Croatia Airlines Blames Late A220 Deliveries for Rising Costs

(CROATIA) Croatia Airlines blamed deepening losses this year on prolonged delays to its Airbus A220 fleet renewal, saying postponed handovers forced it to keep older aircraft on lease, pay for expensive temporary capacity, and carry extra training and maintenance costs that have piled up faster than revenue gains. The flag carrier reported a net loss of nearly €21 million for the first nine months of 2025, even as revenue rose 10% to €227 million, and warned that delays are undermining plans to cut costs and streamline operations.

Management said the disruption has been sharper than expected because setbacks have compounded over time.

“Delays in A220 deliveries have been a key operational risk. By mid-2025, total delays had surpassed 62 months compared to the original delivery schedule, leading to increased leasing costs and seasonal capacity challenges,” the airline’s management stated.
With A220 deliveries spread unevenly and fresh slippages announced earlier this year, Croatia Airlines said its transition expenses roughly doubled operating losses year-on-year despite steady demand and higher ticket sales.

As of October 2025, Croatia Airlines had received seven A220s, short of what it had planned to induct by this point in the year, and it now expects additional aircraft to arrive in 2026 and beyond. The company said the shifting handover calendar has made it harder to retire older jets and turboprops, staff crews efficiently, and launch new routes as planned. It confirmed that

“the delivery schedule for Croatia Airlines’ new Airbus A220s has already been postponed multiple times by the manufacturer. Further delays for 2025 were announced earlier this year, adding another layer of uncertainty that complicates operational planning and exposes the company to increased costs.”
The airline’s management added the schedule uncertainty has ripple effects across operations.

The central financial picture is stark. For January through September 2025, the airline booked a net loss of €20.9 million, up from roughly €20 million for all of 2024, as transition costs swelled. Management said operating losses more than doubled from a year earlier. Revenue did rise to €227 million in the nine-month period, but higher income could not offset the cash outflow tied to A220 deliveries slipping and the knock-on effects across maintenance, leasing, and crew training. The combined pressures helped drag the carrier’s bottom line deeper into the red even with a busier summer and higher yields on some routes.

A core problem, executives say, is being forced to pay on two tracks at once: holding onto legacy aircraft longer while also funding the introduction of the new fleet. The airline said it had to keep paying leases on outgoing planes, including two De Havilland Dash 8-400s, because supply chain and maintenance backlogs blocked timely redeliveries to lessors.

“Croatia Airlines is paying the lease for these aircraft to the owner until the aircraft are handed over…which is a significant additional unplanned cost caused by the crisis in the aviation supply chain,” the company stated.
Those payments come on top of costs for the A220 program itself, and the mismatch has extended for months as aircraft acceptance and return checks stack up in a congested maintenance market.

To keep its schedule intact and protect airport slots while waiting on A220 deliveries, Croatia Airlines turned to short-term wet-leasing, hiring aircraft and crews from other operators at premium rates. In 2024, it paid €10.9 million to wet-lease two Airbus A320-family aircraft, bridging gaps in the roster to run summer flights and keep customer disruption in check. While that move preserved connections and helped sustain market presence, the spend fed into the rising net loss and left less headroom to absorb further delivery slips.

The delays also pushed back new route launches and compressed the peak-season calendar. Some seasonal services that were slated to begin at the start of the summer only started in July, costing the airline early-season revenue and limiting marketing lead time. Management said the stop-start pattern has weighed on forward bookings, crew planning, and ground operations, as teams rework rosters and airport handling arrangements with little notice each time an arrival is deferred.

Training has been another cost driver. Croatia Airlines has been cycling pilots through A220 type-rating courses and simulators timed to aircraft arrivals that did not materialize on schedule, resulting in repeated sessions and extended periods when pilots were paid but not flying.

“Pilots training for the new type of aircraft had to be out of duty for two months. The first twenty pilots, including five instructors, faced even longer downtime due to repeated postponements,” the airline explained.
Those pauses brought further bills for hotel accommodation and daily allowances, and the company said it hired more pilots than immediately needed in anticipation of aircraft that later slipped into the following year.

Beyond staffing, the carrier committed substantial sums to secure parts and backup capability for the new fleet. In 2024, Croatia Airlines spent €28.9 million on a spare A220 engine and parts to support operations and reduce the risk of groundings. It also made an advance payment of €961,000 for a second spare engine, placed €559,000 in security deposits tied to new aircraft, and paid €185,000 to access the A220 parts pool. Those outlays are standard elements of a modern fleet transition, but the timing has been painful, arriving just as the airline is still paying for airplanes it intends to phase out and while A220 deliveries lag original commitments.

The airline’s leadership has framed the entire A220 program as essential to its future and repeatedly said the near-term financial pain is an investment in a leaner operation. They called the A220 fleet renewal

“the largest project in the company’s history,”
and stressed that
“short-term losses are expected as part of the transition, with liquidity carefully managed through cash-flow projections and cost optimization measures.”
The company maintains that once the fleet settles into a single-type operation, maintenance and training will be simpler, fuel burn will drop, and aircraft utilization will improve, helping to reverse the current net loss.

For now, however, the combination of slippages and market constraints is acting like a squeeze on every part of the business. Airlines worldwide have confronted spare parts shortages, engine shop bottlenecks, and tight capacity at maintenance providers, conditions that slow both the introduction of new types and the return of leased aircraft. Croatia Airlines said the global supply chain strains, a shortage of skilled labor, and demand spikes for new aircraft have all played a role in delays, alongside testing and certification issues that have rippled through manufacturers and suppliers. In this environment, shifting one delivery can trigger follow-on changes to simulator slots, crew rotations, and slot filings with airports.

