June the 20th, 2022 - Zadar Airport is recording impressive pre-pandemic results in terms of air traffic so far this year, as it seems that the horrendous coronavirus-dominated era is well and truly behind us.

The beautiful City of Zadar and its surrounding islands are highly popular destinations for foreign and domestic visitors, and now all epidemiological restrictions in Croatia and across Europe are now a thing of the past, Zadar Airport's numbers are finally climbing to excellent heights following two years of nail-biting stagnancy and depression.

As Morski writes, ever since the summer season officially opened, Zadar Airport's traffic has finally been at pre-pandemic levels. New airlines are also being introduced, and record numbers continue to be expected.

Over this past weekend, about 20,000 passengers will pass through the airport, both in departures and arrivals.

Zadar Airport had one of the best recoveries after the COVID-19 crisis last year and back in 2020, and this year the situation seems to be even better. There are four new airlines, charter flights have started, there are as many as sixteen new destinations and there is almost no European city with which Zadar is not currently connected.

This Dalmatian airport's traffic could exceed the record figures seen back during the pre-pandemic year of 2019 this year, and due to the growing number of passengers, the passenger terminal is also being expanded. This is a multi-year project, in the first phase a temporary building will be built for the reception and departure of passengers while the existing one is being expanded, writes HRT.

Most passengers are carried to and from Zadar Airport by the wildly popular Irish carrier Ryanair, which holds more than 60 percent of the routes, and it has opened its third base in Zadar.

''This is extremely important to us, given that Ryanair opens bases only at airports where it has many years of cooperation and trust. This year, there are fourteen new lines as far as Ryanair is concerned, which would mean ten to fifteen lines a day from Zadar Airport to all European destinations,'' said Nikola Barac, a spokesman for Zadar Airport.

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June the 15th, 2022 - Croatian air traffic has well and truly recovered from the enormous amount of damage done to it as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic and all of the lockdowns and measures against travel for leisure that were introduced across Europe and the world.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, the fact that there was a complete recovery of Croatian air traffic after the global coronavirus pandemic has been very clearly shown by data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Their information shows that in April 2022, the total passenger traffic at Croatian airports amounted to 580 thousand people, which is 654 percent more than in April 2021, when the country realised a turnover of a mere 77 thousand passengers.

The largest amount of Croatian air traffic in terms of passengers was realised by Zagreb's Franjo Tudjman International Airport, with 254 thousand passengers (an increase of 375.8 percent when compared to April 2021, which saw the transportation of 53 thousand passengers), followed by Split Airport with 132 thousand passengers and an increase of 842.1 percent when compared to April of last year (14 thousand passengers).

Dubrovnik Airport had 117 thousand passengers, which is an enormous increase compared to only eight thousand passengers in April 2021. Dubrovnik is still primarily an air destination owing the need to cross the border in and back out of neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina at Neum when travelling by car. The placing into function of the long awaited Peljesac bridge will likely aid that.

The most significant amount of international Croatian air traffic was realised with German airports, which transported 141 thousand passengers into Croatia, which is an increase of 650.3 percent when compared to the same period back in 2021.

The total number of aircraft landings and take-offs at all Croatian airports during April 2022 was 7,932, an increase of 126.7 percent when compared to April 2021, when the number of landings and take-offs stood at a mere 3,499.

The total cargo traffic at Croatian airports in April 2022 amounted to 728 tonnes, an encouraging increase of 14.5 percent when compared to April last year.

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May the 14th, 2022 - Pula Airport is set to be connected with an impressive thirty different European destinations this year, which is excellent news not only for Istrian tourism but for the height of the main summer season across Croatia as a whole.

As Morski writes, in addition to scheduled and charter flights to Pula Airport, some very well-known low-cost airlines are flying this season: easyJet, Ryanair, then the German low-cost airline Eurowings, the Czech Smartwings, the Swiss Edelweiss Air, Norway's Air Shuttle and the Dutch low-cost airline Transavia Holland.

