As winter approaches, the season of new flight announcements is upon us in Croatia. Some early good news for Pula, Split, Dubrovnik and Zagreb in this first weekly roundup on October 10, 2017.
With yet another record year for Croatia's airports, on the back of the blockbuster passenger traffic that was 2016, can Croatia's airports take any more passengers? The early signs for 2018 are that more flights are on the way. An overview of announcements over the last few days.
While the coastal airports get the bulk of the flight news, these are exciting times for Zagreb as well. With its new airport terminal opened in March, Zagreb finally has an airport terminal worthy of a European capital city. The arrival of Emirates in June, who joined longer Zagreb partners, Qatar Airways, has truly opened up the city to intercontinental traffic, and with Zagreb becoming a national hub 12 months a year, the knock-on effect for Croatia's year-round tourism plans should be plain to see.
Great news to that effect is the announcement that Qatar will not only fly through the summer, but will operate two flight a day during the winter period. 14 flights a week! Who would have thought that just a few years ago?
Also announced this week was the news that Air Serbia will run 10 weekly flights between Zagreb and Belgrade through the winter, starting from October 29. In addition to the convenience of travelling between the two cities, Air Serbia's expanding global network is a further option for long-haul travel. The flights will depart Belgrade at 07:00 and returning from Zagreb at 10:00 everyday except Thursday, and an evening flight from Belgrade at 18:20, departing Zagreb at 20:40 Tuesday to Friday. More information on both these announcements on Avioradar.hr.
As we reported yesterday, Zagreb airport has announced incentives for long-haul travel to Zagreb, with Tourism Minister Cappelli even saying he expects direct flights from the US to Zagreb in a seasonal format to start next summer.
Elsewhere, the Scandivanian love of Dalmatia is set to strengthen, with yet another new flight into Split. SAS Scandinavian Airways has announced two flights a week from Aarhus to Split from June 24 to August 12, 2018.
Volotea is also expanding its operations to the Dalmatian capital, offering Split - Palermo from June 27, adding to existing Split routes: Bordeaux, Marseilles, Nantes, Toulouse and Venice.
The impressive diversification of Pula, after its reliance on Russian traffic was exposed by visa changes in the wake of EU entry in 2013, continues, with Volotea the lates airline to start direct services to Istria. The first flight from Nantes to Pula is scheduled to land on May 30.
Dubrovnik's new airport terminal will no doubt be handling even more traffic next year, and Jet2 has announced a new route from May 29 - November 3, two flights a week from Birmingham to Dubrovnik. This effectively takes over from UK carrier Monarch, which ceased trading last month.
