Croatia Airlines and Adria join forces

Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines to swap jets
Croatia Airlines and Adria Airways have reached an agreement on a common business plan model. The two airlines will strengthen ties and have agreed to cooperate in jet leasing as a means of improving efficiency and streamlining fleet utilisation. The agreement outlines that the two airlines will provide short term leases of their aircraft to each other. Adria is interested in leasing some of Croatia Airlines’ Bombardier Dash 8s while in return, Croatia Airlines would have the ability to lease Adria’s CRJ900s. Adria is also keen on getting rid of its larger aircraft such as the Airbus A320 as it looks for ways to cut costs. Whether Croatia Airlines would be interested in this type of aircraft remains to be seen. The Croatian national carrier already operates 3 Airbus A320s and 4 A319s with another 4 jets of this type on order, to be delivered from 2013.

Besides the swapping of aircraft, the two airlines are also looking at code sharing on certain routes and leasing out their own cabin crew to each other. The aim of the deal is to save money. “We are primarily interested in regional cooperation and integration, which is in the interest of both companies”, Srećko Šimunović, the CEO of Croatia Airlines said. Both Croatia Airlines and Adria Airways are members of Star Alliance. Croatia Airlines is having its best year on record when it comes to passenger numbers but is still struggling with finances. On the other hand, it has been a horror year for Adria with the hope that 2012 will bring better fortunes.

Meanwhile, Adria is a step closer to finalising an agreement with the banks which would save it from bankruptcy. The final agreement is expected within the next few days after which painful cost cutting measures should begin to be implemented at the expense of both employees and passengers. The Government of Slovenia held an emergency meeting last week to discuss ways in which to help Adria survive one of its worse crises.

Comments

  1. Anonymous09:41

    Good luck. Together they will make 100 mio € loss!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous10:04

    I have to say that im a little bit dissapointed to Croatia Airlines, im always travelling from Copenhagen to Zagreb and towards, and the summerflights have been very occupied, and they should at least use the Airbus every day and not three days per week.

    Im happy for their success but use bigger and better planes... Skip the dashplane on the scandinavian route!
    Philswe

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous10:32

    This is a first step to get Balkan SAS :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10:34

    Croatia has 4 A319

    ReplyDelete
  5. Philswe, use Adria, they use CRJ9 or sometimes A319 on the route to CPH =).

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous11:23

    Bravo! The first step to right direction. Goooooooood luck

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous11:26

    Super this is very good news for both companies. I hope that some day we will see the A330 or A340 in Adria/Croatia c/s on trans-atlatic routes.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous11:41

    I think it is more rescue plan, than development plan.

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  9. Anonymous12:22

    Jealous guy.
    These two companies are handling over 70% of ex-yu air passengers.
    Croatia & Slovenia airports service over 70% of ex yu air travelers.
    For the time being others are pretty insignificant

    ReplyDelete
  10. Riječanin12:32

    I guess that's a synergy move. Not bad.
    This year the financial losses of Croatia Airlines are diminishing and they count to reach the breaking point within 2 years.
    Then it comes the time to merge...
    When a long haul flight to U.S.?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous14:00

    Nationalistic guy,

    Yes but in those 70% most of the traffic is to the Croatian coast operated by charter airlines.
    Why don't you compare the number of passengers carried by Adria and Croatia Airlines?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous14:16

    Does annyone know by chance what is happening with Zagreb's Terminal 2 tender?

    I guess if Houston Airport manages to secure the deal it would be kind of likely to see United flying to Zagreb at some point in the future ...

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous14:18

    Guy from the past.

    You must be older chap born in socialism when even letters were declared as "nationalism".

    This is obviously new kind of nationalism so called CroatoSlovenian, as you are putting it.
    Chap, these are only statistics and nothing else.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous15:00

    Why don't they merge, purchase the current JAT, and recreate the network of the old JAT. Then, we can start talking about transatlantic flights to the Balkans from ZAG or BEG.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous15:01

    I think this is a step in the right direction. None of these small airlines flying to these small countries had a good chance at competing with the big boys. Now if they buy Montenegrin and the Jat name (forget the debt inducing business) the can have a YU SAS. I'm not sure Turkish will let B&H go.

