Zadar Airport (; ) is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

serving

Zadar Zadar ( , ), historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian, ; see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Croatia. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. It is located in Zemunik Donji, from the centre of Zadar. With over 70 destinations on offer the airport handled around 1.6 million passengers in 2024. It is the fourth busiest airport in Croatia.

History

As early as 1936, Zadar (then part of the Italian Province of Zara) had regular commercial flights, initially provided by

Ala Littoria Ala Littoria S.A. was the Italian national airline that operated during the fascist regime in the 1930s and 1940s. History ''Ala Littoria'' was formed by a merger of Società Aerea Mediterranea (SAM), Società Anonima Navigazione Aerea (S ...

. Over time the airport has grown to become Croatia's fourth largest international airport. It used to be one of a few airports in the world where the

taxiway A taxiway is a path for aircraft at an airport connecting runways with Airport apron, aprons, hangars, Airport terminal, terminals and other facilities. They mostly have a hard surface such as Asphalt concrete, asphalt or concrete, although sma ...

crossed a public road. The road was closed on 7 April 2010 due to terms negotiated with the European Union during Croatian accession negotiations. In 2020, an underpass was built and the road was reopened. In April 2013, Zadar Airport became a

Ryanair Ryanair is an Irish Low-cost carrier#Ultra low-cost carrier, ultra low-cost airline group headquartered in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland. The parent company, Ryanair Holdings plc, includes subsidiaries Ryanair , Malta Air, Buzz (Ryanair), Buzz ...

base with a stationed

Boeing 737-800 The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a twinjet, twin-engine narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third-generation derivative of the Boeing 737, it ha ...

. In December 2019, Lauda announced the stationing of three

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

aircraft during the summer 2020 timetable period. A set of 11 new routes was announced by the airline for summer 2020. Due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

the airline postponed the opening of the base to July 2021, where it will station two

Airbus A320-200 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

and serve 37 destinations.

Facilities

The airport also is a

Croatian Air Force The Croatian Air Force ( or HRZ) is the aerial warfare branch of the Croatian Armed Forces. It is tasked primarily with safeguarding the sovereignty of Croatian airspace and providing aviation support to other branches during joint operations. ...

main training base. It used to be a base for

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

's ''InterCockpit'' flight school.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Zadar Airport:

Statistics

References

External links

* {{authority control Airports in Croatia Buildings and structures in Zadar County

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

Transport in Zadar County