Dubrovnik Airport held talks with American Airlines last month as it continues efforts to secure additional nonstop services to the United States. The airport’s Managing Director, Viktor Šober, and Deputy Director, Ivan Maslać, also met with representatives from the Chicago Department of Aviation, which manages O’Hare Airport, as well as officials from the City of Chicago. Commenting on the airport’s ambitions, Mr Šober noted last year, “While we are currently connected to New York, one route is proving insufficient. We need another, similar to what we had a few years ago. The primary challenge is the shortage of aircraft and the delays in new deliveries caused by manufacturing and supply chain issues. It’s a complex situation that makes securing these flights difficult. However, I am confident that within the next year or two, we will have something concrete”.
American Airlines previously operated seasonal summer flights between Philadelphia and Dubrovnik, but the service was discontinued in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2019, the airline indicated it was considering launching flights from Chicago to the Croatian coastal city as early as 2021. At the time, the carrier said, “Dubrovnik went really, really well for us. We can connect 95% of the United States over Philadelphia, and none of our competitors’ operations in New York or the Northeast can do anything even remotely close to that”. In 2019, American Airlines carried 17.879 passengers on the Philadelphia–Dubrovnik route, achieving an average cabin load factor of 80.7% on the Boeing 767-300 aircraft.
Croatia is stepping up efforts to expand nonstop connectivity with the United States. Earlier this year, the country’s Foreign Minister, Gordan Grlić Radman, discussed the “potential establishment of nonstop flights between Croatian and American airports” during meetings with local officials in Florida. Since then, United Airlines has announced the launch of seasonal flights from its Newark hub to Split next summer, complementing its existing service to Dubrovnik. The Croatian National Tourist Board has stressed that long-haul markets such as the United States are essential for future growth, emphasising that “we must actively encourage the launch of new routes” in order to strengthen accessibility and support tourism development.
