August the 1st, 2025 – The chronically enfeebled Croatia Airlines has seen more passengers and even a rise in revenue, but despite those positive indicators, it continues to report losses.
As Sinisa Malus/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, over the first six months of 2025, Croatia Airlines transported a total of 851,983 passengers, which is five percent more than in the same period in 2024. The number of passengers in domestic scheduled traffic increased by six percent, and in international scheduled traffic, that sum increased by four percent compared to the first half of 2024.
In 2025 so far, Croatia Airlines has evidently continued to consistently implement the largest project in its history – the renewal of the entire existing fleet. This extremely significant investment cycle was marked by pronounced operational and financial challenges characteristic of the transition period in which a negative financial result was foreseen and planned.
Despite improvements, Croatia Airlines (rather characteristically at this point, some may say) still reports losses. Over the first half of this year, an operating loss of 21.2 million euros was recorded, which, with the net financing result gives a net loss of 18 million euros with a positive EBITDA indicator of 2.5 million euros. That places the domestic air carrier at the level of the same period last year. The net losses for Croatia Airlines in the first quarter amounted to 15.8 million euros, but a significant improvement was recorded in the second quarter, with a net loss of 2.1 million euros.
From the aspect of operational efficiency, a negative EBITDA result of 5.7 million euros was achieved in the first quarter, while a positive EBITDA of 8.2 million euros was recorded in the second quarter. The result of the second quarter indicates a significant recovery compared to the first quarter of this year, and EBITDA growth of 22 percent compared to the second quarter of 2024. Total revenues, including financial revenues, are eight percent higher compared to the first half of 2024, while total operating revenues are four percent lower compared to the same period of the previous year. Their decrease was influenced by aggressive pricing activity by competitors in conditions of falling fuel prices, and partly due to the US dollar exchange rate.
Operating expenses in the first half of 2025 increased by six percent compared to the same period last year. The largest increase in expenses was recorded in the depreciation category, primarily due to the inclusion of depreciation costs for leased assets relating to five new Airbus A220 aircraft. Operating expenses increased by seven million euros in total, while depreciation, with an increase of 5.9 million euros, accounted for more than 84 percent of the increase in total expenses. The increase in expenses was also influenced by the increase in salaries of Croatia Airlines employees, given that a new Collective Agreement for a period of five years was signed on July the 25th, 2024. That will mark the transitional period of aircraft fleet replacement and quality cooperation with social partners.
Part of the increase in salaries also relates to the employment of additional flight and other operational staff for the needs of the new Airbus A220 fleet and preparations for the tourist season. Additional impact on the growth of certain types of costs is expected to be inflationary trends, a change in the structure of flights in favour of larger aircraft for which the unit prices of airport services and navigation services are higher, as well as an increase in the number of passengers by five percent.
Disruptions in the supply chain and problems with the availability of spare parts for existing aircraft have also generally caused delays in performing the necessary work and significant additional costs. The planned return of two Q400 aircraft to the owner is delayed as a result of the aforementioned disruptions.
A particular challenge of the current business for Croatia Airlines is managing the operation with three different types of aircraft in the fleet. During the transition period, this requires careful planning of human and financial resources and adjustment of operational procedures.
