Dubrovnik could well have a new American flight connection next year with flights from Chicago from American Airlines in the pipeline. After a long 28-year break with any direct flights between Croatian and the US American Airlines started flights this summer season from Philadelphia to Dubrovnik. And they proved extremely successful, so much so that the biggest airline in the States have already announced that they would seriously upgrade the service for 2020 to a daily one. “Dubrovnik went really, really well for us,” commented Vasu Raja, the airline’s vice president of network and schedule planning, for the American Airlines podcast “Tell Me Why.”

Clearly American Airlines have used these flights from Philadelphia as a test to see the interest in flights from other American destinations. “We can try things from Philadelphia that gives us a rapid approach to route development. As we develop things in Philadelphia and they work it is a means to develop routes for Chicago,” added Raja.

“Barcelona, Venice, Athens, Prague, Dubrovnik, Prague, and Budapest - all of those started in Philadelphia,” he said. “We realised they could also work in Chicago given where the traffic was coming from.”

More American tourists in Dubrovnik than ever before - Photo Tonci Plazibat 

There seems to be concrete data from the airline as to when flights from Chicago to Dubrovnik could start and indeed the frequency of such flights, however news that the vice president of schedule planning is talking about flights from Chicago to Dubrovnik clearly means that these flights are in the pipeline.

Speaking to The Dubrovnik Times Romana Vlasic, the Director of the Dubrovnik Tourist Board stated that “It’s great news, and we are glad that American Airlines have recognised Dubrovnik as a popular tourist destination with huge interest from the American market. We hope that in the future American Airlines extends flights from the summer season into an all year round service.” American tourists are the second most numerous in Dubrovnik this year, which undoubtedly is thanks to non-stop flights from the US, and the city has seen an increase in 16 percent in American tourist numbers and overnight stays.