Croatia Airlines and Airbus sign contract for the purchase of the most modern Airbus A220 aircraft

L-R: Ville Arhippainen, Airbus’ Vice President of Sales for Western and Southern Europe and Jasmin Bajić, CEO of Croatia Airlines

By 2026, Croatia’s national airline is replacing existing aircraft with a new unified fleet and switching to one type of jet-powered aircraft

Zagreb, 29 November 2022  –  With the aim of creating an even better and more competitive airline offer, and in accordance with Croatia Airlines’ strategy, representatives of Croatia Airlines and Airbus, a leading company in the design, production and delivery of aviation products, services and solutions to customers all over the world, signed a contract for the purchase of the most modern Airbus A220 aircraft last night in Zagreb.

Based on this contract, by 2026, all existing Croatia Airlines planes will be replaced by a new unified single-type fleet, and the company will completely switch to jet-powered aircraft, thus ensuring significantly higher quality and more pleasant flights for its passengers, as well as far more economical and sustainable operations.

The signing of the Agreement was attended by Jasmin Bajić, CEO of Croatia Airlines, and Ville Arhippainen, Airbus’ Vice President of Sales for Western and Southern Europe.

With this Agreement, the long-term cooperation and partnership between Croatia Airlines and Airbus continues, to the mutual satisfaction and with the realization of the maximum possible benefit.

During the signing of the Agreement, Jasmin Bajić pointed out:

– Taking into account the demands of our passengers, trends on the highly competitive Croatian and global aviation market, fuel prices and CO2 emissions, as well as the goals of the EU’s “green” policies and the no less important fact of the “year of production” of the existing fleet, the decision to replace the Croatia Airlines fleet in at this moment it is imperative and fully compliant with the adopted Post-COVID strategy.

I am happy that we are entering a new business development cycle with a partner whom we know well and who, based on long-term cooperation, really offered us conditions that we are currently able to accept. Using the areas of existing contracts, the renewal of the fleet represents the continuation of our cooperation with Airbus, that is, the existing contract by which we will completely replace Croatia Airlines’ old aircraft with new ones by 2026.

With new and higher-quality aircraft in the market segment of 100 to 150 seats, we will ensure a better response to the specific needs of our passengers, which, I am convinced, will ensure an even more efficient business model, thanks to which we will also open additional spaces in our business, ensuring our passengers as well as our benefits needed by employees.

Christian Scherer said:

– We are very glad that Croatia Airlines is the new user of the A220. The A220 is ideal for Croatian aviation needs due to its operational flexibility and efficiency, which will help the company achieve its ambitions of regional and international connectivity and providing superior services in any aspect, be it passenger comfort or travel economy and flight occupancy.

The replacement of the fleet for Croatia Airlines represents a long-term process of transition of the entire business, so all employees of the national airline are facing a period in which it will be necessary to adapt all business processes to the new aircraft, which will further optimize the operations of the national airline, ensure better occupancy of the passenger cabin, better crew utilization, while Croatia Airlines will become an even more environmentally friendly airline and will significantly reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, which, in accordance with the latest events on the oil and oil derivatives market, today represent an increasingly large item in airline expenses.