July 26, 2022 - Due to the strike announced by the Lufthansa ground staff for Wednesday, the domestic airline Croatia Airlines was also forced to cancel part of its flights.

The company confirmed to Jutarnji list that a total of 15 flights from Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik to Frankfurt and Munich and vice versa have already been cancelled. The reason for this development is the fact that the employees of Deutschland Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) who work on the reception and dispatch of suitcases will be on strike at those two airports.

"Lufthansa, in fact, carries out shipping operations and accepts passenger luggage at those airports, and as the ground staff announced a strike, we were forced to cancel all our flights to and from those destinations to Croatia," Croatia Airlines confirmed to Jutarnji. The strike has been announced for Wednesday from 3:40 a.m. until 6 a.m. on Thursday.

All passengers on those 15 flights were notified that their flights were cancelled, and we learned that they were mostly transfer passengers who, according to Croatia Airlines, were all taken care of in accordance with European regulations. Lufthansa was forced to cancel a total of around 1300 flights due to a one-day strike that is happening in the middle of the season and in a situation where most airports lack workers anyway. According to information from Lufthansa, the cancellations refer to around 130,000 passengers who were supposed to travel with this carrier, but the case of Croatia Airlines shows that many other air operators will be affected by the strike and this problem will spill over.

Lufthansa's unions are demanding a 9.5 percent wage increase, or a minimum increase of 350 euros per month, for a total of 20,000 workers who they claim will be destroyed by inflation. In the meantime, the company offered them an increase of 150 euros per month this year and another 100 euros in 2023, but the unions rejected the offer, claiming that the increase would not cover inflation, which is 8.2 percent in Germany. Unions and company management have held two rounds of negotiations so far, and the third is scheduled for August 3 and 4.

July the 7th, 2022 - Split Airport director Pero Bilas has stated that the facility is ready to deal with expected crowds over the summer months, as travel gets back to normal and people put the coronavirus pandemic and all of its woes firmly behind them.

As Morski writes, Split Airport director Pero Bilas claims that the situation with crowding at Zagreb Airport is unlikely to occur there. "Split Airport functions in a different way. We're an extremely seasonal airport and the fluctuations in traffic are very large indeed. We expect crowds in the summer and we know how to deal with them,'' he said.

Not a single employee was fired during the coronavirus pandemic

Split Airport director Pero Bilas said that not a single of the airport's employees was fired during the coronavirus pandemic, they were instead reorganised inside the airport, and he praised the Croatian Government's measure to preserve jobs, which contributed to everyone keeping their staff. He added that they also hired seasonal workers.

What is happening in Europe and what we're seeing as a problem is flight cancellations and delays. When this happens, passengers should have the means to cope with these situations made available to them. We're trying to do our best and we're also trying to make up for all the delays,'' he pointed out.

It is predicted that the traffic by 2024 and 2025 should be at the level of pre-pandemic 2019. Split Airport director Pero Bilas believes that they should easily reach these numbers, because the results that show that they have had an excellent May and June and that they will end this year at 80 percent of the traffic realised when compared to the record year of 2019.

He added that energy prices don't significantly affect the operation of the airport, either. What is significant is that companies that have to load their kerosene at various stations across Europe are sensitive to all changes occuring on the market.

The traffic boom in Split happened with the appearance of low-budget companies, and Bilas says that low-budget companies are very welcome.

They have an equal status, they all operate within the airport under the same conditions. They're very important to us, they make up 40 to 45 percent of our turnover, and the boom in traffic in Split happened with the appearance of these low-cost companies,'' Split Airport director Pero Bilas emphasised for N1.

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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.

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