The new runway should help increase the number of passengers at the airport.
The reconstructed runway of the Pula Airport was officially reopened on Friday. About 19.5 million kuna were invested in the reconstruction project. The renovation of the tarmac of the runway was financed from the state budget in the amount of eight million kuna, while the remaining part of the funds were financed by a loan and from Pula Airport’s own resources.
The reconstructed runway was opened by Minister of Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butković and Prefect of Istria County Valter Flego. “This is a prelude to the opening of the new terminal of the Franjo Tuđman International Airport in Zagreb on 21 March. The Ministry will help all airports execute reconstruction projects in accordance with their needs”, said Minister Butković.
In addition to the upcoming opening of the terminal at the Zagreb Airport, Butković also pointed out that the Ministry signed a contract a few months ago on the reconstruction and extension of the Split Airport worth 400 million kuna. In addition, works at the Dubrovnik Airport financed from EU funds are nearing completion. “If everything in Croatia was developing as fast as our airports, we would all be very happy”, concluded Butković.
Prefect Flego said that this year they expected a real boom of tourists coming to Istria by planes. One kilometre of road leads nowhere, but one kilometre of runway connects us with the entire world, said Flego.
Mayor of Pula Boris Miletić said that Pula has been breaking tourist records each year and that it ended last year with 1.8 million overnight stays. “This is an extremely important infrastructure project and the airport has made a big leap forward. We have a very good tourist year ahead”, said Miletić.
The director of the Pula Airport Svemir Radmilo said that this year they expected the arrival of as many as 600,000 passengers. Compared to the previous year, this would be an increase of 40 percent, said Radmilo, who based his optimist on the fact that eight new services with four new airlines will be started. A total of 13.8 million kuna were invested in various projects of the Pula Airport in the period from 2012 to 2016. The reconstruction of the runway followed the reconstruction of a part of the airport terminal building. The next goal should be the opening of the first international route in winter months, which Radmilo believes could happened in 2019.