Pula Airport plans a traffic of about 400 thousand passengers this year, which is one hundred thousand passengers more than last year or almost five times more passengers than the initial pandemic year of 2020, when only 83 thousand passengers were recorded passing through the airport.

When it comes to the record-breaking, pre-pandemic year of 2019, Pula Airport had a traffic of almost 778 thousand passengers, which is a good example to look at when comparing the expectations when it comes to passengers this year.

According to the director of the Pula Airport, Nina Vojnic Zagar, these are the current plans for the announced flights, which are subject to change because the situation in the area is unstable owing to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

''During the month of May, we expect an increase in the activity of air companies, with more intensive operations (an increase in terms of frequencies) and the remaining flights of low-budget companies starting at the end of June. Last weekend (Saturday, April the 30th and Sunday, May the 1st), there was a turnover of 825 passengers and 23 rotations of regular and general aviation,'' said Vojnic Zagar for local portal Istra24.

Owing to sanctions, Pula Airport has been left without the impact of the Russian market

When asked how much air traffic will suffer due to the war in Ukraine following Russian invasion, especially given the fact that Pula Airport was connected to Russia by planes that landed there every weekend, Zagar said that last year there were 50,834 passengers from Russia and 21,670 passengers from Ukraine, which accounts for about 27 percent of the airport's total turnover.

Last season, Pula Airport had the largest number of airlines to and from Russia, and from this market there were as many as 12 weekly flights offered by five different airlines.

''Before the invasion of Ukraine, the expected number of passengers from the Russian and Ukrainian markets in 2022 was about 92,000 passengers,'' said Vojnic Zagar. It is obvious that this year we will be left without these emitting markets.

This year, Pula will be connected with 13 different European countries and about 30 cities by air, regular and charter lines.

For example, Great Britain with London, Manchester, Bristol, Glasgow, Doncaster, the German cities of Frankfurt, Munich, Duesseldorf, Stuttgart, Cologne and, in France, Paris.

The planes will also fly to Poznan, Poland, Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Vienna in Austria, and there are as many as four Swiss cities included as well: Zurich, Geneva, Basel and St. Gallen. As for the north of Europe, Pula will be connected with Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Gothenburg and the Finnish capital of Helsinki.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated travel section.

April the 22nd, 2022 - Croatian air traffic this summer tourist season looks set to surpass the figures of the pre-pandemic, record year of 2019 according to current information and predictions.

The global coronavirus pandemic dealt the world's travel and tourism industry a horrendous and unprecedented blow, the likes of which we've never seen before. Countries like Croatia, which rely very heavily on foreign tourists coming and spending money to drive the economy, suffered terribly as a result of epidemiological restrictions not only in this country but in the countries with which it is most connected.

It seems that 2022's summer season is set to finally put an end to all of that nail-biting worry, and although the war in Ukraine is certainly having a negative effect on travel, particularly from the US market for whom Croatia looks too close to Ukraine on the map of Europe, many working in this sector are not worried. Croatian air traffic for this year is just one confirmation of that.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, according to the information provided by the Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) from Croatian airports, Croatia will be connected with the rest of the world thanks to as many as 66 air companies throughout 2022's summer schedule. Most of the Croatian air traffic this summer season will be realised by operators such as Ryanair, Croatia Airlines, easyJet, Lufthansa and Eurowings.

The highest rotation is expected in the airports of Zagreb and Split (around 10,000), and the highest rotation since back in the record tourism year of 2019 is expected by the airports of Zadar (+ 63%) and Rijeka (+ 8%).

During this year's summer season, Croatia will be conected to 131 foreign cities, which is just a little less than the 134 foreign cities with which it was connected back in pre-pandemic 2019. The largest amount of rotational traffic between the Republic of Croatia and other European countries will be with Great Britain, France, Italy and the Netherlands.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated travel section.