Croatia's nine commercial airports are on course to handle over ten million passengers in 2018, with figures expected to double over the next five to seven years. Overall passengers growth across the country this year is expected to average 10%. "The significant rise in passenger numbers at Croatian airports has been influenced by GDP growth in countries that visitors are coming from, as well as numerous other factors, including safety. Travellers want to go on holiday to places where they feel safe", the President of the Air Transport Association board at the Croatian Chamber of Economy, Tonči Peović, said. He added that lower fares resulting from lower fuel prices have also stimulated travel. "This year, an increased number of charter flights attributed to the passenger growth at Croatian airports, as well as the launch of new services from the Middle East and Far East", Mr Peović added.
Zagreb Airport estimates it will handle 3.4 million passengers this year, Split Airport just over three million, while Dubrovnik expects its figures to increase 10% on 2017. Pula Airport anticipates welcoming a record 700.000 travellers in 2018, while Brač Airport is gearing up for growth of 50%. A number of Croatia's coastal airports are also addressing seasonality, with more airlines extending their summer flights throughout the year. Further growth in figures is expected to continue into 2019, with a number of carriers announcing new seasonal routes to the Croatian coast, most notably American Airlines from Philadelphia to Dubrovnik and Air Transat from Toronto to Split.
Airport expansion and development projects across the country will also have to keep up with passenger growth. "Such dynamic growth in traffic brings with it new challenges in terms of airport capacity. Given that traffic is expected to double within the next seven years, it is necessary to define the maximum capacity at Croatian airports and begin preparations to move some airports to new locations, so as to allow for their undisturbed development in the decades to come", Mr Peović, who is also the General Manager of Brač Airport, said. Split and Dubrovnik airports are currently undertaking major expansion projects with Zagreb, Pula, Zadar and Brač set to follow in the coming years.
Impressive. So they expect 20 million passenger by 2025?
ReplyDeleteYes
Delete@Anonymous8 October 2018 at 09:02
DeleteImpressive. So they expect 20 million passenger by 2025?
Quite possibly.
@current trend, Croatia expects around 30-32 million visitors in 2025, or 27 million if growth slows down to 5% yoy.
And with current traffic of 20 million Croatia generates 10.7 million air passengers, logically
by 2025, there should be around 17 million air passengers.
Projections for air traffic in 2020.
Zagreb: 4.0 million
Split: 3.7 million
Dubrovnik: 3.1 million
Pula: 900 000
Zadar: 700 000
Rijeka: 250 000
Osijek: 100 000
Brac: 70 000
total: ~12.8 million
Possible traffic in 2025:
Zagreb: 5.8 million
Split: 5.0 million
Dubrovnik: 4.4 million
Pula: 1.25 million
Zadar: 1.0 million
Rijeka: 500 000
Osijek: 300 000
Brac: 100 000
total: ~18.3 million
So less than 20 million.
Zadar is a big disappointment. Numbers have been declining and it now has negative growth this year.
ReplyDeleteWhat is happening at Zadar. Why are numbers down when all other airports are performing really well?
DeleteIs it true that FR will pull their aircraft out of ZAD next summer and operate all routes from other cities?
DeleteThey have a very odd relationship with ZAD and every year they threaten them with pulling out aircraft if they don't get requested subsidies.
DeleteI don't think they are going anywhere. They just scheduled Prague.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/p/ryanair-prague-zadar.html
That flight is being operated by Prague based plane.
Deletestrikes were the reasons for decline
DeleteZAG so far had 8.6% growth if I am not mistaken but they expect 10% by the end of the year. Is it doable? There aren't that many new arrivals or increases this winter season? Does it mean airlines that currently fly there have solid advance bookings? I don't think Korean alone can do it.
ReplyDeleteExisting routes could improve their LF. It doesn't only depend on the new routes.
DeleteThat is why I mentioned advance bookings in my post.
Delete@Nemjee8 October 2018 at 09:03
DeleteHM, not sure about 10%, the pax per flight is going up, @an average rate of 4 pax per year,
done figures somewhere on this blog a week ago, at current rate Zagreb should have nice organic growth, but i am bit worried.
