2011.) National carrierCroatia Airlines has also added new routes from Zagreb, to Hanover and Athens, during 2010.

Perhaps the bit of news of most interest to our North American readers is that Mr Peovic says negotiations for establishing a direct route between Zagreb and New York (perhaps solely during the summer months) has nearly reached a conclusion. This would surely make reaching Croatian destinations far easier for those travelling from the U.S.!

Source: Vjesnik

Low cost airlines help Zadar Airport grow

5th November 2010/2 Comments/in Tourism stats, Travelling to Croatia, Zadar

Yesterday’s Slobodna Dalmacija featured an interesting article on passenger numbers at Zadar Airport, with 2010’s seasonal flight timetable coming to an end this past weekend.

This article reveals that this year, 270,000 passengers passed through the airport, which adds up to a very healthy 28% increase on 2009 – and a massive jump from 2006, when only 65,000 passengers travelled through.

64% of travellers arriving at the airport flew with Ryanair, which has links from eleven European cities in England, Scotland, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, Sweden, Italy and Norway to Zadar. Germanwings flights from four cities accounted for 17% of passenger traffic at the airport.

In total, 80% of passengers at Zadar Airport arrive with low-cost airlines, which has helped the airport considerably over the years; only six years ago, the airport was threatened with the possibility of closure due to low usage. Benefits to the area are easy to imagine – and, in fact, a study was conducted last year that showed how 80,000 tourists arriving with Ryanair and Germanwings earn the local economy €40 million.

Low-cost flights to Zadar Airport are due to start up again on 28th March 2011, though routes are yet to be confirmed. Lufthansa, however, has stated that it will increase the number of flights it operates to the Dalmatian airport up to three flights per week.

Source: Slobodna Dalmacija