February 4, 2023 - Zadar Airport is preparing for Schengen and traffic growth with an investment of 2.2 million euros in the renovation of additional passenger terminal annexes and a runway extension.

As Hina / Poslovni report, the airport will, like other airports, officially enter the Schengen regime on March 26.

This is a capital investment with extensive work at that airport, which in 2022 had more than one million passengers for the first time, 1.1 million to be exact. Since the plans and predictions for 2023 are even higher, they expect this investment will allow accepting intercontinental flights.

"The arrangement of additional annexes of the building, which will house the international arrival/departure of "non-Schengen passengers," will also be arranged, and everything is part of a larger project by which the airport aims to become the first airport in Croatia using solar energy and an electric bus, to strengthen its "green and sustainable business," they emphasize.

From the moment they enter Schengen, they expect an easier flow of passengers, especially since most passengers will be domestic, who do not have to go through passport control, but only a security check.

Part of the passengers who are not in that regime will still go through passport control, but given that this has been the case until now, there will practically be no changes for them.

"We have great announcements for 2023, and we expect 5 to 10 percent more passenger traffic compared to a record 2022 when we recorded a million for the first time. This is an exceptional result, considering that we are the first Croatian airport to exceed pre-pandemic traffic", they say from the Zadar airport.

In accordance with the announced increase in traffic, they say that they will also hire more people, which is why they had a call for seasonal workers in January, for whom the selection process is ongoing.

They believe that they will be able to cover all the needs for seasonal workers, all the more so because they see that there is sufficient interest in working at the airport, and they also state that last year in 2022, they had an average of 248 employees per month, while in 2023 they plan to their increase that number to 254.

Currently, in the winter flight schedule, they (only) have daily domestic flights of Croatia Airlines (to Zagreb and Pula), which, as they announce every year, will change significantly with the summer flight schedule.

"Although it is still too early to discuss the flight schedule, we can already confirm that there will be new lines and airlines. For example, this year, we have S.A.S. with a line to Copenhagen, and three new lines of the Italian carrier Milano Malpensa (MXP), the German Munster, and the Polish Rzeszów have been announced so far," they revealed for Hina.

Their now traditionally largest partner for the summer flight schedule, Ryanair, offers 46 routes.

When asked about the financial results of operations in 2022, they estimate that Zadar Airport will have a profit of around HRK 24.47 million in 2022, which would be 203 percent more than the profit in 2021, but also 262 percent more than in 2019.

This was also driven by a significant increase in income in 2022, but considering that the annual reports on operations for 2022 have not yet been completed, they only amount to the revenue for nine months of 2022, of almost HRK 95 million, while in the whole of 2021, they achieved over HRK 65.5 million in revenue.

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ZAGREB, May 6, 2020 - Due to a major decline in turnover, the ZAIC consortium, which operates Zagreb Airport, has asked for and been granted a delay in the payment of a part of the concession fee due in April, Hina has learned from the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Ministry.

The possibility of delaying the payment of the concession fee is provided for by the contract for the construction and operation of Zagreb Airport in cases of force majeur that have a significant impact on the concessionaire's cash flow and ability to meet financial obligations.

Possible further deferrals will depend on future developments, the ministry said.

International Zagreb Airport d.d. has so far paid HRK 233.4 million of the concession fee. The concession fee is paid quarterly.

"Considering the fact that traffic at Franjo Tuđman International Airport has been almost completely suspended, a significant annual decrease in revenue is expected but this will eventually also depend on results to be achieved by the end of the year, in light of the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and possible partial normalisation of international transport," the ministry said.

The ZAIC consortium, which holds a 30-year licence to operate Zagreb Airport, consists of BBI - Bouygues Bâtiment International, ADPM - Aéroports de Paris Management, IFC - International Finance Corporation, which is part of the World Bank, Marguerite - The 2020 European equity fund, TAV - TAV Airports, Turkey and the Croatian company Viadukt.

The concession fee for the 30-year period totals €87.2 million while the variable part of the concession fee, which is calculated as a certain percentage of gross revenue, exceeds the amount of the concession fee.

More airport news can be found in the Travel section.

ZAGREB, April 16, 2020 - The adverse effect of the coronavirus epidemic cut by half the number of passengers handled by airports in Croatia in March, in comparison to their business results in March 2019.

