Croatia Airlines posts strong Q1 results


Croatia Airlines has seen its financial performance and passenger numbers improve during the first quarter of the year, when compared to the same period in 2016. The carrier swung back to profit during the Q1 period, largely due to the sale of its five weekly slot pairs at London's Heathrow Airport to Delta Air Lines. It confirmed that the transaction was factored into the quarterly result. The company recorded a net profit of 1.2 million euros, which is up on last year's 11.5 million euro net loss. Croatia Airlines sold its Heathrow slots for eighteen million euros on January 27. The carrier increased expenditure by 8%, while passenger revenue grew 2% on last year. It spent most on flight operations, in part due to the higher cost of fuel, followed by maintenance, as a result of the overhaul of two aircraft engines, and passenger services. At the end of the first quarter, Croatia Airlines had 931 employees and twelve aircraft.

The national carrier handled 329.320 passengers on board its aircraft during the January - March period, an increase of 4.4%. Of those, 81.973 travellers were carried on domestic flights, down 5.6%, while 243.817 passengers flew on international services, an improvement of 8.1%. The decline in domestic passengers was partly caused by the closure of Pula Airport for most of the quarter due to a runway overhaul. The remaining 3.530 passengers were carried on charter flights, up 9.2% year-on-year. However, charters accounted for only 1% of overall traffic. The airline operated 5.103 flights during the quarter, which is almost unchanged compared to the same period last year (+0.4). The average cabin load factor stood at 64.6%, up 0.8% on 2016. Loads improved on international flights by 1.8% for an average of 64.8%, while on domestic services they were down 1.6% to 63.8%, which the airline says was the result of the Easter holidays falling within the second quarter this year, unlike in 2016.

Croatia Airlines anticipates handling over two million passengers this year, making it its busiest on record. The growth will be fuelled by the introduction of four new routes this summer season from Zagreb, on top of the four new services launched from the Croatian capital last year. "With a total of eight new destinations in the last 365 days, Croatia Airlines has offered the market an additional 100.000 seats, which is why in 2017 we expect further growth in passenger traffic and a record 2.000.000 passengers", the company said in a statement. During the first quarter, the Croatian carrier also concluded a codeshare agreement with Air India. The deal sees Croatia Airlines place its "OU" designator code and flight numbers onto Air India's services from Mumbai to London and from Delhi to Frankfurt, London, Vienna, Rome and Paris. In return, the Indian national carrier has placed its code and flight numbers onto Croatia Airlines' services from Split, Dubrovnik and Zagreb to Frankfurt, London, Vienna, Rome and Paris. Initially the codeshare only applies on flights from Split, Dubrovnik and Zagreb to Frankfurt, London and Vienna, as Rome and Paris are still pending government approval.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:06

    Congarats OU!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:53

      Expecially in growing their expenses more than their revenue ! Awesome effort, for which special congrats are due

      Delete
    2. Anonymous08:43

      They had 2 engines repaired ffs

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:08

    Anyone know their profit without the sale of slots?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:18

      Without the sale there would be no profit, the loss would be similar to last year's, so around €10.000.000.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:10

    so without selling the LHR slots they made a loss of 20milion €? Ouch!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous09:13

    Nice to see their pax numbers improve! Don't wanna comment on selling LHR slots! Good luck, hopefully more than 2 milion pax this year!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:50

      The real story is covered in the following:-

      "Revenue grew 2% while expenses grew 8%"

      .... and you are talking about pax numbers

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:07

      And with those results they reversed a 11 million loss into a 2 million profit. lol

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:16

      So you have to ask yourself how on God's earth did they achieve that ...

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:17

      It says it in the article, sale of LHR slots.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:22

      Dah - that was the point ! They haven't made any money from operations and it continues to go like this with the sale of assets - which is ok, but they will eventually run out of things to sell and then what ?

