Last year was a record breaking one for Dubrovnik Airport, with more flights than ever before and more passengers passing through the airport, and one of the most important airlines was the UK low cost easyJet. The popular airline has just released figures showing that they handled over 600,000 passengers on their flights to Croatia in 2015, with Dubrovnik one of their most frequent destinations. In fact in 2015 easyJet was the second busiest carrier operating out of Dubrovnik, behind only the national carrier Croatia Airlines.

“More than 600.000 passengers travelled to and from Croatia with easyJet,” commented the airline's spokesperson, Matteo Taddei. Adding that in 2015 the airline launched eight new routes including their first ever flights to Istria. And easyJet is planning an even bigger presence in the Croatian market for 2016. Four new routes have been announced for this year, Pula to Hamburg and Paris and Dubrovnik to Bristol and Toulouse. The introduction of the seasonal Bristol to Dubrovnik flights now means that easyJet operate to four different airports in Great Britain. “At last we can fly to Dubrovnik without having to drive up to London,” commented a regular guest to Dubrovnik from the South-West of England.

As yet easyJet is still only flying to Dubrovnik throughout the summer period. However the airline is seeing positive results from Croatia and might yet introduce winter flights. “easyJet currently offers as many as 32 destinations to and from Croatia confirming the airline’s commitment to the country and to making travel easy and affordable for local passengers to connect to Europe," said Ali Gayward, easyJet’s UK Commercial Manager.

During the peak travel month of August, easyJet offers almost as many seats as Croatia Airlines from the country, with 21.960 seats offered in August 2015, compared to the Croatian carrier's 23.192. In addition, during the year, easyJet was the second busiest carrier operating out of Dubrovnik, behind only Croatia Airlines.

The Polish airline LOT will reintroduce direct flights from Warsaw to Zagreb on January 2, the company’s representatives said in Zagreb on Friday.

LOT suspended its Warsaw-Zagreb flight service in early June this year due to so-called compensation measures applied by the Polish airline during the process of its restructuring. Now that the restructuring process has been finished, the company can again re-introduce flight services. As of the beginning of next year, LOT will also reintroduce flights to Belgrade. As of March, its planes will fly to Ljubljana as well, LOT regional manager Jolanta Grala-Bednarcik said at a news conference at the Polish Embassy in Zagreb.

The price of a return ticket from Zagreb to Warsaw will range from EUR 79 to 139, depending on the baggage. By the end of next March, LOT planes will fly to Zagreb four times a week, after which daily flights are planned, notably during the summer season.

LOT is an entirely state-owned company and its privatisation is not planned for now, it was said at the news conference.

Hina