May the 7th, 2024 – New Rijeka Airport parking prices have proven less than popular with most, with those in the tourism business citing the destruction of Rijeka and Kvarner’s competitiveness.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, representatives of the Chamber of Crafts of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies and the Kvarner Tourist Board recently requested the cancellation of this year’s parking price list for carriers at Rijeka Airport. This is because the administration significantly increased Rijeka Airport parking prices for taxi drivers and passenger carriers. In some categories, those prices were raised by more than a thousand percent compared to last year alone.
They requested the return of last year’s prices, since they themselves formed the prices of the passenger transportation service for this year based on last year’s price list, which was in force until last month. However, parking prices were significantly increased at the beginning of April, and, as they claim, without any announcement or explanation from the airport’s administration, which now threatens their business.
They announced that they would turn to the ministries of Tourism and Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure for help in solving this. Especially given that the state owns Rijeka Airport, according to Novi list.
Emil Priskić, the president of the county Chamber of Crafts, pointed out that the prices for entering and parking vehicles at this particular airport have increased significantly. In some cases by over one hundred percent, and in the most dramatic cases, by over a thousand percent, compared to last year.
Director of the Kvarner Tourist Board, Irena Peršić Živadinov, said that the tourist board has been directly encouraging the arrival of tourists to Kvarner for years, in cooperation with businessmen from that sector, at Rijeka Airport.
“These Rijeka Airport parking prices are going to destroy the competitiveness of the destination. Tour operators will continue their business in Kvarner, and plenty of very large European tour operators are filling our capacities,” she said.
“We’ve got to find a solution so that we’ve got stability from year to year. We also need to know what awaits us and make sure that the prices don;t change at the last minute, because the prices in the agencies were formed a year ago,” he added.
According to the president of the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies, Tomislav Fain, the new Rijeka Airport parking prices for carriers are the result of a complete lack of understanding of the tourism sector by the airport administration.
15 last year, and now they are asking for €360
“As already mentioned, we send the prices to our partners one year in advance. Now we’re at the threshold of the tourist season, we’d receive a new price list for the current year. This isn’t a three-four percent increase, but a 100, 300, 1000 percent or even higher price increase,” said Fain.
To make it clearer, the entrance of the bus that transports passengers from Rijeka Airport to the destination or vice versa costed 15 euros last year, and this year it costs 360 euros.
More expensive than in Ljubljana and Venice
“If we compare that with the price of transferring passengers by bus from the airport into Rijeka itself, which costs around 300 euros, which includes the bus, driver, fuel, taxes and other costs, it turns out that entering the airport car park is significantly more expensive than the transportation itself,” said Fain.
“At the same time, we’re talking about prices that are higher than that in Ljubljana, Venice and the surrounding airports. For example, you can enter Zadar Airport by bus, enter the car park, and unload or load passengers in a period of fifteen minutes without any payment,” he added.
“We’re all outraged and we’re asking that this price list be changed immediately,” said Fain. According to him, the three main demands are to immediately cancel the new price list for high-frequency users of the Rijeka Airport parking area, as well as to return the prices to last year’s level.
“We also suggest to the owners of Rijeka Airport that they put the issue of airport management on the agenda of one of the next meetings of the company. We believe that it’s necessary to think carefully about whether the person who manages the airport deserves to continue doing so,” said Fain.
“We also ask that future administrations meet regularly with representatives of the tourism sector regarding the management of the airport, not in terms of operational management, but the tourism of Kvarner as a destination,” he added.
new rijeka airport parking prices
Novi list received the new Rijeka Airport parking prices. It’s claimed that the price list came from Rijeka Airport itself, last year’s price list was also included. The differences are very significant, to say the least. The seasonal permit for taxi vehicles now costs 1,800 euros according to the new price list, while last year it cost 825 euros.
For shuttle and occasional transport, last year’s annual subscription was 825 euros. It was 160 euros per month. Those who wanted so-called “one time entry” with twenty cards for exiting the car park, the price stood at 104 euros. This year, different prices for monthly subscriptions were introduced in that category, considering the number of seats for passenger transport, but the annual subscription amounts to 2,900 euros for all vehicles, and the monthly subscription is now between 690 and 1,290 euros.
The subscription fee for rent-a-car vehicles for the users of business premises at the airport has increased from 20 euros per month, per parking space, for five vehicles, to 35 euros. For others, it has gone from 70 euros to 120 euros per space, for five vehicles.
