February 3, 2022 - The latest flight news to Croatia as Air Serbia announces Belgrade-Zadar flights from June, Aegean Airlines launches Zagreb-Athens this summer, and 13 Freebird Dubrovnik winter charter flights will run from the end of this month! 

Serbian national airline Air Serbia will re-introduce a regular flight between Zadar and Belgrade this summer, reports Croatian Aviation. 

Namely, as of June 14, the Serbian airline will operate between Belgrade and Zadar. A few days ago, the same airline announced it was restoring the route to Rijeka. 

The Zadar-Belgrade line was introduced in the 2019 summer flight schedule, and flights ran twice a week, every Friday and Sunday. The airline will also operate twice a week between the two cities this summer season.

Following the pandemic, the airline stopped traffic on this route and did not operate in the summer of 2020 and 2021.

ATR72 aircraft have been announced on the route, which has a capacity of up to 70 seats in the passenger cabin. There will be just under four thousand seats on sale between Belgrade and Zadar. 

In the summer flight schedule, Air Serbia is planning regular flights from Belgrade to six Croatian airports: Zagreb, Pula, Rijeka, Zadar, Split, and Dubrovnik, and up to 18 weekly flights have been announced in the peak summer season.

Furthermore, Croatian Aviation reports that Aegean Airlines should re-establish a regular connection between Zagreb and Athens from mid-June this year.

The scheduled flights have been announced in the summer flight schedule, from June 15 to October 8 this year. Only two flights a week have been announced, every Wednesday and Saturday, but with A320 aircraft, which have a capacity of 180 seats in this airline's fleet.

Before the pandemic, Aegean flew to Zagreb several times a week, but at that time, DashQ400 aircraft with drastically lower capacity operated on the route compared to A320 aircraft.

Aegean Airlines will offer a total of 12,240 seats between Zagreb and Athens. In the summer of 2020 and 2021, this airline did not operate to Zagreb but exclusively to Adriatic airports. However, Aegean is currently not planning to return to Split, only to Dubrovnik.

The flight schedule is still subject to change, and it is to be expected that Croatia Airlines will also operate on a regular route between Zagreb and Athens (with a technical stop in Dubrovnik).

Finally, Croatian Aviation announced that the Turkish charter airline Freebird Airlines would introduce numerous charter routes to Dubrovnik Airport at the end of this month. 

Namely, from February 21, this Turkish carrier will launch regular charter traffic on 13 lines to and from Dubrovnik Airport from:

Vienna,

Berlin,

Brussels,

Dusseldorf,

Frankfurt,

Hannover,

Hamburg,

London,

Manchester,

Munich,

Marseille,

Paris,

Stuttgart.

On the 13 listed charter lines, Freebird Airlines plans to use A320 aircraft, with a capacity of 180 seats in the passenger cabin. As a result, this airline will generate many passengers on these routes, which is also much needed in the winter months.

Dubrovnik Airport published statistics for January this year, in which a total of 9,320 passengers passed through it, which is almost 50% of the traffic from January 2020 when the pandemic was not yet present in Europe. In January 2021, there were only 3,729 passengers in Dubrovnik.

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

October 21, 2019 - The latest news from around Croatia’s airports for new flights to Croatia with updates from Dubrovnik and Zagreb. 

Avio Radar reports that Turkish airline Freebird Airlines began a winter charter service from Dubrovnik to various cities in Europe, which started on September 30. One Airbus a320 aircraft is based in Dubrovnik and has two charter routes each day to various destinations in Europe, including Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin (Shonefeld), Billund, Brussels, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Hanover, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Leipzig, Munich, Oslo (Gardermoen), Rotterdam, Stockholm (Arlanda), and Stuttgart. 

The charter lines are organized by the travel agency RSD Reisen. Last year, Greek charter carrier Aegean Airlines flew on these lines, and before them was Turkish Corendon Airlines. 

Freebird Airlines began operating in 2000 with its main operating base at Istanbul Ataturk Airport. Currently, an Airbus A320 aircraft, registered TC-FBR, is based in Dubrovnik. It was produced in 2005 for the Indian airline Air Deccan. Following the collapse of the Indian carrier in 2009, it was taken over by the current Turkish carrier. Freebird has 10 Airbus A320 aircraft in its fleet. One Airbus A320 is registered with its Maltese subsidiary, Freebird Airlines Europe, which allows the Turkish airline to fly charter flights to destinations within the European Union. 

In other flight news, Avio Radar reports that Flydubai has further reduced winter traffic on the Dubai-Zagreb line. While traffic has already been reduced from seven to five flights per week, it has now been decreased to four fights per week. The route will be in service on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays with the Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

During the Christmas and New Year holidays, the line will be increased to six flights per week. This line operates in conjunction with Emirates, which runs daily summer flights on the Boeing 777-300, while Flydibai takes the winter period. 

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.