ZAGREB, 18 Feb 2022 - Croatian airports in 2021 served 4.7 million customers, a 121.5% increase from 2020, with the airports in Split and Zagreb serving close to 62% of all passengers, reporting, like all the other airports, large increases in passenger turnover, show data from the national statistical office.

The number of airplanes and their operations (landings, takeoffs) increased in all airports, by 58.2% to 85,500, while cargo transport rose by 15% from 2020, to close to 9,000 tonnes.

Zagreb airport sees most passengers in December, Zadar reports the largest increase, Rijeka sees drop in Dec. 2021

In December 2021 alone passenger turnover increased by almost 300% compared to the same month of 2020, to 216,000, while the number of plane operations grew by 101% to slightly more than 4,600, and cargo turnover by 25.5% to 882 tonnes.

Of the eight airports in Croatia, all but Rijeka and Brač saw an increase in the volume of passengers and cargo in December 2021. Rijeka saw a drop of 43% in passenger transport while the airport on Brač island did not work.

Zagreb airport saw the largest increase in the number of passengers of 336% to 178,400, followed by Split, with a 187% increase and 23,400 passengers, and Dubrovnik, with a 176.4% increase in the number of passengers to 11,500.

Split airport with most passengers in 2021

In the entire year, 2021 Split airport was the one with the most passengers, slightly more than 1.5 million, up 136.5% from 2020, while Zagreb airport was second, with a 52% increase or 1.4 million passengers.

Dubrovnik was third with 917,600 passengers, 184.5% up from 2020, followed by Zadar with 500,300 passengers or 350% more, Pula, with 261,600 passengers (+232%), Rijeka (+107.3%), Osijek (+71%), Brač (+125%), and Mali Lošinj (+84%).

For more on flights to Croatia and other travel announcements, make sure to check out our dedicated travel section.

January 10th, 2022 - Almost twice as many passengers traveled through Rijeka Airport in 2021 than in the previous year, with the upward trend expected to continue due to new summer lines announced for 2022

Rijeka Airport recorded 56,388 passengers in 2021. It’s an increase of almost 29,000 passengers compared to the airport traffic in 2020, reports Croatian Aviation.

Unsurprisingly, the largest number of passengers was recorded in summer months. Rijeka Airport saw over 15,000 passengers in July 2021, around 20,000 passengers in August and some 13,000 in September.

In contrast, there was very little off-season air traffic on Krk island. At present, Rijeka Airport only has two flights on its winter schedule, those of a local carrier operating from Rijeka to Osijek and Rijeka-Split-Dubrovnik. 

On the upside, international airlines have lately been announcing plans to boost their existing summer lines from Rijeka and introduce new routes, so we can expect a further increase in traffic this year. It might be a while before the airport bounces back to its pre-pandemic levels; in 2019, over 200,000 passengers traveled through Rijeka Airport. 

Low-cost carrier Ryanair will operate from Rijeka to London, Brussels and Stockholm twice a week starting from March 27th, 2022.

German airlines Condor and Lufthansa have announced summer lines between Rijeka and Frankfurt, once and twice a week respectively. Lufthansa and Croatian Airlines will also operate from Rijeka to Munich.

In 2021, eight Croatian airports recorded a total of 4,771,520 passengers combined. It’s a significant increase compared to a little over 2 million passengers in 2020; in the record 2019, Croatian airports saw a total of 11,376,915 passengers.

For more on flights to Croatia and other travel announcements, make sure to check out our dedicated travel section.

January 5, 2022 - Split Airport is the busiest Croatian airport in 2021, dethroning Zagreb Airport for the first time in history! 

The three leading Croatian airports, Zagreb, Split, and Dubrovnik, published their monthly statistics for December, thus rounding off the annual statistics for 2021. Split Airport has confirmed its status as the busiest Croatian airport in 2021!

As Croatian Aviation already announced a few months ago, Split Airport is now officially the busiest airport in the Republic of Croatia. Namely, in 2021, a total of 1,577,584 passengers traveled through the airport. On the other hand, Zagreb, which has always been busier than Split, recorded 173 thousand fewer passengers than Split Airport in 2021. 

In December 2021, 24,568 passengers passed through Split Airport, which is significantly more than in December 2020 (only 8,665 passengers). As expected, the largest number of passengers was generated by Split in the summer months, and August was the busiest with almost half a million passengers.

Unlike the 2021 airport champion, Zagreb was not as busy in summer, though August was the most active month with only 194 thousand passengers. In December 2021, almost 180 thousand passengers traveled through Zagreb, which is an increase of 138 thousand compared to the same month in 2020. In 2021, a total of 1,404,478 passengers traveled through the Franjo Tuđman passenger terminal.

The third-busiest airport is Dubrovnik. In 2021, Dubrovnik recorded 927,934 passengers. In December, 11,738 passengers traveled through Dubrovnik Airport (4,325 passengers during the same month in 2020). As Croatian Aviation announced a few months ago, it was difficult to expect that Dubrovnik would exceed one million passengers in 2021.

Dubrovnik generated 597,787 passengers more than in 2020, Split recorded an increase of 903,218, and Zagreb the least - 479,655!

In 2021, 3,909,996 passengers traveled through the three busiest Croatian airports. Although it may seem that this is a relatively large number, the same three airports in 2019 recorded 9,633,688 passengers. In 2020, Split, Dubrovnik, and Zagreb had only 1,929,336 passengers.

For more on flights to Croatia and other travel announcements, make sure to check out our dedicated travel section.