Dubrovnik Ruđer Bošković Airport (Croatian: Zračna luka Ruđer Bošković Dubrovnik; IATA: DBV, ICAO: LDDU), also referred to as Čilipi Airport (Croatian pronunciation: [tʃǐlipi]), is the international airport of Dubrovnik, Croatia. The airport is located approximately 15.5 km (9.5 mi) from Dubrovnik city center, near Čilipi. It was the third-busiest airport in Croatia in 2019 after Zagreb Airport and Split Airport in terms of passenger throughput. It has the country's longest runway, allowing it to accommodate heavy long-haul aircraft. The airport is a major destination for leisure flights during the European summer holiday season.

History

Yugoslav flag carrier Aeroput used a seaplane station in Dubrovnik to open the first route to the city in 1936. It linked Dubrovnik to the national capital Belgrade via Sarajevo. The following year a route to Zagreb was inaugurated. But it was in 1938 that Dubrovnik saw a significant increase in air traffic, with the introduction by Aeroput of regular flights to Vienna, Brno and Prague with stops in Sarajevo and Zagreb, and also the introduction of a regular flight between Belgrade and Tirana with a stop in Dubrovnik. The city was originally served by the Gruda Airfield which opened for commercial traffic in 1936 and was in use only during the summer months. However, by early 1940s, due to World War II, Aeroput operations were suspended.

The current Dubrovnik Airport opened in 1962. During 1987, the busiest year in Yugoslav aviation, the airport handled 835,818 passengers on international flights and a further 586,742 on domestic services. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, the airport surpassed the one-million-passenger mark in 2005. In September 2023, it surpassed the two-million-passenger mark.

Today, Dubrovnik boasts the most modern passenger terminal in the country. A new terminal has been built in place of the old airport building, that dated from 1962, which has now been demolished to make way for a new modern structure. The price tag of the project amounts to seventy million euros and is to be financed out of a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In May 2010 a new terminal opened stretching over 13,700 square meters. Dubrovnik Airport has the capacity to handle two million passengers per year.

In 2023 the airport was renamed to honor the astronomer and polymath Roger Joseph Boscovich (Ruđer Josip Bošković, 1711–1787).

Terminal facilities

Dubrovnik Airport consists of three terminal areas, A, B and C. The spacious new Terminal C was opened in February 2017 and became fully functional in April 2017 as it replaced Terminal A for all passenger departures including check-in and security check. The new terminal features check-in and commercial space stretching over 1,000 square meters, eight security lanes, a departure lounge with commercial and catering facilities, a premium lounge and restaurants. Furthermore, it boasts sixteen gates, two of which will be used for domestic flights and the remaining fourteen for international services. With an area of 24,181 square meters, the airport's annual capacity has increased to 3.5 million passengers. The Terminal A building has been permanently closed for passenger traffic and is now being used solely as a baggage sorting facility. The new Terminal C is located next to the existing Terminal B building which handles arriving passengers. The two have been combined into a single functioning unit. Future airport plans call for an extensive commercial zone and a four-star airport hotel, and long-term plans call for a new runway and the conversion of the existing runway into a taxiway.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Dubrovnik Airport:

