Rijeka plunged into uncertainty

No one willing to help Rijeka

Rijeka Airport has received bad news after the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, which has been funding the airport for several years decided to withdraw its planned 2 million Kuna (275.000 Euro) financial injection for 2010. The county justified the move saying that there is insufficient interest on the part of the airport’s co-owners, the city and municipality as well as the airport’s majority owner, the Government of Croatia. Rijeka Airport, which found itself on the verge of financial collapse last year, now faces the prospect of loosing all available funding and could loose its status as an international airport.

Since 2001, the city of Rijeka invested only 12.000 Kuna (1.650 Euros) into the airport while the other co-owners, the cities and towns of Opatija, Krk and Omiš, have not invested a single cent in the past 10 years. The only exception to this list of uninterested holders is the town of Crikvenica (population 11.000) which will invest 72.400 Kuna in 2010 (10.000 Euros) for the reconstruction of the airport’s buffet, the repair of 4 toilet facilities, the creation of the airport’s logo and the addition of glass panels to immigration booths. The town of Crikvenica has a 4% stake at the airport. The Government of Croatia, which has a 55% stake, has invested 23 million Kuna (3.1 million Euros) into the airport for the past decade.

Rijeka reported mild passenger growth in 2009 of just over 1%.