This year I expect 3.35 million pax, my original projection was 3.4 million, than revised it down to 3.38 million, now I need to revise it again, down to 3.35 million. The shortcoming is mostly due to poor performance of national Carrier who's management is beyond incompetent and unwilling to commit to more visionary expansion, (all should be sacked immediately and replaced by competent management).
As things stand, don't think airport will do more than 3.35 million pax this year, national airline is a disgrace and not fit to operate under current licence. However, we'll see how 2019 pans out, if Zagreb can attract more carriers, TAP, SAS, Aer Lingus, Finnair, Air Baltic, EasyJet, Vueling - Brussels Air - Swiss air - Norwegian going year round, Air Ukraine, Potential Chinese Carrier and perhaps one or two more carriers show up, things could be looking up for 2019, as is now 3.7 million looks very optimistic.
Projections for top 5 airports in Croatia for this year in 000:
Zagreb : 3350
Split: 3140
Dubrovnik: 2580
Pula: 710
Zadar: 600
You base your projections on POTENTIAL new routes established by carriers that will maybe come? How exactly did you come to that 350.000 more for ZAG?
DeleteZAG should be happy with 5% growth this winter.
DeleteThere has been a decent push to reduce seasonality so it will be interesting to see how this plays out over the coming 3 month period. If they have been successful we could see 10 to 12% average but the trend is suggesting 8% max growth for the rest of the year.
Delete@Anonymous8 October 2018 at 17:57
DeleteI didn't, if you read my post you'd see I am being bit disappointed and alarmed at poor performance. Saying what if... I said nothing that would lead you to conclude anything, I've made supposition (a proposal). if this happens, perhaps we might see.....
Congratulations Croatia.
ReplyDeleteFor a relatively small country it is impressive that 9 airports have commercial flights.
ReplyDelete7 of which are coastal. It's not a big surprise.
DeleteCroatia needs to reduce seasonality, especially at Zagreb Airport. So I think ZAG and SPU should work on this. For winter DBV for example sees respectable traffic.
ReplyDeleteCoastal airports are reducing seasonality. This winter Split gets Iberia and Travel Service/CSA.
DeleteAlso notable is that more and more legacy airlines are flying to Croatian coastal cities.
DeleteThe good point is that the tourist season is also extending more and more.
DeleteAll ex-Yu airports need to reduce seasonality.
DeleteBelgrade isn't that seasonal.
DeleteBEG is just as seasonal as ZAG. Take February numbers and you'll see the same difference in percentage.
Delete@Anonymous8 October 2018 at 20:27
DeleteBelgrade isn't that seasonal.
It is very seasonal, all airports in the wider regain are quite seasonal, only airports that have manged to deal with seasonality are airports that handle over 10 million pax. Bucharest, Athens, Vienna, Milan, Budapest...
Problem in Zagreb is, very bad national carrier, that is run by political appointees, highly incompetent, old and lack vision. If OU was run by a smarter guy with a vision, you'd see massive difference in operations. As is, OU is piling load factor figure as if this is only measure of success. Most likely OU will handle around 2.2 million pax this year, with load factor around 76%, If OU had Air Baltic management, EU would now be looking at fleet of 40 A220 300, and flights to 54 destinations, decent profits and airline that has some guts.
Problem is, OU is rub by a moron.
Dubrovnik Airport looks great on the photo.
ReplyDelete+1 best airport in Croatia.
DeleteWith the worst website.
DeleteThey really need to address this.
I don't think DBV's website is bad. They changed it and updated it recently. Split Airport's website on the other hand is like from 15 years ago.
DeleteSpilt airport website is mich better in my opinion. Dubrovnik sucks
DeleteI really can;'t see how SPUs website is better but ok.
DeleteSplit is better because it is simple to use. Dubrovnik on the other hand is way way too cluttered and just a complete mess. The recent ‘update’ made it worse not better.