    ReplyDelete
  16. @ last Anonymous

    I was thinking the same. If anyone needs newer aircraft then it's JAT. They could benefit so much from borrowing planes from Adria and Croatia, especially for their BEG-DXB route which could become non-stop with Adria's A319. JAT, Croatia and Adria are not really competing against each other and this move would for sure benefit all three of them.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Igor S.15:31

    Eventually, this will have to happen to ex-yu airlines. I like the idea of JAT, Croatia and Adria under the same corporate banner. Nationalism of the kind that every sovereign country has to have a national airline are gone. We should be looking at a sustainable airline that can serve most of the 13 million combined passangers in the Ex-yu (number I read on the website). It only tells how much that ex-yu made economic sense for all. Yugosphere anyone? What was the deal with the passenger rail? Could that be a model?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Igor S.15:33

    I forgot to include that Macedonia does not have a national airline and could be well served by a northern ex-yu airline. The new Skopje airport begs to be occupied by ex-yu airlines.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous15:41

    We have had this "corporation" already (all under JAT) and by definition this way does not work.

    Why on the earth anyone would associate with JAT, at all?
    This is bankrupt company in all senses that no one wants to buy even tender documentation of.
    CA & AA are part of Star Alliance and have certain future and some slight chances to survive.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous15:55

    I think the first thing to do would be to reduce the number of types on the fleets so that maintenance and crew training could be simplified. My own feelings are that the CRJ's should be dumped and concentrate on A319/A320 plus the Q400's. Any form of co-operation with other ex Yu carriers should be on the same basis if crews are to be shared and aircraft utilisation to be achieved. I know it rather rules out YM becoming part of any consortia with their existing fleet but unfortunately their days as a state owned carrier are numbered and their long term survival in any form must be in doubt. With JAT it is anyones guess but if the oft talked about purchase of A319/A320 did happen it would fit in nicely.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous15:59

    I guess we'll have in the middle future two big airlines on the Balkans:

    1. A "Habsburg-Airline" (incl. JP, OU, OS) with LH as mother
    2. An "Otoman-Airline" (incl. JA, JU, YM) with TK as mother.
    On the one hand it may be a provoking thought but on the other hand it is clear that every airline mentioned above can't survive on its own! The bundling of small airlines may have sense.
    But I also guess we won't see tranatlantic-flights from the Balkans in the middle future, these will be kept in the hands of the airline-mothers.

    ReplyDelete
  22. JU520 BEGLAX16:23

    so young and still all this old ressentiments in your throats..

    what would be most important for JU,OU,JP. Get some international aviation managers to push the airlines and do the necessary clean up. but in the current situaton probably unthinkable... i m just wondering how much longer they intend to waste time on the Balkans...

    ReplyDelete
  23. "None of us is as dumb as all of us."

    Good luck to the joint forces.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous17:38

    That are wise words from VISIT KONFUTSIUS...master of dumbness..

    ReplyDelete
  25. Purger23:23

    All of you who dream that there would be little regional alliance with Croatia, Adria and JAT have to stop dream.

    Adria and Croatia are Star Alliance member. It is easy for them to make collaboration. JAT is not Star member and there is no chance that JP/OU would even think to make any similar deal with JAT. No chance!!!! That is reality.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Anonymous00:10

    Purger is totally right !
    Dont compare that old virgin Jat with
    Lufthansas Adria and Croatian ..
    both are hot sluts and enjoy their
    sexy star alliance with Lufthansa !
    While Lufthansa is making out with his hot bitches...who are feeding him perfectly...ugly duck Jat will get sold cheap to the Turks...

    ReplyDelete
  27. I was thinking of the following...what about creating a regional company in which only medium and long-haul flights would get served. just like Brits had in their BOAC and BEA in 50s,60s and 70s. BOAC for long haul flights and BEA for European.

    So this way Croatia, Adria, Jat, BiH and Montenegro each can go about their current policy, but collaborate on feeding destinations from where long-haul flights could go, i.e. Ljubljana and Zagreb to US/Canada flights and Belgrade to Asia/Pacific/Australia.

    This "regional company" with a neutral name could lease 2 x 767-200s, and perhaps 1 x A330-200. During all this time, each nation would still have its own airline flying to Europe and desitnations throughout ex-yu so as to fill up the long-haul flights that go outside Europe.

    What about that business model, what do you think ?

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous01:41

    Peter your idea is good !
    In fact your and a lot of other
    peoples ideas are very good and would help to improve aviation industry in the region .

