Croatia Airlines is preparing for its first change at the top in nine years as it nears the end of its Airbus A220 fleet renewal and grapples with mounting losses. Jasmin Bajić, who has led the airline since 2017, will step down on December 5 after tendering his resignation on Wednesday, citing health reasons and retirement. A new management board is expected to be appointed within a month. The incoming leadership will inherit an airline that carried 103.000 more passengers in the first nine months of 2026 than a year earlier, yet recorded almost three times the net loss per passenger.
Croatia Airlines carried 1.66 million passengers between January and September, up 7%, while its net loss widened from 20.9 million euros to 64.7 million euros. That equates to a net loss of approximately 39 euros per passenger, up from thirteen euros a year earlier. The operating loss per passenger also more than doubled, from around fourteen euros to thirty euros. Passenger revenue rose 6%, slightly slower than passenger numbers, while total expenditure increased 18%. The carrier lost fifteen million euros in the peak July - September quarter alone, compared to 2.9 million euros during the same period in 2025.
The competitive landscape has also changed considerably since Mr Bajić took over. In its 2017 annual report, Croatia Airlines put its share of passenger traffic at Croatian airports at 27%. Its Chief Commercial Officer, Slaven Žabo, put the carrier’s passenger share at 14.1% in 2024. The airline has since reported gains in 2025 and again in the first nine months of 2026, when its passenger growth outpaced the 2% increase across Croatian airports. Ryanair nevertheless remained the country’s largest airline, handling close to 4.1 million passengers in 2025 compared to Croatia Airlines’ 2.04 million.
The switch to an all-A220 fleet will be the most visible legacy of Mr Bajić’s tenure. Croatia Airlines had taken delivery of thirteen of its fifteen A220s by the end of October, with one more due before year-end and the final aircraft expected in the first quarter of 2027. The airline says cumulative delivery delays across the order have reached 73 months, complicating schedules and raising the cost of operating multiple aircraft types during the transition. Its two remaining A319s are currently scheduled to make their final flights on November 27.
The handover also comes midway through a state recapitalisation. Croatia Airlines received a 35-million-euro cash injection earlier this year, while the sale and leaseback of two spare engines generated a further 25.7 million euros. Cash and cash equivalents stood at 20.4 million euros at the end of September, and a further 35-million-euro state instalment is planned for early 2027.
The first summer under new leadership will offer an early measure of what the fleet renewal can deliver. The airline is already carrying more passengers and regaining some ground in Croatia. The next management board’s task will be to decide where the new aircraft can earn their keep, after a summer in which higher traffic and revenue still left the carrier with a substantially larger loss.
Why don't they issue an international public call for the next CEO?
ReplyDeleteI don't think they ever did that.
Delete^ it shows
DeleteWould be nice to see the new management appointed through a serious recruitment process. What targets will they have and what happens if they miss them?
DeleteNot gonna happen
DeleteAn outside appointment would at least give us a chance of hearing a different assessment of the airline. Promoting someone involved in all the existing decisions would hardly suggest a change of direction.
DeleteThe government don't want to hear those things thank you
DeleteIt does not seem they will organise an open call. But isn't that against the law? Even Jasmin was selected from an open call wasn't he?
DeleteI don't think so. They invited people to apply but didn't select anyone. They they chose Jasmin as acting CEO extending his six month temporary post for years and years until they named him CEO for a full term.
DeleteAppoint Claude, its cheaper and you get a better result
DeleteNothing will change
ReplyDeleteI also think so. And Zabo will most likely take over.
DeleteAgreed, no management change can do anything about the fundamental problems OU is facing.
Delete"The switch to an all-A220 fleet will be the most visible legacy"
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure it's 300mio+ of losses
Im sure Jasmin isn't retiring into poverty
DeleteYou chided Kucko then he was much better than Jasmin Bajic and now again same pattern.
DeleteWhoever takes over will have a tough job ahead of them.
ReplyDeleteLosing €15 million in July, August and September is the most worrying part. If the peak summer quarter looks like this, what exactly is supposed to carry the airline through winter?
ReplyDeleteThe taxpayers of course
DeleteIndeed
DeleteThe next CEO needs to explain what these fifteen aircraft will actually do.
ReplyDeleteWhy?
DeleteBecause their utilization is very low since they entered service.
DeleteLosses would have been even more if they were flying
DeleteWish him good health in retirement. But nine years is more than enough time to judge the business results, and these are very poor.
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteHow long before the next injection is needed? That should be the first question for the incoming board.
ReplyDeletehopefully not before 2027
Delete^ They just got one last week.
DeleteBravo OU
ReplyDeleteon what?
DeleteIts juat the daily troll.
DeletePeople are expecting one new person to fix everything. Unless the board gives that person the authority to change the network, costs and commercial approach, we could be reading the same discussion in three years.
ReplyDeleteYou need a whole new team not a single guy.
DeleteThe mentality has to be changed, to be more commercially aggressive, to be more customer oriented, to be innovative, to look for new markets.....and to the deal with actual OU legacy.
Hard task.
I'm not sure who would want to be CEO of this business.
ReplyDeleteIm sure Plenkovic has a relative or friend
DeleteThere will be plenty of applicants happy to run an airline with new aircraft and a state shareholder.
DeleteRunning a state airline with no concequences of having terrible results? Who wouldnt?
DeleteNine years is a long tenure for an airline that still seems to be searching for a viable business model.
ReplyDeleteHopefully they recruit someone with experience running a small airline. Managing fifteen aircraft through a highly seasonal market requires rather different skills from managing a department at a major carrier.
ReplyDeletedon't hold your breath
DeleteDoes the government have it favourites?
ReplyDeleteFriends and relatives mainly
DeleteVFR, 'Vjerovatno Friends and Relatives'.
