On Monday 11th October, a Croatia Airlines Dash 8 Q400 aircraft had to return to Franjo Tuđman Airport Zagreb (ZAG) due to a cabin pressurization problem. The aircraft in question bears the registration 9A-CQA and was flying the evening rotation from Zagreb to Munich Airport (MUC) under flight number OU436.

The crew stopped climbing at FL140 when the pressurization problem became evident and returned the aircraft to Zagreb 34 minutes after take-off. Incidents with Croatia Airlines are rare: in over 30 years of flying, the Croatian flag carrier has had no crashes or fatal incidents.

A replacement aircraft was available

Shortly after their return to Zagreb, passengers on flight OU436 were put on a replacement aircraft that Croatia Airlines had available since it entered the post-peak season phase of its annual fleet utilization program.

From early October, Croatia Airlines has spare capacity most days of the week for at least half of the day. This includes both its Dash 8 Q400 fleet and its Airbus A320 family fleet.

The replacement aircraft, carrying the registration 9A-CQE took off from Zagreb Airport at 20:41, arriving at Munich Airport some 120 minutes behind schedule. It operated the return flight with a smaller delay, returning to Zagreb from Munich with a delay of just 80 minutes.

Banked flight times

This reduction in delay was achieved thanks to the long turnover time that Croatia Airlines always has on its evening rotation to Munich. The outbound leg, from ZAG to MUC, departs Zagreb at 18:45 after Croatia Airlines’ regional feeder flights arrive to feed the early-evening departure wave out of Zagreb.

Destinations that are in this wave are the major European Star Alliance hubs, and chiefly Lufthansa Group hubs. They are Munich, Frankfurt (FRA), Brussels (BRU), Vienna (VIE), Zurich (ZRH), and London Heathrow (LHR). Meanwhile, Croatia Airlines’ regional destinations that feed this wave are Pula (PUY), Zadar (ZAD), Split (SPU), Dubrovnik (DBV), Sarajevo (SJJ), and Skopje (SKP). These all arrive at least 45 minutes before the Munich flight departs at 18:45.

The Munich flight arrives in Germany at 19:55, in time for Croatia Airlines’s passengers to transfer onto Lufthansa’s entire evening departure wave from this airport. However, in order to make the return leg from MUC to ZAG also feeder-friendly, the aircraft has to wait in Munich for longer than the standard turnover time for a Dash 8 Q400 to allow more passengers from Lufthansa’s arriving flights to make the minimum connecting time for the onward travel to Zagreb. It leaves an hour and 20 minutes after arriving.

9A-CQA, the aircraft involved in this incident, has since returned to service. Just twelve hours later, on Tuesday 12th October, it operated flight OU650 to Split (SPU) at 06:30, from where it continued to Munich.

As Simple Flying reported last week, Croatia Airlines will replace its entire Dash 8 Q400 fleet with Airbus A220 aircraft within the next four years as part of its decision to unify its fleet.

What do you think of Croatia Airlines having a cabin pressurization problem? What do you think of its decision to replace its entire fleet with Airbus A220 aircraft? Let us know what you think of this story in the comments below.

Source: The Aviation Herald

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  Croatia Airlines

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  OU/CTN

  Airline Type:

  Full Service Carrier

  Hub(s):

  Zagreb Airport

  Year Founded:

  1989

  Alliance:

  Star Alliance

  CEO:

  Jasmin Bajić

  Country:

  Croatia

  Region:

  Europe