This Sunday, Croatia completed its accession to the European Schengen free movement area with the inclusion of Croatian airports after joining the land and maritime borders on January 1st.
From this Sunday, all flights from Croatia to the other 26 Schengen countries and vice versa are considered “domestic flights”, so passengers will transit without border controls for paperwork.
The Croatian Interior Ministry said in a statement that Croatia’s nine international airports will start rolling out the new system this Sunday, noting that the average share of air traffic will be 70% domestic versus 30% international, with the exception of Dubrovnik Airport. where they are divided into equal parts.
Croatia hopes that the simplified system will significantly increase the interest of tourists to visit the country.
Croatian airports started making the necessary changes in January to join the Schengen area this Sunday.
According to the Hina news agency, Croatia’s largest airport, Zagreb, has invested one million euros in technical and infrastructure adaptation to the new system, while the airport in the Adriatic city of Zadar has invested 2.2 million euros.