Croatian airline Trade Air will not reactivate subsidized domestic flights on July 18, 2022 as originally announced. The carrier communicated August 1, 2022 as the new date.

For several years, Trade Air has operated a number of PSO-subsidized domestic routes within Croatia. However, you do not carry out the operational implementation yourself, but take other carriers with small aircraft into the wet lease. It is planned that from August 1, 2022, a Saab 340 from an unspecified provider will fly on behalf of the Croatian airline.

As of May 1, 2022, Trade Air has all domestic PSO routes temporarily discontinued. The reason for this is that the new tender took longer than originally assumed. The competitor Croatia Airlines, which also receives subsidies on some domestic routes, has not decided to take this step.

The Croatian government had extended the tender in the hope that other carriers would apply. However, only Trade Air and Croatia Airlines, i.e. the two airlines that were already under contract, submitted offers. Accordingly, the bid was delayed. Trade Air believes that the affected routes cannot operate without subsidies.

Initially, there was talk that the subsidized domestic flights would be operated again from July 4, 2022, but Trade Air then communicated July 18, 2022. It has now been announced that the resumption will not take place until August 1, 2022 with a of a Saab 340 rented under a wet lease agreement. The operating carrier was not named.