There will be direct flights between Bulgaria and Croatia as of 1 May, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said. Croatia's national airline Croatia Airlines will service the flights between Sofia and Zagreb three times a week until the end of October 2020.

Croatia Airlines has confirmed for the Bulgarian Embassy in Zagreb that the direct flights might be extended to the winter period of 2021, depending on the passenger flow and financial indices.

The opening of the scheduled flights is a direct result of the visit of Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva to Zagreb on 18 October, 2019, when the topic featured on the agenda of her talks with her Croatian counterpart Gordan Grlic Radman.

The direct flights are expected to further increase the tourist flow between the two countries. Last year, Croatia was visited by 42,283 Bulgarians, up by 16.7% from 2018, and Bulgaria was visited by 29,270 Croatians, up by 31.1% from 2018, the Foreign Ministry said.