AEROSOFT AIRPORT Zagreb
Aerosoft GmbH 2021
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English
The Airport
Zagreb is the capital of the Republic of Croatia, located at the foot of
the mountain Medvednica and on the shores of the river Sava,
inhabited by ca 800,000 people. Its first aerodrome was Penkalino
uzletište (Penkala’s Runway), which was part of the military training
area in Crnomerec. Shortly after the famous Wright brothers’ flight, it
was first used by Croatian inventor Slavoljub Penkala for testing his
biplane, followed by passenger and military flights from Crnomerec
until 1929. In 1926, Zagreb got its second aerodrome at the east end,
built in Borongaj and officially dubbed Aerodrom Zagreb (the Zagreb
Aerodrome). The first regular passenger line began operation in 1929
(Belgrade – Zagreb). A year later, the first company from abroad
arrived – the Czech CSA (Prague – Zagreb).
The Franjo Tudman Zagreb Airport, Croatia’s main international airport,
is located ten kilometres southeast of Croatia’s capital Zagreb. Its history
is tied to three smaller military aerodromes. Before World War Two, the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia set up a grass runway in Kurilovec. In 1943 the
German army connected the 1100-metre long runway with an
1800-metre concrete runway built near Pleso. Around the same time,
near Lucko, southwest of Zagreb, a 1500-metre grass runway was set
up. It was at this location that Aerodrom Zagreb developed from 1947
to 1960. With regular passenger lines from Lucko, Zagreb was
connected to the entire country, as well as Zürich, Munich, Frankfurt,
London and Cairo. With bigger aircraft that demanded a concrete
runway, a part of passenger traffic shifted to the military aerodrome in
Pleso. In 1961 Zrakoplovna luka Zagreb (the Zagreb Airport) was
founded there. Aerodrom Lucko remains active to this day, with general
purpose and irregular traffic (not part of the scenery).
With passenger and military traffic, the following decades saw the
development of Zrakoplovna luka Zagreb (the Zagreb Airport;
renamed to Aerodrom Zagreb in 1966). Because of constant growth
of passenger and cargo traffic, the manoeuvring areas were expan-
ded, a new terminal building was constructed and the navigation
equipment was improved. With roughly 35,000 take-offs and
landings in 1976, it was the airport with the most traffic in Southeast
Europe.
Due to the war following Croatia’s independence, the airport was
completely out of function from August 1991 to April 1992. In the
second half of the decade, the airport is renamed to Zracna luka
Zagreb (the Zagreb Airport) and slowly improved its traffic figures,
rising to 2,000,000 passengers in 2008 and growing. In the same
year, the work of architects Velimir Neidhardt and Branko Kincl won
the competition for the new passenger terminal. In 2012, the
Croatian Government signed the contract with the MZLZ international
consortium (Medunarodna zracna luka Zagreb d.d.). In the following
year, the MZLZ took over all airport operations, and the construction
of the new passenger terminal began. By the decision of the Croatian
Government in 2016, the airport was dubbed Franjo Tudman, after
the first Croatian president. As part of the contract and the first stage
of the development of the airport, the new passenger terminal began
operation on the 28th of March 2017, covering 65,000 m2, with a
capacity of 5,000,000 passengers, 30 check-in counters and 8
jetways. Besides the apron by the new passenger terminal, the one by
the old terminal is also frequently in use; however, all passenger and
aircraft traffic goes through the new terminal.
YEAR PAX
1947 11.016
1955 21.723
1960 49.173
1965 172.712
1970 640.168
1975 1.484.964
1980 1.599.531
1985 1.558.864
1990 1.629.998
1992 303.622
1995 902.925
2000 1.149.830
2005 1.551.519
2010 2.071.651