Jadrolinija celebrates its birthday optimistic for the upcoming season

Exactly 74 years ago in Rijeka, on January the 20th, 1947, from the legacy of several shipping companies, Jadranska linijska plovidba – today Jadrolinija – was founded.

Jadrolinija, as an unbreakable link between the Croatian islands and the mainland, annually transports over 12 million passengers and 3.5 million vehicles. As a result, it ranks in the top 10 world passenger shipping companies.

Boats perform over 600 departures a day during the summer season, and the busiest lines are maintained almost 24 hours a day.

Jadrolinija’s white fleet today numbers 54 ships with a total capacity of about 4,000 vehicles and 30,000 passengers, sailing on 34 local and 3 international lines.

New line Veli Lošinj – Rab

New lines are being prepared for the upcoming tourist season. One of them is Veli Lošinj – Rab – Veli Lošinj. 

Despite the distance of only 18 nautical miles between two neighbouring islands, due to the current lack of direct line connections in coastal maritime traffic, their connection is exclusively road, which, given the time needed to transport passengers in this way, is inadequate. Today, when travelling from Lošinj to the island of Rab and vice versa, it takes at least 5 hours of driving, which would be significantly shortened by the introduction of this line, to only an hour, an hour and a half of sailing.

The cruise arrival plan is optimistic

The corona crisis has affected all spheres of life in the last year, nothing is the same as in previous years. The tourist season last year was done in accordance with the conditions in which we lived, not only us but the whole world.

And the season ahead of us is uncertain, everyone lives in the hope that this year will be better than last year, and that everything will return to normal. This year, Split could be visited by almost 350 cruisers, according to the plan for cruise ship visits. So many of them have been announced so far.

We are optimistic about that, and they are also optimistic that something will start, it’s been a while since nothing is happening. The announcements are record-breaking, but we need to see the whole situation with Covid. It is a decision that will be made at the global level, or at the level of the European Union. Whether the cruisers will leave, whether they can leave, what the conditions of boarding will be, whether they will need Covid passports before boarding, consequently something will be required in the ports, we still have to wait, it will be a joint decision in the whole European market.

Vicko Vrgoč, Operations Manager of the Port of Split Authority

Source: Otoci.eu, Rabdanas.com, Dalmacijadanas.hr