Croatia Airlines may have flown more passengers in early 2025, but it’s still falling short of its pre-pandemic heights.
The national flag carrier welcomed 329,481 passengers in the first three months of this year — up a modest 2.3% compared to the same period in 2024. Sounds promising? Not quite.
The airline is still 4.7% behind its 2019 figures, when it carried 345,800 passengers in the first quarter — back when face masks were optional and travel chaos wasn’t the norm.
And it’s not just about bums on seats. The average cabin load factor — aviation speak for how full the planes are — crept up by just 0.2 percentage points to 59.9%. That’s still a hefty 8.7 points lower than the good old days of 2019.
Breaking down the numbers, 240,308 travellers were on international flights, 88,226 flew domestically, and just 947 brave souls took a charter service. Yes, you read that right — under a thousand on charters!
To make matters more turbulent, the airline actually operated 1.2% fewer flights than last year. Fewer flights, a few more passengers — but still a long runway away from a full recovery.
As for the busiest routes, Zagreb to Frankfurt topped the charts with 79,050 seats offered, followed by Zagreb – Dubrovnik at 69,022, and Zagreb – Split close behind with 62,908.
Croatia Airlines is still in the air — but for now, it’s flying with one wing in the past.