Croatia Airlines will phase out its first two of six 72-seat Dash 8 turboprop aircraft during the first half of next year. The pair will be returned to their lessor as the carrier begins to transition to a single-type Airbus A220 fleet. According to the “Avioradar” portal, the two aircraft in question are registered 9A-CQA (Slavonija) and 9A-CQB (Lika), both of which are over sixteen years old and delivered new to the company in 2008. As a result, during the upcoming 2025 summer season, the airline is expected to operate a fleet of fifteen aircraft, including six Airbus A320-family jets, five A220s and four Dash 8s.
Croatia Airlines plans to select a wet-lease capacity provider for turboprop planes by the end of next year, with the aircraft expected to enter service on behalf of the Croatian carrier in 2026. The airline previously confirmed it would wet-lease turboprops for regional routes to replace its existing Dash 8s. “What we plan to do next is find a partner for 2026 that will operate on our behalf on shorter routes through a wet-lease arrangement. That will involve the partner airline’s crew and aircraft. Austrian Airlines currently has the same agreement with Braathens. These aircraft will be used on shorter routes such as Sarajevo, Vienna, and Osijek”, Croatia Airlines’ CEO, Jasmin Bajić, previously said.
The Croatian carrier will take delivery of thirteen A220-300s by 2027, with the capacity to seat 149 passengers, and two A220-100s with 127 seats, the latter effectively becoming the smallest aircraft in its fleet. Croatia Airlines’ existing turboprop fleet is under an operational lease. During the first three quarters of the year the Dash 8s were used on 39.3% of the company’s scheduled flights. The average age of Croatia Airlines’ turboprop fleet is just over fifteen years.
Stupid, but we are used to that by this point
ReplyDeleteIndeed.
Deletewhy stupid? it is great move to make CA single model carrier.
DeleteWe want to attract tourists to see, we dont wanna transport them in flying bus - Dash plane but in A220, a great plane for great airline. Everybody wants to see our coast and see!
^ It will be only single aircraft type operator on paper. In reality it will have wet leased planes operating 40% of its flights.
DeleteAnonymous 9:13, EVERYBODY? The world is huge. Good luck with the single model aircraft. Can't wait to see them on the line Zag Pula flying almost empty. Btw, everybody wants to visit beutiful Dalmatia LOL
DeleteThe thing with "everybody wants to visit..." gets really annoying. There are so many beautiful places in the world which should be visited but it does not mean that each of them needs to be named here...
Deleteeverybody wants to visit... Load factor of 65%
DeleteRight moves in right time, OU management is doing miracles. Dash 8 is a history and new wet lease capacity will be right choice since majority of flying capacity will be done by a220. Bravo Jasmine, Bravo Hrvatska!
DeleteEveryone and everybody want to....
DeleteA single-type fleet might work on paper, but it seems impractical for a country like Croatia with so many small airports. They’re sacrificing flexibility for some supposed “efficiency.” Bad move for regional connectivity.
DeleteIt was an old aircraft, still sad to see it go
ReplyDeleteIt's not so old.
DeleteIt's not a particularly old plane. The only issue is that the cabin hasn't been regularly maintained and is in very poor condition. Even older planes, when their cabins are well-maintained, can look as good as new.
DeleteI have flown "Slavonia" Dash OU4456 ZAG-BRU service yesterday. It was clean and in perfectly good condition. It is amazing how anonymity of the internet gives you opportunity to say things that are not truth. I guess it feels good, doesn't it?
DeleteThe Dash 8s are definitely showing signs of wear and tear.
DeleteIt is a piece of obsolete garbage that has problems with leaking engine oil into the passenger cabin. The parts are difficult to acquire. It is uneconomical,noisy, narrow, small, stinks, vibrates, humms. Good riddance and never to see it again. No one will miss it
DeleteI will miss them. Love turboprops and their feeling of flying.
DeleteWhy phase out perfectly functional Dash 8s just because they’re 16 years old? They’ve still got life left in them. This feels wasteful and unnecessary, especially for a financially struggling airline.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteWhy???
DeleteFor modernizing their fleet
DeleteWill see
DeleteThey're going to have to work extra hard to boost that load factor next year.
ReplyDeleteNot really. They just need to drop their ridiculous prices.
