The national flag carrier Croatia Airlines on Tuesday recorded its forty millionth passenger, Ivanka Candrlic, who arrived at Zagreb Airport aboard a Croatia Airlines flight from Frankfurt.

“We are very pleased to welcome our forty millionth passenger in the year when we celebrate the company’s 30th anniversary. Additionally symbolic is the fact that the forty millionth passenger was recorded on a flight which was our first international flight in 1992,” said Croatia Airlines Management Board chair Jasmin Bajic.

Asked to comment on the future of Croatia Airlines, considering that three scenarios have been mentioned in the media, Bajic said that he believed in the company’s future.

“In the third quarter we earned a profit of HRK 41 million. That is the reality of Croatia Airlines – we lose in the wintertime and earn in the summer, when there is competition. We have to find a solution for the wintertime, when we are practically the only airline connecting Croatia with the rest of the world. In the wintertime we have 15 rivals, and in the summertime more than one hundred on this highly competitive aviation market,” Bajic said.

Asked if he expected help from the state, Bajic recalled that Croatia Airlines was owned by the state and that currently a process was underway that would result in a change of the ownership structure. But that’s up to the owner and not the company itself, he said.

The Vecernji List daily reported on Tuesday that the consultants that have been hired to find a strategic partner and define a recapitalisation model for Croatia Airlines are expected to propose a plan to salvage the national airline by the end of the year.

The consultants are currently working on three models which include airports, pension funds and the ACI marina operator.

Sources close to the consultants have said that according to one of the models, a holding company consisting of Croatian airports and Croatia Airlines would be established. Another solution would be for pension insurance funds to take over Croatia Airlines and airports, and the third solution would be for pension insurance funds to take over Croatia Airlines as well as ACI.