TCN recently reported that Croatia would experience another record summer. With airports like Split, Zagreb, Dubrovnik, and Pula achieving the busiest June yet, and Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli announcing that the country has already welcomed 6.5 million arrivals and 26 million overnight stays, the forecasts are looking promising for another hit summer. And when all is said and done, Croatia’s nine commercial airports should handle a total of 11 million travelers this year.
Ex Yu Aviation reports that these record results are partly thanks to the 81 new scheduled and charter routes introduced from 24 different markets in the peak summer months, which are mostly operating from Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.
Namely, three of Europe’s biggest low-cost airlines - EasyJet, Norwegian Air Shuttle, and Ryanair, are driving Croatia’s five busiest airports this summer. Ex Yu Aviation reports that EasyJet will operate over 3,100 flights to Croatia in July and August, has more than doubled its capacity to Zadar compared to last summer, and currently maintains over 50 services to Croatia.
Thanks to 11 new routes, Ryanair operates a total of 32 routes to Croatia in the summer, with 40 weekly flights to Zadar alone. Ryanair’s operations are up by 50%, while Transavia’s services in Rijeka increased by 350%!
Ex Yu Aviation further reports that many markets have also increased their capacity to Croatia in 2019, like Ireland, whose seat count is up by 60% compared to last year. Aer Lingus also launched a new route from Cork to Dubrovnik, Ryanair started service from Dublin to Dubrovnik and Split, and Croatia Airlines even announced they’ll be boosting seasonal operations between Zagreb and Dublin to year-round flights this winter.
Ireland, however, makes up just part of the pie, as services to Spain have seen an increase of nearly 50% thanks to Iberia’s routes to Dubrovnik, Split, and Zagreb this year - and Air Serbia has upped seat capacity to Croatia by 18%!
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