DeleteInterestingly Eurowings which had so many plans to launch new routes and increase frequencies in Croatia this year has done nothing. Is there an explanation why?
ReplyDeleteI think they are cautious and from what I remember their CGN flights aren't doing that well. They also complained about high fees in ZAG so I am sure that's another limiting factor.
DeleteThey have been a mess. Not enough crew or planes. They have grown way too quickly and need to cover markets which have greater priority. So all plans for Croatia are on hold.
DeleteThey have cut Osijek flights which were supposed to go year round. They are now going to be just seasonal.
DeleteThey pulled a lot of planes everywhere to serve more lucrative markets. Similar to what Wizz is doing, although they are doing it on a much smaller scale.
DeleteEW are increasing their MUC-PRN route from 1 weekly during the summer season to 2 weekly during the winter season. This despite competition from JP (4 weekly) and ST (4 weekly). So, overall 10 weekly flights on MUC-PRN route exclusive of charter flights.
DeleteI don't get it, are you trying to say that PRN has more demand than Croatia? LOL!
DeleteNo anonymous @ 17:05, I was not trying to say that. I have no idea where you got that impression from.
DeleteYou can see that someone stated that EW do "[n]ot [have] enough crew or planes," but I pointed out that this does not appear to be the case at PRN where they will operate one more weekly flight this winter season on the MUC-PRN compared to the summer season. In the grand scheme of things, this is obviously no big deal, but it is a Ex-YU aviation site after all.
So, I ask you to assume good faith with fellow visitors, it's healthy. I am not one to ever instigate any irrational arguments or comparisons. I have been trying to encourage others to do the same, as is the obsessive comparison of PRN and SKP traffic figures over the last few years.
It could actually come close to 11 million.
ReplyDeleteAgree. I expect 11 million this year.
Delete"@Anonymous8 October 2018 at 09:12
DeleteIt could actually come close to 11 million."
It won't be 11 million, we'll see the end figures, but projections are 000:
Zagreb: 3350
Split: 3140
Dubrovnik: 2580
Pula: 710
Zadar: 600
Rijeka: 170
Osijek: 60
Brac: 50
Total: 10660
so 340k short of 11 million.
Rijeka has been a positive surprise this summer, finally, after many years of disappointments.
ReplyDeleteAgree. And it's good to see Croatia Airlines continuing with Rijeka-Munich in winter.
DeleteIt was a very promising airport years ago when Easy Jet started flights there.
Delete^ True. Thankfully things have slowly improved this year after so much wasted potential.
DeleteRijeka could do 175k this year. would be all time record for Rijeka if it does.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteHow many pax will Dubrovnik have this year?
ReplyDelete2.7 million
Delete@Anonymous8 October 2018 at 09:28
DeleteHow many pax will Dubrovnik have this year?
2.58 million at most
Pula Airport is one of the best small airports in ex-Yu. I think they will easily achieve 700,000 passengers this year. They overtook Zadar last year.
ReplyDeleteStill a lot of room for improvement during winter months for all airports.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Croatia. This is impressive.
ReplyDeleteBiggest market in ex-yu.
DeleteOne of the biggest in the Balkans actually.
DeleteDoes anyone know what are the top five biggest markets in the Balkans in terms of pax numbers? Thanks in advance.
DeleteGreece
DeleteRomania
Croatia
Bulgaria
Serbija
Bosna
Doesn't Montenegro have more passengers than Bosnia?
DeleteYes it does.
DeleteLast year:
Bosnian airports - 1.557.277
Montenegrin airports - 2,184,862
clean you wannabe toplist:
DeleteBulgaria has more pax then Croatia (2017)
Bosna is also behind Macedonia and Slovenia
Are you sure about Bulgaria having more pax than HR?
DeleteHow many pax will all the Greek airports have this year? I read somewhere that they handled close to 50 mil last year.
Delete2017 stats:
DeleteGreek airports 58 million
Romanian airports 20 million
Bulgarian airports 11.5 million
Croatian airports 9.6 million
Serbia airports 5.6 million
Montenegro airports 2.2 million
ex-Yu markets can be calculated based on the table here where there are results for every single airport in 2017.