Although March usually ushers in the tourist season and brings about higher number of passengers for airports, this March the Croatian airports fared worse than in February.

For instance, the number of passengers handled by Zagreb Airport last month fell by 58% compared to the statistics for March 2019.

The number of flights via this airport was reduced by 1,000 to 2,310 this March, and the cargo handled by this airport was reduced by 130 tonnes to 829 tonnes on the year, according to the figures published on the airport's website.

Split's airport saw a decline of 67% in the number of passengers to 16,500.

The airport in the coastal city of Zadar experienced a decline of 51% in the number of passengers this March compared to March 2019.

The airport of Rijeka registered a decline of 87%.

The airport in Dubrovnik was additionally affected by the fact that one of its employees tested positive for COVID-19 which was why the airport was closed in the second half of March.

More coronavirus news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, March 17, 2020 - Only three of nine Croatian airports reported year-on-year increases in the number of passengers in January, while the others saw fewer travellers than in the same month last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS).

All nine passengers handled a total of 258,200 passengers in January 2020, an increase of 0.4% over January 2019. The aggregate increase is due to increases recorded by the airports in Zagreb and Split.

Zagreb airport served 201,200 passengers, or 78% of the total number of passengers reported by all nine airports. It was an increase of 6.4% compared with January 2019. The increase could partly be attributed to the start of the Croatian presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Split airport recorded 35,300 passengers, up 1.7% year on year. The airport on the northern Adriatic island of Lošinj reported an increase of as much as 600%, although it had only 21 passengers.

On the other hand, Dubrovnik airport recorded a 28.4% fall in the number of passengers, with about 19,000 travellers using the airport.

Osijek airport saw the largest drop in the number of passengers, of 88%, with only 306 passengers using the airport. The airport on the southern island of Brač, which is highly seasonal, did not have any passengers at all in January.

In February, the airports in Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik reported different indicators compared with January, according to figures on their respective websites.

Zagreb airport served 184,200 passengers in February 2020, a rise of 1.7% year on year. Dubrovnik airport reported 33,600 passengers, down 0.5%, while Split airport handled 26,300 passengers, a decrease of 24.5% compared with February 2019.

More travel news can be found in the dedicated section.

ZAGREB, April 14, 2019 - Croatian airports recorded a total of 252,000 passengers in February 2019, up 9.9% on February 2018, while the number of flight operations increased by 8.4% to 4,442, data from the national statistical office show.

On the other hand, the amount of cargo handled by all nine airports fell by 15.4% to 734 tonnes.

Zagreb airport recorded the largest number of passengers, 179,500, an increase of 5.8%, ahead of Dubrovnik airport (33,600 passengers, +39%) and Split airport (33,100 passengers, +13.7%)

Osijek airport reported a 6% decline in the number of passengers, to 2,500, while Rijeka airport recorded 1,500 passengers, up 136%.

Most of the passengers came from Germany (72,300, +17.9%) and France (12,500, +0.2%). The largest increase was recorded among passengers from Belgium (47.4% or 6,700).

Figures show that the nine Croatian airports recorded 509,000 passengers in the first two months of this year, or 5.8% more than at the same time in 2018.

More news about Croatian airports can be found in the Business section.

The Zagreb Airport is the best airport in Europe in the category of airports between two and five million passengers a year, according to a survey of passengers and users, it was announced today by the Airports Council International organisation from Canada, reports Novac.hr on March 6, 2019.

The passengers selected the Zagreb Airport as the best airport in the regular service quality survey ACI/ASQ (Airports Council International/Airport Service Quality). This is the second award which the Zagreb Airport won for the quality of its service. In in the same survey in 2017, the Zagreb Airport was named as the most-improved European airport.

“We are extremely proud of the fact that passengers and users of services have recognised and rewarded us as part of the ACI/ASQ survey, which is a unique survey which assesses passenger satisfaction with airport services in 2018. This is just a continuation of our excellent results and the excellent introduction to celebrating the second anniversary of the opening of the new passenger terminal. During this period, we have recorded a continuous increase in traffic figures,” said Huseyin Bahadir Bedir, the chairman and the CEO of the Zagreb International Airport.

The Airport Service Quality (ASQ) programme is the quality assessment programme for airport services and the leading global plan for the so-called benchmarking, measuring passenger satisfaction through 37 key performance indicators. It is implemented by certified ASQ agents who interview passengers at airports through a specialised ACI / ASQ questionnaire.

