Croatia Airlines reduces operations amid fleet shortage


Croatia Airlines will reduce its number of flights on select routes for the remainder of June, as the carrier continues to struggle with a fleet shortage. Some services from both Zagreb and Dubrovnik will be affected. The carrier will inaugurate flights on its new route between Zagreb and Tirana on June 14 as planned, however, afterwards it will not operate services between the two cities until June 28, when it intends on restoring its initially scheduled two weekly rotations. From June 17, flights between Zagreb and Brussels will be reduced from ten to eight weekly, while services to Sarajevo will be cut from thirteen to eleven weekly.

During the same timeframe, Croatia Airlines will reduce frequencies from its main hub to Dubrovnik, from 29 to 27 weekly flights, to Frankfurt, from nineteen weekly to eighteen weekly, as well as to Zurich, from fourteen weekly to thirteen weekly. Both Mostar and Skopje will also sustain cuts. Services to Mostar will be reduced from three to two weekly rotations while flights to the Macedonian capital will run eight times per week, instead of the initially scheduled nine weekly rotations. In total, the airline has removed twelve weekly flights from its Zagreb network from mid-June.

Flights from Dubrovnik will also be affected. In addition to the reduction in services to Zagreb, the airline will also remove one weekly rotation to Athens for a total of two weekly, while operations between Dubrovnik and Rome will be cut from two to one weekly. Frequencies on all the abovementioned routes are expected to be restored at the end of June, however, changes remain possible. It comes as the airline struggles with capacity. The carrier is currently wet-leasing an Airbus A320 aircraft from Trade Air, an A319 from Fly41 Airways, a Boeing 737-800 from Albastar, and was recently forced to conclude a short-term wet-lease for an Xfly CRJ900 jet, although the aircraft no longer operates on Croatia Airlines’ behalf. The Croatian carrier is expected to take delivery of its first new Airbus A220-300 aircraft at the end of the month.


Comments

  1. Anonymous09:02

    Wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:15

      Bravo Hrvatska, right.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous13:08

      that is some messy situation with the airline, wet leasing so many aircraft, perhaps things get back to normal when A220s enter service and reduce need for wet leasing, I think this mess will continue until they've got all 15 A220s in service, and I fear they'll still need to wet lease A320s from Trade Air in summer months due to demand.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous14:12

      Yeah they will need A320s again cause it will be strange for them that the LF will be higher then 60% cause of the less seats on the A220s, they are used to operate half empty A320s.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous14:39

      * higher than

      Delete
    5. Anonymous15:00

      1412, nonsense.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous18:52

      Wet lease is the best ... Trash companies and money flowing backwards... The more the better. Or as the Bolsheviks used to say; the worse- the better

      Delete
    7. Anonymous12:59

      1308, nobody wet leases more than JU.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous09:04

    The real question now is. Is a dry lease of new A220 cheaper than a wet lease of 30 year old B737?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous18:53

      The answer is above...

      Delete
  3. Anonymous09:10

    They have been advertising for pilots. Maybe crew issues?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:16

      They got all kinds of issues.
      But they'll blame it on, but not only limited to: seasonality od the operations, personnel strike, negative impact of war in Ukraine and Palestine, global warming, negative impact of forex, strong competition, weak demand,

      Delete
    2. Anonymous20:01

      Yes, BIG issues, ..... by far meddling political corruption issues ........... as it stands now OU is a dead man walking ......

      Delete
  4. Anonymous09:11

    They also operate a SundAir A319, don't know for how long. Yesterday they also cancelled ZAG-SPU.

    Interesting how they are reducing DBV and ZAG where FR is rapidly expanding.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:11

      It's on routes where they don't have tour operators with booked packages I guess.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:20

      Probably. That's why SPU is not impacted.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:33

      ZAG-SPU was cancelled because one Dash got stuck in MXP overnight

      Delete
    4. Anonymous13:33

      Dash is so great aircraft!

      Delete
    5. Anonymous19:03

      Dash in their twisted reality is a 'money maker' . Aa obsolete piece of ..... aviation technology that can NEVER EVER be profitable comparing to a real airplane. It consumes almost twice the fuel per passenger seat. Assuming the conditions of purchase and later the lease Tony had arranged, you get the picture.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous09:12

    Yesterday was a particularly bad day at ZAG, in the evening almost every flight was delayed. That is also not helping OU operate normal flights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:27

      Flights are normal, the schedule is impacted.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous19:04

      There is a rude saying in these parts of the world...
      Rđavom....

      Delete
  6. Anonymous09:33

    I can only imagine how massive loss they are going to have since their summer operations are falling apart. I fear they will suspend Tirana early.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:28

      Nothing is falling apart, it's just our wishful thinking.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:37

      I think you are living in illusion, let's take a look at last evening.

