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Zagreb Franjo Tuđman Airport ( hr, Zračna luka Franjo Tuđman Zagreb) or Zagreb Airport ( hr, Zračna luka Zagreb) () is an
international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer ...
serving
Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...
, Croatia. It is the largest and busiest airport in Croatia. In 2019 it handled 3.45 million passengers and some 13,000 tons of cargo. Named after Franjo Tuđman, the first
President of Croatia The president of Croatia, officially the President of the Republic of Croatia ( hr, Predsjednik Republike Hrvatske), is the head of state, commander-in-chief of the military and chief representative of the Republic of Croatia both within the ...
, the airport is located some southeast of
Zagreb Central Station Zagreb Glavni kolodvor ( Croatian for ''Zagreb main station'') is the main railway station in Zagreb, Croatia. Located south of the city's main square, it is the largest station in Croatia and the main hub of the Croatian Railways network. Histo ...
in
Velika Gorica Velika Gorica (; meaning "Great Vineyard/Forest") is the largest and most populous city in Zagreb County, Croatia. According to the 2011 census the city itself has a population of 31,341, while the municipality has a population of 63,517 inhabita ...
. It is the hub of the Croatian
flag carrier A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations. Hist ...
Croatia Airlines Croatia Airlines Ltd. is the state-owned flag carrier airline of Croatia. Its headquarters are in Buzin near Zagreb and operates domestic and international services mainly to European destinations. Its main hub is Zagreb International Airport ...
and a focus city for
Trade Air Trade Air d.o.o. is a Croatian passenger and cargo charter airline headquartered in Zagreb and based at Zagreb Airport. The company is registered as an airline whose main activities are passenger charter flights and cargo operations, organised e ...
. The main base of the
Croatian Air Force The Croatian Air Force ( hr, Hrvatsko ratno zrakoplovstvo or HRZ) is a branch of the Croatian Armed Forces whose primary task is to ensure the sovereignty of the airspace of the Republic of Croatia and to provide aviation support to other branc ...
is also located at the airport's premises. Moreover, the Croatian Air Traffic Control has its administration situated on the grounds of the airport. The airport was awarded to the ZAIC consortium (Zagreb Airport International Company) in a 30-year
concession Concession may refer to: General * Concession (contract) (sometimes called a concession agreement), a contractual right to carry on a certain kind of business or activity in an area, such as to explore or develop its natural resources or to opera ...
under the terms of a contract signed by the
Government of Croatia The Government of Croatia ( hr, Vlada Hrvatske), formally the Government of the Republic of Croatia ( hr, Vlada Republike Hrvatske), commonly abbreviated to Croatian Government ( hr, hrvatska Vlada), is the main executive branch of government ...
with the aforementioned. The contract includes the financing, designing and construction of a new passenger terminal which was opened in March 2017. For the purpose of managing the airport ZAIC registered a company called MZLZ d.d. (Međunarodna zračna luka Zagreb d.d.) that is now the operator of the Airport.