DeleteThe funny thing is, with the prices you would expect better finances. But their finances are a disaster too. Don't know where all the money is going on. Their service is hardly premium.
DeleteThe only way to grow your load factor, and therefore reduce the need of Dashes, is by growing your network, increasing transfer passenger share and having more competitive pricing.
Delete+1 last anon
DeleteWell they would first need to build a real hub in ZAG and create waves...
DeleteThey could have much more connections if they bothered to move some of the separtures by 10 minutes.
DeleteI'm all for them retiring these older birds but their long-term plans is just to wet lease turboprops? Does that make any financial sense?
ReplyDeleteOf course not
DeleteThis completely defeats the purpose of their fleet renewal and is a confirmation they chose the wrong aircraft types and will have a wrong fleet structure. Disappointing.
DeleteNot form a revenue point of view. But from the point of lucrative lease... You are thinking in different ways than them
DeleteSelf destructing sequence commenced
ReplyDeleteRapidly getting quicker. What happens when the A220s are delayed??
DeleteIt happens what we saw this summer. Last minute wet leases, delays and cancelled flights.
DeleteDepends for whom...
DeleteWet-leased planes mean no consistency in service. Passengers will have to deal with different crews, different aircraft, and potentially lower standards. This is a downgrade, not an improvement.
DeleteCan you get a lower onboard standard than OU?
DeleteYes you can, Ryanair!
DeleteHow is Bajić getting away with this nonsense?
ReplyDeleteParty supporter
DeleteWatching the news today the whole country seems riddled with dodgy dealings.
DeleteSo who is going to be the wet lease operator?
ReplyDeleteA trusted Lufthansa Group partner.
DeleteOf course
DeleteI wonder if it will be a single or more capacity providers.
DeleteProbably also ATRs from sth like Braathens or again Dashs from SkyAlps for ex. or however that airline from South Tyrol is called.
DeleteThey will probably contract Sky Alps DH8s
DeleteBraathens will not have a capacity since it will become a long term wet lease partner of SAS.
DeleteIf the market is there, BRA could increase their fleet size.
DeleteTrade air
DeleteDon't get this strategy.
ReplyDeleteMark my words, this “modernization” will lead to higher ticket prices. A220s might be fuel-efficient, but they’re expensive, and passengers will end up paying for this so-called upgrade.
DeleteGood luck
ReplyDeleteAny idea on how many aircraft they will wet lease? 6 to replace all 6 Dash 8s?
ReplyDeleteMy assumption is at least 4
Delete2-3 most likely. That is sufficient for night stops ZAG-ZAD-PUY and v.v. and ZAG-SJJ, maybe also ZAG-OMO and v.v. overnight. Everything else is done during the day like rotations to BWK, VIE and can be done by the same 2 aircrafts.
DeleteThe Osijek ops are anyway done by a 30 seater plane in wet lease as always.
How much will wet leasing turboprops cost on top of the A220 payments?
ReplyDeleteIt won't be cheap
DeleteIt will cost taxpayer quite a bit
DeleteIndeed
DeleteLet's see if they go for ATR or Dashes.
ReplyDeleteATR for sure.
DeleteWhy are you so sure it will be ATR?
DeleteIt is far more economical aircraft than the Q400. Although it is slower.
DeleteOU won't care abt the type. Both have advantages and disadvantages. If it's gonna be 69 or 75 seats won't be that crucial but if ATR will be cheaper to lease then they'll go for that, same as OS.
DeleteActually, I wouldnt be surprised if they went for one ATR72 and one 42
Wouldn't it make more sense to extend current leases of Dash 8s?
ReplyDeleteThe Dashes are 16 years old. Probably would need D check soon and also they would have to keep pilots and crew trained on the type, which they obviously don't want.
DeleteSo what is the strategy exactly? They are getting rid of planes they obviously need in favor of planes that are too large for many routes so they are going to wet lease turboprops until the end of time?
ReplyDeleteThey most likely hope that over time they would be able to fill A220s to places like Sarajevo, although I don't see a chance of that happening.
DeleteGood luck with that
DeleteOffering a proper business class, understanding revenue management, dynamic pricing and having a decent management would all help. However the reality at OU is much different, with lots of nobodys sitting around in Buzin drinking coffee.