    But ...there really is not a lack of good ideas ...more a lack of political will.

    Germany urged and helped Slovenia and Croatia to lead a war against a Serbian dominated Yugoslavia ! Slovenia and Croatia only pay back to Germany and Austria in handing them out their resources completely.

    You have three models :
    Slovenia and Croatia inside a Serbian dominated Yugosphere...
    either in or outside of EU.
    That will never happen because Germany is against it because of the third model :
    Slovenia and Croatia as part of German influence sphere in EU.

    So Germany will never let the Serbs in EU...because of a Yugosphere ...
    which would undermine German control over SloCroatian resources.

    In 1995 not only ended a war...it also began a new era of division in Ex Yu which will stay for decades ...a new cold war .

    ReplyDelete
  29. Purger02:36

    Peter, much bigger players try to do something like this. Just remember Swissair and Qualiflyer Group. Perfect idea, but destroyed by Star Alliance (Lufthansa/United), SkyTeam (Air France/Delta) and oneworld (British/American). Now, just think what those alliances will do today to ideal like this. And they are much stronger than 9 years ago (when they destroyed Qualiflyer in 2002) and exYu aviation is weaker than ever.

    Once again, stop dream. Croatia and Adria are Star Alliance member and JAT does not have any chance to collaborate with them. Lufthansa and others big players will not allowed that!

    It depends of level of collaboration but that can be chance for Croatia and Adria to become real player in region, especially against Jat, but also against Austrian. Those two companies have most of flights in region

    SJJ OU/JP 21x weekly, JU 7x, OS 14x
    SKP OU/JP 16x, JU 9x, OS 11x
    PRN OU/JP 14x, JU 0x, OS 10x
    SPU OU/JP 31x, JU 0x, OS 4x
    DBV OU/JP 32x, JU 2x, OS 7x,
    PUY OU/JP 14x, JU 3x, OS 0x
    ZAD OU/JP 14x, JU 0x, OS 0x
    TGD OU/JP 8x, JU 21x, OS 7x
    TIV OU/JP 0x, JU 14x, OS 0x

    That means in region (259 flights weekly)

    OU/JP 150 flights weekly, 58%
    JU 56 flights weekly, 22%
    OS 53 flights weekly, 20%

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous04:09

    I think Croatia Airlines and Adria should merge into one airline but remain separate entities. This would bring stability to both Croatia Airlines and Adria Airways. We need to understand that Adria Airways was established as an air service to the Croatian coast in exYugo. This market doesn't exist for Adria Airways anymore, It is Croatia Airlines bread and butter now. The merger would place Adria back into their original market. It would all be one company so, it wouldn't affect Croatia or Croatia Airlines. The Crew from Adria Airways are bilingual anyways and would be able to speak Croatian on the flights in and out of Croatia. Croatia Airlines can add a Slovenian flag onto each plane and Adria Airways would add a Croatian flag to each plane. Once Croatia joins the EU, an EU flag would be added to each Croatia Airlines plane. Both of the merged airlines would work together to expand to long haul flights and purchase the necessary aircraft. A total of four long haul aircraft should be purchased. Two for Croatia Airlines and Two for Adria. Croatia Airlines and Adria should each receive 2 Boeing 787-8's, a dreamliner for a dream vacation to Croatia & Slovenia! As a Croat from the United States i know there is a market for direct flights to Croatia. More and more Americans are going to Croatia each year. A joint Croatia Airlines and Adria would surely have full flights for at least 4 months out of the year. Three of the long haul planes should serve the Croatian market and one should focus on Slovenia.

    I think Jat, Montenegro Airlines, BH Airlines and Turkish Airways should be under the Turkish Airlines corporate banner. As Turkish is a Star Alliance Member and one of the top airlines in the alliance.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous06:26

    well then, does it not make sense to have the joint Adria/Croatia under Turkish airlines since they are all a part of the Star Alliance ...technically it does, but politically is it "too east" for your leanings?

    The dreamliner would be the ideal plane for the US flights though and is designed for making exactly these long distance flights with smaller capacities to smaller markets more profitable.

    ReplyDelete
  32. JU520 BEGLAX09:39

    JAT should see that they keep the focus on TK and IST, it only makes geographically already sense.