DeleteLive that new VFR abbreviation 😂
Delete*love
DeleteVPR or PFR - Vjerojatno Prijatelji i Rodbina or Probably Friends and Relatives. You can't combine 2 languages in 1 abbreviation
Delete@10:10 of course you can, loosen up.
DeleteOf course you can't. It's senseless with 2 languages and mean nothing. And if I should loosen up you should stop arguing and complainig
DeleteOK PFR, or should I say Pozdrav from Rijeka?
Delete@11:13 you must really be a fun person in real life, laugh a minute you are.
DeletePlayfully Inane Reactions.
DeleteThe fleet renewal is nearly complete so at least we should finally get a clearer picture of the underlying business. Expectations for 2027 should be set now.
ReplyDeleteCheaper to keep the new shiny birds on the ground
DeleteA fresh pair of eyes would help.
ReplyDeleteWould anyone here actually be satisfied with a smaller OU if it meant much lower losses? Because any serious review might conclude that some of the routes we keep asking for should not operate.
ReplyDeleteThere shouldn't be any losses in a country reliant on tourism
DeleteThat can only said someone from Rijeka. A lot of companies from bigger tourist mecca went bust.
Delete@11:19 doesn't have to be from Rijeka. But yes, many airlines from countries reliant on tourism are shite. Anyone remember JM (Air Jamaica)? or remember the years of financial looses that Thai went through, not to mention the basket cases of CY (Cyprus Airways) and KM (Air Malta).
DeleteTourism can be a tricky thing to navigate for small countries - which Croatia is despite having a lot of tourists. The fact that millions of tourists visit does not remove the fact that Croatia has a tricky geography and is about 1/3 the size of London in population. Not an easy combination to build the airline of dreams.
Is there a shortlist?
ReplyDeleteWhoever gets the job please resist the temptation to announce long-haul flights
ReplyDeleteWhoever gets the job should seriously consider long-haul flights and conduct serious market research on several markets which could prove successful, combining croatian tourism, ethnic traffic, and existing and potential transfer traffic. I would put your suggestion other way: please resist temptation remaining feeder for your personal benefits. Only combining all kinds of traffic, including long-haul within your own network can result in growth, which is precondition for disastrous situation to change. Otherwise, both market share and LF and yields will remain the way they are
DeleteThe reality is unless the government was to decide it wanted to try to emulate JU there is not a cat's chance in hell that Croatia Airlines is going to 'explore' long-haul for the foreseeable future. While PIR is very eloquent in his critiques and clearly an aviation obsessive I do not think we'll see his desires enacted into reality sadly.
DeleteNo need for longhaul. A3 operates very well without such a vanity project
DeleteSimple question, why do you think long-haul flights cannot be profitable?
DeleteHe thinks if A3 doesn't fly long haul no one else should.
Delete@10:45 he has said why a few times. He thinks the combination of large tourist market and 'ethnic-travel' makes it a viable prospect. He will explain in detail why skeptics such as me are wrong and traitors to the very planet. But personally after 30 odd years of OU like this I don't see the ability for it to change. Furthermore I do not regard Croatia as sufficiently well located geographically to achieve what JU has done. Belgrade's location is perfect for transfers within and to and from the Balkans and Euro/Russian space. In this respect Zagreb is not as convenient. No doubt old PIR will explain why this is all totally wrong and that Croatia is the perfect place for a long-haul airline given its large number of tourists. I disagree with him. I do agree that is deserves a better airline (that links croatia with europe at an affordable price).
Delete10.59
DeleteBelgrade favourable for transfers and Zagreb not is total nonsense because they are sooo close to whichother and because Zagreb is closer to North America and NW Europe, the biggest transfer pools.
OU is like this for 30 years precisely because it's been feeder and I want that to change, which is absolutely possible. Not easy, not simple, but possible.
Your thesis are contradictory and future will show who is right. You are absolutely entitled to your opinion but please allow me to have mine, primarily because you named yourself skeptic. Enough for me.
@10:59 Very well said. Careful as you will be labelled ''Kradeze'', ''corrupt'', and someone who only wants the worst for Croatia.
Delete11.28
DeleteOU is corrupt. It's the result of Kradeze model of "governance". It constantly makes huuuuge losses, with almost no contribution to countrie's tourism and overall economy. If you think all of the above listed is good and beneficial for Croatia, it says everything about you, not me. Ciao!
@11:25
Delete'Belgrade favourable for transfers and Zagreb not is total nonsense' This is not nonsense in the slightest and is elementary geography. I wish the best for OU and Croatia like everyone does. 'and future will show who is right', based upon past performance i believe the skeptics are going to be proven right.
What a big BS!!! Are you telling us MUC, much bigger city, is favourable for transfers and FRA is not because it's 400 km far away? And that's why MUC is main LH hub? Oh, wait, something went wrong here...LOL!!!
DeleteOh PIR, time for sit down and rest.
DeleteCom'n, you can do better 🙂
DeleteNo point. Your massive ego is hard to deal with. Fascinating person.
DeletePiR pops up the champagne:))
ReplyDeleteOn the contrary. PIR is worried who will be the next and would there be a change not only in person of CEO but change of overall model of existence (existence used rather than business model as feeding LHG with 13 % market share and 100 mil yearly loss could hardly be called business model)
DeleteJasmin the Lion, come back!!!!
DeleteThis is the perfect time for Ryanair to finish the job and destroy OU.
DeleteThey will be making Jasmin out of mud. Mark my words :D
ReplyDeleteWhy would they? lol
DeleteBecause each CEO was worse than the last one. And it doesn't seem this time will be any different.
DeleteCan't believe that Jasmin has been CEO for 9 years!
ReplyDeleteEveryone on this forum should apply as a collective, as we all have the answers
ReplyDelete