American Airlines expected to return to Dubrovnik Airport next summer

American Airlines

American Airlines, who operated a summer service between Philadelphia and Dubrovnik for four months back in 2019, is expected to return the route in 2022. 

American Airlines launched the first direct flight connecting the United States and Croatia in 28 years back in June of 2019 with its Philadelphia-Dubrovnik route. During the summer of 2019, American Airlines handled 17,782 passengers to Croatia in the four-month period, with an average cabin load factor of 83%.

The coronavirus pandemic saw American Airlines cancel the route in 2020 and for 2021, but Dubrovnik Airport’s Chief Commercial Officer, Ivan Maslač, expects the airline to make a return in 2022. 

“As for 2022 and beyond, we expect the return of the Philadelphia-Dubrovnik flight, which had 100 daily connections, and it is important to us that airlines pick up passengers from all over America from their hub, who then can arrive in Dubrovnik via the direct flight,” Maslač told Večernji list.

After a two year break, Dubrovnik will again be connected with the United States this summer. United Airlines last month announced it will operate a nonstop service between Newark and Dubrovnik. 

United will fly three times a week from New York to Dubrovnik from 8 July through until 3 October on a Boeing 767-300ER with 30 United Polaris business class seats. 

Maslač points out that the decision of the Government of Croatia, which was among the first in Europe to allow vaccinated people to travel to Croatia, was crucial for the introduction of a direct line to the United States. The announcement of the US abolishing visas for Croatian citizens also played a role.

Maslač added that Dubrovnik airport was in talks with all three major US airlines – United Airlines, Delta and American Airlines, and also he also stated that intercontinental flights were expected to be the last to return to the volume they were in 2019.