      The airline is like a house of cards - flimsy and just waiting to fall in a heap

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:56

      Yeah but that's the thing, the only thing they have left are the 4 weekly slots at LHR. I guess in W18 OU will be suspending their London flights after more than two decades. So sad.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous11:02

      Anon 9:50, I was talking about pax numbers only, also didn't wanna comment on their revenues/expenses. What's your problem?

      Delete
    8. They always make large losses during the winter but seem to make up for it and are extremely profitable during the summer. Been like that for years and is why the airline always says seasonality is a huge issue.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous16:23

      Their losses this winter were far greater than last winter when they were under EU mandated restructuring. So what sort of results are these ?

      Moreover, you can't continually hide behind the cloak of seasonality. What are their sales people doing about managing and improving it ?

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:16

    OT: Lufthansa started Frankfurt-Pula flights

    http://www.index.hr/vijesti/clanak/lufthansa-uvela-let-frankfurtpula-ovo-je-izravna-veza-pule-s-cijelim-svijetom/966673.aspx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous09:19

      I wonder how this might affect OU's numbers at PUY as I am sure they carry a lot of transfer passengers, even with backtracking.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:20

    So once you scratch the surface you get to see the real situation. I wonder what they will sell next year to cover their losses. Let's hope their CRJ-1000 does a great job this summer so that their loss at the end of the year is not as great.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:04

      CRJ-1000 , aren't theirs , those two pieces belongs to air nostrum , (just to be crystal clear) , and until the end of September.

      Delete
    2. They don't have to seek anything to cover their losses because they make up for it during the summer. The only noticeable difference will be when they realeas their full year result for 2017. It will show a much larger than usual profit (up to $15 million) depending on how much they spend on servicing the already mentioned engines.

      Delete
    3. (seek *sell)

      Delete
    4. **release (damn iPhones!!)

      Delete
    5. Anonymous22:34

      Ne lupetaj na kraju 2017 ce imati jos veci gubitak nego ove godine. Prodaja je otisla na pokrivanje guitaka.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous10:03

    Still a low load factor but it is good it is improving.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Alen Šćuric Purger10:04

    1,2 million "profit"
    - 18 million for slots
    = 16,8 million minus without selling slots

    * last year it was -11,5 million
    so this year it is 5,3 million worst than last year

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:10

      I guess increased competition hurt them especially KL but I am sure LO too. Many people who connected in VIE and MUC do it in WAW now.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:16

      ovo je stvarno takmicenje u profitabilnosti, ne zna se ko je bolji u ex yu, mada ipak da MGX je nedostizni sampion.

      Delete
    3. Purger, prošle godine nisu morali platiti reparaciju motora. To je taj dodatni trošak.
      Zapravo se u biti ništa nije promijenilo...

      Al barem su imali hrabrosti objaviti brojke, za razliku od nekih koji sakrivaju iste ko zmija noge.

      Delete
    4. I think the extra few million is from servicing if the engines. They said that would cost around $5 million so it kind of adds up.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous14:03

      Kojih nekih Djuro legenfo?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous08:46

      Well for one bloody secretive JU. As a taxpayer I am ultra pissed the way money is spent there, especially since subventions keep them "profitable"

      Delete
  9. Anonymous10:22

    So OU will reduce LHR this winter? Let's hope BA and ZB step in and increase their own flights.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous11:05

    Znaci nije Alitalija najgora aviokompanija. Ovi gube po avionu vise od njih. Sad ce Purger da vam napise kako imaju dobitnu shemu za jos vece gubitke 2% povecanje putnika troskovi 8% gore. Kakvi luzeri.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alen Šćuric Purger13:43

      Purger mali toga dobrog moze napisat za Croatiju. Vec dugo ja nisam nista dobro za tu kompaniju napisao. Nema tu kruha dok se uprava ne makne. Ako uopce jos imaju sansu obzirom na nepopravljivu stetu koju su napravili.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous11:09

    Does anyone know what are Croatia Airlines best performing routes in terms of LF? I

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:29

      My guess is flights to Germany.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous11:30

    Never understood why OU doesn't operate more charter flights. It's a good source of revenue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:17

      True. Just 1% of total traffic on charters in nothing.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous16:27

      Many people keep making this same remark/comment. There is very little demand for charters in the winter - it is all in the summer.

