Croatia Airlines will add two aircraft to its fleet next year and plans to further expand its destination network, the carrier's CEO, Krešimir Kučko, announced yesterday. He did not go into further detail on the aircraft type or whether the jets will be bought or leased. Last year, Mr Kučko noted, "Our aim is to renew our fleet as soon as possible. If Croatia Airlines were to buy more aircraft today it would choose an Embraer model, but other manufacturers will be considered when the time comes. What we are missing now are 100-seater jets”. The Croatian carrier has been approached by both the Japanese plane manufacturer Mitsubishi and Canada's Bombardier in regards to its future regional fleet operations. Croatia Airlines has an order for four Airbus A320neo aircraft, for delivery from 2021.
The Croatian carrier plans to expand its network next year and is considering introducing flights to Moscow. Later this month, it will launch services from Zagreb to Lisbon (May 20), Milan (May 20), Prague (May 21) and St. Petersburg (June 2). "This is one of the biggest and most important developments in Croatia Airlines' history and is a natural progression following the successful completion of the restructuring process, which has enabled us to expand our network", Mr Kučko said. All of the new routes will be operated on a seasonal summer basis. The CEO added that there are currently not enough aircraft in the carrier's fleet to maintain the services throughout the year, however, this could change in 2017 with the arrival of additional jets. Croatia Airlines has wet-leased a Trade Air Fokker 100 to accommodate its network growth this year.
Commenting on the airline's ongoing privatisation process, Mr Kučko said, "A strategic partner through recapitalisation would accelerate our development and fleet expansion. Our good business results make us more appealing then we were in the past, so I hope we will have more success now in finding a strategic partner". The CEO rebuffed recent reports that Turkish Airlines is eyeing a stake in its Croatian counterpart. Croatia Airlines welcomed 1.85 million passengers last year and recorded a 1.9 million euro net profit, up 84% on 2015. It anticipates handling 1.97 million travellers by the end of 2016 and recording a 6% jump in figures.
Due to an ongoing server issue, EX-YU Aviation News has temporarily reverted to its previous design in order to allow access to news. Apologies for any inconvenience.
Finally some good news from OU! Looking forward to some new routes as well, hope St Petersburg, Milano, Lisbon and Prague will become all year round!
ReplyDeleteC series would be great. But since they will take delivery of these two planes next year it's probably an Embraer lease.
ReplyDeleteI think they planned 2 planes for this year if I remember correctly but that probably got postponed to next. Anyway good that things are finally moving at OU.
ReplyDeleteSt Petersburg and Lisbon are total misses. Prague is a contested route. All in all, weak decisions. They not gonna get far with such a network. Typical parastatal company decisions. Stale.
ReplyDeleteDont know for St.Petersburg, but why do you think Lisabon is miss? St.Petersburg could work too during summer. And that is seasonal route. But they are missing Sweden. Hopefully they will expand more agresivly when the new terminal in Zagreb will open.
DeleteI don't think new routes are a miss either. None of them in fact. They will have to up their game against CSA to Prague but I think that's very doable. Milan is long awaited. Lisbon is a good seasonal route. They probably went for St Petersburg so they avoid competing against Aeroflot and there is probably sizeble enough traffic that is going through Moscow to get to Zagreb. So you weaken SU on their ZAG route, which is a good strategy to me.
DeleteWas on the PRG-ZAG (1.5.) and ZAG-PRG (5.5.) flights and both were alnost full ... of course, this does not mean the flights are profitable, but the demand seems to be there ...
DeleteGreat news. Very interested to see which type they are thinking of.
ReplyDeleteBut why launch Moscow? They would have to compete head to head with Aeroflot. What about Bucharest? Lots of passengers transferring with JU through BEG on their way to OTP.
ReplyDeleteBecause Moscow is a massive market!
DeleteYeah right. I remember some idiot writer from this blog writing they would get Embraers even though they never announced it.
ReplyDeleteHave you read the article? Kucko himself said that Embraers would be the best choice.
DeleteHe has said many things... who can believe anything that comes out of his mouth anymore, especially when nothing ever happens !
DeleteHe's desperately trying to hang on to his job - hence these announcements. Expect many more in the coming weeks...
DeleteDesperate people do desperate things
They did negotiate about Embraer. And CRJ, and F100. Unfortunately at the end it was F100.
DeleteAs usual, not so many comments when there are good news from OU, or Croatia in general.
ReplyDeleteSomeone wrote on another forum that TAP is returning to Zagreb this autumn, although I think they are more likely to return in March 2017. However, hope things will change for better (for OU) once the new terminal in Zagreb opens, glad to see they are thinking of new routes, hope Stockholm is one of them.
What good news are you talking about ? This is merely a statement and as we have seen for the past few years, Kucko has been the master of statements with no follow through.
