While there has been a lot of talk about Dalmatia’s booming airports, we must not forget about all that is thriving in our capital city – and yes, Franjo Tuđman Airport in Zagreb is one of the big ones.
As we learned of new flight announcements and existing airlines increasing their lines to Croatia’s best destinations, Franjo Tuđman Airport in Zagreb has announced the number of passengers that passed through its terminals in March 2018, and its a record for the history books, reports Express.hr on April 9, 201.
Precisely, 223,642 passengers traveled through Zagreb airport in March, which is an increase of 16.2 percent, despite the fact that the number of flights stagnated. More accurately, March had one less plane take off than in February – 3143 flights. As far as quarterly statistics are concerned, the airport has increased the number of passengers by 13.5 percent, and have recorded 585,576 from the beginning of the year to the end of March.
The numbers at Zagreb are increasing every month; January recorded passenger growth of 13.3 percent, in February 10.3 percent, and now, March with 16.2 percent. 2017 was historic for Zagreb Airport as they accommodated its three-millionth passenger on December 19, 2017. The passenger arrived from Brussels via Croatia Airlines flight. If you recall, after thorough re-engineering, Zagreb Airport has a projected capacity of 3.5 million passengers. The absolute record in the history of Croatia’s air traffic has so far been recorded by Split Airport, whose relatively small airport welcomed 657,000 passengers in just in July last year.
It is clear that the reason for this historic success is the increasing tourist visits to Dalmatia during the summer, as well as the construction of the new terminal at Split airport. The number of passengers is in line with the record of the largest airport in this part of Europe, the “Nikola Tesla” Airport in Belgrade, which welcomed 5.3 million passengers last year. 2017 was a record year for airports in Croatia, as you can tell.
Split Airport is not far behind Zagreb in welcoming their three-millionth passenger in one season; last year, the two-millionth passenger arrived in August. We must also not forget about the new terminal that has recently been opened at the airport in Ćilipi near Dubrovnik. This traffic hub recorded 2.3 million passengers last year, too.
Two smaller airports in Zadar and Pula hit their records a year earlier. In 2016, Zadar Airport saw a half a million passengers for the first time, and Pula Airport had more than 400,000 passengers for the first time in a single year.
Let’s gear up for a busy season ahead.
Translated from Express.hr