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/01/ex-yu-airport-race-2017.html
TIA has 2.6 million last year
DeleteImpressive for TIA! How are they doing this year?
DeleteBOJ surpassed 3 million this year while VAR 2 million.
DeleteFraport did a super job in Bulgaria's coastal airport.
I think SKG and LJU are next.
Yeah... LJU with 1% growth in August.
DeleteBulgaria is ahead of Croatia, while I don't know what Bosnia is even doing on that top 5 list, since Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo and Slovenia are all ahead of it.
DeleteGranted, Slovenia and Romania are technically not balkan countries. Slovenia is here as an ex-yu country, Romania doesn't even feature on this blog, but ok...southeast Europe, I guess.
Croatian coast is growing and growing each year with impressive double digits
ReplyDeleteExactly, and it can't go on forever.
Delete"it is necessary to define the maximum capacity at Croatian airports and begin preparations to move some airports to new locations, so as to allow for their undisturbed development in the decades to come"
ReplyDeleteWill be necessary for Split.
Is there no space to expand at the current site of Split Airport?
DeleteVery little. The new airport will be built at Prpusa.
DeleteSplit Kastela still has enough room to grow but question is if politics will be ready to allow that or if they can earn more for their own pockets with complete new airport project.
DeleteHowever, new terminal and taxiway plans indicate clearly that long term development of Kastela Airport is to be made so airport at current location will not close during next 30 years or so.
Once Kozjak tunnel is built there will be another push to relocate airport in the hinterland. The current SPU real-estate will be too valuable for tourism. This is likely to happen in the next 10 - 15 years.
Delete@Anonymous8 October 2018 at 09:55
DeleteIs there no space to expand at the current site of Split Airport?
Plenty of room just all carriers want to fly on weekends, during the weekdays, Airport isn't busy at all, even in the height of tourist season, you barely have 40 flights per days on weekdays, on weekends there's 150-170 flight operations per day. For an airport that has no taxiway (one is being proposed and should be built soon) it is a nightmare as each aircraft that takes off blocks the runway for aircraft that tries to land, so you've got maximum runway capacity of around 20 flight operations per hour.
The apron is also small, to deal with larger number of planes, Split airport needs 20 positions, has 12-13 if you squeeze few in. So expanding apron will be also a priority, by at least 5 more positions. If all is added, and new terminal the airport will be sorted for next 20 years, it'll be able to handle a traffic of around 10 million. Although seasonality is a big problem and will remain so.
projections for Split airport are in 000:
2018: 3140
2019: 3350
2020: 3600
2025: 5000
2030: 6500
With all the above mentioned development, new terminal, expanded apron and taxiway aided, Split airport has capacity to handle 10 million pax. It is an holiday airport, so it doesn't need any fancy-smhancy stuff Zagreb airport has.
I am impressed how close SPU came to overtaking ZAG. They reduced the difference by some 300.000 passengers last year. This year it will be even closer.
ReplyDeleteSPU's growth has been spectacular, let's hope they can keep it up.
DeleteSplit had greater growth in September so they reduced the difference even more.
DeleteWinter should also be strong with additional flights from Iberia, Travel Service, Croatia Airlines.
Delete@Anonymous8 October 2018 at 09:45
DeleteYes, very close, however Zagreb has just started its run, lets wait and see how things develop here, i don't expect split airport will overtake Zagreb, however historically there was always 500-600k difference between the two top 3 airport in Croatia, go back to 2000 and onward you'll see.
It only came relevant these days, as all 3 airports handle over 2 million pax. So competition is interesting aspect. However long term Zagreb airport will move ahead with numbers and difference by 2025, could be as much as 1 million pax in favor of Zagreb, if not more. it all depends if Zagreb can attract low cost operators in. If it can, numbers will skyrocket.
It is great to see that 2 of Croatia's three largest airports are building new infrastructure.
ReplyDeleteWould be great if someone in Croatia setup a low cost carrier.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWas Dubrovnik Airline an LCC?
