Croatia Airlines registered a 9.92-million-euro net loss during the first three months of the year, following three consecutive quarters of profitability. The company’s financial performance in Q1 is largely on par with that of Q1 2023 when it registered a net loss of 9.96 million euros. The carrier generated 44.2 million euros in revenue, while its expenditures stood at 54.4 million euros, with both increasing on last year due to a larger volume of flights. “Expenses related to flight operations increased the most on last year due to short-term aircraft leases, which are intended to bridge the gap during aircraft maintenance, as well as the arrival of the fist two Airbus A220 aircraft in the fleet”, Croatia Airlines said.
During the first quarter, Croatia Airlines handled 321.936 passengers on board its aircraft, down 6.9% on the pre-pandemic 2019 but up 6.1% on last year, with an additional 13.499 travellers carried. The airline welcomed 234.987 travellers on international flights, 85.593 on domestic services and 1.356 passengers on charter flights. Compared to five years ago, figures were down 8.4% and 3.2% on international and domestic services respectively, while the number of travellers on charters decreased by some 2.000 passengers, or 58.6%. When contrasted to 2023, international traveller numbers were up 6.1%, domestic 8.9%, while passengers on charters were up 17.1%.
The average cabin load factor in Q1 2024 stood at 59.7%, down 9 points on 2019 and a decline of 1.6 points on last year. Average loads amounted to 59.7% on international services (down 1.9 points year-on-year) and 61.9% on domestic flights (up 3.8 points year-on-year). Croatia Airlines ran a total of 5.272 flights, which was more than four years ago when it operated a total of 5.019 services, as well as a 3% improvement on last year. Its fleet comprised of twelve aircraft during the Q1 period, including six Dash 8 Q400s, four A319s and two A320s. The turboprop fleet was utilised on 64.9% of all flights. During the first quarter, the Croatian carrier counted a total of 921 employees.
