Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenkovic opened a new 125,000m2 (1,350,000ft2) section of the passenger terminal in Split Airport on Saturday, July 13.
The project took more than two and a half years and, as well as enlargement of the passenger terminal, involved construction of a parking lot, a bus terminal and a passenger footbridge. At 30,000m2 (320,000ft2), the new parking lot has 900 parking places, while the bus terminal, at 40,000m2 (430,000ft2), has space for 50 buses.
The next stage of the development will involve rebuilding the original passenger terminal, bringing the total space available to 50,000m2 (540,000ft2) and giving the airport the potential to process five million passengers a year – 2,500 passengers a day at peak times.
In addition to meeting anticipated traffic demands, the extension and reconstruction of the passenger terminal is being undertaken to provide high levels of security and service and to meet EU standards (Schengen criteria) for international border crossings.
Passenger traffic at Split Airport is up 8% over last year. The Croatian airport handled more than 515, 000 passengers in June, and expects 700,000 in July. It expects to see approximately 3.3 million passengers in 2019.