Zagreb, July 24, 2009

On this day, the Croatian national carrier, Croatia Airlines, checked in its twenty-millionth passenger. The jubilee passenger was Boris Jakopović from Zagreb, who was checked in on flight OU 451 from Amsterdam to Zagreb at 11:20 a.m.

CEO & President of Croatia Airlines, Dr. Ivan Mišetić, awarded the twenty-millionth passenger with two business class return tickets to any of the airline’s international destinations, a four-day hotel accommodation at the location, and a model of an Airbus 320 with a dedication. Andrija Markić, Acting Director of Zagreb Airport, awarded Boris Jakopović with a meal gift-voucher for two at the airport’s Faust Vrančić restaurant.

The twenty millionth passenger was recorded in a year which marks twenty years of the company’s operations, and the fifth anniversary of its membership in Star Alliance, the largest airline alliance in the world.

Croatia Airlines began flying commercially on May 5, 1991, when the first domestic flight from Zagreb to Split took place. Since April 5, 1992, when the first international flight between Zagreb and Frankfurt took place, the airline has regularly connected Croatia with Europe and the world.

In more than eighteen years of commercial flying, Croatia airlines has checked in 11,146,000 passengers on regular international flights, 6,714,000 passengers on regular domestic flights, and 2,140,000 passengers on charter flights.

The millionth passenger was recorded in 1994, the two-millionth in 1995, the five-millionth in 1999, the ten-millionth in 2003, and the fifteen-millionth in 2006. In 2000, more than a million passengers were recorded in a single year, and since then this has been an ongoing standard for nine years.

Since the beginning of this year, 900,000 passengers have been checked in onboard Croatia Airlines aircraft; 610,000 on regular international flights, 264,000 on regular domestic flights, and 26,000 on charter flights.