May the 7th, 2026 – As the fuel crisis bites, Croatia Airlines cancels 900 flights over the next three months.
As Index vijesti/news writes, Croatia Airlines is cancelling around 900 flights in the next quarter, which is representative of 5% of the company’s total planned 27,000 operations. The decision is due to the drastic increase in jet fuel prices that has resulted in a serious crisis for global aviation. Owing to the crisis caused by the conflict in the Middle East, airlines around the world cancelled 13,000 flights in May alone, which means that two million seats were simply removed from the schedule, as reported by RTL.
Multi-million dollar losses due to the price of fuel
Fuel prices have increased enormously, leading to the biggest crisis in air traffic since the coronavirus pandemic that began in early 2020. Slaven Žabo, director of commercial affairs of Croatia Airlines, confirmed the seriousness of the situation. “This seriously unfavourable geopolitical situation has had a negative impact on fuel prices. The price of jet fuel has doubled since the outbreak of the crisis and has been growing faster than the price of crude oil. The current cost of jet fuel will cause multi-million-crore losses for all airlines, including Croatia Airlines,” said Žabo.
In response to this crisis, the company has introduced crisis management. “We’re trying to compensate for the costs by optimising the flight network and capacity and increasing efficiency,” revealed Žabo. When asked what exactly optimisation means, he replied: “Optimisation implies aligning capacity with current demand, the costs of flying itself and the amount of revenue on a particular route, which of course includes flight cancellations.” He confirmed that Croatia Airlines had cancelled around 900 flights, but also noted that the company will still operate up to 100 flights per day during this intense period as normal.
what about ticket prices?
“In addition to the spiralling price of fuel, which is a key cost, ticket prices in the upcoming period will also be affected by the prices of other stakeholders who have been raising them. For example, Zagreb Airport announced a 20% increase on June the 1st, which will be directly reflected in the price of tickets through the passenger tax,” said Žabo.
However, he couldn’t specify just how much tickets could increase. “At this point, it’s quite difficult to project these amounts. Ticket prices in these circumstances go up and down because they also depend on demand on a particular route. For example, in the first quarter of this year, prices for Croatian traffic were 5% lower,” he said. He emphasised that Croatia Airlines will, despite everything, remain focused on competitiveness and ensuring stable connectivity for Croatia.
Despite the challenges, Žabo is optimistic about the tourist season ahead of us. “In these negative geopolitical circumstances, Croatia Airlines’ strong operational growth in the first half of the year remains positive. In the first four months of 2026, we achieved a 23% increase in the number of passengers, or almost 100,000 more passengers. This growth strongly contributed to the tourism result in the first half of the year, which is positive. Looking at these figures, but also the current state of reservations, we’ve got plenty of reason for optimism and we can realistically expect a good season,” concluded Žabo.
