Dubrovnik Airport will end 2018 with a record-breaking 2.54 million passengers, which is 9.5 percent more than last year. Next year, the airport expects to increase the number of passengers by 4.6 percent, said Frano Luetić, Dubrovnik Airport Managing Director, reports Poslovni.hr on December 15, 2018. 

At a press conference on Friday, Luetić said that this year's revenue is expected to be 415.3 million kuna or 16.3 percent more than last year, and it is estimated that the net profit will amount to 72 million kuna and is in line with the gain for the past year. The expected operating profit is 170 million kuna, which is an increase of 14 percent compared to last year.

"The year was a bit intense and turbulent, but our plan to grow by 10 percent has almost come to fruition. We have always had double-digit growth, and this year it is above the international average, and we are proud of that," Luetić said.

Luetić recalled that this year, as part of the "Dubrovnik Airport Development" project, worth 225 million euro (of which 158.3 million euro came from EU funds), a new passenger terminal was built, enabling “the comfortable travel of passengers through the airport, and the reconstruction of maneuvering areas”. 

He also highlighted works on the reconstruction of the runway tracks, which saw 1200 meters completed by the tourist season. The central part of the runway was reconstructed after the season and traffic normalized on December 10th. Work on the track will continue and is expected to be completed by March 15, 2019.

According to the announcements, Dubrovnik Airport expects the most significant growth from Western and Central Europe, especially the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

However, as the most crucial event, Luetić pointed out the arrival of the world's largest carrier - American Airlines. 

"After 28 years, Croatia and the US - Dubrovnik and Philadelphia will be connected for the first time. American Airlines is the largest company in the world, employs more than 150,000 people, has 950 aircraft, and will connect Dubrovnik three times a week from June to the end of September with the Boeing 767 aircraft which has business and economy class,” Luetić said.

Among others, he stressed that the FlyDubai aircraft would continue to fly to Dubrovnik Airport, and the arrival of the largest European low-cost carrier Ryanair will be announced, which will connect Dubrovnik twice a week to Dublin.

In 2019, Dubrovnik Airport will see between 65 and 70 active airlines. 

To read more about Dubrovnik, follow TCN's dedicated page. 

As Ryanair announces flights to Split and Dubrovnik, it appears that neither destination airport got the memo.

As we reported recently, the largest European low-cost airline, Ryanair, announced that it will launch flights from Dublin to Split and Dubrovnik as of next summer, but it seems nobody at either Split or Dubrovnik airport knows much about it.

As Josip Bohutinski/VL/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 4th of December, 2018, more strangely still, Ireland's popular Ryanair has already begun selling tickets for these flights which will commence on June the 1st, and be in operation until the 25th and 26th of October, 2019, starting at just 9.99 euros.

"Ryanair is pleased to announce the introduction of its new route from Dublin to Dubrovnik and Split, which will operate twice a week from June," Robin Kiely of Ryanair said.

Vincent Harrison, the director of Dublin Airport, said that he was glad to hear that Ryanair was expanding its route network by adding Dubrovnik and Split. Depite this, the director of Split Airport, Lukša Novak, says he cannot confirm that these flights will be realised at all.

Josip Paljetak from Dubrovnik Airport has said that they have had no official information from Ryanair at all. He pointed out that the company hasn't even contacted the airport this year.

"We were very surprised to see that they'd announced flights from Dublin, and it's very strange that they've started selling tickets for flights which they never agreed upon with the airport. We don't even know if we can accept their planes for when they say they want the flights,'' Paljetak said.

In Croatia, Ryanair already flies to Zadar, Rijeka, and Pula.

Ryanair offered no response when requested to explain the announcement of their 2019 summer flights to Split and Dubrovnik.

Make sure to stay up to date with our news and travel pages for much more.

Click here for the original article by Josip Bohutinski/VL on Poslovni Dnevnik

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