Croatia Airlines orders six A220s, eyes single-type fleet

Italy's Sky Alps to enter ACMI market with Q400s

Croatia Airlines firms six A220 leases with ALC

Croatia Airlines (OU, Zagreb) has secured four A220-300s and two A220-100s on lease from Air Lease Corporation as a part of its ongoing fleet modernisation and rollover to a homogenous A220 fleet.

The sextet will deliver to the carrier between early 2024 and 2025 and are sourced from ALC's order book with Airbus. The lessor has seven -100s and sixty-four -300s on firm order from the manufacturer, on top of four -300s already delivered and placed with ITA Airways (AZ, Rome Fiumicino).

The lease commitment is on top of a recently announced firm order with Airbus for six A220-300s with undisclosed delivery dates. Croatia Airlines planned to add up to fifteen A220s to renew its entire fleet. The final three units could be added on lease in 2027, the airline said.

The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows that the carrier's current fleet comprises five A319-100s, two A320-200s, and six DHC-8-Q400s. The A220s are poised to replace both the narrowbodies and the regional turboprops...

Croatia Airlines delays repayment of €33mn state loan

Croatia Airlines (OU, Zagreb) has managed to delay repayment of a EUR33.2 million euro (USD34.9 million) loan the government agreed to give it in September 2019 and which was provided in the pre-pandemic month of February 2020. The airline now has until January 2025 to make the repayment, the Croatian investigative outlet Telegram reported citing a recent State Audit Office report.

The European Commission-approved loan, originally set at HRK250 million kunas (USD37 million at the time; Croatia switched to the euro on January 1, 2023), had been intended to financially stabilise the carrier ahead of its intended privatisation, but the coronavirus outbreak put the airline under even greater pressure. It was supposed to have been repaid in full in January 2022 with a fixed interest rate of 2%, but the Ministry of Finance has agreed to extend this deadline by three years.

In its report, the audit office urged transport minister Oleg Butković to more effectively monitor the spending of state funds handed to two large state-owned enterprises, the other being Croatian Highways (Hrvatske...

Croatia Airlines confirms six A220-300s, to lease nine more

Croatia Airlines (OU, Zagreb) has committed to adding fifteen A220s, including six A220-300s ordered direct from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) and a further nine to be leased.

The state-owned carrier confirmed the incoming jets would replace its previous-generation aircraft which entail five A319-100s (21.2 years old on average), two A320-200s (20.7), and six DHC-8-Q400s (13.7), the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows.

The airline announced the selection of the A220 as its future platform in October 2022. At that time, it said that the commitment would comprise both A220-100s and -300s. The smaller variant was not explicitly mentioned in the announcement of the firming of the deal.

"Details of the contract related to the type of aircraft are going to be agreed upon," spokesperson Davor Janušić told ch-aviation.

Croatia Airlines has a firm order for four A320-200Ns stemming back from 2015 but said it would drop this order as a part of the commitment for the A220s.

The carrier did not respond...

Editorial Comment: The article updates with Airbus' and Croatia Airlines' statements. - 01.12.2022 - 13:15 UTC