      As an example, why do you think airlines frm Japan and Korea come only during the summer with charters ?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous17:06

      I agree with yoh but OU barely does any charters during the summer either.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous11:52

    Good news for Croatia Airlines. Losses should shorten during summer.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous11:54

    They will record much bigger growth in the second quarter because of new routes.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous12:18

    Financial performance this year will be shrouded by this slot sale. We won't know the exact numbers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:48

      How come? They told you that they got 18 million from DL for the 5 LHR slots.
      You just need to subtract that from their results.
      Seems pretty straight forward to me.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous08:48

      And what is the cost of engines overhaul?

      Delete
  16. Anonymous12:24

    Bravo Hrvatska!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous13:03

    OT: Air Berlin announced disastrous 2016 and first quarter of 2017 results!

    Operating loss grew o 667 million euros ($739 million) last year, more than twice the 2015 level!
    This year hasn’t got off to a strong start, with the first-quarter loss widening 58 percent to 272 million euros, Air Berlin said in a statement.

    With Alitalia being the disaster that it is the scaling back of investments and growth of the groups airlines seems like the only way to go.

    More info: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-28/etihad-airways-stands-by-air-berlin-as-losses-plunge-to-record

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Petar13:14

      That is unbelievable!!!
      They could easily record over one billion Euro loss this year!

      Delete
    2. Nemjee13:22

      Air Berlin is basically like a patient who is on life support. Sooner or later they will have to let them go.
      They no longer have a purpose, they have been lost/confused for a very long time now. This is what happens when you start combining different business models whose fundamental principles could not be more different.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13:36

      So what is the most probable scenario for Air Berlin?

      Delete
    4. Nemjee14:21

      Bankruptcy. There is no way they can get out of this one. Lufthansa and Etihad are negotiating and I am sure LH will ask them to keep them alive until Eurowings is fully setup. Once they are up and running Air Berlin will be let go.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous15:39

      Yes, EY will have to make a massive write down on its financial statements on its investment on both Air Berlin and Alitalia.
      Hopefully they wont decide to get out of their investments to rest of the EY group airlines.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous08:50

      Btw cuurent AB CFO was previous CFO of JU

      Delete
  18. Anonymous13:14

    They are doing the same thibg Adria did in 2014. Adria sold everything it had and presented a profit that year. Now OU sells slots and presents a profit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:38

      I think OU owns their planes or am I wrong? Not counting the ones they leased from Air Nostrum (2 CRJ1000).

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:42

      They own five aircraft in total. 7 are on lease.

      Delete
  19. Nice video by Croatia Airlines:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpHRI2P9UXQ

    I think this is the third one of this type of promo video.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Bankruptcy is imminent after they liquidate their most valuable assets.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous20:06

    Brilliant move, selling LHR was a very good decision. They can easily switch to LGW or LTN instead and compete with Monarch. LHR is an airport for big big companies. Only few CEE carriers fly to it: RO, FB, A3, LO. The rest sold their slots too e.g. OK

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous20:10

      JU also flies to LHR.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous21:13

      Yes, but thanks to EY

      Delete
    3. Anonymous21:43

      They flew to LHR before Etihad as well.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous21:44

      Thanks to EY? What do you mean? No matter how high Jat's losses were, it never even considered selling these slots.
      Unlike OU, JU can actually make money here. I guess its customers are higher yielding than the ones OU carries.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous22:49

      +1

      Delete
    6. Anonymous07:42

      They never considered selling slots... That's one of the reasons they were doing so good! JAT, I mean.

      Delete
  22. Anonymous01:14

    How sick you need to be to exclude JU just because your wishful thinking, sad croatian hater.

    ReplyDelete

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