DeleteFinancially, this doesn’t add up. Leasing planes and crews from another airline can’t be cheaper than running your own fleet in the long term. This just feels like kicking the can down the road.
DeleteWhy didn't they just order 13 A220s and got 2 turboprops from ATR?
ReplyDeleteBecause they would have additional cost of crew and maintenance of ATR72. They could have just kept 2 Dashes or replaced them with some younger Dashes.
DeleteIt needs more years flying with RA to open eyes that Dalmatia is not the best in Mediterraneo and that they have abysmal LF.
DeleteBecause someone told them to do so and he was very convincing.
Deletesimilar to what Austrian is doing now with wet leasing ATR72 after they got rid of Dashes. At least Croatia Airlines realized they would need them on time, unlike Austrian which took a couple of years.
ReplyDeleteAnd for how many years will they wet lease these planes?
ReplyDeleteI mean the Dash replacements
DeleteTill government give up.
DeleteConsidering the current situation that might happen sooner than later
DeleteIt feels like Croatia Airlines is following Austrian’s lead here, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Wet-leasing is a sensible solution for smaller regional routes, but I wonder how passengers will feel about flying with a partner airline instead of Croatia Airlines.
DeleteI expect they will feel the same as Air Serbia passengers do flying with partner Airlines.
DeleteOU should keep their DH4s
ReplyDeleteThe Dash is simply no longer competitive as an aircraft. Time for them to go
DeleteNever liked them. Lot's of issues with landing gear.
DeleteLast anon, that was 15 or rather 20 years ago that DH8 had that issue!
DeleteEven OU broke front gear.
DeleteThe aviation industry seems to be pushing turboprops away but they still have their use which is obvious. The result is that there really hasn't been too much improvement in the market for over a decade so airlines are getting rid of them just to come back crawling to them later
DeleteATR sales and popularity state otherwise, they seem to be staying around.
DeleteFunny how everyone hates JU's ATRs but then congratulates OS and OU for wet leasing them. Funny, just funny.
Noone congratulated either of them. In the contrary, we all think they are stupid not to keep/have kept 3 of them.
DeleteRegarding JU, it is a big difference between old 72-200s and 500s to the new 600s.
Air Serbia operates 10 ATR72-600s. It has no -200s or -500s in its fleet. All JU ATR72s have new seats, mood lighting and are actually in great shape and significantly younger than Croatia Airlines' Dash 8s.
DeleteNuts, with their financial results and passenger loads.
ReplyDeleteExcellent!
ReplyDeleteWhat?
DeleteSince they plan long term wet leases for regional fleet, would they paint the plane in OU livery? What did Austrian do with the Braathens planes?
ReplyDeleteNothing.
DeleteThe BRA planes fly in full BRA livery for OS
DeleteI wouldn't be surprised if this is going to be some deal with Trade Air where Trade Air gets turboprops.
ReplyDeleteTrade Air won't increase its own costs by having to get its own crew and do its own maintenance on new aircraft type for them.
DeleteThey will need turboprops mostly in the winter
ReplyDeleteThe Dash 8s have served the airline well for over 15 years—it’s the end of an era! I’m curious to see how the A220 performs on shorter routes. It’s a great aircraft, but can it really replace turboprops for regional hops
ReplyDeleteWet-leasing turboprops? Sounds like Croatia Airlines is outsourcing its regional routes instead of investing in its own fleet. Not impressed.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they give up some of their PSO routes to Trade Air
ReplyDeleteNow we all see how everything OU is wrong. They retired the Atr out of their own stupidity and now they got the A220 for the same reason.
ReplyDeleteThey should have never retired the Atr in the first place. They need this kind of plane since demand out of ZAG to many routes they operate is modest and low yielding.
With their costs going up watch them further cut their network.
When they asked CEO of American, why they were still utilising MD83 fleet instead going for modernisation, he answered that MD83 was generating rebevenue and modest profit from first day in month onwards, in contrast with B738, with day one debt of 800.000 USD of monthly lease to pay. I guess one day there will be same kind of spectacular arrest of Jasmin as we saw yesterday
ReplyDeleteNo there won't... He does as he was told and he is not selfish.
Delete