# Zadar Airport

Zadar Airport (Croatian: Zračna luka Zadar; IATA: ZAD, ICAO: LDZD) is an international airport serving Zadar, Croatia. It is located in Zemunik Donji, 8 km (5 mi) 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. 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 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 base with a stationed Boeing 737-800. In December 2019, Lauda announced the stationing of three Airbus A320 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 airline postponed the opening of the base to July 2021, where it will station two Airbus A320-200 and serve 37 destinations.

## Facilities

The airport also is a Croatian Air Force main training base. It used to be a base for Lufthansa's InterCockpit flight school.

## Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Zadar Airport:
| Airlines | Destinations |
| Air Serbia | Seasonal: Belgrade |
| Arkia | Seasonal: Tel Aviv (begins 1 June 2025) |
| Austrian Airlines | Seasonal: Vienna |
| Brussels Airlines | Seasonal: Brussels |
| Croatia Airlines | Munich, Pula, Zagreb |
| Discover Airlines | Seasonal: Frankfurt |
| EasyJet | Seasonal: Basel/Mulhouse, Berlin, London–Gatwick, Lyon (begins 23 June 2025), Milan–Malpensa |
| Edelweiss Air | Seasonal: Zürich (begins 28 June 2025) |
| Eurowings | Seasonal: Berlin, Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart |
| FLYYO | Seasonal charter: Tel Aviv |
| LOT Polish Airlines | Seasonal: Zielona Góra |
| Lufthansa | Seasonal: Frankfurt, Munich |
| Luxair | Seasonal: Luxembourg |
| Norwegian Air Shuttle | Seasonal: Copenhagen |
| People's | Seasonal: St. Gallen/Altenrhein |
| Ryanair | Seasonal: Aarhus, Barcelona, Bari (begins 2 May 2025), Beauvais, Bergamo, Berlin, Birmingham, Bologna, Bournemouth, Bratislava (begins 2 June 2025), Bremen, Bucharest–Otopeni, Budapest, Charleroi, Cologne/Bonn, Copenhagen, Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh, Eindhoven, Gdańsk, Gothenburg, Hahn, Hamburg, Helsinki, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Katowice, Kaunas, Košice, Kraków, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, London–Stansted, Maastricht/Aachen, Manchester, Marseille, Memmingen, Milan–Malpensa, Münster/Osnabrück, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nuremberg, Pisa, Poznań, Prague, Rome–Fiumicino (begins 3 May 2025), Rzeszów, Sofia, Stockholm–Arlanda, Växjö, Vienna, Warsaw–Modlin, Weeze, Wrocław |
| Scandinavian Airlines | Seasonal: Copenhagen |
| Sky Alps | Seasonal: Verona |
| Trade Air | Osijek, Rijeka |
| Transavia | Seasonal: Paris–Orly, Rotterdam/The Hague |

## Statistics

Traffic at Zadar Airport :
| Year | Passengers | Cargo (kg) |
| 1976 | 146,000 | N/A |
| 2014 | 496,697 | 7,275 |
| 2015 | 487,652 | 12,791 |
| 2016 | 520,226 | 26,450 |
| 2017 | 589,468 | 5,925 |
| 2018 | 604,039 | 19,953 |
| 2019 | 801,347 | 2,517 |
| 2020 | 120,747 | 50 |
| 2021 | 513,093 | 274 |
| 2022 | 1,102,381 | 1,045 |
| 2023 | 1,230,835 | 80 |
| 2024 | 1,593,413 | 150 |