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Dubrovnik Airport (DBV)

Florian Buechting Airports and Airlines No Comments

Dubrovnik Airport (DBV)

Dubrovnik Airport (DBV)
3.9

Rating

 3.9/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very modern regional airport
  • Efficient services and good facilities
  • Ready for intercontinental connections

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Remote location
  • Terrible airport specific online check-in

Due to the geographic situation of the Croatian coast, which is very long and thin along the Adriatic Sea, there are two key ways to reach Dubrovnik. A kind of mass transport, which is very unpopular among the locals, are cruise ship passengers. The alternative is typically to arrive by air. Dubrovnik Airport (DBV) is obviously the key hub to visit Southern Croatia and the Pearl of the Adria, how the city is often named. My wife and I flew there with Croatia Airlines and share our thoughts with you.

 

Dubrovnik Airport (DBV) – Location & Transport

There are quite a lot of mountains around Dubrovnik – and thus, the airport is at a comparably remote location. It is located some 20 km Southeast of the Croatian city, near the city of Cilipi. The driving time to Dubrovnik Old Town is – depending on the traffic situation – some half an hour.

We took an individual hotel shuttle to our hotel, the Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik, which was 55 EUR. A taxi is slightly cheaper, 40 to 45 EUR. There is also an official shuttle bus, which is 9 EUR per person one-way / 12 EUR return and serves a few stations in Dubrovnik and on the way. There is also a public bus option by bus lines 11, 27 and 38.

Dubrovnik Airport (DBV) – Connections

Dubrovnik and Southern Croatia have become very popular tourist destinations, so that – especially in summer – there are connections to a wide range of European destinations. Domestic connections are typically served via Zagreb (ZAG) by Croatia Airlines, who also codeshare with airlines of the Lufthansa Group, but also KLM/Air France.

Two events have hit Dubrovnik Airport (DBV) significantly: right before the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the airport started to have regular connections to Philadelphia (PHL) and thus had respective upgrades (esp. on the runway). These services have not yet been re-installed. Vice versa, Croatia joining the European Union and the Schengen Area lead to the situation that the majority of flights (majorly, all flights apart from those to the U.K.) are handled in line with domestic operations. You see some impacts of that while using the airport (see below).

 

Arriving at Dubrovnik Airport (DBV)

As we arrived from Zagreb (ZAG) by a Dash turboprop plane, we had to take a bus to the terminal. Jet bridges are available, though. You simply pass the (closed) passport control booths and headed straight to the luggage belt. The operations at the airport at arrival were very efficient. As the airport has been renovated with assistance of the European Union, the facilities feel very

 

Departing from Dubrovnik Airport (DBV)

The check-in counters and the arrivals area are on the same level (street level) at Dubrovnik Airport (DBV). The area is very modern and well structured. The check-in experience was unfortunately in line with the experience we had at the outbound one in Frankfurt (FRA): the opening of check-in gates was not in line with the times Croatia Airlines is giving on their website, so that we had to wait in the departure lounge longer than expected.

The security process was efficient. After that, you head into the duty free store, which has a nice selection of local and typical products.

The landside area has three levels. The lower one used to be for domestic operations and does not have a passport check, but also no jetbridges. International connections were handled from the second floor. For that reason, the Adriatic Business Lounge (located on the upper floor) was solely available to international customers until the end of 2022, when Croatia became a Schengen Area country. Thus, some facilities like souvenir stores are available twice, on the the former domestic and former international level – this may change in the past. Changing between the three levels may be a bit of bothering – however, this also leads to a very compact airport experience with short walking routes.

 

Dubrovnik Airport (DBV) – Services

The airport offers free WiFi, which worked out very well. However, at the time we were flying Dubrovnik Airport (DBV), they still have not updated their historic online check-in system. Thus, you check in online via a special website of the airport, not through the airline. The system is not comfortable at all and created quite some issues, especially as we had a flight connection. Furthermore, the barcode on the boarding pass created was very small, which lead to issues while boarding (some Dutch passengers had the idiotic idea to have screenshots of the boarding pass, which were simply not good enough for the barcode scanners and lead to manual boarding.

 

Dubrovnik Airport (DBV) – My View

Dubrovnik Airport (DBV) is a modern and well-structured regional airport with good facilities. The hilly situation around the city leads to a rather remote location. The key bothering element is the weird online check-in process, which is hopefully replaces very soon.

 

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