The flight news to Croatia for 2017 is coming in thick and fast, reports Avioradar and Ex-YuAviation on December 16, 2016.
First the bad news. After months of discussions, it appears that the chances of Ryanair becoming a 12-month destination to Dubrovnik have ended, reports the website which had been reporting on the progress of the talks, Ex-YuAviation:
"The General Manager of Dubrovnik Airport, Roko Tolić, said that conditions put forward by the carrier were unacceptable and too demanding of the airport. Speaking at the recent Southeast Europe Aviation Summit, Mr Tolić noted the no frills carrier had requested lower fees, however, he added that all airlines are treated equally at the airport with no preferential treatment offered. Both the city mayor and the local Tourist Board were involved in the talks as well." Read the full report here.
The news follows the announcement last week of Ryanair expansion elsewhere, with both Glasgow and Bristol added to the 2017 Zadar seasonal schedule. It remains unclear if Ryanair are proceeding with their reported interest in starting internal flights within Croatia. Part of the reason for Dubrovnik's resistance is that it is doing well enough attracting airlines not looking for the Ryanair lower fee approach, with Turkish Airlines for example announcing a daily flight from Istanbul from March 26, 2017.
The news from Split is all good. KLM will be starting its first flights to the Dalmatian capital from April 22 from Amsterdam, with two weekend rotations increasing to six weekly flights in July.
Croatia Airlines will also be adding to their Split schedule, with an additional Wednesday flight from London Gatwick from April 21, to complement the existing two flights on Mondays and Fridays. Split will continue to be connected to London Heathrow once a week as well.
