Croatia Airlines

Is Croatia Airlines safe?

Yes. Croatia Airlines has had no fatal accident or written-off aircraft since its founding in 1989, it is overseen by the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency under EU rules, and it passed the IATA safety audit (IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary). We score it 88, close to Aegean Airlines and above LOT Polish Airlines.

The catch is size and one open case. Croatia Airlines is a small airline, so its clean record covers fewer flights than a big carrier's would. And in May 2026 one of its new A220s left the paved runway at Split during a rejected take-off. Nobody was hurt, but the cause is not known yet.

The Split runway excursion in May 2026

On 16 May 2026, flight OU412 from Split to Frankfurt was accelerating on runway 23 with 132 passengers and 5 crew when the A220-300 began to drift left. The crew rejected the take-off at about 123 knots over the ground. The aircraft slowed with its nose gear and left main gear on the grass beside the runway and stopped about 1,800 metres along it. Croatia's investigation agency, the AIN, classed it as a serious incident. It rates all the damage as repairable and therefore minor, although the list is long: the left engine hit runway signs, the nose gear and all tyres were damaged, and debris thrown up by the reversers hit the lower fuselage and left wing.

The AIN's preliminary report, published in June, says investigators inspected the site, interviewed the pilots, collected weather data and read the flight data and cockpit voice recorders. It gives no cause yet. A shower had just passed, the runway was wet and the crosswind from the right was 13 knots, gusting 20, well inside the A220's 32-knot limit; visibility was good. The next steps are an analysis of the maintenance work, the airline's pilot training and its emergency procedures. The airline said the crew rejected the take-off in line with procedures.

We count this in the incidents factor, not the accident factor, because the investigators rate the damage as minor and nobody was injured. If the final report finds a cause at the airline, in crew handling or maintenance, the score may change.

Does Croatia Airlines have a good safety record?

For an airline of its size, yes. The Aviation Safety Network lists one accident since 1989. On 27 September 2013 a Dash 8-400 arriving at Zurich from Zagreb heard a loud, repeated knocking when the gear came down, and the nose gear showed unsafe. The alternate extension did not work, so the crew landed on the main gear and lowered the nose onto the runway. All 64 people on board were unhurt, and the aircraft was repaired.

Other events since then have been the normal run of technical problems for a regional fleet: gear warnings on Dash 8s, an engine shut down on an A320 in 2018, bird strikes. One was unusual. In June 2022, after a Dash 8 landed at Sarajevo, the crew found a 2-by-2-centimetre hole in the fuselage and thought the aircraft might have been hit by gunfire on the approach. Nobody was hurt. We describe such an event but do not count it against the airline, because any shot would have come from outside.

The A220 fleet renewal

Croatia Airlines is close to the end of a full fleet change. In October 2026 it flew 21 aircraft: 2 A220-100s, 11 A220-300s, 4 older A319s and 4 Dash 8-400 turboprops (ch-aviation). It has 15 A220s on order, so two more A220-300s are still to come. The last A320 left in January 2026 and the last A319 flight is set for 27 November 2026 on the Zagreb to Vienna route. The Dash 8s go next, with a single-type fleet planned by the end of 2027.

The Airbus A220 has a clean record, but its Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines have needed early inspections. Around November 2025, close to a fifth of the world's A220s were parked waiting for engines, one of them a Croatia Airlines jet. This is a problem of cost and schedule, not of crashes: engines are taken off for inspection before they fail. Croatia Airlines put its first A220-300 into service in mid-2024.

Where Croatia Airlines flies

The network is short-haul: Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik to European hubs such as Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Zurich, plus Balkan cities and summer routes. Two things make it harder than its size suggests. The Adriatic coast gets the bora, a gusty north-easterly wind that can close Dubrovnik and Split for hours in winter. And summer traffic at Split and Dubrovnik is heavy. Approaches into Sarajevo and Skopje are through mountains. Croatia Airlines flies no routes into EASA conflict-zone bulletin areas.

Flying Croatia Airlines: what to know

• Expect a jet on most routes. By late 2026 almost every mainline flight is on an A220. The Dash 8s and a wet-leased ATR 72 from ETF Airways still fly some short routes; the ATR is flown under ETF's certificate.
• Plan for bora days. If you fly to the coast in winter, keep time spare on connections. Strong bora can cause diversions to Zagreb or long delays.
• Engine shortages mean swaps. When an A220 is waiting for an engine, the airline swaps types or leases capacity, so the aircraft on your booking can change.

How we scored it

The accident record (92) and oversight (90) are strong. The fleet (84) is mostly brand-new A220s, held back only by the A319s and Dash 8s still flying. Incidents (80) are the weakest factor because the Split excursion is still open; the final report will decide whether it costs more points.