Croatia Airlines has reported a net loss of 20.9 million euros for the first nine months of 2025, with the third summer quarter unable to reverse or lessen the negative trend. The result compares to a nine-million-euro loss during the same period in 2024, as the company continued its largest investment cycle since its founding, introducing new Airbus A220 aircraft while phasing out older A319s, A320s and Dash 8-Q400s.
Operating revenues rose 3% year-on-year to 204.7 million euros, driven by solid growth in ancillary and other revenues. Passenger transport accounted for 84.6% of total income, or 173.2 million euros, which is below 2024 levels due to intensified fare competition and a weaker US dollar. Total operating costs rose 9% to 226.2 million euros, as the carrier faced higher maintenance, airport and navigation service expenses, as well as increased depreciation linked to the induction of new aircraft. Depreciation costs grew 50% to 25.5 million euros, while air traffic service costs climbed by 6.5 million and maintenance by 3.1 million euros.
Croatia Airlines recorded an operating loss (EBIT) of 21.5 million euros, compared to 8.9 million last year. The airline noted that transitional fleet replacement costs reached 19.9 million euros by September 2025, already surpassing the total for all of 2024. It emphasised that these extraordinary costs are expected to continue throughout the four-year transition period (2024–2027). Its capital remains negative, amounting to minus 18.8 million euros, while long-term liabilities rose to 258 million. This means the airline’s obligations have exceed the value of its assets, indicating that accumulated losses have fully eroded its equity base.
Between January and September 2025, Croatia Airlines carried 1.553.577 passengers, representing a 9% increase compared to the same period last year, or an extra 128.595 travellers, on the back of the introduction of new routes and growing capacity levels. The figure is still 8.7% below 2019 levels, or 147.994 travellers below. In 2025, there were 372.951 customers on domestic flights, up 12%, while there were a further 1.138.729 passengers on scheduled international flights, an improvement of 8.8%. Charter traffic, however, fell by 8.2% to 41.897 passengers, mainly due to suspended flights to Tel Aviv amid Middle East conflicts. The domestic load factor improved by three points to 65.9%, while the international load factor reached 65.5%. Its overall loads stood at 66.3%, up 1.6 points year-over-year but still 7.7 points below the same period during the pre-pandemic 2019.
Croatia Airlines said the introduction of the A220 fleet represents “the foundation for long-term sustainable operations”, adding that the new type will enhance efficiency, reduce fuel consumption and align the carrier with European decarbonisation goals. “The modernisation of the fleet will simplify operations and improve environmental and financial performance”, the company stated.
Wow, really bad. I am just wondering how Gov of Croatia is still keeping the same management in OU after that many years without even signal of positive result? Can not understand it, without action they will simply go over any possible point of return for this company in the near future. Sad to watch.
ReplyDeleteGovernment reps talked about keeping the airline supported basically at all costs. EU regulatory bodies are turning a blind eye on that topic.
DeleteReally a shame. Better to sell it then to keep in this status quo for years!
DeleteMerge with Air Baltic, ask LH to take over merged airline and keep it around for A220 wet lease or LH Group feeder purposes
DeleteWhat is going on Croatia Airlines is typical experience of airline that is struggling in hard economic times. Croatia Airlines management is the best management, just can not jump due to old management decisions. Anyway expect KM Croatia Airlines in future!
Delete"Croatia Airlines management is the best management"
DeleteAre you serious? Btw the entire management is exactly the same for the past 15 years. Only the CEO changed. And this CEO has been running the show for 6 years.
Anon1102 probably is a Buzin fanboy
DeleteKnow Buin personally and can tell you, extreme professional. New Airbuses, huge change of doing business and healthy growth. Old habits are hard to change but Croatia Airlines management is exceptional. Next year will year of exceptional results for Croatia Airlines!
DeleteYou know 'Buin'. Lol
Delete09.03
DeleteI wrote it several times, I will write it once again : Government of Croatia is interest organization, or Mafia. One member of Mafia is Ivan Mišetić, ex-president FT chief of staff and OU CEO afterwards. The very same Ivan Mišetić handed over croatian market to LHG in exchange for his personal benefits. He is still in charge of OU. Not formally, of course, but actually. And he uses his influence and power within interest organization, or Mafia, to have incompetent aparatchiks placed on all top positions in OU, in order for OU to remain forever LHG feeder, and keep fulfilling his part of the deal. Another criminal activity related is BCG corruptive deal, which cemments OU's role as a feeder. You think good, but you have just one wrong presumption in your thinking, as Croatia, the country, does not have government which makes decisions in favour of countrie's growth. Instead, it has Mafia doing favours to which other member. Croatia Airlines is just one of the examples. There are many many others, unfortunately
Would you be able to prove these arguments in court?