DeleteNo, it was more like a charter leisure airline.
Delete@Q4008 October 2018 at 09:48
DeleteWould be great if someone in Croatia setup a low cost carrier.
I'd welcome that, with open arms, OU would go broke, inside 3 years, and the new carrier if it uses air Baltic model, could handle 3 times the number of passengers OU did in its best year.
OU under current management is going nowhere.
Fantastic numbers and I think Croatia has passed an important test as the Turkish market started to recover and Tunisia is back on the radar of European holidaymakers. Numbers in Croatia have continued to grow so this has not affected it.
ReplyDeleteThey JUST started to recover. The future will tell. Very probably the growth in Croatia will be more modest in the upcoming years, which is just fine.
Delete@Anonymous8 October 2018 at 10:05
DeleteThey just started to recover statement is silly, turkey , Egypt and Tunisia have fully recovered in 2016, with all 3 destinations taking massive leaps in tourist figures. What Croatia has manged to do, it has attracted visitors from other continents, large number of visitors from Asia and north america has improved numbers for Croatia dramatically.
In 2020, again these are projections only, over 3 million non-European visitors will visit Croatia, out of projected 22 million visitors to Croatia in 2020.
This is projected number of visitors for entire 2020,
USA - 800 000
S. Korea - 550 000
China - 400 000
Australia - 370 000
Canada - 250 000
Japan - 250 000
Taiwan - 170 000
Brazil - 120 000
Argentina - 90 000
India - 90 000
Singapore - 80 000
New Zealand - 70 000
Thailand - 60 000
Malaysia - 50 000
Hong Kong - 45 000
South Africa - 35 000
Mexico - 35 000
UAE/Qatar/Kuwait - 30 000
Chile - 20 000
The best thing of all is that our airports are growing. Our people are having a better offer and more competition to choose from plus number of tourists is increasing!
ReplyDeleteThis is true for the coast but we need more low cost options from Zagreb.
Deleteit is actually depressing to realize that on many of those lines it is impossible to get any ticket from SPU; there are seemingly direct connections to so many places, but we are forced to connect via MUC because they sell those seats only as part of complete package
Deletewhat could be so difficult in selling some seats directly to customers?
You do know how a charter flight works don't you? Airlines have no need to take a risk even for a handful of seats if a TO takes over the guarantee for every single seat on the plane. Also Tos in this case want to have a free hand to adjust charters freely to their own need, only possible if it is s full charter flight with TO owning all seats.
DeleteDBV could attract some passengers from Bosnia and parts of Montenegro if they bothered to do some marketing beyond the tourist markets.
ReplyDeleteif they bothered to fix the border!
Deletebut why would they?
you could have the same argument about most airports in BiH and CG but nobody seems interested in fixing the border
I think Split's achievement stands out the most. Well done.
ReplyDeleteFuture no.1 airport.
DeleteI agree, only a matter of time
DeleteIt won't happen. Split is way too seasonal.
DeleteSplit is reducing its seasonality a lot. May and September are almost as busy as the peak summer months. I departed from SPU yesterday (7th October) and the terminal was so full that you couldn't find a place to sit.
DeletePula is doing extremely well. All those new airlines which started flying there this year are obviously resulting in bigger passenger numbers. Well done.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the expansion project for Pula mentioned in the article?
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2016/07/pula-airport-plans-new-terminal.html
DeleteHmm who knows when that will happen.
DeleteThe terminal has a capacity of 1.5 million per year. All this new routs have resulted in a longer season and more and more booking.com guests. They normally stay in Pula for a couple of days. But I don't think they will need a new terminal in the near future.
DeleteAre there any news/rumors regarding Wizz Air's presence in Croatia? József Váradi has indicated on various occasions that they would expand their footprint subject to decreased airport fees.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to know whether there has been any progress made and which routes we might expect to see in the (hopefully near) future.
I don't think so, although I don't really understand Wizz. If Ryanair and Easy Jet can make it work with current fees, how come Wizz can't.