DeleteIt is good news if it happens and until then, it is simply wishful thinking
Could be one of his ladt statements. If his contract expires in Aug he may just want to go looking like he was doing good things for the company.
DeleteTotally AGREE with anon 10:49AM,the man is a joke
DeleteDo you guys believe kucko will bring an Embraer or mitsubishi or whatever??Well more likely gonna get some 20 years old AVRO-RJ-100!
DeleteI recall Purger recently commenting (apologies if it was not you Purger) on OU's many statements about new aircraft and fleet - so many infact, that they should have doubled their fleet by now - but as with everything, it has all come to zero - just a lot of statements and statements which keep on changing every few mths, depending on the season.
ReplyDeleteThis is nothing more than a last ditch attempt by the CEO to try to demonstrate to his shareholders that he is on top of his game and knows what he is doing, in an attempt to keep his job.
The reality is very far away from this and he has simply been great at delivering media statements and not much else.
Meanwhile, JU keeps forging ahead and growing, when it should have been OU that was making all the right moves and noises
Yes, that was my comment.
DeleteThe state to subsidize Air Serbia for another 12 months
ReplyDeletethe company received €75 million in state aid last year
http://www.ninamedia.rs/en/clipping/news/2015/11/11/dr%C5%BEava-poma%C5%BEe-%E2%80%9Eer-srbiju%E2%80%9D-jo%C5%A1-godinu-dana/
Check the date. This is an old news link.
DeleteAmazing ... hate knows no bounds ....
Delete@Anonymous May 7, 2016 at 12:52 PM
DeleteHate? You call somebody telling the truth a hater?
This is old news ... go back and have a look at the agreement that the govt signed with Etihad. It's all there and all covered
DeleteIt is not old news. How, on earth you can see it is old news. It is about 2016.
DeleteAnd what is here to hate? Who is hater here, journalist or those who read those news? Or those who can even discuss that subventions will go for another year. Am I hater to say that they announce it will be no more subventions and now here it is for one more year.
The article is from 11 November, 2015.
DeleteSo, it is about 2016. And Mali said there would be no subvention in 2016 and that from end of January Air Serbia start to pay all her obligations.
DeleteJU is not being subsidized this year as evident in the quarterly reports by BEG recently published. The report is available on the BELEX site.
Delete75 million Euros is Serbia's obligation by the agreement signed between the Republic of Serbia and Etihad. As Serbia didnt have the cash, they offered subsidies in that amount for a 3 year period, which ended last year.
This has been mentioned many times here. The idea of news is to bring forward something new.
But from what we are reading the subventions will go for another year. In the article they said until the END of 2016!
Deletethe old look for the website, cool :)
ReplyDeleteNajzad, mogu na I-Padu da zumiram (povecavam) text, da nadjem predhodne informacije i da po datumu postova vidim gde sam stao. Sto sve na novom nemoze. Inace citam od prvog dana, ni slovo od tada nisam propustio. Hvala Admine na svemu, kapa do poda. Bez ovoga vise nemogu. Pozdrav svima. BG-NL
DeleteOvaj stari izgled je mnogo praktičniji na raznim uređajima. Ako je moguće nemojte vraćati novi. Hvala na odličnim člancima :)
DeleteI think we should be allowed to vote on this issue, but admin is a dictator :D
DeleteCroatia is becoming more and more a tourist mecca, therefore linking LED with ZAG makes sense. Tourists fm Asia,Americas,Oceania,MEA are eyeing BCN NCE PRG LED VIE ATH FLR FCO IST and Croatia to combine somehow, so no wonder we hve now flights fm VCE ATH IST NCE BCN FCO to the coast or ZAG. So establishing a link to LED makes sense.
ReplyDeleteBolji vam je stari interface..
ReplyDeletewhat is with Eindhoven-Zadar. Anyone told about the new connection
ReplyDeletebritish airlines published some 2017 flights - some increase its frequencis, some launched new routes:
ReplyDeleteJet2.com
EDI-PUY and SPU twice per week
LBA-PUY and SPU twice per week
GLA-DBV 1x new route
EMA-SPU 1x new route
Thomson Airways
EDI-PUY 1x new route
DSA-DBV 1x new route
Thomas Cook Airlines UK
MAN-SPU twice weekly flights (new route)
2016 easyjet increases frequencis from DBV to STN 4x and from PUY to LGW 3x
Smesna je stratiegija da se imaju 4-5 razlicitih tipova Aviona umesto da su presli skroz na Bombardier sigurno bi dobili dosta pogodnosti.
ReplyDeleteA ne isplati se ni velikim kompanijama uzimati Avione na wet-lease ali ne znam sto to rade.
INN-NS
U pravu si apsolutno. To isto je bila odlicna opcija za ASL i Jat tehniku, ali nazalost nije prepoznata.
DeleteASL je imala vecu sansu da preuzme Embrarer Flotu od HG ali steta sto nije mislim da bi do bila bolja opcija.
