Good start for Croatia Airlines
Croatia Airlines is reporting improving passenger figures this year after a 6% slump in 2010. During March, Croatia Airlines’ figures improved by 10%, compared to the same month last year, with the result being driven by an increase in international passengers. During the crisis years of 2009 and 2010, Croatia Airlines heavily relied on its domestic traffic to substitute for losses made on international flights, however this sector is now improving. In March, the airline’s cabin load factor also increased, by 5.6%. Srećko Šimunović, Croatia Airlines’ CEO, told the “Poslovni dnevnik”, “The renewal of our fleet, with the introduction of the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, has been justified by these figures”. Croatia Airlines has introduced 6 Dash8s since 2008. The national airline of Croatia recorded a 21.6 million Euro loss in 2010. However, the loss was decreased compared to 2009 by 5 million Euros. Croatia Airlines will hope to profit from recent and ongoing unrest in North Africa with many expected to choose Croatia as their summer holiday destination.
Well done to OU, but they're not out of the woods just yet. Turnaround doesn't equal success.
ReplyDeleteI suspect much of the turnaround at the airline has been due to purchasing the Q400s - superior aircraft to the ageing, slow AT4s they replaced, additional seat capacity despite sending load factors plummeting, and replacing one of the old 320s with two Q400s (identical capacity but two aircraft not one).
Questions must now be aimed towards the future of OU, the leader of the exYU airlines (by default, luck or logic?).
The airline has short-haul routes that need opening up ideal for Q400 (BEG, WAW, MXP plus increased frequencies elsewhere), and need for another 319 (serving SVO, KBP, DXB and increasing European frequencies) - will they expand the fleets further?
Just 4 319s are being replaced (could the order be changed to 5?), and Bombardier is looking for additional orders as the line is slow - OU could get a great deal if converting any of their 4 options.
Great fleet, great service on board, nice cabin crew, polite customer service and new routes from this summer. They are doing good job since ex CEO left the company.
ReplyDeleteOU where are flights DBV - LJU? i think a lot of tourists from SLO are missing them. for an idea 2 a week 5,7 or 4,7 ;) to have a chance for short brakes ;)
ReplyDeleteI also find it very strange there is no flight from LJU to any Croatian airport(SPU, DBV, ZAD)
ReplyDeleteThere will be this summer:
ReplyDelete21.05 Adria Airways / Split - Ljubljana (-----6-/CR9
You can easily check it in Amadeus.
Cool, but i am sure there is more demand from LJU than one weekly flight. Thanks for info anyway
ReplyDeleteLJU-BWK this summer on Sat.
ReplyDeleteAgree that Q400 is the key for turnaround.
Not sure why they need more 319s. Such an expensive investment at the time of crisis.
@ PBY,
ReplyDeleteHopefully the A319 will be used to expand the network east and maybe even further south (Dubai) but my guess is that they will replace the A320s.
@Q400
ReplyDeleteI cant see how Dubai service would be profitable. Not sure how many Croats want to vacation there. Sure, it is a good transfer hub, but Emirates are not in Star Alliance so OU is not allowed to code share with them.
@ PBY
ReplyDeleteDon't think of Dubai exclusively as a vacation destination. Looking at it from a global hub perspective it makes much more sense.
TheRouteShop has some figures on ZAG-DXB (the only publicly-available at present).
Quote:
In 2008 7,347 passengers traveled between Dubai and Zagreb an increase of 21%.
We can only assume this is a mixture of diaspora/VFR traffic from Australia, and of tourists coming to Croatia.
That figure is 141 pax per week (on average), or two 319 return trips, plus factoring in growth. Assuming a codeshare with EK (as JU has), that's door-to-door service from MEL, SYD etc in around 22hrs - simply unbeatable, and will command a price premium.
OU has the right plane for the journey nonstop (JU is forced to stop in Cyprus), but it seems not the initiative to open the route!