DeleteNot in ZAG unfortunately.
DeleteSome impressive growths over here! Bravo Hrvatska, from Serbia!
ReplyDeleteHow is Osijek doing this year?
ReplyDeleteVery well. Over 70% growth January-August.
DeleteHow many in total? Have they overtaken INI?
DeleteWhat's happening with potential flights from Zagreb to US, China and Japan?
ReplyDeleteStay tuned :)
DeleteEasyJet, kazu mozda Kina. Mozda. SAD zaboravi.
DeleteA Japan?
DeletePregovaraju. Kao.
DeleteThe only airport not growing this year is Zadar which is a real shame.
ReplyDeleteBad unqualified politically appointed management. Simple
DeleteHey everyone, is it worth to do a petition to increase winter flights to Croatia? Zagreb has been voted the Best European Christmas Market third times in a row, and the flights during winter are so scarce? Is it really true that there is no interest/passangers? Because that seems a bit off to me.
ReplyDeleteWhat will a petition do? Airlines are launching ZAG based on demand, airlines know Zagreb is out there. Some increase it, some don't.
DeleteWhat you should do is buy some hundred tickets on the same airline to/out of Zagreb and maybe that airline will increase frequency based on huge sudden demand.
DeleteRyanair should send the sleeping jets to Zagreb to cater for the Christmas market demand
DeleteADVENTurous tourists :)))
Deletevoted by who?
Deleteeverything is voted now by everyone
British Airways is sending flights to Nürnberg especially during Advent
DeleteZAG its not even in the top20 here https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/articles/Christmas-markets-in-Europe/
funny how people in the balkan stick to one poll which is in their favour
And you are sticking to one that isn't.
Delete@Anonymous8 October 2018 at 17:35
DeleteBritish Airways is sending flights to Nürnberg especially during Advent
ZAG its not even in the top20 here @
Daily Torygraph, what to say.
CNN money : Zagreb placed 14th globally.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/best-christmas-market/index.html
"Advent in Zagreb has been voted the "best Christmas market destination" by users of travel portal European Best Destinations for two years running. Based on the streets surrounding Jelacic Square, the numerous attractions on offer include an ice rink, live ice sculpture carvings, pop-up bars, street food stands and outdoor music stages.
There's even an area dedicated to "fooling around"( or "fuliranje" where revelers can dance in the street and eat and drink to their heart's content.
What makes it special:
The Jolly Christmas Tram is tough to beat. Here kids (and big kids) can cruise through the city center accompanied by Santa and his elves."
Impressive growth, congratulations Croatia! The traffic will surpass 10,5 million this year for sure.
ReplyDeleteThat said, everyone in ex-yu has done a great job, the combined air traffic market of former Yugoslavia will be at around 27 million travelers in 2018. To think that a couple of years ago, Croatia was below 8 million and ex Yu below 23 million.
Croatia is getting more and more popular, very impressive how numbers just took off dramatically.
ReplyDeleteBy 2025 Croatia is expected to host 27 million visitors, 25 million of these foreign, this projection is based @modest growth of 5% per year, 32 million if current trend (this and past 3 years) is applied. Only problem I can foresee is lack of labour to deal with such massive influx of visitors, country is already struggling to find all the workers it needs to cater for this rapidly expanding sector of economy. Croatian pays will need to go up fast to ensure the necessary workers are enticed to stay and work in Croatia. current unemployment in Croatia is around 7%, next year this time it'll be around 5% or less (5% is considered full employment).
DeleteCurrently average NET pay in Croatia is around €870 per month, should rise to ~€1100 by or 8000kuna if it is to prevent massive outflow of workers, brain drain, especially in summer months. average national Pay @current rate of growth will be around 7000 kuna in 2020, or €950 per month. In short Croatian pay has to be on parity with Slovenian pay, and it has to happen really fast, with unemployment in 2020 reaching bellow 5% Croatia will need to advertise for jobs in other EU member states, heavily and with unemployment rates across the EU quite low, with exception of Spain and Greece, you know where new workers will be coming from.