No improvement at Croatian airports

Split Airport

After some relief in April, airports in Croatia have recorded a big decline in passengers in May. Except for Zadar and Osijek, no other airport in Croatia reported growth in passenger figures when compared to May 2008. The most affected airport was Pula, which has until now had mostly positive results.

Croatia’s largest airport, Zagreb, reported a 6.7% decline in passengers, from 195.817 in May 2008 to 182.342 in May 2009. The airport saw a sharp decline in transit passenger which fell by a hefty 78%. Split Airport reported even worse numbers. Passengers declined by 11.6% and transit passengers waned by 23%. In May 2009, a total of 108.351 passengers passed through the airport, compared to 122.567 last year. Dubrovnik Airport continued its negative run of results with passengers declining by 5.3%. However, the airport did report an increase in transit passengers by 11.45%. Pula Airport recorded the largest decline in passengers. Its results worsened by a total of 17.9%. This is despite the fact that the number of aircraft operations increased by nearly 6% when compared to May 2008. A similar trend can be seen in Rijeka where passengers decreased by 11.65% while aircraft operations increased by nearly 7%. A total of 10.885 passengers used Rijeka Airport in May 2009, compared to 12.320 during the same period last year.

As reported earlier, Zadar continued its impressive results with a passenger increase of nearly 17%. Even more impressive is the fact that transit passengers at Zadar increased by 136.8%. The only other Croatian airport that managed to report growth in May 2009 is Osijek, with an increase of 1%. Most of the results have been affected by the global financial crisis. There is fear that the tourism industry in Croatia may be heavily impacted by the crisis. Interestingly, Croatia Airlines seems not to be affected as much as its hub and secondary airports.

Passenger figures at Croatian airports:
· January
· February
· March
· April