December 15, 2019 – Tourism numbers are booming on the Dalmatian coast, nowhere more so than Split Airport. A look at the phenomenal growth.
As a long-time expat living in Croatia since 2002, one of the things that makes me smile is the sound of more recent arrivals complaining about the lack of connectivity to Split out of season.
I fondly remember my trips home to Jelsa on Hvar from the UK, which were either by Ryanair to Trieste, then bus to Rijeka and onward bus to Split, or Ryanair to Graz, train to Zagreb and then bus to Split. It was not until 2007 that Ryanair entered the Croatian market in Zadar, after which things started to change.
And the rise and growth of Split Airport in that time has been particularly strong, just how strong I had not realised until I was writing an article for a client earlier today.
With its new terminal opened this July, the dual carriageway into the city now fully open, and with seasonal transfer options including even a boat transfer to downtown Split, arriving in Split these days is more comfortable than it has been for quite some time. but those passenger growth numbers are astonishing, as are the expanded services of airlines such as Norwegian and easyJet, who now fly to the Dalmatian capital from March to November, a marked improvement on those lonely days back in 2002 for this aspiring blogger.
Last year, Split Airport broke the 3 million passenger mark for the first time, a number already surpassed in 2019, with more than 3.2 million passengers in the first 11 months alone. Having heard about record numbers every year for years now, I was curious how this compared historically and so checked the official statistics from Split Airport historically. The growth is unbelievable.
Up almost 50% since 2016, just three years ago.
More than double the passenger traffic of 2013, just six years ago.
Almost triple the traffic of 2009, just a decade ago.
And as for my lonely time back in 2002, there were more than five times the number of passengers last year. Indeed, July and August 2019 both handled more traffic in a month than the entire year I arrived 17 years ago.
To learn more about the Dalmatian capital, check out the Total Croatia Split in a Page guide.
