CA has retained four afternoon landing slots at London Heathrow.
Croatia Airlines has sold five pairs of its morning slots (rights for landing and take-off) at London’s Heathrow Airport to Delta Airlines for 19 million dollars. The information was confirmed by sources from the Croatia Airlines, with the explanation that the whole transaction has not yet been completed. The contract for the sale of slots has been signed and supporting documents are being prepared, reports Večernji List on January 12, 2017.
Delta will take over the five slots on 1 April. Croatia Airlines has kept four afternoon slots at Heathrow, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and will continue to be present at one of the world’s largest airports.
The Croatian national company claims that the money from the sale of slots will be used for further development of the company and for maintenance of fleet.
By signing the contract with Delta, the long-running drama about the sale of Croatia Airlines slots at Heathrow has been concluded. The initiative was launched by the management of the company a few months ago, with an explanation that the Zagreb-London service has been making a loss for years and that the money from the sale of slots would cover part of the 30 million dollar cost for investment maintenance of aircraft engines.
However, the whole process was halted for a while, at the request made by Minister of Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butković and Minister of State Property Goran Marić, who have demanded from the company’s management to work out all the possible scenarios so that the company could make a profit. Therefore, the process was suspended for a while until all other possibilities had been exhausted.
In the end, Croatia Airlines sold just some of its slots at Heathrow. However, the sold slots were the more valuable ones, since slots in the afternoon are considered to be less attractive.