Airlines	Destinations
Aegean Airlines	Seasonal: Athens
Aer Lingus	Seasonal: Cork, Dublin
airBaltic	Seasonal: Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius
Air France	Seasonal: Paris–Charles de Gaulle
Air Serbia	Seasonal: Belgrade
Austrian Airlines	Seasonal: Vienna
British Airways	Seasonal: London–Gatwick, London–Heathrow
Brussels Airlines	Seasonal: Brussels
Croatia Airlines	Frankfurt, Zagreb Seasonal: Athens, Munich, Osijek, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Prague, Pula, Rome–Fiumicino, Split, Zürich
Cyprus Airways	Seasonal: Larnaca (begins 1 July 2024)
Discover Airlines	Seasonal: Frankfurt
easyJet	Seasonal: Amsterdam, Basel/Mulhouse, Berlin, Bristol, Edinburgh, Geneva, London–Gatwick, Lyon, Manchester, Nantes, Naples, Paris–Orly, Venice
Edelweiss Air	Seasonal: Zürich
Eurowings	Seasonal: Berlin, Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart
Finnair	Seasonal: Helsinki
flydubai	Seasonal: Dubai–International
Freebird Airlines	Charter: Amsterdam, Berlin, Billund, Brussels, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Helsinki, London–Gatwick, Lyon, Oslo, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Stockholm–Arlanda
Iberia	Seasonal: Madrid
Jet2.com	Seasonal: Belfast–International, Birmingham, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Leeds/Bradford, London–Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne
KLM	Seasonal: Amsterdam
Korean Air	Seasonal charter: Seoul–Incheon
Leav Aviation	Seasonal charter: Cologne/Bonn
LOT Polish Airlines	Seasonal: Warsaw–Chopin
Lufthansa	Seasonal: Munich
Luxair	Seasonal: Luxembourg
Norwegian Air Shuttle	Seasonal: Bergen, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Oslo, Stavanger, Stockholm–Arlanda
Ryanair	Charleroi, London–Stansted, Vienna Seasonal: Bari, Beauvais, Bergamo, Berlin, Dublin, Helsinki, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Kraków, Manchester, Memmingen, Poznań, Rome–Fiumicino, Sandefjord, Stockholm–Arlanda, Weeze, Wrocław
Scandinavian Airlines	Seasonal: Copenhagen
SkyAlps	Seasonal: Bolzano Seasonal charter: Bratislava
Smartwings	Seasonal: Katowice, Prague, Warsaw–Chopin Seasonal charter: Gdańsk
Trade Air	Osijek, Rijeka, Split
Transavia	Seasonal: Paris–Orly, Rotterdam/The Hague
TUI Airways	Seasonal: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Midlands, Glasgow, Leeds/Bradford, London–Gatwick, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne
TUI fly Belgium	Seasonal: Brussels
Turkish Airlines	Istanbul
United Airlines	Seasonal: Newark
Volotea	Seasonal: Athens, Bari (begins 4 July 2024), Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Toulouse
Vueling	Seasonal: Barcelona, Rome–Fiumicino
Wizz Air	Seasonal: Warsaw–Chopin

Statistics

Traffic figures

Traffic at Dubrovnik Rudjer Boskovic Airport

Year	Passengers	Passenger % Change	Aircraft Landings	Aircraft Landings% Change	Cargo (tonnes)	Cargo % Change
1987	1,460,354	20.52	15,606	2.55	2,490	0.53
2011	1,349,501	6.25	16,050	3.29	420	3.45
2012	1,480,470	9.70	16,216	1.03	357	15.00
2013	1,522,629	2.85	16,126	0.56	375	5.04
2014	1,584,471	4.06	16,492	2.27	291	22.40
2015	1,693,934	6.91	16,852	2.18	256	12.03
2016	1,993,243	17.67	19,244	14.19	224	12.50
2017	2,323,065	16.5	21,496	11.70	204	8.90
2018	2,539,412	9.31	23,596	9.76	176	13.70
2019	2,896,227	14.05	25,962	10.03	127	28.41
2020	330,147	88.6	8,486	67.31	29	77.17
2021	927,934	181.1	14,212	67.47	390	1244
2022	2,149,181	131.6	20,630	45.16	411	5.3
2023	2,416,818	12.46	21,484	4.14	57	86.14

Traffic at Dubrovnik Rudjer Boskovic Airport in 2022/2023 by month

Month	Passengers 2022	Passengers 2023	Passenger % Change
January	9,320	14,269	53.10
February	9,242	17,459	88.91
March	25,645	50,456	96.75
April	117,715	167,731	42.49
May	214,243	275,797	28.73
June	313,381	344,456	9.92
July	425,536	447,315	5.12
August	429,878	444,368	3.37
September	336,890	354,068	5.09
October	217,751	242,752	11.48
November	30,925	38,384	24.12
December	18,655	19,763	5.93

Largest airlines

Rank	Carrier	Passengers 2018	%
1	Croatia Airlines	429,953	16.93
2	EasyJet	347,260	13.67
3	Jet2.com	179,990	7.09
4	Thomson Airways	127,352	5.02
5	Vueling Airlines	123,907	4.88
6	Lufthansa	103,760	4.09
7	British Airways	100,502	3.96
8	Norwegian Air Shuttle	88,243	3.47
9	Eurowings	87,570	3.53
10	Norwegian Air International	87,431	3.44
11	Austrian Airlines	87,065	3.43
12	Volotea	79,140	3.12
13	Turkish Airlines	70,339	2.77
	Remaining	626,900	24.69
Source: Dubrovnik Airport

Ground transport

A shuttle bus operated by the company Platanus connects the airport to Dubrovnik Old Town and Dubrovnik Bus Station in Gruž.