Delete19.43
DeleteCounter-question : Are you able to explain how come "naš dečko" Ivan Turudić became Attorney General?
Prove in court? PIR is not the attorney general FFS.
DeleteJesus
ReplyDeleteSo much for summer reducing the losses.
ReplyDeleteWhats the problem the tax payer will cover the debt
ReplyDeleteThe tourist taxes will cover it, so exactly no problem at all.
DeleteIt’s not just debt. Negative equity means a docapitalisation must follow.
DeleteApart from the bad finances I still don't get how they are so far behind 2019 in terms of passengers
ReplyDeleteRyanair took place in 2021
Deleteunappealing network which needs to change now that there is more competition.
DeleteSince 2019 SKP and SJJ got much more direct routes, so transfers are also dropped. Same for DBV and SPU, also FR came to ZAG and took many pax, they also made OU to end Dublin service. I dont know if they will ever reach those numbers of they continue like this.
Delete66% LF says it all. But when run by friends of the government rather than professionals why do you expect?
ReplyDeleteLucky croatians! They are so rich that they can fund dead man walking indefinitely.
ReplyDeleteAdria 2
ReplyDeleteJAT at its best.
DeleteSo, a Middle Eastern airline will soon buy 49% share of Croatia?
DeleteNobody wants this company.
Delete@11:29 You'd miss it if it went..
DeleteJust need them to announce they'll replace A220 with Sukhoi Superjet :)
Delete09.49
DeleteJAT at its best had 36 aircraft, flew to over 80 destinations on 5 continents, was no one's feeder, had positive financial results, contributed significantly to federal budget and had immense development plans. So when saying JAT, I hope you are not serious. Or maybe you think of Jat Airways, which was totally opposite of JAT, and where parallel with OU could be drawn
All I wait today are the comments of PIR 😃
ReplyDeleteHe's warming up for sure.
DeleteWith the same comment as always? 😂
DeleteNo. The comment will not be the same as always. The article today proves what I was saying from the first day when "single type fleet bright and shiny Intergalactic Spaceship A220" was announced. Recently, on another blog I said I expected losses to go to 30 mil this year. And obviously I was right again because if it's over 20 after the high season, disaster is yet to come. And I will not write once again about missed chances and potentials, about political influence, about crime and corruption, about incompetence, nepotism and inertness, and about mindset stuck in far past, about 1950's. I will just say how sorry and sad I am with pure existence of certain individuals here who hail Bravo to such company and insist on status quo.
DeleteJust an observation, but aren't these issues essentially fundamental structural problems with the relationship between the Croatian state, business and key aspects of infrastructure. To change OU perhaps needs Croatia to really redress its political landscape which it clearly hasn't managed thus far.
DeleteLat Anon, yes, not just an OU problem but every state owned Croatian company is in a similar situation.
DeleteOU says they will continue to lose money until at least 2027. On the other hand, there are limitations acording to EU law as how much and how long governments are allowed to bail in their national carriers.
ReplyDeleteHow other losers such as Alitalia and Air Malta mitigated this was to let these carriers go bankrupt and then just start over again under a new name, while leaving all previous losses to their governments/tax payers.
Dont forget Malev, Cyprus, Estonian...
DeletePolitics have changed. Croatia is a good EU country doing what the EU wants, in turn Croatia gets favors for sure.
DeleteDisaster. Everything from finances to load factor.
ReplyDelete+1
Delete+100
DeleteThey are technically bankrupt if you look at the asset/liability ratio. “Air Croatia” with some restive accounting probably coming around soon.
ReplyDeleteI am really shocked. The 5 new routes they launched produced literally nothing except modest passenger growth. No improvement in LF and finances I won't even comment. I think this is the worst result they have had and especially for Q3 to make the results even worse than Q1 and Q2 means that the airline is literally on a cliffs edge.
ReplyDeleteI'm not shocked. A good indication that the new routes were empty was them launching flash ticket sales in July for flights in August. That's when your planes are supposed to be full and you are not supposed to be selling discounted fares.
DeleteRyanair will not be silent on this. Will be interesting to hear what they say over the coming days.
ReplyDeleteNow we see how well JU is working. For sure not everything is fine, still they have 5 long hauls destinations, around 90 destinations and they are profitable
ReplyDeleteOU has a fantastic coast, but even in the high season this year, OU did not manage to be profitable. When do u want to be profitable, if not JUN-AUG? 🤔
JU is "fighting for survival" so they go out on the market, are inovative, figth to get connecting passengers, etc...