DeleteINN-NS
Apsolutno je smešna. Znam jednu kompaniju koja ima:
DeleteA330
A320
A319
ATR72-500
ATR72-200
737-300
CRJ900
... na samo 21 avionu.
Ali ta kompanija ne sme da bude smešna. Kod Crtoatije je to smešno, kod Air Serbije mudro i pametno.
ATR pripada jednim delom Airbus Grupi .
Delete737 su odavno otplaceni i pripadaju Avioletu.
CRJ je dug od JP prema JU .
Ali bitno je da se nesto pise , i ovo uopste nije bio napad na CTN nego bi bi bilo dobro za njih .
INN-NS
To što ATR pripada delom Airbus Grupi ne čini ga istim avionom. To su skroz drugačiji avioni dete. Pa mora da budeš stvarno diletant da kažeš da je to isti avion.
DeleteAviolet nije čak ni posebno pravno lice. I koristi ga Air Serbia koja plača i održavanje i pilote i delove... Cicko ne lupaj. Aviolet je drugačije ofarban avion Air Serbije.
CRJ je u vet lizu ko i F100 u Kroaciji.
I bez tog CTR-a Air Serbija ima 3 modela aviona, Kroacija 2. Pa de ne lupaj dete.
Kad će Air Serbija da nabavi 100-sitera kako su rekli da će da nabave imat će 5 različitih aviona, sa A330 šest.
Gde sam reko da je ATR isti tip ko Airbus samo reko kome Pripada .
DeleteI CRJ nije u istom wet-leasu kao i F100 posto je to dug .
Pa ima i OS vise tipova ja sam samo to naveo da bi dobili dodatne privilegije od Bombardier-a.
INN-NS
@ anonymous
DeleteSpare parts for the B733 fleet are coming from the 5 parked B733 ac in BEG in front of the hangars. B733 is fully paid off, with little operating costs involved in its use. However, it is the only odd aircraft out of the fleet.
A320, A330 and A340 families are very similar aircraft, crew with minimal training operate both simultaneously.
JU never said it will take a 100 seater, they said they are looking into replacing the regional fleet (ATR) which needs to be replaced. ATR72-200 are not as reliable as the -500's, and it doesn't seem to be as versatile for their operations anymore, think PRG and WAW.
CRJ from JP will have nothing to do with JU other than to operate flights on its behalf. All crew and maintenance will be from LJU. Its basically a free ac for JU this summer to use due to a debt JP has with JU.
You are free to bring forward an opinion, but please don't make things up so as to make an argument.
There is more than 'minimal training' for a pilot to pass from an A320 to an A330.
DeleteWhat people on here are forgetting is what will happen once JP lease runs out? What will fly to KBP or HAM?
JU's fleet is a mess and they need to streamline it.
p.s. JP crew will be paid by JU. It's only the aircraft that comes for free.
It still isn't a transition as is from B733 to A320 which isn't the same.
DeleteI think WAW will go next winter as I see the A319 as too much capacity, better served with LO who have the ERJ. SPU, DBV, LCA, MLA and SPU is all seasonal which will free up ac.
JU's fleet is not as much of a mess as much as it badly needs regional ac. The ATR's need replacing, while the A319 is too big capacity on some routes (WAW) and the ATR not suitable (PRG). I think the ATR's need to go. Its only when theyre replaced in double numbers will things be better.
OT: U booking sistemu Air Transata za Zagreb više ne piše da će letjeti A330-200 već su sad stavili A330-300.
ReplyDeleteAdmine ovaj stari izgled web stranice je puno bolji i pregledniji, sve pohvale za novu ali malo se čovjek izgubi među onim silnim vijestima i nije toliko jednostavna i pregledna. Pozdrav.
+1, super!
DeleteCroatia Airlines (for me) has the best livery in Ex-Yu! Hope they will expand their fleet and sack Kucko!
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit tired and old now ... they should refresh it once they get a new CEO and management team
DeleteI agree with a fresh livery.The checkers due get tiring after a while. Time to move forward. Ad for Kucko leaving it will also be refreshing
DeleteNew livery costs money, which OU doesn't have. It is unnecessary. Nobody chooses to fly an airline because it has cool livery.
DeleteOT: Ambassador Rajabi informed the Chairman Zvizdić about activities on the establishment of a flight route between Teheran and Sarajevo...
ReplyDelete(Source: akta.ba)
wow. nice to hear it.
DeleteWho is going to pick up fleet of RJ Avros from Swiss as they replace them with C-series?
ReplyDeleteApparently, fleet is 17.9 years old. Not sure how much 'mileage' is left in them and I know there is bias against 4 engines, but if the price is right, why not?
~20 planes in bulk, one could get a good discount, similarly to Austrian's sale of Fokkers.
my2cents