TRIP REPORT: Croatia Airlines, London

Something really helpful was that the mobile boarding pass updated itself automatically within my iPhone Wallet app each time there was a change to the boarding time and when the gate was assigned. I wish more airlines had this.

At the airport

I arrived at Heathrow 45 minutes before my flight because I had no hold luggage and because this flight absolutely never leaves on time. I would have arrived even later but Heathrow has a zero tolerance policy on late arrivals and the gates at security control will not let you through if you arrive any later than 35 minutes before your flight. This is a hard deadline and staff cannot override it so I never mess around with my journey to Heathrow. They won’t let you through even if the flight is showing as delayed.

The reason why Croatia Airlines’ Heathrow-Zagreb flight is always delayed is both because the turnover in Heathrow is just 45 minutes long and because Croatia Airlines has an absurdly short scheduled flight duration on its London rotation. It is simply impossible for the flight to arrive back in Zagreb on time. It literally never does.

As a comparison, British Airways schedules the Heathrow-Zagreb flight as 02:20 minutes long while Croatia Airlines schedules it as 02:05 minutes. For Zagreb-Heathrow, British Airways schedules 02:35 minutes (Sundays 5 minutes shorter) while Croatia Airlines schedules only 02:20 minutes. This means that British Airways has a whole extra 30 minutes to be on time for the Zagreb-Heathrow rotation than Croatia Airlines.

The Monday and Friday evening rotations from Zagreb to London are also always delayed because the aircraft waits for connecting passengers before leaving Zagreb. Connections from Zadar/Pula, Sarajevo and Split are usually manageable, but the connecting passengers from Dubrovnik always delay the London rotation because their connecting time is just 40 minutes. Furthermore, it’s almost always the same aircraft that operates the Dubrovnik rotation and the subsequent London rotation, and there is simply not enough time for a timely turnover in Zagreb. On the day of my flight, the A220 landed in Zagreb from Dubrovnik at 17:30 while the scheduled departure for the Zagreb-London flight is 17:55.

Croatia Airlines was informing us about the delay by email and by text messages, which was not helpful because the delay kept growing and their operations centre should have given us more accurate delay estimates early on. The original delay estimate was just 30 minutes but ultimately we arrived 90 minutes late.

Because I knew the delay would inevitably be more than an hour long, I went to the Plaza Premium lounge. This is the best non-airline lounge in Heathrow as it was recently renovated. The food options are pretty poor though, as is standard for UK lounges with the exception of maybe Edinburgh and Bristol.

Our flight delay increased three times, the last time being due to a systems failure at Heathrow which prevented three passengers from boarding. Most passengers boarded the aircraft and then waited a further 20 minutes for the three affected passengers to be allowed to board.

Thus, our overall delay on arrival in Zagreb was 1.5 hours long. This is, sadly, not at all unusual for Croatia Airlines’ Heathrow-Zagreb flights on Mondays and Fridays.

Boarding

Croatia Airlines has not had its own Croatian-speaking agents at Heathrow for a few years now, and all airport work at Heathrow is outsourced. The last time I remember speaking Croatian to staff was in 2019.

Boarding was smooth and pretty quick. Croatia Airlines allows two bags on board and, even though there are weight and size restrictions, I have never seen this checked by the gate agents. This was the case even today despite the flight being fairly full. The overhead locker space on the A220 is truly so fantastic that there was no need to place anyone’s large wheelie bags in the hold.

The A220

The best thing about the A220 is that it is just so quiet, especially during take-off. My next favourite aspect of it are the USB-C charging points and the fact that they were turned on the entire time. In contrast, British Airways turns off its charging points at all times except when the flight is at cruising altitude.

I also really liked the adjustable head rest area as I am too tall to be able to make use of it otherwise. The 2-3 layout is also special and makes the cabin feel a bit less crowded even when it’s full. Lastly, the windows are truly excellent: they are so large that you really get a good view. I was seated in the window seat, on the left-hand side.

However, I wasn’t impressed with everything. I felt really cramped throughout the flight. The window seat is not so bad on the A320 but it really is tight on this A220. The width of the seats is also tight. I am tall but I am not wide, and I still felt really cramped. I deliberately didn’t choose an emergency exit row seat as I wanted to be in the front of Economy, but retrospectively I felt that this was a mistake. If I had not put both my bags up in the overhead locker space I would have seriously struggled.

What I found interesting was that the middle seat in the very last row exists even though it is permanently out of service.

The toilet is very nice and highly spacious, but there is only one in the back and so there was a queue for it throughout the entire flight.

The flight

The flight was fully fine and fully ordinary. The crew were very nice and smiley, which hasn’t always been the case on my Croatia Airlines flights in the past. They also apologised for the delay multiple times, which I didn’t always have before.

We were served a packet of crackers with wine and sage, and were given a choice of still or mineral water. This is a considerable downgrade compared to what Croatia Airlines was offering before. Just five years ago it was possible to have multiple glasses of wine and eat cheese, Istrian sausage and crackers with olives completely for free.

E-journals are now a free feature for Croatia Airlines passengers, and the selection is reasonably good. There are both English-language and Croatian magazines.

Another welcome novelty is WiFi which Croatia Airlines offers on the A220. It is free to use messaging apps for the first 10 minutes. After that the prices are very high and, in my view, simply not worth it for a 2-hour flight.

Overall, I was really happy to be on this A220 flight, but I am also very happy that my next OU491 flight later this month is scheduled to be operated by an Airbus A320. Don’t get me wrong – the A220 is so much better than a Dash, ATR or a CRJ aircraft, but it felt just a little too cramped compared to an Airbus A320 family aircraft or a Boeing 737 MAX.