Croatia Airlines registered a net loss of 9.5 million euros during the first half of the year, blaming its financial performance on increased costs due to the transition to its new Airbus A220 fleet and short-term wet-leases as a result of the late arrival of the new aircraft type. The figure contrasts with the first half of last year when the airline registered a profit of 1.7 million euros. Although the carrier’s revenue increased from 112.8 million euros last year to 116.3 million euros during H1 2024, its expenses grew 14% to 125.7 million euros. During the second quarter alone, the airline managed to register a profit of 420.000 euros.
Commenting on the financial performance, Croatia Airlines said, “The fleet transition period is characterised by an increase in costs. In order to perform the planned schedule, it was necessary to conclude short-term aircraft leases. The increased costs of aircraft maintenance and short-term leases amounted to 10.4 million euros”. However, the airline is confident its new A220 fleet will overturn the negative financial performance. “The slots which were secured and the investment in new routes will be positively impacted once a greater number of A220s enter the fleet, which is expected as early as 2025”, the company said. During the first half of the year, the carrier counted 951 employees.
Operationally, Croatia Airlines handled 814.553 passengers during the January - June period, representing an increase of 5.3% on 2023, or an additional 41.253 travellers. However, the figure is still down 15.2% on the pre-pandemic 2019, corresponding to 146.067 fewer passengers. During H1 2024, the airline carried 597.230 travellers on international flights, up 5.6% on 2023, a total of 201.717 travellers on domestic services, representing an improvement of 6.6%, while the remaining 15.606 passengers were handled on charter flights, down 14.9%. Croatia Airlines operated 2.2% more flights than last year for a total of 12.330 operations. The average cabin load factor across its network stood at 62.3%, down 1.5 points on the same period in 2023. Loads on international flights amounted to 62.1%, down 1.9 points, while on domestic services it stood at 61.4%, up 2.5 points.
New era old results.
ReplyDeleteSo what? It's a small price to pay for having a national carrier that brings a huge added value.
Deleteits just for showing off and stealing taxpayers money. If OU disappeared, Croatia would be the same, possibly with couple of flights less to FRA and MUC.
DeleteI would like to see OU be successful and grow for Croatia, but the facts is that as to date the national carrier has not brought added value. It has been a burden to the tax payer and the people working there.
DeleteThe airline which brough value to Croatia so far is Ryanair.
1336, sure, Ryan buys fuel in Croatia, pay salaries, pay VAT, taxes to salaries, medical and pension fund contributions, does aircraft maintenance in Croatia... You so shallow.
DeleteIt does do all of that. It has Croatian based cabin crew from Croatia and it also buys fuel in Croatia.
DeleteRed lepih vesti, red loΕ‘ih.
ReplyDeleteRed otvoreno loΕ‘ih, red zamaskirano loΕ‘ih.
DeleteI find it extraordinary that passenger numbers are still 15% below 2019.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWhich means they even lost some market that they used to have in 2019
DeleteNew competition in Zagreb, suddenly OU's monopoly is gone and they're losing customers
DeleteOU never had monopoly in Croatia, what are you talking about!?
DeleteLCC had very small presence in ZAG prior to Ryanair opening its base.
DeleteIt's not extraordinary at all if you remember that OU's response to Ryanair's arrival to ZAG was first bi**ing for about a month or so, and then running away with a tail between their legs.
DeleteZAG is the busiest airport, serving the capital city and currently Ryanair has 31 flights in and out of it, whereas OU has 22.
Bravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly is bravo here?
DeleteBravo for not making bigger loss? or just a troll?
DeleteAdded value.
DeleteTo what?
DeleteWar is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength
DeleteLet's see how they go in third quarter. That's when they make the most money.
ReplyDeleteOU has always had large losses in first 6 months, or should I say first 4 months.
ReplyDeleteWell last year they had a profit
DeleteQuestion is will they be able to make up for this loss in the third quarter
DeleteThey might be able to do it in Q3 but then comes Q4.
DeleteUnfortunately the summer won't enough to fix 2024. My guess is the loss this year will amount to 5 million euros.
DeleteAnd the money paid to the state budget is?
Delete^ I don't understand what are talking about in this case.
DeleteNot good
ReplyDeleteHow many losses does this current airline management have to generate for them to be replaced? Airlines are reporting record profit and record passengers numbers. OU is nowhere near 2019 passenger levels.
ReplyDeleteHDZ cadre.
DeleteLosses are the goal!! This way they can funnel state aid into their own pockets.
DeleteWell it certainly seems like it
DeleteThat load factor is terrible.
ReplyDeleteOne of the lowest in Europe.
DeleteIntroducing the A220 won't help either
DeleteSource, all three of you?
DeleteMaybe you should read the article
Delete" The average cabin load factor across its network stood at 62.3%, down 1.5 points on the same period in 2023."
Maybe this is great load factor in your eyes.
Load factor is like that of All Nippon Airways.
DeleteIncorrect. ANA Group load was 77.2% but it also involves 3 airlines including Peach and Air Japan. Air Japan brought down the load factor results because it was only established as a standalone airline a few months ago.
DeleteSurprised pikachu face.
ReplyDeleteStill don't understand their belief that everything will magically change when A220s arrive. The planes aren't the problem, it's your management.
ReplyDeleteSame, it's not a magic wand that they have been waiting for.
DeleteAbysmal passenger growth on last year considering they also grew the number of flights.
ReplyDeleteAgree, passenger growth should have been much here.
Delete* much more
DeleteWill they be adding any new destinations this winter?
