Croatia Airlines has tentatively scheduled an all-A220 operation from the start of the 2027 summer season on March 28 next year, with a limited number of routes to be operated by a wet-leased ATR72-600 from Croatia’s ETF Airways. In addition to eight A220-300s and two A220-100s, the airline’s fleet currently includes two active Dash 8s and four active A319s. Based on the tentative schedule, the final Dash 8 service will operate from Munich to Zagreb on March 27, while the last A319 flight is planned from Zagreb to Split on the same day. However, both remain subject to change.
From April 2027, the wet-leased ATR will operate an expanded range of services on behalf of Croatia Airlines. In addition to domestic flights, it will be deployed from Zagreb to Sarajevo, Mostar, Zurich and Vienna, as well as from Dubrovnik to Rome and from both Osijek and Rijeka to Munich.
Croatia Airlines took delivery of the tenth of its fifteen A220s yesterday, with a further four aircraft due to arrive this year and the final unit expected in 2027. The newly delivered jet entered revenue service this morning on a flight between Zagreb and Madrid. Nine of the airline’s ten A220s are currently in active service, with the aircraft involved in an incident at Split Airport in May remaining grounded.
Croatia Airlines’ CEO, Jasmin Bajić, has said that 2028 is expected to mark a turning point for the carrier, with a return to profitability projected during its first full year operating an all-A220 fleet. He remains confident that the airline will complete its fleet renewal programme next year. “Given the current geopolitical situation, I can say that 2027 remains an achievable target, albeit with a realistic degree of flexibility”, Mr Bajić said.
Wishing all the best, but still dont get it why is there no interest for operating Dashes for at least domestic flights to coast via Zag ?
ReplyDeleteI flew few times with a Dash, for example DBV-ZAG. I find these planes the worst of all I flew with. Outdated, loud, slow...
DeleteThey have served Croatia Airlines reliably for almost two decades and were perfect for many regional routes.
Delete@09:27 Slow? I mean you are flying DBV-ZAG, hardly demands Concorde does it? The Dash is the perfect aircraft for such a routing and does very well for airlines like SATA and Luxair.
DeleteI'm not an aviation expert, but as an average passanger I can only say that I was very happy when seeing Airbus plane operating on this route for the reasons mentioned above.
DeleteFair enough. Although some of the Airbus were actually older and more outdated..
DeleteQ400 is loud? Slow?? You must be new to aviation world...because next time you board their wet leased ATR72, let me know if you still think Q400 is loud and slow! Lol
Delete@Mario, from a passenger view there is no doubt about which aircraft is more comfortable. But a the end OU could have very similar model like A3 have in Greece where half of island is served with Olympic Q400 when people are transfering via ATH. If flights are full to Croatian coast with Airbus familiy than okay but operational costs are higher for sure. Same for Mostar, Sarajevo ...
Delete09:53 agreed, i the passengers will definitely notice a difference in speed and comfort flying on an ATR compared to Dash. Only then we will know what we lost...
DeleteBoth ATR and Dash are fine aircraft. Most passengers don't give a damn about that. Speed on a domestic route is inconsequential. What is noticeable is crap timetabling, crap route network, horrific pricing and a complete and utter lack of ambition.
Delete11.42
DeleteSign under every single word
To avarage passengers the aircraft play role especially to those who got use to fly with airbus or boing. We inex yu are maybe more used to dash and art but western European not so much….
Delete@ 11:42 +10
Delete@ PIR: +1 (always for you, because you are a true aviation geek and really love Croatia i .e. you are not an apparatchik ;) )
I had the honor an fly to SJJ via ZAG. ATR + Dash Q400 - both very fine aircraft. The ETF ATR72-600 was very nice. Cool seats and good LED-lighting.
Don't understand why our ex-yu people hate turboprops. If the schedule and the price are good, please use rather use turboprops than jets.
Yesterday I flew from Pula (PUY) to Zagreb (ZAG) at seat 14A on ATR72-600 and from Zagreb to Brač (BWK) at seat 10F on Dash8-400 and the former was much less noisy than the latter, in my opinion.
DeleteI would love to read trip reports of these Croatian domestic flights. I think it would be an interesting read.
DeleteThey could serve VIE-LJU aswell....
ReplyDeleteZAG-TZL and ZAG-TGD as well.
DeleteAirbus is already drafting the new brochure: 'The A220—So efficient, it can even survive Jasmin Bajić’s management.' Boeing must be shaking.
ReplyDeleteBahahahahahaha nice one
DeleteBravo OU!
ReplyDeleteFor what?
DeleteI am always impressed how Croatia Airlines is not able to fill at least a A220-100 to Zurich and they’re sending mostly the Q400
ReplyDeleteAnybody have any numbers for ZAG-ZRH?
DeleteIf it was a good route LX would be on it too
DeleteSince this winter as I have noticed OU mostly uses the A220-100/300 and occasionally the A319 on the ZRH route, yes they still use Dash 8 but significantly less then they used to.
DeleteWhy are they leasing A319 and Dash for another 8 months, when they already have more than enough planes for their limited operations? And 4 more to come shortly
ReplyDeleteYou have to train crew for those aircraft as well and they can't all be trained at the same time.
DeleteYou had enough time to train them so far. Those birds were ordered 3-4 years ago. But you were sleeping all thr time
DeleteThey did start training before they arrived but you cannot train all crew members because believe it or not there are slots when pilots can get to go on a simulator and those slots can not be taken up by one airline indefinitely. Because the delivery of some aircraft were late, pilots that had already been trained had to go back to the simulator to keep their licenses current because you have to have a certain amount of flying time to keep your license current. So them having to go back to the simulator took away a slot for someone that was to be trained on that simulator for the first time. It shows that you don't know much about this.
