Croatia Airlines is set to take delivery of the first of fifteen Airbus A220 aircraft in just over a month. The airline has confirmed that the first jet will arrive in June and the second in November. To prepare for their arrival the carrier hired an additional twelve pilots during the first quarter, while training for flight crew, as well as engineers, maintenance and operational staff, has commenced. The company has initiated procedures for its maintenance division to be granted approvals to expand their scope of work on the A220s, enabling it to undertake in-house maintenance of the aircraft and potentially offer its services to other airlines utilising the type.
Croatia Airlines will financially lease all fifteen A220s. Six will be leased from Griffin Global Asset Management, another six from Air Lease Corporation, and three from Azzora. The pre-delivery payment for six of the aircraft, which were initially directly ordered from Airbus, has now been taken over by the lessor. During the first quarter, the Croatian carrier made a pre-delivery payment for the purchase of a reserve A220 engine. It previously said it would use funds from the sale of its five A320-family aircraft last year for the acquisition of A220 engines. The airline has selected Pratt & Whittney’s GTF engines to power its incoming fleet.
 |
| Croatia Airlines pilots undergoing A220 training |
Croatia Airlines’ CEO, Jasmin Bajić, recently, said, “We drafted our post-Covid strategy together with the Boston Consulting Group and one of the most important things that will enable us to have a sustainable business in the future is the fleet renewal, which is why we opted for a unified single type fleet. This will bring us various benefits in terms of pilots, mechanics and especially maintenance, considering the age of the existing fleet”. He added, “Currently, we have pilots and mechanics for the Airbuses and the Dashes, while with a single type fleet we will achieve significant savings, especially since these aircraft utilise 25% less fuel than the previous generation of aircraft. That is one of the main benefits of the new fleet”.
Will they finally say if the first one is -200 or -300 series
ReplyDeleteSorry obviously meant -100 or -300
DeleteNo 200 .
DeleteIt will probably be 300, it was mentioned somewhere, here or on another site.
DeleteWho cares? That's all irrelevant.
DeleteStupid decision that actually wasn't a decision at all, some told them they'll get them. Changing the whole fleet for an airplane that has no commonality with the current fleet. Dum
Bravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteBU!!!!!!
DeleteThe A220's size and economics make it ideal for airlines in our region. Not too big and with enough range to cover all potential destinations.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteIt will be a fantastic plane for SKP, SJJ and other PSO routes with 10 passengers.
DeleteThe A220 is 25% more economical per seat than an A319 which has the same number of seats!
DeleteBut for some airlines it is too early 😜 to adopt it and instead they keep on flying with some of the oldest aircraft in Europe and paying 90$ a barrel for oil...
Is A220 using less fuel than Q400?
Delete50% less per seat.
Delete@11:30
DeleteThat's impressive!
But…all other costs connected to MTOW are far greater (ATC, landing and handling fees…)
DeleteNo shit Sherlock. Plane is larger than Q400 by double.
DeleteLoad Factor of 70% on Q400 will become LF of 50% on A220.
DeleteDepends.
DeleteI'm still wondering how a 110 or even 140 seater will replace a 76 seater aircraft.
ReplyDeleteThe ATR-42's were replaced by the Q400's so I guess it is the same kind of transition.
DeleteLF 50% on Dash will be crash on A220.
ReplyDeleteSo in the region Bulgaria Air operates 4 A220 and expecting 3 more, now OU will soon fly them. JU and Tarom opted for the ATRs. Wonder if Aegean or Skyexpress order A220 as well or even JU in 2025.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Cyprus Airways bases one or two A220s in LJU.
DeleteDon't know about Sky express but Aegean defenitely not . Aegean is looking now to expand in India , Bahrein , Oman , Kenya , Nigeria , Ethiopia etc. And that's why they initialy convert 4 a321 neo to a321neoXLR , with I think another 4 options of them , with flatbed seats in business class and all seats provided with IFE systems.
DeleteCY and FB made great choices. The problem is that the A220 cannot replace the Dash. The A220 seems perfect for the Cyprus Airways network, perhaps the A320 is too big. An ideal choice. Bulgaria Air is also replacing the A319 with the A220-300 (completely equal in capacity to the A319), and the E190 with the A220-100 (also equal to the E90, 110 seats). They saved their old ones for ACMI. OU should have at least kept DH8D.
DeleteCyprus Airways as of this week has been forced to ground one of its A220s duento engine problems.
Delete*due to
DeleteAll A220s will be grounded at some point to make the necessary upgrades to the engines.
DeleteJust like the P&W A320NEOs.
These which are going to come to OU will not need to be grounded.
DeleteDash is the past.
DeleteAegean (Olympic) is most definitely not going to give up on ATRs - they need them for a lot of the island (and even some mainland) airports.
DeleteWill they introduce a new livery with the delivery of the first plane?:)
ReplyDeleteYes, it's announced.
DeleteThe 'livery guy' ( or girl?) again
DeleteThe livery is important to only one person occupying one office in Buzin. Nobody else cares about it. It will change nothing. Then again, there should be an aggressive shift from this livery and brand in total because people know it and associate it with nepotism, corruption, lazyness, incompetence... That's CA
But, but, but concerned commenters here have been saying again and again that they won't come?
ReplyDeleteCould the be wrong?
Don't be angry, Croats will continue to fly from Slovenia and Slovenians from Croatia. FR will come to LJU. Balkan story....
DeleteThe only ones who are angry are concerned commenters who to this day still doubt that OU is getting A220s.
DeleteSame as with the Rafale that have never arrived... Oh, wait a minute!?
Delete10:21
Delete+1
They wouldn't be spending money training up pilots for Aircraft that aren't coming.
Delete@ 9:56
DeleteWell they sure took a long time to get here. Considering the first articles on this matter, that I know of, go back to 2013. That’s what I call puno pričanja.
Seems someone was wrong...
DeleteYou're so proud as if you had bought them yourself...
DeleteA220 are on the way for sure. I was involved with signing of the contract.
DeleteAfter retirement of the current fleet, all A220 aircraft will be leased. Airline will not own any aircraft. That's smart
ReplyDeleteIt does not own any aircraft since last September when they sold the A319/A320s.
DeleteWEC 'you will own nothing and be happy'
DeleteGood one!!!
DeleteDoes anyone know what routes they will fly with the A220? Are they scheduled already?
ReplyDeleteNo they are not.
DeleteDon't you think the author would have written where it will be deployed if they had been scheduled
DeleteA220 is the perfect plane to finally launch PUY-MUC in the middle of January!! Bravo OU!!!
DeletePUY-MUC by OU does not exists.
DeleteNašice-Valpovo via Donji Miholjac.
DeleteTwo A220s arriving this year will not have significant impact on new routes and network changes. That would be more likely in 2025/6.
Delete@12:51 You meant ZAD- MUC.
DeletePUY MUC does not exist??? What are we waiting for?
DeleteBravo Boston for your work! Now we'lll have big planes, 140-seaters with load factor 50%! Congrats 👏
ReplyDeleteWith lower operating costs, the ticket price might go down and LF up
Deleteintersting fact is that Sundair this summer will have more flights on ACMI / wet leasing for other airlines like Condor, Croatia Airlines. The era of of the development of wet leases. Most of airlines including scheduled carriers offers planes on ACMI, why OU don't doing this? If they don't phased out old planes, now they no acmi contracts
ReplyDeleteThere is very little or almost no work force flexibility there. ACMI requires a flexible and quick personnel. OU had been devastated in HR terms.
DeleteI hope they succeed, but personally I think, this is the first nail in to the coffin
ReplyDelete