The Franjo Tuđman International Airport is one of the largest and busiest international airports in Croatia. In 2018 it handled around 3.4 million passengers and 13,500 tons of cargo. The airport is managed under a 30-year concession. The contract includes the financing, designing and construction of a new passenger terminal which was completed in March 2017. The current terminal building was opened to the public on 28 March 2017. It stretches over 65,800 m2 on three levels featuring three baggage carousels, eight airbridges, nine security checkpoints, 30 check-in desks, 23 passport control booths and a car park with the capacity of 1,100 vehicles. Further extensions envisaged during the thirty-year concession period will potentially see the terminal capacity increased to eight million, according to the official website.

More news about airports in Croatia can be found in the Travel section.

Translated from Novac.hr (reported by Krešimir Žabec).

ZAGREB, March 4, 2019 - A total of 20.5 million passengers were transported in Croatia in the last quarter of 2018, or 1.3% fewer than at the same time in 2017, while the transport of goods increased by 6.4% to 32 million tonnes, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS) show.

In the whole of 2018, 1% fewer passengers and 3% more goods were transported than in 2017.

Quarter-on-quarter declines in passenger transport were recorded in road and air transport, while all other modes of transport generated growth. On the other hand, goods transport increased for all modes of transport except internal waterways and air transport.

In the fourth quarter of 2018, compared with the same time in 2017, 5.5 million passengers were transported by rail, up 0.5%. The number of passengers transported by road fell by 2.6% to 12.6 million and that of passengers transported by air dropped by 0.6% to 474,000. Domestic shipping companies reported a 1.8% increase in the number of passengers to 1.8 million.

In the final quarter of 2018, 32 million tonnes of goods was transported, an increase of 6.4% year on year. The largest decrease was observed on internal waterways, of 25.5% to 143,000 tonnes. Air transport fell by 1% to 1,000 tonnes, while rail transport increased by 21.3% to 3.8 million.

The number of passengers transported in January-December 2018 was 85 million, or 1% fewer than in 2017. The decrease was mostly due to a decline in road transport, of 3.7% to 47.7 million. At the same time, 20.2 million passengers were transported by rail, an increase of 2.1% year on year.

The amount of goods transported in January-December 2018 was 118.2 million tonnes, up 3% on 2017. Road transport increased by 2.3% to 74 million tonnes, rail transport rose by 10.4% to 13.4 million tonnes, pipeline transport increased by 5.9% to 10.8 million tonnes and internal waterways transport went up by 3% to 592,000 tonnes.

More news about transportation in Croatia can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, March 2, 2019 - Preliminary figures show that Croatia Airlines incurred a loss of 82.2 million kuna in 2018, which is a much poorer result than in 2017 when the flag carrier posted a profit of 25 million kuna, which was owing to the partial sale of slots at Heathrow Airport in the amount of 138.6 million kuna.

Excluding the sale of slots, the loss in 2018 was down by 28% or 31.4 million kuna compared to 2017, while fuel expenses rose by 71.3 million kuna due to an increase in oil prices, the airline's financial report for 2018 shows.

Operating revenue in 2018 amounted to 1.7 billion kuna, 4% more than in 2017, after one-off items are excluded.

Total operating expenditure amounted to 1.77 billion kuna, an increase of 3% on 2017. The cost of fuel, which accounted for 18% of total expenses, was one of the main reasons for the increase in operating expenditure.

The airline flew a record-high 2.169 million passengers in 2018, a 2% increase on the previous year, with the average occupancy rate being 73.5%.

Croatia Airlines is currently looking for a strategic partner, for which the government formed an interdepartmental commission last week. The process of hiring a financial consultant to define a model for the company's recapitalisation and find a strategic partner is nearing completion.

Zagreb's Franjo Tuđman international Airport (MZLZ) expects positive business results again this year and an increase in the number of passengers from last year's 3.3 million, and will continue upgrading its operating processes and expanding its capacity, MZLZ said.

Noting that preparations for the season are going according to plan, MZLZ said that the summer flight timetable would start on 31 March and continue until 27 October.

MZLZ announced several projects to improve the airport's facilities, including a new baggage conveyor belt as well as the construction of additional parking space and an additional 15 passenger registration counters and the implementation of the automatic boarding pass and passport control systems.