History

The history of Zagreb civil aviation began in 1909 when the first airfield was built close to the western city neighbourhood (
city district A City district is a designated administrative division that is generally managed by a local government. It is used to divide a city into several administrative units. City districts are used in Russia (raion), Pakistan and Croatia ( hr, gradsk ...
) of Črnomerec. With the creation of the first Yugoslav flag carrier
Aeroput Aeroput () was an airline and flag carrier of Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia from 1927 until 1948. Society for Air traffic List of legal entity types by country#Serbia, AD Aeroput was the first Serbian company for civil air traffic, which was ...
in 1927, the airport was relocated to the
Borongaj Borongaj is a neighborhood the Peščenica – Žitnjak district of Zagreb, Croatia. It is situated south of the main railway along Branimir Branimir () is a Slavic male given name. It is a combination of the ( Slavic) verb ''braniti'' ("to defend ...
airfield in 1928 which began serving the ever-growing number of passengers on 15 February of that year. Although several European airliners connected the city it was mostly Aeroput which connected Zagreb to major destinations across Europe and thus significantly increased traffic at Zagreb in the period preceding the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Following
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, commercial services were moved to a former military airbase near the village of
Lučko Lučko is a settlement in the Novi Zagreb - zapad district of the City of Zagreb, located south of the Sava and southwest of the city center. Lučko is located near the Lučko interchange that connects the A1 motorway, the Zagreb bypass and the ...
south-west of the city in 1947. JAT Yugoslav Airlines took the role of Aeroput and made Zagreb its second hub. At its peak in 1959, Lučko served 167,000 passengers. The current location of the airport at Pleso in the south-east of Lučko opened in 1962 with a long
runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...
and
terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together * Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output dev ...
. By 1966, Zagreb Airport got a new state-of-the-art passenger terminal. The runway capacity was lengthened to its current in 1974. In the 1980s Zagreb Airport was the second largest in Yugoslavia by passenger and aircraft movements. Yugoslav flag-carrier JAT maintained a hub in Zagreb and connected the city to numerous destinations including New York City, Chicago, Toronto aboard its McDonnell Douglas DC-10 aircraft. These long haul services inevitably had a major impact on air traffic at Zagreb during that period. On 31 August 1991, during the
Croatian War of Independence The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between Croat forces loyal to the Government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)—and the Serb-controlled Yugosl ...
, the airport became the scene of fighting between Croatian armed forces and the Yugoslav military (JNA) when a Boeing 707 chartered by
Anton Kikaš Anton Kikaš (also known as Tony, born in 1941 in Bijakovići, Bosnia-Hercegovina) is a Croatian-Canadian business man who was arrested for arms smuggling by Yugoslav authorities on 31 August 1991 during the Croatian war of independence and subseq ...
carrying weapons for the Croatians was forced to land there by Yugoslav MiGs. Croatian forces attacked the control tower and blocked roads in and out of the airport, however the JNA successfully seized the 707 and flew it out of the airport. The airport later became a UN hub for getting Medical & food supplies to war-ridden
Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...
and
Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...
. The British 24th Field Ambulance were stationed in a former
Yugoslav People's Army The Yugoslav People's Army (abbreviated as JNA/; Macedonian and sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска народна армија, Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian and bs, Jugoslavenska narodna armija; sl, Jugoslovanska ljudska a ...
camp at the airport. Following an increase in passenger numbers and the necessity to upgrade its infrastructure, the airport installed a CAT-IIIb
instrument landing system In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...
(ILS) in 2004. In 2008, a new VIP terminal was added and the terminal extended for extra amenities, restaurants and bars. The terminal was expanded to . By 2010, the old terminal was nearing its maximum annual capacity. That year the passenger terminal received a major facelift in the course of which a viewing platform with a bar was added. On 12 April 2012, the ZAIC consortium received a 30-year concession for the airport from the
Government of Croatia The Government of Croatia ( hr, Vlada Hrvatske), formally the Government of the Republic of Croatia ( hr, Vlada Republike Hrvatske), commonly abbreviated to Croatian Government ( hr, hrvatska Vlada), is the main executive branch of government ...
. Cosortium consist of
Groupe ADP Groupe ADP, formerly Aéroports de Paris or ADP (''Paris Airports''), is an international airport operator based in Paris (France). Groupe ADP owns and manages Parisian international airports Charles de Gaulle Airport, Orly Airport and Le Bourge ...
(21%), Bouygues Bâtiment International (21%),
Marguerite Fund The 2020 European Fund for Energy, Climate Change and Infrastructure, known as the Marguerite Fund, is a pan-European equity fund that invests in renewables, energy and transport. It is based in Luxembourg. Funding The Marguerite Fund was establ ...
(21%),
International Finance Corporation The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private-sector development in less developed countries. The IFC is a member of t ...
(17%),
TAV Airports TAV Airports Holding ( tr, TAV Havalimanları Holding) is a Turkish airport operation and services firm that is part of Groupe ADP. It is one of the world's largest airport operators, providing services to 1 million flights and 152 million passen ...
(15%) and Viadukt (5%). The concession includes financing, designing and constructing a new passenger terminal. The construction of a brand new terminal facility designed by Neidhardt architects of Zagreb and carried out by Bouygues Bâtiment International in partnership with Viadukt began on 18 December 2013 with the aim to replace the old terminal. It now has an initial annual capacity of 5.5 million passengers in the first phase and was officially completed in October 2016. The official inauguration of the terminal was on 28 March 2017. ZAIC now operates the entire airport for 30 years including the runways, the current passenger terminal, the cargo terminal, car parks and all future property developments. The concession contract involves a total investment of around €324m (£259m): €236 million for the design and construction of the new terminal and €88 million for operation of all airport infrastructure for the entire period of the concession. On 27 February 2020, the runway, formerly designated as 05/23, was redesignated to 04/22 due to the change in
magnetic declination Magnetic declination, or magnetic variation, is the angle on the horizontal plane between magnetic north (the direction the north end of a magnetized compass needle points, corresponding to the direction of the Earth's magnetic field lines) and ...
. On 30 March 2021, Irish
low-cost airline A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...
Ryanair Ryanair is an Irish ultra low-cost carrier founded in 1984. It is headquartered in Swords, Dublin, Ireland and has its primary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports. It forms the largest part of the Ryanair Holdings family ...
announced the opening of a new base in Zagreb commencing July 2021. The airline will be basing three
Airbus A320-200 Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...
aircraft and start flights to 26 previously unserved destinations.


Terminal

The current terminal building was opened to the public on 28 March 2017. It stretches over on three levels featuring four baggage carousels, 8 air bridges, 9 security checkpoints, 45 check-in desks, 23 passport control booths and a car park with the capacity of 1,250 vehicles. Furthermore, the new apron has three remote stands next to the terminal, while 23 stands at the old passenger building are also used during the peak season. Each of the aircraft parking positions at the facility includes a visual docking guidance system which gives information to a pilot on how to park their aircraft. The terminal itself features a large 600 square metre
duty-free shop A duty-free shop (or store) is a retail outlet whose goods are exempt from the payment of certain local or national taxes and duties, on the requirement that the goods sold will be sold to travelers who will take them out of the country, wh ...
operated by Aelia, 16 cafés, bars, restaurants and snack bars as well as 12 retail stores. Enough space has been left for 30 additional check-in counters and 2 baggage carousels to be added once the new terminal reaches its current maximum capacity of 5 million passengers. Further extensions envisaged along the thirty-year concession period will potentially see expanding current apron from present and terminal capacity increased to 8 million through gradual expansion of the terminal in four Phase 2 expansions.


Airlines and destinations


Passenger


Cargo


Ground transportation

ZAG can be reached from the city centre by scheduled local bus services (No. 290) operated by
ZET Zet or ZET may refer to: * Zagrebački električni tramvaj, Zagreb Electric Tram, public transport operator in Zagreb, Croatia * Zet (hardware), a clone x86 processor * Radio ZET, Polish radio station *Association of the Polish Youth "Zet", pre-19 ...
or scheduled coach services operated by Croatia Airlines' subsidiary Pleso Prijevoz.


Statistics


Traffic


References


External links


Official website of operator
* * {{authority control Airports in Croatia 1962 establishments in Croatia Airports established in 1962
Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...
Buildings and structures in Zagreb County
Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...
Velika Gorica