Croatia's airports registered 3.32 million passengers in the first half of this year, a four-fold (398 percent) increase compared to the first half of 2021 when global Covid restrictions were still in place.

In the first six months of 2022, flight operations jumped by 101 percent, state news agency Hina said on Tuesday citing publicly available data released by the state statistics bureau. Croatia’s airports handled over 4,700 tons of cargo, or 19 percent up year-on-year.

In June only, 1.28 million passengers passed through Croatia’s airports, a 300 percent increase rise compared to June 2021. Croatia’s airports also saw a 90 percent increase in flight operations in June, Hina said, to 15,000.

Split Airport which served 418,000 passengers in June was the top performer, and it registered a 264.6 percent increase year-on-year. Dubrovnik Airport ranked second in June, with a 428.2 percent increase to 311,000 passengers. Zagreb Airport catered for 291,000 passengers in June, or a 191.9 percent increase from June 2021.

“According to state statistics bureau data,” state news agency Hina said, “in Zadar, 170,000 passengers passed through its airport in June, Pula Airport registered 60,000 passengers and  Rijeka Airport 26,000, the airport on the island of Brac had 2,000 passengers, and the airport in the largest eastern city of Osijek reported 1,800 passengers in June.”

Hina did not report year-on-year changes for these airports. “The largest number of passengers in June came from Germany, the UK and France,” Hina said, without specifying any numbers.