As Glas Istre/Duska Palibrk writes on the 27th of June, 2019, Pula Airport is experiencing some excellent growth and progression this year, which can be owed to intense cooperation between Pula Airport, the Istria County Tourist Board and local people working in the hotel and tourism industry.
”As of yesterday, when compared to last year, we recorded sixteen percent more passengers. The biggest increase we had was in April, by about sixty percent, in May, there was an increase of 35 percent.
That’s exactly what we were working hard on throughout last year along with the Istria County Tourist Board and the hotel industry, boosting the pre-season and the season. Of course, we’re not expecting such growth in July and August, but again in October, we’d like thirty percent more passengers. This year, we set a goal of 770,000 passengers. Yes, that would be a new record,” Pula Airport’s director Svemir Radmilo stated.
The low-cost airline company easyJet has opened up two new seasonal lines for Pula, Geneva, and Amsterdam.
Flights from Geneva arrive at Pula Airport on Wednesdays and Saturdays, the very first of which landed last night, and from Amsterdam, flights arrive on Tuesdays and Sundays, and it will continue on like that until the end of August.
According to the flight schedule, the flight from Geneva to Pula arrives at 20:00 and returns back at 21:15. The seasonal line between Pula Airport and Amsterdam opened on Croatian Statehood Day (June the 25th), landing on Pula Airport’s runway ten minutes ahead of schedule, at 19:30. On the first flight from Amsterdam there were 110 passengers, and upon departure from Pula Airport, there were 94.
EasyJet has thus become the number one carrier at Pula Airport. This year will see a total of twelve lines and about 150,000 passengers will arrive thanks to the ”wings” of this popular low-cost carrier.
In addition to Geneva and Amsterdam, the aforementioned air company will connect Pula Airport with ten more European destinations. Until the end of August, EasyJet will fly to Pula Airpott from Paris on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from Milan on Mondays and Fridays, from Berlin (Schönefeld) and Basel on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and from Bristol in the UK on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Until October the 13th, on Wednesdays and Sundays, there will be a direct Liverpool-Pula line, on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays until October the 20th, there will be a direct route between Pula Airport and Berlin (Tegel),, and until Thursday the 26th of October, Thursdays and Sundays will see a direct connection between Pula Airport and the British capital of London (Southend and Gatwick).
As far as flights are concerned, the director of the Pula Airport says that only the month of October has a question mark over its head, especially with regard to the UK, as the 31st of October is meant to be the country’s new EU exit date. However, whether or not that means anything at all, as it hasn’t so far with any previous planned exit dates – remains to be seen.
“We were concerned about Brexit during the pre-season, too, and nothing happened, so far, we haven’t felt a bigger drop in the number of passengers, everything that comes from the United Kingdom is very full, all flights so far have been over 90 percent filled and we hope to continue this trend,” said the director of Pula Airport, which can now proudly boast of more than seventy direct flights to Europe, of which 70 percent are with “low-cost” airlines.
It isn’t just EasyJet has just opened new lines for Pula Airport. Laudamotion has connected Pula and Stuttgart this season, Voltea has been connecting Pula Airport and Bordeaux since earlier this month, Jet2 connects Pula with Birmingham, and TUI UK connects it with Doncaster.
Asked how much Pula is recognised among Croatian travellers, as well as those from within Croatia’s closer region, as the starting place to get to all of the aforementioned European destinations, Svemir Radmilo says he sees more and more Italian and Slovenian registrations parked at the airport, there are also those from Zagreb, Rijeka, Karlovac, and some remain parked there for days at a time.
”We’re a tourist destination, people work during the summer season, seventy percent of people in Istria are working in tourism and they’re not travelling during this time of year. The number of Croatian passengers using Pula Airport to travel abroad is greatest in April, September and October, but they make up only ten percent of our passengers. All the rest are international travellers who’re coming to visit Croatia, ninety percent of them remain in Istria, others continue to other destinations. There are also those who fly to Dubrovnik, rent a car, and go in the opposite direction, towards Pula,” concluded Svemir Radmilo.
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