DeleteGoing from four aircraft types to essentially one should significantly reduce maintenance and crew training costs. Whether fifteen A220s are too much for the entire network is another question.
ReplyDeleteUsing an ATR on Zagreb-Zurich and Zagreb-Vienna makes sense if demand is limited but it is strange that Croatia Airlines did not acquire several regional aircraft of its own.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Why wet-lease an ATR instead of purchasing or dry-leasing two or three turboprops? Croatia Airlines clearly still needs smaller aircraft for regional and domestic services.
DeleteAnd bigger aircraft for long-haul which as Croatia has 2 million tourists from distant markets yearly, plus ethnic traffic, plus potential transfers. But they are proud to be LHG servants and single type fleet is cementing that role
DeleteCroatia Airlines --> they new Air Baltic --> one type fleet, a hundred types of financial issues. :D
DeleteI just don't get how they managed to actually shrink this summer compared to last year.
ReplyDeleteAnything's possible if you're incompetent enough.
DeleteProjecting profitability in 2028 is convenient because it is always far enough away. We have heard similar promises from Croatia Airlines management before.
ReplyDeleteHe is not projecting anything. He is just finding excuses and probably plans to get retired in 2028
DeleteI think his projections are for 2029 or 2030. But Magic Jasmin knows, some people are inpatient.
DeleteI hope the final Dash 8 and A319 flights are announced properly. Both types deserve a farewell after playing such an important role in the airline’s history.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice considering they didn't give a toss about the A320 exit. There were actually people who tried to book the last flight but they kept changing it..
DeleteA single-type fleet brings savings but Croatia Airlines will still be paying for wet-leased aircraft. It would be interesting to know whether the overall costs will actually decline as much as management claims.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, the transition has cost beyond all projections and has nearly bankrupted the airline.
DeleteA single-type with too few passengers or routes to sustain anything near moderate, dear one say profitable, operations makes any 'saving' instantly lost from the bottom line.
Delete'Given the current geopolitical situation' Where do they believe they fly to? Cos last time I looked most of their operations shuttle over the Alps and back.
ReplyDeleteWell I guess they mean that the current geopolitical situation impacts on their bottom line in terms of fuel and spare parts availability for planes.
DeleteWhatever padding they wish to add to the situation. The actual bottom line is crap management and lack of vision since the early 2000s when they were (during a very different era) a reasonable operation that manage with a vey different geopolitical situation in which Croatia had significantly fewer tourists and international visibility.
DeleteWhen is it likely that the plane in the Split incident will return to service?
ReplyDeleteThe scheduled state aid in January 2027 will certainly help.
ReplyDeleteHow much are they due to get?
Delete35 million euros
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2025/12/state-to-inject-70-million-into-croatia.html
Hopefully the new fleet will allow Croatia Airlines to improve its timetable and build proper connecting waves at Zagreb. New aircraft are of limited value without a stronger hub structure.
ReplyDelete+1
Deleteconnecting what to what is the problem OU have.
DeleteWhich will NEVER be solved with single type fleet
Delete+1 exactly. To return to the work of hub-spoke flying would require monumental efforts, and as PIR rightly points out more than one type.
Delete15 modern aircraft is a good foundation. Now Croatia Airlines needs to focus on utilisation because these jets cannot spend half the day sitting at Zagreb
ReplyDeleteCroatia Airlines needs to focus on many more things, not just single type fleet utilisation. And I don't see any of that happening soon
Delete@09:49 15 modern aircraft does not a successful automatically make.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska! Another milestone in continous growth of Croatia Airlines!
ReplyDeleteIs the continuous growth in the room with us? They literally reduced operations this summer.
DeleteIts a rather dull troll in the room though.
DeleteTrollers are those who always critics Jasmin and his powerful management. OU is very successful company in terms on connections, fleet age, offered seats. People in HR cant understand that they are in EU and that any EU company can have domestic flights from anywhere in EU. So, only ahead of OU is Ryan the largest company in EU. Second, the main traffic is only for short summer season. What you expect, to have 350 lines in summertime and than 40 lines in other months????So, dont troll one of the best managers in aviation in this harsh times. Jasmin is great.
Delete@11:23 hahah good one mate.
DeleteHahahahaha Hahahahaha hahahahahahahaha Hahahahaha, can't stop laughing...Kakav Car 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Delete“Return to profitability in 2028” suggests another difficult year is already expected in 2027. Taxpayers should be told how much the transition will ultimately cost.
ReplyDeleteI am so gonna miss Croatias' A320 family...
ReplyDeleteA very extensive number of routs for a single ATR, especially since they are not operated just form ZAG.
ReplyDeleteIf my information is correct, then in summer, one Dash 8 is currently used only for flights to Brac on Saturdays. That leaves only six operating days for the aforementioned route network. That's a really large number of routes, especially as some of them are served several times a day. And I don't even want to think about a possible technical problem with the one ATR...
DeleteThe A220 is probably the best aircraft Croatia Airlines has ever operated. It is quiet, comfortable and well suited to most of its European network.
ReplyDeleteWhat network?
DeleteVrankvurt and Minken
DeleteCroatia Airlines should retain at least one A319 as operational backup until all fifteen A220s are delivered and fully established in service.
ReplyDeleteYou can't just pick and choose an aircraft for backup. It is expensive to maintain it just to fly once a month. It is expensive to keep crew current licenses. And also, I'm not sure if any of the A319s left are actually owned by OU. They certainly wouldn't extend a lease for a plane to use it once per month. And even if a plane is owned by OU, planes have cycles and flight hours after which they have to go for very expensive maintenance.
DeleteThe airline has received ten A220s but continues reducing capacity on several routes. Where exactly is the promised growth?
ReplyDelete