The national flag carrier Croatia Airlines ended the first half of 2018 with an operating loss of 79.6 million kuna (€10.8 million), reducing its loss by 17 percent compared with the same period in 2017, the state-owned airline said in their financial report released on Tuesday.

The company said that in spite of posting a loss, this was its best financial result in the last four years, with the operating loss reduced by 16.4 million kuna (€2.2 million) compared to the first six months of 2017 – once a one-time income of 138.6 million kuna (€18.7 million) earned from the sale of landing slots at Heathrow airport is excluded.

In the same period, passenger transport revenue increased by 9 percent year-on-year to 639.2 million kuna (€86.5 million), while cargo transport revenue fell by 5 percent to 5.3 million kuna (€717,000).

Total operating revenue was up 4 percent, to 726 million kuna (€98.2 million), while operating expenditures increased by 2 percent to 803.6 million kuna (€108.7 million).

The company said they completed more than 12,800 flights in the first six months of 2018, carrying 949,000 passengers, or up 5 percent year-on-year, with the passenger load factor (PLF) increasing by 1.3 percentage points to 70.9 percent.

During the reporting period, the company invested some 82.6 million kuna, mostly in its fleet, which resulted in the value of its property increasing by 17 percent since the end of 2017.

(€1 = 7.39 kuna)

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