Croatia Airlines and Adria Airways Deny Aircraft Lease Agreement

An anonymous email sent today to newsrooms regarding the signing of a contract between the Croatian and Slovenian carriers has provoked a strong reaction from domestic carriers with whom Croatia Airlines has previously collaborated.

– Discussions and negotiations regarding a possible aircraft lease will only take place; Croatia Airlines has not signed any contract with anyone. – denied Ksenija Žlof, spokesperson for the Croatian national carrier, the speculation about signing a contract with the Slovenian carrier Adria Airways for the lease of two Canadair Regional Jet CRJ 900 aircraft from the Slovenians. At Adria Airways, as we learn from the carrier, they also deny any discussions with the CA Management, considering that they already have ‘strained’ flights, meaning they do not have two aircraft available for CA.
CA is, in fact, waiting for confirmation of the delivery date for the Dash 8 – Q400 aircraft that it intended to include in the summer flight schedule, and there is a likelihood that the delivery will be delayed.

The CEO of the Croatian airline Trade Air, Mihajlo Cvijin, has also heard that Ivan Mišetić signed a contract with the Slovenians, emphasizing that, given last year’s quality cooperation, he thought that CA would lease aircraft from his company again this year, but that their cooperation was limited from 12 to six months.
– Last year and this year we offered CA the most favorable price, and CA management expressed satisfaction with our cooperation last year. – comments Cvijin.

CA is majority-owned by the State, from which it receives subsidies for certain routes, so it is unclear to the carriers why they would pay several million euros for leasing and crew to Slovenian carriers instead of Croatian ones. However, Croatia Airlines and Adria Airways are members of Star Alliance, which generally should not affect the choice of carrier.
Zeno Singer, CEO of Dubrovnik Airlines, a company that collaborated with Adria Airways last year, says that his company was not even asked whether it would cooperate with CA, stating that it would be logical for Croatian companies to support each other during the winter months, but that CA probably has an economic calculation, considering that the CRJ 900 aircraft have a smaller capacity, with 70 seats, which reduces operational costs (Trade Air’s aircraft have 110, and Dubrovnik Airlines’ aircraft have 160 seats).    Željka Laslavić