The pace and unpredictability of A220 deliveries have also shaped how Croatia Airlines balances customer commitments and cash preservation. Wet-leasing kept key trunk routes running and protected the airline’s presence at important airports, but the extra capacity came at a premium, and the carrier said it had to weigh on-time performance and slot retention against the cost per hour of leased lift. Pushing back route launches to July clawed back some summer traffic, yet missing the early season cost sales during peak booking windows. Each of these choices feeds into the net loss line, even as the airline argues they protect long-term network health.

By its own account, the company’s operating losses more than doubled year-on-year, and the nine-month net loss of €20.9 million for 2025 sits alongside roughly €20 million lost in 2024. While revenue of €227 million in the first three quarters of 2025 shows customer demand has held up, the figures also highlight how transition costs can overwhelm gains without a steady stream of A220 deliveries. Operating a mixed fleet during a crossover period generally raises costs for training, maintenance, and scheduling, and the company’s statements suggest each month of delay extends that expensive overlap.

Executives said delayed redeliveries of older planes have a direct cash impact beyond lease payments. When handbacks slip, airlines often keep incurring maintenance and insurance costs, face penalties for missed technical benchmarks, and lose the savings they had planned once a newer, more efficient aircraft takes over. Croatia Airlines’ note about Dash 8-400s staying longer in the fleet implies parallel costs across crew rosters, line maintenance tooling, and spare parts inventories, because the company must keep both legacy and new type support in place until the crossover is complete.

The training disruptions described by the airline also underline a quiet cost: idle time for specialized crews.

“Pilots training for the new type of aircraft had to be out of duty for two months. The first twenty pilots, including five instructors, faced even longer downtime due to repeated postponements,” the airline explained, adding that it covered hotels and daily allowances as those schedules shifted.
In a tight labor market, hiring ahead of need is a hedge against later shortages, but doing so when deliveries slip stretches payroll and adds travel and accommodation bills as crews wait for aircraft.

The spending on spare engines and parts shows how much the airline wants to avoid a false start with the A220. A spare engine at €28.9 million and advance payments for a second at €961,000 provide insurance against unscheduled removals that can ground aircraft for weeks, especially with engine shop backlogs. The €185,000 payment for parts pool access and €559,000 in security deposits are smaller line items but illustrate the layer-cake of costs that surround each new aircraft acceptance, from tooling to software to inspections by regulators. In Croatia, oversight falls under the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency, which works with European aviation authorities on airworthiness and operational approvals.

A feature of this transition, and a key reason the net loss has widened, is timing. The airline pays for wet-leases now to keep the schedule intact, carries lease and maintenance costs for aircraft it hoped to return, pays instructors and simulator providers to train crews on the A220, and spends on spare engines and parts, all while the revenue benefits of a larger, more efficient A220 fleet arrive later than planned. Each month of delay, the company said, adds strain across these categories and prolongs the period before cost savings and simpler operations kick in.

Even with those headwinds, Croatia Airlines has tried to keep its network stable enough to hold passenger trust. Wet-leased A320-family jets filled in last year, and this summer the airline still launched some seasonal flights in July, indicating a determination to capture at least part of the peak travel period. The trade-off is a higher cost base in the short term and a heavier drag on profit. The airline’s frequent references to A220 deliveries—both the ones accepted and the ones still in the queue—show how central the handover schedule is to everything from marketing to crew planning.

Looking ahead, Croatia Airlines says more A220s will arrive in 2026 and beyond, with the promise of a simpler single-type fleet that could cut costs, improve on-time performance, and allow more nimble scheduling. In the meantime, management has been blunt about cash stewardship, repeatedly stating that

“short-term losses are expected as part of the transition, with liquidity carefully managed through cash-flow projections and cost optimization measures.”
The company has not provided a revised breakeven target, but its emphasis on cash flow suggests a focus on staying liquid while waiting for aircraft rather than stretching for rapid expansion.

The airline’s argument is that when the transition is done, uniformity will pay off. A single-type A220 fleet should reduce training complexity, shrink the spare parts inventory, and let the airline swap crews and aircraft more easily across routes. That vision rests on deliveries arriving in a steadier pattern than they have so far. Until then, the carrier remains tied to a dual system, with older planes exiting later than planned, wet-leases bridging gaps, and training pipelines running hot.

For now, the scorecard is clear: seven A220s in place by October 2025, more coming in 2026 and after; a net loss of €20.9 million for the first nine months of 2025 after roughly €20 million in 2024; €227 million in revenue through September; €10.9 million spent on wet-leases in 2024; €28.9 million laid out for a spare engine and parts; €961,000 advanced for a second spare engine; €559,000 posted in security deposits; and €185,000 for access to the parts pool. All of it, the airline says, stems from delayed A220 deliveries that pushed costs up and pushed savings out.

The company remains committed to the program. It insists the A220 effort is

“the largest project in the company’s history,”
and that each delivery brings it closer to a simpler, cheaper operation. The immediate challenge is bridging the gap between that goal and day-to-day reality. As management put it,
“the delivery schedule for Croatia Airlines’ new Airbus A220s has already been postponed multiple times by the manufacturer. Further delays for 2025 were announced earlier this year, adding another layer of uncertainty that complicates operational planning and exposes the company to increased costs.”
Until the handovers settle into a predictable rhythm, Croatia Airlines will be working through the same equation: protect its schedule and market presence now, carry the added expense, and trust the long-term benefits of the A220 fleet will eventually outweigh today’s net loss.