Last year was an extremely successful one for Croatia’s airports with seven million passengers passing through the countries airports. The top three airports, in terms of passenger numbers, were the capital Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik. According to information from the specialised website EX-YU Aviation Zagreb Airport had it best year on record with 2.58 million passengers travelling through the capitals airport. This figure is a massive increase of 6.5 percent over last year. This growth was largely due to an increase in the growing number of international airlines operating through Zagreb. When the passenger numbers through Zagreb over the past five years are compared a steady growth can be seen. In 2013 a total of 2.3 million passengers used the airport, in 2014 that figure had risen to 2.4 million and last year the figure of 2.58 million was a record.

And it wasn’t only Zagreb that had a record year; Split also had its best year on record with 1.95 million passengers travelling through in 2015. After Zagreb’s 6.5 percent increase Split had a whooping increase of 11.6 percent. The managing director of Split Airport, Luksa Novak, told EX-YU Aviation that he expected 2 million passengers to travel through this year. He announced that with the arrival new flights from such airlines as Niki, Volotea, Air Berlin and Thomson Airways. The airport is also undergoing an investment project with the construction of a new terminal planned to start this spring.

And the last of the “big three” airports in Croatia, Dubrovnik airport, continued the positive news with another record breaking year welcoming 1.69 million passengers in 2015. The increase in passenger numbers at Dubrovnik Airport grew by 6.9 percent last year compared to 2014. The most popular route to Dubrovnik in 2015 was London and Croatia Airlines was the most frequent airline, mainly thanks to their daily operations to Zagreb. The airport expects that passenger figures will grow by between 5 and 6 percent this year.