The government on Thursday approved 592.2 million kuna (€79 million) in funding for the state-owned flag carrier Croatia Airlines and the privately-owned Trade Air, to subsidize domestic air transport in the period from July 2022 to March 2026.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butkovic, explained that a tender was advertised at the end of October 2021 for operators interested in conducting scheduled domestic air routes.

“Five airlines inquired, and eventually two of them – Croatia Airlines and Trade Air – submitted their bids within the deadline. After determining that their bids were complete and valid, the ministry decided to sign contracts with these companies to perform regular domestic air transport in the specified period,” said Butkovic.

The contract includes 415.9 million kuna (€55.4 million) for Croatia Airlines, and 176.3 million kuna (23.4 million) for Trade Air.

Subsidized routes operated by Croatia Airlines include Dubrovnik-Zagreb-Dubrovnik, Split-Zagreb-Split, Zagreb-Zadar-Pula-Zadar-Zagreb, Zagreb-Brac-Zagreb, Osijek-Dubrovnik-Osijek and Osijek-Split-Osijek. Trade Air will operate Osijek-Zagreb-Osijek, Osijek-Pula-Split-Pula-Osijek, Osijek-Rijeka-Osijek, Rijeka-Split-Dubrovnik-Split-Rijeka, Rijeka-Zadar -Rijeka and Osijek-Zadar-Osijek routes.

(€1 = 7.51 kuna)