CROATIA AIRLINES PLANNING TO FLY 1.2 MILLION PASSENGERS THIS YEAR

ZAGREB, March 25 (Hina) - Croatia Airlines is this year planning to transport 1.2 million passengers on its flights, increasing flight attendance by 14 percent in relation to last year, the company said last week. A summer-time flight schedule will be valid for the period from March 25 to October 27, which makes up for 70 percent of the overall annual airline company's turnover. This schedule includes 18 destinations in 10 countries, besides home destinations. Increased demand for tourist flights is the reason for flight adjustments, one of which is a direct flight from Rijeka to London on Thursdays and to Zagreb on Mondays and Fridays, marketing director Dubravka Turkalj told reporters. She added some new routes also include Dubrovnik-Zadar-Amsterdam, Pula-Manchester, Split- Manchester, Dubrovnik-London and others. As of April 7 all Croatia Airlines destinations on the Croatian Adriatic will be connected with charter flights from several German cities -- Munich, Berlin, Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Hannover, Leipzig and Cologne -- on which more than 220,000 passengers are expected to travel. Around 90,000 tourists are expected to arrive to the Adriatic from Great Britain, and some 50,000 from the Netherlands. During the summer the company will connect Copenhagen, Warsaw, Dublin, Ljubljana, Ostrava, Vienna, Klagenfurt and Graz with charter flights to Rijeka, Split and Bol. The airline expects a 27 percent increase in the number of passengers in relation to last year, and charter flights will make up for three quarters of the overall turnover, Turkalj said. (hina) lml