DeleteNot always with success but if something doesn't go well they find an another route.
OU is stuck in the middle of the river, they still have somr ambitions to be an independent airline but have mostly the characteristics of a LH feeder airline.
But I doubt that in the LH team there is room for Croatia growth, geographically they are in between OS and ITA, IMHO their best way is becoming more a feeder.
Thats the EU. The small nations dance to the tune of the big ones
Delete65% average loads means that some of the routes see about 25% LF? They really should just lease Saab from TradeAir for those :D
ReplyDeleteThere is a chance than in 2 years we will see CA and their new a220 as bidder on AirSerbia ACMI tender
ReplyDeleteThey will certainly be doing ACMI in a year or two to avoid bankruptcy when the loan repayments start coming in, although on paper they are already bankrupt.
DeleteSome here constantly claim how OU has low load factor because of domestic PSO routes. But if you look at the data the international load factor is the same! So it's an all round disaster.
ReplyDeleteOnly in Croatia does the airline management which has now on paper bankrupted the company get high fives from the government and glowing praise without even a thought of sacking them.
ReplyDelete“The modernisation of the fleet will simplify operations and improve environmental and financial performance”, the company stated.
ReplyDeleteThey state this as they double their losses with fleet modernisation. lol
This company is corrupt from the government down. Woeful yield management, poor LF, useless management, overstaffed, the list goes on. As a country that relies on tourism OU really is pointless.
ReplyDeleteCroatia deserves to have a good national carrier which will represend the country. OU has so many options ( had would be more correct ) for expanding from ZAG, ZAD, SPU, DBV, PUL, Rijeka and what they do? They operate 15 international routes from ZAG and another 15 from both DBV and SPU. A country with so much tourism in summer, its a shame that the airline is like this. Instead of having Ryanair with three bases in Croatia, there should be a national airline with 50+ airplanes. There is even potential for North America routes from at least theee croatian cities, two of which are already connected. Look at Greece, Aegean is using the potential, look at Turkiye, Pegasus, AJet and Turkish Airlines are the main airlines in Antalya, Izmir, Bodrum, Istanbul, they are not letting other carriers totally take the market. I would have understoood if OU was operating from Ljubljana, from Montenegro or even from Skopje and to be struggling like this, but from the market they operate this is a shame. AirSerbia is doing 100 times better then them and Serbia doesnt even have sea, doesnt have that amount of tourists per season and only has one hub, yet it knows how to establish connectivity and be representive airline for the country of Serbia. I am sure that if FR didnt even come in ZAG, OU wouldnt have moved a finger to open those routes, they dont even look for new options, ZAG-FRA is enough for them apperantly
ReplyDeleteFantasy land.
DeleteLol
Delete"This means the airline’s obligations have exceed the value of its assets"
ReplyDeleteTextbook definition of insolvency.
50+ planes LOL is that you PIR?
ReplyDeleteNo, it is not me. I think OU could have 30-35 aircraft, out of which 3-5 wide body long-haul
DeleteI think Croatia could have High Speed trains every 15minutes between Zagreb and Split!
DeleteEvery 15 minutes - no. Every hour - yes. And not only to Split but to Osijek and Rijeka as well. But the same as with OU, criminal organization in charge stole the money it could have been used for such projects
DeleteLol
DeleteIt's always sonebody else's fault. It's Ryanair, new fleet, fuel, covid, angle of warm front, sea temperature, but never CEO and his brilliant team of uhljebs. In any normal company they would be sacked long time ago, but in Cro they will at worst receive golden severance package or simmilar uhljeb job...
ReplyDeleteU svakom slučaju, dugoročno gledano, izbor A 220 za nosača flote je odlična stvar. To će se tek videti u skorijoj budićnosti.
ReplyDeleteI hope they will change much more things. On Wednesday I flew DBV-ZAG. The flight was full, but they didn't came to the idea offering coffee, beer etc. to earn some extra money. We just received a free glass of water, which is a really poor offer. Furthermore, their prices are insane. 8€ for a small beer. However, their DASH planes are super old and it was definitely a good decision to renew the fleet.
DeleteSo let me get this straight - correct me if I am wrong: you have a money loosing company that no one wants to buy. So what do you do in order to take time and survive till someone with a business plan and deep pocket show out? Cut the variable costs? Of course not, when you can raise fixed cost in terms of depreciation/leasing adding new planes to the fleet (they took these planes in leasing, so it's a cost, right?). Now you generate more revenues, but on the same time your costs are higher than before - with basically the same LF.... Am I wrong or the only difference with the previous years is that you are just burning money at even a faster pace?...
ReplyDelete