I just came from a quick break in Croatia (my 2nd time in the country).
As the first time, it astonished me how underdeveloped the aviation industry is there for a country with so much potential in terms of touristic activity. Croatia has more coastline than France or Spain. It also seems to get many of their tourists from driving-distance countries, like Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Italy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_i ... Statistics The number of British or French tourists is very small.
It seems that most airports in the former Yugoslavia are in a turbo-boost mode with double-digit growth and route announcements almost every day, however IMO it seems there is a lot of much potential.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_b ... _Republics
For instance:
Split, which is the largest "coastal" airport in Croatia, had 2.8 million PAX in 2017. To put it in "Spanish" terms, that is less passengers than Menorca, one of the smallest islands in Spain. However this is a massive boost from 1.9 million in 2015 (!) and more than double than in 2012 (1.4 million).
Dubrovnik, undoubtely Croatia's "flagship" destination, had 2.3 million PAX in 2017, which is almost double the figures of 2011.
Minor airports like Zadar or Pula had 600k each, again double the figures of only 6 years ago. Rijeka is a completely marginal airport in terms of passengers.
Zagreb with its fancy new terminal had only 3 million PAX in 2017; that is a regional airport almost anywhere in Western Europe. Despite being the hub for Croatia Airlines and having carriers like Emirates or Air Canada.
Montenegro is not much better and both airports closed 2017 at about 1.1 million each or double the 2011 figures.
So what do you think about Montenegro and, particularly, Croatia's airports potential? Could they double those figures again in, let's say, the next 5 years?
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Re: Adriatic airports potential? (Croatia/Montenegro)
There certainly is room for some growth, but it'll never be as big as the Spanish airports for example. Keep in mind that in Spain by far not all passengers are tourists, there is also quite some business traffic plus locals flying for whatever reasons. That's a lot less in Croatia.
You could perhaps compare it to Greece, also a popular holiday destination. However just like Croatia, the Greek airports are by far not as busy as the Spanish airports. And tourism in Greece relies even more on aviation than tourism in Croatia or even in Spain. Nobody from let's say Germany is going to drive all the way to Greece for a holiday, they fly.
You could perhaps compare it to Greece, also a popular holiday destination. However just like Croatia, the Greek airports are by far not as busy as the Spanish airports. And tourism in Greece relies even more on aviation than tourism in Croatia or even in Spain. Nobody from let's say Germany is going to drive all the way to Greece for a holiday, they fly.
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