Croatia Airlines has taken delivery of two Airbus A220-300 aircraft in quick succession, bringing its A220 fleet to thirteen jets as the carrier moves closer to completing the largest fleet renewal programme in its history. The first of the two aircraft, registered 9A-CAW and named Karlovac, arrived in Zagreb in the early hours of Friday following its delivery flight from Airbus’ Mirabel facility near Montreal via Copenhagen. It was followed yesterday by 9A-CAX, named Sisak, which reached the Croatian capital via the same routing.
The two 149-seat jets are Croatia Airlines’ tenth and eleventh A220-300s respectively. They complement two smaller 127-seat A220-100s, bringing the airline’s overall A220 fleet to thirteen aircraft. Croatia Airlines is expected to take delivery of another A220-300 by the end of this year, increasing the fleet to fourteen, while the fifteenth and final aircraft from the current renewal programme is due in 2027. Upon completion, the airline’s A220 fleet will comprise thirteen A220-300s and two A220-100s. The two remaining aircraft are expected to carry the names Varaždin and Vinkovci.
The latest deliveries come as Croatia Airlines prepares to retire its remaining Airbus A319 aircraft. As previously reported by EX-YU Aviation News, the carrier tentatively scheduled the type’s final commercial operations in October. While it will operate most of its final flights on October 11, the carrier has now scheduled one more rotation with the type for October 23, operating Zagreb - Split - Rome - Split - Zagreb. Croatia Airlines currently has four A319s in its fleet, registered 9A-CTG, 9A-CTH, 9A-CTL and 9A-CTN. The aircraft have been part of the airline’s fleet since 1998.
The A319 withdrawal follows the retirement of Croatia Airlines’ final A320 earlier this year. The last aircraft of the type, 9A-CTO, operated its final commercial service between Zagreb and Amsterdam on January 26, ending almost three decades of A320 operations at the carrier. Croatia Airlines’ remaining Dash 8 Q400 turboprops are expected to remain in service throughout the 2026/27 winter season before being withdrawn at the end of March 2027. At that point, the airline will operate an all-A220 in-house fleet, supplemented by wet-leased ATR72 turboprops.
This carrier has such Airbaltic vibes. At some point, in not that distant future, not even the Croatian Government will be able or willing to bail them out.
ReplyDeleteNo. AirBaltic had periods of real sucess mate.
DeleteCroatia Airlines is perfect example how airlines can last for decades even in red
DeleteOn expenses of poor tax payers in order to facilitate bigger profits to its foreign "partners"
DeleteCongrats OU.
ReplyDeleteOn what? Even bigger losses?
DeleteMeanwhile Animawings announced it is getting rid of all A220s due to frequent technical issues
ReplyDeleteTo be fair Animawings announced they'll get rid of an airline
Delete* Of themseleves as an airline
DeleteTo which situation development Bright and Shiny definitely contributed significantly
DeleteIt’s not only Animawnigs, but Swiss, EgyptAir, Senegal and many more. That plane is flying trouble
DeleteBut it still gets orders. Its a fine beast in the right places.
DeleteIt is the company that is the problem; OU has problems with everything. Why are Delta and Air France successful with the A220? Swiss had the earliest batch of aircraft, and that was the problem. Regarding Air Baltic—a single-type fleet is nonsense. Lufthansa ordered 40 A220-300s plus 20 options, and it will work for them because they don't rely on a single type.
DeleteAt some point they'll operate exactly as many routes as they'll have aircraft available
ReplyDeleteAt least they'll pick up a subsidy operating ZAD-MUC this winter. Moving money from one government company to another
ReplyDeleteThey operated it last winter too. It's not new. But they are not resuming winter Rijeka-Munich.
DeleteThey didnt operate it all winter last year
Deleteand when will they actually expand their network?
ReplyDeleteThey promised so many things when they started getting the A220 but very little has materialized.
DeleteWhen Mafia get their hands out of them, which is unlikely to happen soon
ReplyDeleteit is a bit unusual that not a single plane is named after one of the islands, such as Brac or Hvar,
ReplyDeletebut that only proves how much the whole h
Croatia takes care of the islands,
from which in the end he collects a huge income... with the night that tourists leave on the islands, they pay for the losses and they didn't call any of them on the island?
really the least of their problems tbh.
DeleteDefinitely a pity. Brač, Hvar or Korčula are almost brands.
DeleteSilba for the win!
DeleteThey said they names represent the 14 largest cities + Vukovar for known reasons.
Delete*the names
DeleteProfitability booster!!!
ReplyDeletelol
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteFor being German servant, operating leased fleet owned by Irish and American and "managed" by Bosnian and the Party. Yeah, hiuuge Bravo, really...
DeleteNice fleet, just a pity the airline and its management is not using its potential. So it's only a matter of time before the final nail is hammered in.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the only potential for the management of Croatia Airlines is to increase the red numbers on the annual reports.
DeleteImpressive pace of deliveries
ReplyDeleteFourteen A220s by the end of the year is quite remarkable considering how slowly the programme initially seemed to be progressing.
DeleteRather scarey considering they aint got a clue how to use them.
DeleteThe only impressive thing in OU are their losses, covered by "stoka sitnog zuba "
DeleteThe real question is whether the network will grow enough to properly utilise all fifteen aircraft.
ReplyDeleteSo far not really.
DeleteNow they need to use these aircraft to open routes rather than simply replacing capacity on existing ones.
ReplyDelete15 A220s sounds like quite a lot unless there are more new routes coming.
DeleteThey said how they had a list of 20 new routes to launch but so far they have started very few and discontinued a number of them.
DeleteWhats with the aircraft which came off the runway in SPU?
ReplyDeleteStill parked
DeleteIs there any indication when it might go back into service?
DeleteWho cares? As long as it has big windows and USB stuff
DeleteI'm really interested to see how they performed financially this summer
ReplyDeleteSo they will have 15 aircrafts and 30 routes in the winter. They need to do at least 11 to 12 weekly flights per destination to utilise the aircrafts properly.
ReplyDelete