February the 12th, 2026 – Croatian airports served almost 14 million tourists throughout 2025, with Zagreb Airport firmly in first place.
As Sinisa Malus/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the number of passengers served at Croatian airports increased last year to 13.99 million, representative of a 7% increase compared to 2024, the Central Bureau of Statistics recently announced.
Compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, this is two and a half million more passengers (back then there were 11.4 million passengers served), which confirms the theory that Croatia is still very from just a car destination.
The total number of landings and takeoffs at Croatian airports increased by 4.4 percent compared to the previous year to 144,708 in 2025, while the amount of cargo fell by 12% to 9,667 tonnes, the Central Bureau of Statistics announced in its monthly report. During that period, a total of 6.8% more passengers were loaded and unloaded at Croatian airports than in 2024, totalling almost 14 million.
zagreb ranked first, while osijek came last
Zagreb Airport transported the most passengers of all last year – 4.7 million of them – marking an annual increase of 9.2%. This was therefore a true record year that confirms a strong, stable and long-term sustainable upward trend – without seasonal fluctuations that often make planning business events difficult. After Zagreb, Split Airport followed with 3.8 million passengers and Dubrovnik Airport came third with 3.1 million passengers.
Zadar Airport also saw more than a million passengers (1.6 million in total), which is a 3% increase. Pula Airport and Rijeka Airport each had a passenger traffic increase of 9% with 542.3 thousand and 153.1 thousand passengers served in 2025, respectively. Osijek Airport lagged behind them with 42.1 thousand passengers and is thus the only major airport with a minus compared to 2024, of 4.7%.
Brač Airport also saw a decrease of 11.3% in the number of passengers it served in 2025, with 17.5 thousand passengers. The airport on Mali Lošinj served a little over 1900 passengers and was up 28.3% compared to 2024.
december growth for croatian airports
During the month of December, there were 5396 aircraft landings and takeoffs recorded, which represents an increase of 1.3% compared to December 2024. Back then, that number stood at 5327. Total cargo traffic at airports amounted to 765 tonnes, 8.7% less than a year ago.
In December alone, the total number of passengers increased by 6.6% compared to the previous year to 419 thousand. It’s worth noting that in 2024, Croatian airports recorded an annual increase in the number of passengers of 16%.
