Flights will operate four times a week from June 27 until October 29
One of the fastest growing carriers in the world, Turkish Airlines, will finally connect Istanbul and Dubrovnik.Great news arrived on February 29, 2016, when Turkish Airlines officially announced that the line will be introduced this summer season. First plants to launch the flights from Istanbul to Dubrovnik were mentioned almost two years ago with planned three flights a week, but the company decided against it.
According to Dubrovnik Airport, the Turkish carrier will commence scheduled operations from Istanbul on June 27, with services to run until the end of the 2016 summer season, on October 29. Considering that Turkish Airlines does not have summer-only destinations in its network, this may be an indication that the Dubrovnik service could be extended to an all year service. The company announced that they are planning to operate the service to Dubrovnik four times a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Tickets are not yet on sale but it is expected that they will be introduced by next week.
"The route comes as a result of drawn-out negotiations which involved many representatives from Croatia's southernmost region", Dubrovnik Airport says. It adds, "The reason there were no flights to Turkey over the past few years was the introduction of visas for Turkish citizens, which complicated their travel to Croatia. This happened when Croatia entered the European Union (2013). However, there is room for great optimism due to a large number of Turkish tourists which could return to Dubrovnik now". In 2014, a total of 26.220 Turkish citizens visited Croatia, of which 17.398 holidayed on the coast.
