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Airport Split was opened on 15 November 1966. The apron covered an
area of 200 x 112m, and by traffic and technological design it was
planned with 6 parking positions for aircraft Convair 600 and Convair
640. These were double-engine, turbo-prop aircraft accommodating maximally
56 passengers, with wingspan from 27.98m (Convair 600) to 32.12m (Convair
640) and the length from 22.77m (Convair 600) to 24.84m (Convair 640).
The planned airport capacity was 150 thousand passengers a year, and
it was exceeded already in 1968 with 150,737 passengers and in 1969
with 235,000 passengers. During 1967 the apron area was extended to
300 x 112m also increasing the number of aircraft parking positions
to a total of 10.
The number of aircraft operations (landings and takeoffs) increased
simultaneously with the increase in the number of passengers:
a) 3,046 aircraft landed and took off in 1967,
b) 3,913 aircraft in 1968, and
c) 5,850 aircraft in 1969.
Great traffic increase continued at Airport Split also
over the following years, and the greatest traffic was noted in 1987
with 1,151,580 passengers and 7,873 aircraft.
This means that the number of aircraft that landed at the airport in
the late 80s was not that much greater compared to 1969, as the increase
in the number of passengers. The basic reason for that are the aircraft
of bigger capacities than the ones that flew in the late sixties: Convair
600, Convair 640, Caravelle were replaced by DC9, MD82, A320, L1011,
DC10 etc.
Following 1988, traffic decreased due to political crisis caused by
the striving of the republics of the former SFRJ for independence, and
in September 1991 the Airport Split was closed to traffic because of
the aggression on Croatia.
The opening followed at the beginning of April 1992. At the beginning,
the traffic consisted mainly of military aircraft, for passengers and
cargo. Thousands of tonnes of humanitarian help, military equipment,
and thousands of soldiers participating in the peace mission were transported
by UN and NATO military cargo planes through the Airport Split. From
1992 to 1995 a total of 37,423 aircraft landed and took off from the
airport. In most cases these were aircraft type C130 (wingspan 40.45m,
length 34.35m), but also the biggest aircraft such as C5-Galaxy (wingspan
67.88m, length 75.54m), B747 (wingspan from 59.64 to 64.44m, length
from 70.51 to 70.66m), MD11 (wingspan 51.66m, length 61.62m), DC10 (wingspan
50.41m, length 55.50m), L1011 (wingspan 50.09m, length 54.35m).
Tables 1 and 2 show the total number of widebody aircraft that landed
and took off from the Airport Split.
Table 1. and Table 2.
In the years that followed, and due to the fall in
traffic of military aircraft that was not accompanied by any major increase
in the volume of civilian aircraft traffic, the total annual number
of aircraft that landed and took off at the Airport Split was lower.
Thus, it amounted to:
6,661 landings in 1997;
6,278 in 1998; and
5,652 in 1999.
The number of widebody aircraft over all the three years amounted to
3% of total traffic
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