Croatia Air traffic

Record breaking year:

2024 started on a high for Croatian air travel. Croatia Airlines, the firstmost airline company in the country started the year in a financial surplus for the first time since 2018. This was all because 2023 proved to be a very lucrative year for air travel in Croatia, record breaking actually. In an interview with The Dubrovnik Times, representatives for Croatia Airlines commented that 2023 was the first since the pandemic that there was record breaking demand for air travel. During the later half of 2023 and the first part of 2024, Croatia Airlines expanded its route between Zagreb and Mostar. The company Ryanair expanded its flight options from Zagreb to 19 different routes, including a direct connection to the Canary Islands. Greek and Turkish airline companies also expanded their offerings towards Croatia. 

Statistical analysis by officials from Zagreb Airport show that Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, FlyDubai all increased their flight capacities for Croatia as well. It is then not surprising that 2024 marked even more growth in airline traffic in Croatia. Even in the first portion of the year, the pre-season, the country marked an increase in incoming flights from various nations.

To prepare for the height of the summer season from May to October, Croatia managed to connect 517 unique airline connections, for domestic and international flights. Zagreb Airport, Split Airport, and Dubrovnik Airport are the locations where most of the traffic was expected, especially from countries like Germany, Canada and the US. Entering the summer season Croatia had direct flights to 41 different countries. Also for the first time in years a direct flight line was created from Croatia to South Korea. All of this created a perfect situation for the 2024 summer season to be a true record breaker in terms of air traffic in Croatia. The Croatian Aviation Agency reported that in July about 2 217 231 passengers arrived at Croatian airports. This is a 11% increase in traffic for the same period in 2023. 

In the month of June the Zagreb airport recorded 406,301 passengers and in July the numbers increased to a whopping 432 608 passengers. Subsequently the Dubrovnik airport reported 522 488 passengers in the month of July.The true record breaker was Split, their airport had 770,502 passengers in July. This is the single biggest month for any airport in Croatia in terms of passengers.  Still the summer season is far from over and more records are being broken with each passing month. The city of Zagreb in August recorded 439 008 passengers, a personal best for the city. This is a 14% increase compared to the previous year. 

‍Preparations for 2025:

While this air traffic season is proving to be very successful for Croatia, preparations to make 2025 even better are already underway. The Croatian Aviation Agency is already trying to make more connections so that the offering for 2025 is even more robust, even more direct lines to international flights. Travel and Tour has found crucial information showing that a major airline company has their eyes set on Pula and Istria for the summer 2025 season. PLAY Airlines has already made a commitment to organize flights five days a week to Pula for the summer season of 2025. Play Airlines is a major North American airline that operates from Toronto, Washington, Boston, New York and many other major North American cities. This is surely just the beginning of the 2025 preparations. Every year Croatia turns more into a year-round destination so we expect 2025 to be another record breaker for the country and its air traffic.

‍