Dubrovnik Rudjer Bošković Airport is in talks over the introduction of a second service to the United States. The airport already offers seasonal summer flights from Newark, operated by United Airlines. In the past, it has also been served by Delta, which maintained flights from New York’s JFK Airport for a single season in 2021, and by American Airlines with a route from Philadelphia in 2019. “We are the only airport in Croatia with a nonstop service to the US. While we are currently connected to New York, one route is proving insufficient. We need another one, similar to what we had a few years ago”.
Elaborating further on the potential new US service, Mr. Šober said, “We have already entered into negotiations, which I can say are rather mature, but there are other factors at play which are beyond our control. The primary challenge is the shortage of aircraft and delays in the arrival of new jets due to manufacturing and supply chain issues. It's a complex situation, making it difficult to secure these flights. However, I am confident that within the next year or two, we will have something concrete.”
Dubrovnik Airport handled its second-millionth passenger of the year this week, a full month ahead of 2023. The airport's robust growth has been largely driven by the opening of Ryanair’s base, with Dubrovnik now targeting up to 3.2 million passengers this year. “We've added a lot of new flights, with more than twenty new routes introduced just this year. Much of this success is due to our agreement with Ryanair, which accounts for nineteen of these new routes”, Mr Šober said. He added, “We are delighted by Ryanair’s impact, especially in the pre-season and the post-season period. During our negotiations with Ryanair, we emphasised the importance of winter flights, and we successfully secured three routes - London, Vienna, and Brussels - each operating twice per week. If these prove successful, we plan to expand services next winter. We will also review this summer’s performance and implement increases based on that for next year”. The CEO added negotiations with Ryanair began in the summer of 2023, culminating in an agreement on October 31 that same year.
Only regional airport with high yield long haul potential.
ReplyDeleteFor 2 months in a year
Delete*5
DeleteIf it was high yield, Delta and American would continue to fly and would cancel some other lower yielding routes
Delete@09:54
DeleteSuch as what?
Which routes should they cancel and use their limited widebody capacity over the Summer?
MAD, BCN, ATH, FCO?
Anon 09:54
DeleteThere is a reason why United only flies to DBV in this region. Sorry, but high yield long haul potential is quite weak from other airports in the region.
It makes sense. Route relies solely on one-way traffic from the US. Although it makes you wonder how there is no other long haul flights to anywhere in the world from DBV.
DeleteAnon9:57 such as any other destination they didn't cancel. Literally any other.
Delete@16:28
DeleteLiterally all 3 US airlines have cancelled or reduced destination across all of central and northern Europe compared to 2019 and increased flying to Mediterranean countries.
Mediterranean countries seems to be working for them. FCO and ATH are literally thriving from the US flights.
DeleteExcellent news
ReplyDeleteHope it's American since New York is covered.
ReplyDeleteYet some starallince airlines fly to both ewr and jfk
DeleteCongratulations Dubrovnik.
ReplyDeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteI was in Dubrovnik in July. There were so many American tourists.
ReplyDeleteHow many US visitors does Dubrovnik have this year?
DeleteTons! Almost all the guests staying at the Hilton for example are Americans. Hilton is one of the most expensive hotels in Dubrovnik. I stayed there end of June and it was packed!
DeleteI don't have the exact number, but they are second after Brits:
Delete01.01.-17.08.2024. – 897.508 dolazaka (index 110) i 2.847.059 noćenja (index 111) – Ujedinjena Kraljevina, SAD, Francuska, Njemačka, Hrvatska, Irska, Španjolska, Italija, Australija, Poljska...
Hilton rewards points system works really well. We used it in Madrid for 'free' stay with breakfast included.They were charging like 20 to 25 euros per person for breakfast. I have colleagues at work who travel a lot, stay at Hilton hotels as their company pays for it, collect tons of points and they use them on family vacations for free hotel stays.
