Ivan Mišetić resigns

Ivan Mišetić
The long running CEO of Croatia Airlines, Ivan Mišetić, has resigned from his post. Mišetič has worked in Croatia Airlines since 1992 and became the CEO of the national carrier 13 and a half years ago. Under his leadership he has seen Croatia Airlines transform from a small struggling carrier into one of the biggest in the region with the most number of carried passengers out of all the former Yugoslav airlines. However, recently, Mišetić has come under fire for the way he has run the airline. Croatia Airlines continues to see sliding passenger numbers this year and is operating with a record financial loss. The airline also faced a cabin crew strike earlier this year. In June, Mišetić came under fire after it was revealed that he sits on the Lufthansa CityLine supervisory board as well.

Mišetić has taken on a new job with the Atlantic Group. He told the “vecernji.hr” portal that he is not leaving a sinking ship. “During my time at Croatia Airline we faced the bird flu, SARS, September 11 attacks, NATO bombing, oil crisis and a big increase in competition. Despite these crises we have managed to renew our fleet, increase capacity and revenue, receive international certificates, become a Star Alliance member and most important of all have no serious incidents. Croatia Airlines is not facing anything else then what other airline in the industry are facing. I thank everyone for what we have achieved in the past 13 years”, Mišetić said.

Ivan Mišetić’s replacement is expected to be announced soon.

Comments

  1. Jimmy Wang11:18

    Now let's see what' going on at Croatia Airlines!
    Do not expect any miracle within short term but maybe something very important might occur with neighbourhood's and overseas strategies.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:26

    What has NATO bombing to do with anything?

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  3. Anonymous11:50

    ^ The Croatian tourism industry was significantly affected in 1999 by the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia

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  4. Good news I have to say.

    Croatia Airlines has achieved a lot during her short history but recently the airline has clearly struggled under Misetic with the changing aviation environment within Croatia. It has become a static airline with no real strategy on how to compete with the extra completion.

    I hope the new CEO is no clone of Mitesic and is a vibrant person who has the means to take the airline into a new and more successful direction!

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  5. Anonymous19:10

    I am sorry to say but what has the Croatian tourism has to do with the bombing of another souvereign country?
    That was not the SFRJ but the SRJ so...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jimmy Wang20:29

    Dear friend Anonymous of 7:20 pm,
    Croatia was not involved with the NATO bombing but everybody in Europe and in the world listened to these news and it effected a war psychosis amidst tourism as the bombs hit areas not far away from Croatia.
    That year the tourism fell dramatically in the adriatic coast and so getting back to Ivan Mišetić I think he's right about this.
    Maybe the new CEO of Croatia Airlines would mind new concepts of regional, european and overseas strategies where travellers from Beograd might fly direftly to Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, Rijeka and Pula at last.

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  7. Hey Anonymous, re' bombing of Yugoslavia,

    At that time Nato controlled Croatian air space a civil traffic was heavily and at some times completely disrupted. There was one corridor open at times in and out of Zagreb where civil aircraft were restricted to operate not higher then 10 000ft. So, maybe you can appreciate the difficulty in running an airline in such an environment when from day to day there was no guarantee civil airspace would be open above Croatia.

    I wonder if OU was compensated for this by Nato since Nato requested the use of Croatian airspace and if not, then why not?

    Anyway, all we can say is thankyou Mr Mitesic for his work in the past and thanks again for stepping aside when he has clearly no strategy on how to compete in the environment OU finds her self in.

    Personally, I think we will not know for some time the real reason for his resignation but I would not be surprised if we find out in the not to distant future.

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  8. frequentflyer05:29

    Goodbye Mr Mišetić.

    Q400s post sums up the situation well - a man who did well leading the airline in its infancy, but hitting too many roadblocks in recent years due to increased competition and liberalisation of the skies.

    Whoever is chosen as the new CEO must *not* be a political appointment! Given the airline's current state it is important that someone with strong industry experience and a lot of vision to really shake up the place.

    New destinations are needed especially short-haul (that could be operated by Qs - BEG, MXP, WAW) and to mid-east, more planes (the airline could do with another Q400 and possibly another 319).

    I don't think anyone doubt's the airline's ability to succeed, but it is important to re-plot the future direction of the airline before it goes further off course.

    Finally, does anyone know if Mišetić also resigned from LH?

    ReplyDelete

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