Zagreb handled 337,851 passengers in November 2025 — 5.4 times Split’s traffic that month and 6.9 times Dubrovnik’s. It is the country’s only genuinely year-round airport, and it sits on none of the 68 routes in the coastal ferry register.
The airport in one column of figures
Zagreb is inland, it is the capital, and in the month when the coast empties it is doing most of the country’s flying. That is the whole case for it and the whole case against it, depending on when you are travelling and where you are going afterwards.
| IATA code | ZAG |
| Passengers, November 2025 | 337,851 |
| Against Split that month | 5.4 times |
| Against Dubrovnik that month | 6.9 times |
| Coastal ferry routes touching the city | None of the 68 in the 2026 register |
| In the DZS monthly series | Yes — one of nine airports |
The comparison that is usually drawn — Zagreb against Split — only works if you hold the month still. Across the year the ranking swaps: in June 2026 Split moved 558,986, roughly 1.7 times what Zagreb managed in November. Neither airport is bigger. One is steady and one is seasonal.
What November looks like at each of the three
Eight of the nine airports in the DZS monthly series have a published figure for November 2025, and all but three of them are rounding errors. Zadar managed 2,342 passengers, Pula 1,747, Osijek 1,646, Rijeka 1,244 and Mali Lošinj eight. Brač recorded none at all. The whole country moved 456,363 passengers that month, and Zagreb alone was 74 per cent of it.
| Airport | November 2025 | Share of the three | Times Zagreb’s figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zagreb | 337,851 | 75% | 1.00 |
| Split | 62,250 | 14% | 0.18 |
| Dubrovnik | 49,275 | 11% | 0.15 |
Split and Dubrovnik together came to 111,525 that month, still barely a third of Zagreb’s total. Note also how close the two coastal airports are to each other in November: Dubrovnik was at about 79 per cent of Split, against a summer gap that is far wider. Out of season the coast levels out.
Flying into Zagreb for an island holiday
Zagreb appears on none of the 68 routes in the 2026 state coastal register. Not one. Every island in this country is reached from a coastal port, and the nearest of those to the capital is a separate journey that has to be planned, booked and paid for before the ferry question even starts.
In July that is a poor trade: Split is running a summer-scale operation of its own. In January it can be the right one, because a coastal airport at a fifteenth of its June volume is not offering the choice the summer route map implies. The month decides, not the map.
Put differently: Zagreb is an excellent arrival for Croatia and a poor arrival for the Croatian islands. Those are not the same holiday, and the airport is only wrong if you confuse them.
It is also the arrival that behaves normally. Croatia adopted the euro and joined the Schengen area on the same day, 1 January 2023, with the kuna converted at a fixed 7.53450 to the euro. For a traveller that mostly matters at the point of arrival, and Zagreb is where most of the year’s arrivals happen: in November 2025 it accounted for 74 per cent of all passenger traffic through Croatian airports.
The remaining question is how long to stay. An overland leg to the coast is a planned journey rather than a transfer, so a single night here tends to be swallowed by the flight and then by the travelling. Two nights turns the same leg into part of the itinerary. That is not a preference about cities; it is what the absence of any coastal ferry route from Zagreb does to a schedule.
What to decide before you book
- Are you going to the coast at all? Zero of the 68 registered coastal routes touch Zagreb.
- What month is it? Zagreb held 337,851 in November 2025 against 62,250 at Split.
- Is Zagreb itself worth two nights? It is the only Croatian city whose airport is the same size in February as in August.
- Are you willing to travel overland? The coastal legs from Zagreb are a planned journey, not a transfer.
Find flights and hotels
What do you need to work out next?
You are landing inland. These come next.
Where to stay
Is Zagreb worth staying in, or just passing through?
It is the one airport city that is the same size all year.
Getting around
Coming through here from Chicago?
Zagreb’s 337,851 November 2025 passengers dwarf Split’s 62,250 and Dubrovnik’s 49,275.
When to go
What is November actually like here?
Zagreb ran 337,851 passengers; Split ran 62,250.
Planning
Can I do Zagreb and the coast in a week?
Split’s state ferry network reaches six islands from one city.
Passenger figures: Državni zavod za statistiku (DZS), monthly airport traffic releases. Ferry data: Agencija za obalni linijski pomorski promet (ZOLPP), 2026 state coastal line register and per-line timetables.