      Departures from ZAG:

      FRA 17.55 (act. 19.38)
      LHR 17.55 (act. 19.01)
      ZAD 21.15 (act.21.56)
      SPU 21.20 (act. 22.17)
      SJJ 22.00 (act. 22.59)
      SPU 22.05 (act. 23.17)

      So on and so forth. This is a common, daily occurrence at ZAG. By the way Ryanair isn't doing much better so it seems both ZAG and OU are collapsing from not being prepared well enough for this summer. Quite sad, quite tragic.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:08

      Tragic? It seems you don't have a basic grasp of aviation operations where unpredictable happens. Go live an illusion of a perfect carrier, you know which one.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:13

      Which one? Can you please tell us?

      Delete
    5. Anonymous12:34

      The delays yesterday were due to ATC restrictions and one of Croatia Airlines' Dashes falling out of service.

      Delete
    6. Anonymous12:53

      Yes ATC restrictions on domestic flights.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous14:29

      Nothing to do with ATC restrictions, ZAG pays nothing to employees so they don't have enough now. Situation is pretty chaotic.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous15:40

      Well, It didn't occur you that maybe it's because there was a thunderstorm last night in and around Zagreb? Yeah, it' easier to play smarta**.

      Delete
    9. Anonymous17:57

      Nope these delays took place all day, delays accumulated the whole day and culminated in the evening. That's why some flights like ZAD almost left on time

      Delete
    10. Anonymous19:05

      They will blame it on the upcoming strike.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous04:45

      Yeah, thunderstorms around Zagreb last few days.

      Delete
    12. Funny how this chaos affects only OU every damn year. And it's usually about a single plane being MIA due to some malfunction, causing the subsequent chain reaction. Yesterday I drove a highschool friend and his wife to the airport and saw them off as they were flying back to New Zealand with QR. Yeas, the airport was indeed jam packed, but their flight was as punctual as a Swiss clock. Scheduled for 15:45, it left the gate at that time precisely.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous10:05

    What is the point of launching Tirana and then not having a single flight for two weeks? Why not just wait and launch it end of June.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:07

      Because they have officials and press on the first flight. It would look bad if they cancelled it now.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:12

      Sales must have been good if they can cancel 2 weeks worth of flights less than a week before the route launches.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:26

      WRONG. You can't have sales until you put connections in your system. So far they only offered ZAG and a few regional destinations from TIA. lol

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:10

      TIA is a political one. The problem is that there is so much politics involved that renders the company financially unviable.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous12:34

      What politics are you talking about?! The route to TIA was announced well before Covid outbreak but postponed for obvious reasons. Time will tell if this is going to work out or not.
      The question here is what connections is OU going to offer that TIA doesn't have yet to maximise their success?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous12:49

      Split & Dubrovnik, I guess, but the flights will miss each other in 10 minutes. Haven't looked at the schedule but I could bet...

      Delete
    7. Anonymous13:10

      1234, my point exactly. Political in terms of connecting a future EU.

      Delete
    8. Anonymous19:07

      Some overweight people have to cut ribbons one cakes...

      Delete
    9. Anonymous19:07

      AND

      Delete
  8. Anonymous10:14

    Their operations last week have been an absolute shambles.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous10:18

    Hope things go back to normal soon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19:08

      Hope - it's the strategy

      Delete
  10. Anonymous12:46

    What are the chances of A220 arriving at the end of June?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous13:52

      Zero,zilch,zip, nada,

      Delete
    2. Anonymous14:37

      Arriving as planned.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous15:56

      No, it is not arriving as planned, they will be lucky if they get it by the end of July.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous17:55

      It's arriving as planned.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous16:22

    Reducing operations left and right, wet leasing three different aircraft types that make about 30% of their own active fleet at the start of the busiest season will have negative effect on passengers. They will receive refunds for cancelled flights as per regulations. Those who will travel are expecting same level of service but may get different experience on wet leased planes. Poor planning and inability to learn from other's mistakes. Disappointing and unprofessional for an EU airline.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16:49

      They will get the same experience on all flights including Business class.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:55

      1622, nonsense.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous20:10

      @17:55 Those are purger's words about some other airline. So yes, complete nonsense.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous17:52

    This days at SKP airport I see many different airlines run the SKP-ZAG route , including Tradeair A320 , also some Italian B737 ....

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous18:08

    I am missing the Kava/Kahva guy!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous21:08

    There is no need for more than 6, 7 at most, weekly flights to Sarajevo

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous20:10

    They are expanding good but we must admit present fleet is getting old

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous10:28

    In the last 48 hours, I had two flights with them. One was delayed by 1 hour and 30 minutes, and the other one was delayed by 2 hours and 30 minutes. It's evident that their operations are not as reliable as they used to be in the past. This is especially concerning because Ryanair operates much more reliably out of Zagreb, and I will be using their services from now on due to the significant cost difference.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

EX-YU Aviation News does not tolerate insults, excessive swearing, racist, homophobic or any other chauvinist remarks or provocative posts with the intention of creating further arguments. A full list of comment guidelines can be found here. Thank you for your cooperation.