DeleteLooks like Hilton is looking to open two hotels in future in Bosnia. https://stories.hilton.com/emea/releases/hilton-set-for-bosnia-herzegovina-entry-with-dual-signing that might bring in more tourists who have these points to use and want to explore different countries in the future.
DeleteI think it could work. There is definitely potential.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Air Transat hasn't tried Dubrovnik from Toronto. Seems like a good fit for them.
ReplyDeleteThey should focus on Asia. Crazy that Croatia has no flights from China.
ReplyDeleteChecked a month ago with AA station mgr who was responsible for DBV, but she hasn't heard anything of AA resuming flights to DBV again
ReplyDeleteIt will most likely be Delta to JFK. But in the text, it does say that the new route could happen in a year or two.
DeleteCan be still AA, as if negotiations are at early stage, station mgr not necessarily are already involved. But I know that AA had quite some delays accepting new B787s and network expansion was limited, but this year they opened NCE NAP CPH and a 2nd daily AKL flight during WITT. Let's see, in 2026 we might see a positive suprise.
DeleteIt would be fantastic to have them back. Preferably with the Dreamliner.
Delete" with Dubrovnik now targeting up to 3.2 million passengers this year. "
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot!
Meanwhile Zagreb not even trying to get US flights.
ReplyDeleteCompletely different cases.
DeleteSoon I'm hoping American Airlines JFK-ZAG
DeleteThis is great news. I really do hope DBV looks towards East markets as well - China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore. All markets that could work.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteDidn't Dubrovnik have JAL charters from Japan? Would be nice to see them back.
DeleteIt did. They even used the B747.
DeleteYes, JAL operated charter flights to Narita, Osaka and Nagoya , mostly August and September.
DeleteI think this is great for Croatia. But I experienced it in 2021 and Dubrovnik airport its just too small to handle wide-body in terms of the amount of passengers at the terminal. It was a disaster and one big queue through out the entire hall.
ReplyDeleteHopefully construction improvements will be made so the experience is better.
Sorry but my experience was different. Used it in 2022 on United, and it was a perfectly pleasant experience
DeleteNice
ReplyDeleteWell done DBV.
ReplyDeleteWhat other city from the US could work to Dubrovnik? Other than New York and Philadelphia
ReplyDeleteLAX
DeleteChicago could work well too.
DeleteA year before the pandemic American launched daily 789 flights from ORD to ATH. So I can definitely see them launching DBV or ZAG too.
Delete@ Anonymous 23:01
DeleteYes but they almost certainly already had PHL to ATH. PHL is the primary TATL hub for AA, and for good reasons -- it is a much more natural place than ORD to pool all US traffic. ORD might have a bit more O&D traffic and be a bit more direct for connections from the West Coast, so for a destination that can carry more than one US hub it can make sense to launch both from PHL and ORD. But surely AA would start from PHL absent some very strong reasons such as concentrated diaspora
I think that next up they should definitely target Canada or South Korea flights. After they secure one destination from each they should look into adding more points in the US.
ReplyDeleteRoutes from US to Dubrovnik definitely have potential.
ReplyDeleteGenerally flights from US and Canada should always do well to Croatia. Mix of leisure and diaspora passengers.
DeleteGood luck.
ReplyDeleteAre these United flights, as well as the previous American ones receiving some sort of subsidies from the tourist board?
ReplyDeleteNone.
DeleteDelta needs to start flights from Atlanta.
ReplyDeleteAgree. In addition to being Delta's main hub, Atlanta is also the main transfer hub within the US and internationally too. Essentially, what JFK, EWR and PHL are for the northeast, ORD and ATL are for the rest of the US...when it comes to Europe - no doubt about it.
DeleteDelta´s flights from JFK to DBV were highly successful. The thing is that in 2021 due to Covid many flights to other destinations were cut, they had the aircraft for DBV. After the resumption of those flights they now do not have the aircraft for DBV.
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