Caretaker CEO at the state-owned national flag carrier Croatia Airlines (CA), Jasmin Bajic, was a guest at N1’s Novi Dan morning programme on Monday, where he commented on the upcoming strike at Croatia Airlines, announced to begin on Wednesday.

The company’s workers’ union ORCA said last Friday that pilots, cabin crew and aircraft mechanics employed at Croatia Airlines will go on strike on Wednesday, August 8 at 6.00, after the government and the company management had failed to fulfil their demands for higher salaries, a new collective agreement and less overtime work assigned to employees.

The primary issue concerns appointing the new management which would make it possible to finally sign a new collective agreement, after the last one had expired in December 2016. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic had met with the unions earlier in July and, according to the unions’ representatives, promised their problems would be addressed. The last government session before the recess was held last Thursday, but the decision on appointing the airline’s new management was not made.

Croatia Airlines’ temporary management had warned last Friday that the strike will cost the company up to €800,000 a day, and that the company did not have the means to earmark an additional almost €7.1 million a year to fulfil the unions’ demands.

The unions’ representatives and the company management are scheduled to meet today at 15.00 for talks about the situation in the airline.

Are you in contact with the union, will there be further talks?

We are in contact. I expect there will be further talks, because there is no alternative. Today, tomorrow during the night, I am always available. Our passengers come first because we are nothing without them, and we answer to them. I hope that reason prevails and that the strike doesn’t happen. If it does, we are preparing for a crisis situation in CA.

Can you fulfil the union’s demands?

The demands are such that even they understand they can’t be fulfilled. And we are talking about salary increases for only a part of the employees, not all pilots, cabin crew and mechanics are in the union. It’s important that we all think rationally and see what our options are.

What are you offering them?

It’s important to emphasise that the last collective agreement continued to be implemented even after it expired on January 31, 2016. Under that agreement, salaries grew for the cabin crew every six months, for example. There are a lot of time constraints, and the agreement has been implemented this whole time, which ORCA has silently agreed to as well: they never asked that the implementation of the old collective agreement stops, and it will once they begin the strike.

You have recently made salaries in Croatia Airlines public, was this an attempt to expose them?

No. I wanted to say, in the public interest, that their salaries are above Croatia’s average. I would like their salaries to be even higher, but we can only get there with better results, but we are far below the global and European productivity average.

Why is Croatia Airlines not making use of the tourism boom?

We need additional aircraft, we need to renew our fleet, and for that we need additional funding. Our problems are financial in nature and the government has recognised that. We need to find more funding for the next investment cycle to keep, and increase, our market share, but we also must keep in mind that there is a big difference between winter and summer. CA has had insufficient capital from the beginning and this is something we’ve been dealing with for a long time.

What will the strike mean for the passengers – how many flights are scheduled, how many will be cancelled?

We will know more today and tomorrow morning, we have formed a crisis committee. No flights have been cancelled yet. Out of some 100 that are scheduled, at least 30 percent must be completed, and we are looking to lease additional aircraft from our partners and other companies. If we did nothing, 70 percent flights would be cancelled, but we will try to do our best for our passengers and not let that happen.

Are people even buying tickets?

This has caused damage already, we have seen the negative effects on bookings, how can our passengers trust us when this keeps happening? I hope that we will come to an agreement because there is no alternative – and if the strike begins, I will still have to sit and talk with everyone. It is better that we try and find a way out of this situation without great losses.

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