Recovery in sight

Rijeka reports growth

As August draws to a close the Croatian ministry for transportation has published traffic results for Croatian airports during the month of July, one of the two peak tourist season months. Compared to previous months, more airports are reporting passenger growth although this is not the case for Croatia’s largest airport Zagreb. This month Osijek reports the greatest traffic increase compared to July 2009, while Pula continues to report a negative trend and takes the title for the greatest passenger decrease in July.

With 225.102 passengers Zagreb reported a 2.5% passenger decrease compared to last year. However, aircraft movement also declined by a large 13.2%, understandably decreasing passenger numbers, while its transit passenger numbers decreased by 43%. When compared to its main regional competitor Belgrade, Zagreb is still behind although its losses, passenger wise, have been lower compared to Belgrade this year. With 198.172 passengers in July, Split’s performance has diminished by 4.2%, compared to last year. The worst perfumer in July, the same as in June, was Pula Airport. The airport saw passenger movement plummet by 21.2%. The airport had 198.172 passengers this July compared to 206.908 last year. Actual traffic movement at the airport also decreased by 7.9%.

On a brighter note some airports in the country are beginning to recover. Zadar, Osijek, Dubrovnik and Rijeka all managed to see passenger numbers rise. Osijek Airport did exceptionally well with passenger number increasing by a hefty 64.5%. Zadar continued its run of good results with passenger numbers increasing by more than 25%, compliments of the low cost Ryanair. Rijeka also did well in July. The airport handled 24.874 last month compared to 22.324 in July 2008 and thus reported growth of 11.4%. Dubrovnik also improved its results somewhat with passenger numbers increasing by 1.3%.

Passenger figures at Croatian airports:
· January
· February
· March
· April
· May
· June