Croatia Airlines, which has four Airbus A320neo aircraft on order, is assessing ways to pay the European manufacturer for the new jets. The airline is currently seeking lessors to finance part of the advanced payments necessary for the aircraft's delivery. As a result, Croatia Airlines would ultimately lease the jets. “Negotiations are ongoing with potential lessors who will finance advanced payments from 2020 to delivery”, the airline said. According to its 2015 agreement with Airbus, the Croatian carrier began advanced payments for the aircraft last year. Some 780.000 euros are believed to have been deposited so far. Four A320neos at list price at the time of the order amounted to just over 366 million euros. However, Airbus has not disclosed the exact value of its deal with Croatia Airlines.
The first two A320neos are scheduled to arrive in Zagreb in 2021, while the other two are due a year later. The airline successfully converted a 2008 order for four A319s to the neos in 2015. Although the new aircraft were originally to be delivered by the end of 2013, their arrival was put on hold and the deal was renegotiated. The carrier put off the arrival of the jets due to the company's financial situation at the time. The A320neo aircraft are designed to operate quieter with lower operating costs. Croatia Airlines believes that its potential privatisation would bring fresh capital into the company and speed up its fleet renewal.
Last week, Croatia Airlines said it would soon select a financial consultant, which will determine the best privatisation model for the carrier. "Croatia Airlines' main objective is to expand its network and grow its market share, which will be implemented through a strategic partnership and fresh capital. Croatia Airlines is preparing a call for bids for financial consultancy services in order to arrange an appropriate model for a capital injection and a strategic partner", the airline said in a statement. The Croatian government recently noted, "Croatia Airlines has undergone the restructuring process and has since improved its finances and launched new routes. However, the only solution for the carrier is to seek a strategic partner. This will be one of the most important topics in our aviation industry in the coming period. The Ministry for Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, jointly with Croatia Airlines' management, will begin looking for potential investors this year".

Comments
Good work to everyone involved.
"Smatra se da je taj ugovor zapravo bio politički deal između bivšeg premijera Ive Sanadera i bivšeg francuskog predsjednika Nicolasa Sarkozyja.
U kuloarima se govorilo da je Sanader na taj način želio pridobiti naklonost Francuske, koja je tada predsjedala EU, i osigurati brži završetak pregovora s EU. Čak se tvrdilo da je tim ugovorom sebi osigurao ulaznicu za Elizejsku palaču, odnosno službeni prijem kod Sarkozyja."
In reality they are an Asian country.
Kao kupis nesto, prodas pa potom to isto unajmis.....
https://www.exyuaviation.com/2018/08/air-serbia-to-take-former-rossiya-jet.html
One of the reasons why Wizz Air decide to order older generation of engines for its new Airbus320 aircraft(very durable and reliable 232 engines-most of engine parts for 232 engines are made in Japan,America and Italy).They are planning to introduce Airbus320NEO with 251 and 271 engines after 2026 year(hopefully engine manufacturer should resolve quality issues for 251 and 271 engines)
Croatia Airlines are unsure about engine choice probably they should order reliable American made engines for their Airbus320.
The wet leased Fokker100(registration 9A-BTD) in Croatia Airlines fleet uses Rolls-Royce engines.
Embraer forevaaa! Yeah!
Average Fleet Age * 13.4 Years
Aircraft Type Current Future Historic Avg. Age Total
Airbus A319 4 1 19.6 Years 5
Airbus A320 2 2 18.9 Years 4
De Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8 6 9.5 Years 6
planes?
i hope JU will be able to duck their order with help of etihad, but who will hel UO i have no idea
dash 8 Q400 is a very good and powerful aircraft, but maintenance costs are high.
Back in 1994, Lufthansa was changing DC-10 fleet for A340. As continuation of cooperation, after 737 already bought by OU from LH, DC-10 was supposed to arrive. In summer timetable 1994, 3 weekly JFK, 2 weekly YYZ and weekly ORD were PUBLISHED from ZAG. About 30 employees, pilots, cabin crew and mechanics who had licences for DC-10 and had worked for JAT before, waited for the exact date when they would be sent to FRA to LH for refresher training to start operating announced North America DC-10 flights. Then literally overnight ATR42 was announced joining the fleet and all DC-10 plans cancelled. At that time already I saw direction OU was heading. I left 2 years later. Just not to be mistaken :still actively flying, foreign airline, of course. Brgd !
And yet TK is based on that 3% of Turkey.
Croatian Airlines LF is around 75%, not 70%. 2.25 million projected pax/3.0 million absolute max capacity with 14 planes. And durig winter times they'll need to work on cutting seasonality down to bare minimum, the way to do that is to agree some sort of codeshare with Emirates, Korean Air and other Asian carriers that plan to start Zagreb service next year.
So passengers from Korea, Japan, China, Australia,.. can use OU for transfers to the coast or elsewhere. OU could in matter of few years cut seasonality dramatically, if they had proper management in place, since they don't...
LOT can't afford to buy OU or any other airline, they've got their own financial worries to worry about. Only hope for Croatian airlines is Lufthansa Group, or some Asian airline with loads of cash to waste. Qatar perhaps ?lol.
Turkey is not European/Balkan country.
LOT Polish Airlines has said many times that it is interested in consolidation of the aviation market in Eastern Europe. That the current passengers will not be transferred to Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines or Air France. For this reason, LOT Polish Airlines is building a base on the World War II and who knows, maybe later, a new national carrier MALOT. LOT Polish Airlines announced the interest in buying Adria and Niki from Austria. Recently, Romanian TAROM has announced that it is interested even to unite with the Polish carrier, note that TAROM orders for aircraft similar to those of Polish operas carrier like Boeing 737MAX. LOT is interested in buying Croatia Airlines but it all depends on the price.
I have no idea how to respond to your childish agrument, other than ignore it. You write like an 14 year old.
anonymous!4 September 2018 at 09:12
Sounds like they can't afford these new aircraft!
Lets see, each aircraft likely to cost around €45 million, OU profits less than $1.5 million. Errr, don't think they can afford them without a loan. Lease or state jumps in with the loan in 2022.
Errr. such a stupid comment, OU is wetleasing right now two Spanish CRJ1000. Seriously man, plz don't talk before you re-think your response.
OU wants the Neos but forgets increasing its regional influence in the rest of the neighor countries.
JU became a low cost carrier but also drops important routes like Hamburg? Seriously?
Okay good move to immediately cover Larnaca in winter but only 1 weekly flight?
Why not collaborate with Aviolet like Emirates did with Flydubai??? Fuse everything and make JU a big airlin again.
JP did increase its regional influence but still more planes are needed. The time to get those Skywork planes immediately. Focus on key cities with no competition like INI or SJJ hungry for Europe flights. Base an aircraft there like you did with PAD. Consider long-haul after BX failure and check Japan or China flights.
YM has very good primary destinations but needs secondary airports as well such as Luton, Beauvais or NYO next to Stockholm. Also collaboration with Virgin Atlantic.
I hope all ex YU airlines wake up from this hibernation soon and start acting fast!