MZLZ said that in the past five years the airport's passenger traffic had increased by 36% and that in that period 15 new airlines had arrived at the airport.

"Today, 30 airlines have regular flights to the airport connecting Zagreb with 50 destinations in Croatia, Europe and the world. MZLZ is in intensive talks with a large number of airlines to open new destinations," MZLZ said.

MZLZ said that its business results for 2018 would soon be published in a consolidated annual report, noting that MZLZ had paid almost 200 million kuna in concession fees into the state budget over the past six years.

According to data for 2018, the airport logged 3.3 million passengers, an increase of 244,200 or 7.7% on 2017, almost 43,600 flights, up 5%, and almost 14,000 tonnes of freight, an increase of 16.7%.

In January 2019, 191,200 passengers used the airport, similar to January 2018, the number of flights increased by six or 0.2% on the year to 3,045, and the amount of cargo fell by 2.3% to 924,000 tonnes.

More news on Croatia Airlines can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, January 14, 2019 - Croatian airports recorded a total of 10.2 million passengers in the first eleven months of 2018, or 10.3 percent more than in the same period of 2017, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS) show.

In November alone, 320,000 passengers were recorded, up 5.3 percent year on year. The busiest was Zagreb airport with 232,000 passengers (+4.4 percent), followed by Split airport with 53,000 (+41.8 percent).

Among all nine airports in Croatia, the largest increase, of 88.3 percent, was posted by Rijeka's airport on the nearby island of Krk, with a relatively small number of passengers, about 2,000. The largest decrease, of 50.5 percent, was registered by Pula airport, which reported 1,100 passengers in November.

Among foreign passengers who used Croatian airports last November, the majority, or 96,000, were Germans, followed by the French (17,000), Austrians (16,000), Turks (15,000) and Britons (14,800).

In the year to November 2018, the Croatian airports also recorded an increase in the amount of cargo, handling 11.3 million tonnes or 25.5 percent more than at the same time in 2017. In November alone, slightly over a million tonnes was recorded, up 0.7 percent.

More news on Croatian airports can be found in our Travel section.

The Viadukt construction company announced the sale of its stake in the concessionaire of Zagreb Airport at a starting price of seven million euro. However, according to the company’s bankruptcy manager Milorad Zajkovski, there were no interested buyers. Therefore, the company will soon announce a new call, with the same initial price, reports Večernji List on January 12, 2019.

Viadukt owns a share of 5.11 percent in the ZAIC-A Limited company, which is registered in the United Kingdom and which won the Zagreb Airport concession tender. The rest of the shares are owned by French companies Aeroports de Paris Management (ADPM) and Bouygues Batiment International (BBI), each with a stake of 20.77 percent. The same proportion of shares is owned by the Marguerite fund, while IFC, the World Bank fund, holds 17.58 percent of ZAIC. Turkish TAV Airports has a share of 15 percent.

In order to construct the new passenger terminal of Zagreb Airport and manage it, ZAIC-A established the Međunarodna Zračna Luka Zagreb (MZLZ) company, to which the rights and obligations from the concession contract have been transferred. On December 5, 2013, MZLZ took over the management of the Zagreb Airport for the next 30 years.

Zajkovski admitted that he was surprised that he did not receive a single bid for Viadukt's stake in ZAIC-A, adding that he expected other co-owners of the company to come forward and that everything would be finished quickly. However, he said that the price would remain the same in the second call.

Potential buyers must submit their annual financial reports for 2017, which will provide the basis for evaluation of whether they meet the required condition, which is that the potential buyers must have a net asset value of at least 50 million euro.

The share capital of MZLZ amounts to 543,427,700 kuna. The total investment in the new Zagreb Airport terminal is worth 331 million euro. Viadukt was one of the subcontractors in the construction of the new terminal and received jobs worth 650 million kuna.

The bankruptcy proceedings for the company, once one of the largest Croatian construction companies, were opened in October 2017. According to the latest bankruptcy administrator's report, the value of Viadukt's property is 251.7 million kuna, while movable assets amount to 395.1 million kuna.

After a court hearing, claims for liabilities amounted to 1.06 billion kuna. Given that the company's long-term and short-term assets are estimated at 596.5 million kuna, this means that liabilities are double the amount of the company’s assets, according to a report by Zajkovski published in late November.

More news on the Zagreb Airport can be found in the Travel section.

Translated from Večernji List (reported by Josip Bohutinski).