    And as said OU and JP are under the influence of STAR and mainly LH, so their orientation basically is MUC and FRA and in a 2nd line ZRH and VIE.
    That JP and OU are now starting to coop is nothing than wise. Still some kind of working together is with each and every airline possible and in case JU needs some overflow A319 or A320 from JP, there is no hurdle that they can transfer them, except maybe for monetary reasons

    But as previously said. I wish to see in JP and OU a help from outside, best from Germany to clean the mess. 1-2 LH guys in the members of the board and top management also people from the LH group which have many years of experience in the aviation sector. The banks will hopefully more than agree with that, then what they need is a healthy JP and OU who are paying back their debts and making profits again. And this can be achieved if the politicians are kept out of decisions and the management of the companies are in the hand of professionals

    ReplyDelete
  33. Anonymous09:45

    Jat Airways can't join an alliance because their fleet is outdated. Serbia doesn't have the funds to help the airline rebrand itself and purchase a new fleet of aircraft.Serbia will have a difficult time finding an investor other than from Turkey or Russia. The best option is that Aeroflot purchases a stake in Jat and invest in the rebranding and fleet overhaul. I don't see a SAS like option for the region as a whole. Those Scandinavian countries have more in common with each other than the exYu region. They all speak basically the same language more similar than let's say Slovene and Croatian or Serbian or Albanian, or Serbian or Macedonian. They don't have the differences in religion to get in the way as well. There are as many similarities as there are differences between our peoples. These differences are going to keep adria and Croatia Airlines away from the other airlines in the region. Croatia and Slovenia are more oriented with Western Europe than let's say Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, BiH, and macedonia. Their economies as a result are stronger and so are their airlines. Afterall Adria and Croatia Airlines are a part of the Star Alliance.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Anonymous10:35

    You people should stop daydreaming. There is absolutely no way that exYu airlines could cooperate in a way to jointly feed long haul flights from BEG/ZAG/LJU, no matter how much passenger O/D flows indicate that being feasable.

    That would imply that regional airlines would have to stop feeding Lufthansa Group's long haul flights and that would never hapen.

    Star Alliance is a strict hierarchy where OU and JP are REGIONAL members - something simillar to Lufthansa Regional, and their role in LH's alliance is to feed other major members' hubs. JU is also in a simillar situation as there is a strong LH loby in Serbia.

    Perhaps some of you remember, nearly 10 years ago there were some signs of more cooperative relations between JU, OU and JP and all 3 CEOs got fired in a short timeframe.

    ExYu countries are now limited sovereignty countries designated as consumer markets for (primarily) Western products, and that is also evident in aviation industry. "Balkan to the Balkan people" is getting more and more relevant again.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Financed by brothers in Germany eeeey? Zivjela Republika Hrvatska i Republika Slovenija! <3

    ReplyDelete
  36. Anonymous20:20

    To Anonymous before me ...Balkans to the Balkan people ...Slos and Cros
    dont want to be Balkan they want to be "European"...whatever that means.
    Obviously Europe has nothing to do with geography...

    ReplyDelete
  37. Anonymous12:58

    True, Europe has nothing to do with geography, it is not even a continent (can you tell me its boundaries?!), nor is the Balkan!! Balkan is a state of mind and a political construct!

    ReplyDelete
  38. Anonymous06:59

    Anonymous,

    It's called the Eurasian continent BUT Europe is considered as its own continent in most cases.
    Its borders are: the Atlantic in the West, the Mediterranean in the south, the Urals in the East and the Caucuses in the south-east.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Anonymous10:47

    That's my point, Europe is not a separated continent because, what makes a continent is that it is divided from other continents by seas.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Anonymous11:31

    Islands are surrounded by seas whereas continents are surrounded by oceans.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Anonymous20:49

    What a strange coincidence :
    Although Croatia is an European country and Serbia not(?)...
    both countries are neighbours !
    Also strange...although Croatian ,
    Bosnian ,Serbian and Montenegrin are four totally different languages ...they all sound the same !

    ReplyDelete
  42. Anonymous20:54

    Also strange :
    The Second World War happened
    in Ex Yu twice ...
    1941 till 1945...and then again from
    1991 till 1995 !

    ReplyDelete
  43. Anonymous05:59

    It is pathetic and funny in the same time, how desperate are JAT supporters to merge JAT with any aviation entity on the world, regardless of anything.
    Of course, this is not easy taking into account 2800 JAT's "lezilebovics" who are expecting their hard earned salaries every month.

    ReplyDelete

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