ReplyDeleteHopefully they extend Berlin, Stockholm and Tirana, all 3 routes have potential with holiday gaster traffic
DeleteAs FR continues to expand in Zagreb, those losses will keep getting bigger.
ReplyDeleteThis is depressing.
ReplyDeleteWhy not just sell the 4 remaining slots at Heathrow and move to Gatwick? It could save them money and I doubt they would loose too many passengers by moving airports.
ReplyDeleteSelling Heathrow slots has done damage.
DeleteThey carry a lot of transfers on the Heathrow route, which they would be unable to do via Gatwick in such large numbers.
DeleteSwitching to Gatwick would be disastrous. They need to buy slots back at Heathrow.
DeleteIs OU expected to turn a profit this year?
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteIn Q3 It we will know which direction the company is going in this year.
DeleteI think the direction is already obvious.
Deletelol @ 09:35
DeleteLF is really low. It is really behind the rest of the continent in those terms.
ReplyDeleteIt has been a long running problem at OU.
DeleteWhat was OU's market share during the first half of the year?
ReplyDelete31%
DeleteI don't see any possibility that the results will be much better in second half of 2024 but let's wait and see.
ReplyDeleteObviously their business model just isn’t working.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they change that with the new fleet
DeleteReality
ReplyDeleteCroatia Airlines should improve connectivity in ZAG, provide reasonable prices. They should also have two different strategies for summer and winter due to high seasonality of their market and they must take good care of the costs.
ReplyDelete+100
DeleteSell the airline ASAP!
ReplyDeletePutting the airline up for sale isn't the issue, it's finding a buyer.
DeleteGovernment said just the other day they have no plans to sell it.
DeleteBecause nobody wants to buy it.
DeleteSelling the airline will result in the same situation as Adria. The government just needs to start holding management accountable for their performance.
DeletePM was clear yesterday, no strategic partner needed.
DeleteOk so we can safely assume they are not going to be sold. Can someone make a realistic prediction of what will happen to OU in the next five years? How long can they handle mounting losses? They are accumulating quite a bit.
DeleteMy guess is that in a year or two the government will invoke aid injection which, to gain EU approval, will be accompanied by restructuring. Similar to what they did in the past. Although I do wish OU the best and hope it does not come to it. But just judging by the management team, that is my prediction.
DeleteThe airline's costs were high before the A220 came. Now they are just going to be bigger.
ReplyDeletePublish how many employees are working in the office vs operational stuff.
ReplyDelete951 employees. where? How?
ReplyDeleteHow will they afford to have the A220 with current revenue and low profits?
ReplyDeletegovernment support.
DeleteOdgovor se sam nameΔe:)
ReplyDeleteBravo, bravo, bravo... All numbers going up!! Jasmin is performing good.
ReplyDeleteOnly the best do their thesis at Apeiron University Banja Luka
Deleteπππ
DeleteGood luck OU!
ReplyDeleteYou're gonna need it!
DeleteCroatia Airlines is a mystery for me. They had the chance to start from scratch zero with independence. They had a white piece of paper and they end up like some state owned dinosaur. With a dozen unions, unprofessional management, corruption and nepotism, political interference, huge staff and overhead account.....unbelievable. Tourism is booming......what's wrong with this airline?
ReplyDeleteThey do not have much with tourists, they are coming with charters. Most of the flights they had with Dash.
DeleteHow are they going to cover this? How's their capital right now?
ReplyDeleteWell they made a profit last year, so they can cover the loss from that.
DeleteIntroducing A220 will increase cost even more. Flying DH4s is much cheaper and Dash aircraft size is appropriate for size of market. 150 seat A220 are simply to big for such O&D traffic to/from Croatia. LF will go even further down as A220 will not grow number of passengers. It will just grow cost of each flight significantly thanks to higher MTOW and lease rates for new fleet. Manufacturers often tell airlines they will (be) able to carry more paxes with bigger aircraft but if the market is small it usually does not materialise.
ReplyDeleteOU should fly high frequency services (2-3x daily: morning and afternoon/evening + midday where traffic is the biggest) to the important airports around Western and Northern Europe which are the most significant business markets for Croatian and exYU countries economy and once/twice daily (overnight or midday/overnight) to exYu and Eastern Balkans (RO/BG/MD) to connect them thru ZAG at least daily like OU and JP used to do for years using tegional fleet of CRJ and DH4s. The best fleet mix for that would be E175/E290/E295. As JP is gone OU could be the only to serve that niche and with one fleet type of about 20 a/c they could keep costs low and grow passangers numbers and revenues. Big cheap per seat aircraft (like A220-300) is not a solution for OU as it can only be used during holidays to carry cheap traffic to/from Dalmatian coast where OU will have to compete with everybody especially LCCs who will always be the winner.
+1
DeleteAirline is still producing a loss after paying a consulting company millions to tell it how to make a profit.
ReplyDeleteDon't be surprised. Government paid privatization advisors twice to prepare privatization and now they are proudly saying how they won't privatize the airline.
DeleteThose privatization advisors were an absolute waste of money.
DeleteNo one expects the national flag carrier to be profitable.
ReplyDeleteWhat a nonsense!
DeleteI think most people expect it to be profitable.
DeleteNot important, the owners didn’t make as much due to important investments.
DeleteStill not able to reach Covid era pax numbers? No even at 90% Crazy.
ReplyDeleteNot important, the owners didn’t make as much due to important investments.
ReplyDeleteThis means statistically that 1 employee handles 4.8 pax a day.
ReplyDeleteHow could that work out profitable?