Over the summer, Istria will have even more direct connections with London.
After years of negotiations, British national airline British Airways will open airline service between London Heathrow and Pula next summer, it was announced on Tuesday evening by the Pula Airport. Flights will take place twice a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, during July, August and September, reports Jutarnji List on November 2, 2016.
The Pula Airport said it hoped it was just the beginning of many years of partnership in connecting London and Pula. “These lines will be serviced by Airbus 319 aircraft, with a capacity of up to 143 passengers, and Airbus 320, with a capacity of up to 177 passengers. British Airways will be the sixth airline that will connect London and Pula (in addition to Easyjet, Norwegian, Thomson Airways, Ryanair and Jet2.com), but the first one that will link Pula with the busiest airport in Europe, London Heathrow”, said the airport in a press release, adding that London Heathrow had an annual turnover of 75 million passengers, with an average of 1,293 aircraft operations a day.
London Heathrow is connected with 80 airlines to 185 destinations in 84 countries, and is considered one of the most important airports in the world. British Airways is the UK’s largest airline, which in its fleet has 295 aircraft and flies to 183 different destinations. According to information from the Pula Airport, British Airways in Croatia has flights to Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik, and Pula will now become its fourth destination in Croatia.
“Connecting the Pula Airport, as an entry point to Istria, and London Heathrow is of great importance for the Istrian tourism, because it is now possible to arrive in Istria with only one stopover from any location in the world”, said the Pula Airport, adding that travellers from Great Britain are the largest market for the airport, with more than 31 percent share in the total passenger traffic and an annual growth of 20 percent.
In 2017, the Pula Airport will be connected with all four major European airports: London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
