July 19, 2019 - The new Split Airport terminal opened a few days ago. TCN's Pyatigorsk correspondent road tested it on a recent flight to Moscow.
One of the many differences between running TCN today and the Total Hvar blog which started this project back in 2011 is access to stories.
Back then, nobody knew about the blog, and I had to physically attend every event to show that we were a credible media. I remember driving to cover the story of a kindergarten playground opening on Hvar and thinking that there must be another way.
These days, TCN is a little better known, perhaps even more so this evening after my interview with leading portal Index was the number one news story of the day this morning.
Because we are a bit bigger than when I started, have more than six readers, and cover the whole of Croatia, there are many stories to cover. Technology is our friend too, so it is now a lot easier to report on an event via a third party. With TCN's official financial support not looking rosy, this budget approach is a necessary strategy.
It also means that a simple idea and a Facebook message to a friend can generate an article with relevant pictures.
Let me give you an example. I have a really lovely Russian sister-in-law called Julia - all the family prefers her to me, including me - and she was so excited to hear that I was going to harvest lavender that she asked if there was a chance to come and experience it before she flew from Split to Moscow.
You are flying from Split to Moscow, I thought to myself? Hmmm. How about I sort the lavender harvest for you, and you take the pictures and send me your impressions of travelling through the new Split terminal, which opened a few days ago? A great idea, which worked for both parties, especially as Julia did all the work at the harvest and the airport (she is perhaps the best Russian lavender picker on Hvar ever). Here she is below with the lavender - now read on to hear what it was like travelling through the new Split Airport terminal.
I arrived at the airport around 6 pm which is quite a busy time of the week. The airport shuttle bus (34 kunas) dropped me next to the main entrance of the old terminal. As soon as I entered the building I was welcomed by a smiley airport girl, who was directing all departure passengers to the new terminal building from the entrance to your left. I have to say I was impressed how big the new building is! Two floors where on the first floor there are at least 20 check-in desks and all of them were open for all flights.
I have to say at the beginning line seemed long, but it was not even 10-15 minutes when I was checked in and finally with no heavy luggage. All gates are on level 2 of the new terminal. You can take the escalator or elevator to go up. On the first floor there is nothing yet, but as soon as you up on the second floor, you see a lot of things there.
The first thing is the security check, and again the line was there but I did not even feel it since about 6 desks were open at the time. You would probably think that the airport was half empty, and I will say that it was full of people.
The next step was the passport control (with no lines at all), after which you find yourself next to the huge duty-free shop with all you need including sweet memories from Croatia like Domačica and not only that! I am traveling quite a lot and have to say that the new Split Terminal has a lot of available seats in the waiting area which you will not find in every airport.
So, if you want to relax, you can wait and even charge your phone near your seat (outlet is not next to each seat thought), read a book and have a nice sandwich with kava from one of two cafes. If you have any questions, the information desk is there for you. For families traveling the babies there is baby care. Boarding started right on time and finished fast, and the bus took us to the plane. The tide took no more than 2 minutes.
To sum up, I have to say the new terminal looks amazing, spacious and with a lot of potential to have more services to offer.
To learn more about Split, check out the Total Croatia Split in a Page guide.
