December 3, 2018 - Eleven years after entering the Croatian market in Zadar, a great addition to the flights to Croatia 2019 story: Ryanair to Split and Dubrovnik.
Flights to Croatia 2019 just got easier for Irish tourists (and the growing Croatian diaspora in Ireland), as Ryanair has announced two new routes to the Adriatic for next summer - Dublin to Split and Dubrovnik, reports the Irish Independent.
TCN reported 3 weeks ago that Ryanair was in discussions with Split and Zagreb, while the Irish carrier has been talking to Dubrovnik for some time. The sticking point for both Split and Dubrovnik in the past has been giving preferential pricing treatment to Ryanair, whose successful business model is well-known.
It is 11 years since Ryanair changed the landscape in Croatian aviation - and Zadar in particular - by pioneering low-cost flights to the former Dalmatian capital. And yet, while Ryanair took a march on its rivals 11 years ago, it has never really capitalised on that early success. Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik have remained closed to Ryanair's planes. In the interim, easyJet has become the second most popular airline in Croatia.
Until today.
The Dublin flights to Split and Dubrovnik will commence in June, and we will bring you more details of the schedule as we have it. You can follow the TCN Flights to Croatia 2019 page here. With both Split and Dubrovnik booming and not needing to give financial concessions, and with Ryanair famous for extracting the best deals, it would be interesting to see the fine print of the detail, not that I expect it to be made public.
One airline which may be less than happy by the news is Croatia Airlines, which is already struggling, and the arrival of Europe's most successful airline in the two biggest tourists airport in the country will hardly be welcome news.
