Tomislav Impric, technical director and maintenance manager at Croatia Airlines, discusses how the carrier is readying for the arrival of A220 aircraft.

What are the key elements of Croatia Airlines’ maintenance strategy?

Croatia Airlines’ maintenance strategy is primarily based on supporting our airline operations and fleet. This is the first key element that ensures stable maintenance systems and enables Croatia Airlines’ technical department to mitigate risks associated with market volatility and become more flexible and adaptable to the environments that it operates in. The next key element is our technical training center. Our long-term success relies on investing in our people and developing their skills through training that results in an excellent quality of work and increased maintenance productivity. The high-quality engineering personnel available to maintain and support Croatia Airlines aircraft, engines and components is a direct result of the priority we give to all aspects of training. Croatia Airlines Technical Training Center offers a comprehensive range of classroom and on-the-job training programs relevant to industry developments and customer needs. Finally, having implemented these key elements, our third key one is to seek out and offer our services to third parties. Today, we provide our services to our customers for base and line maintenance, as well as CAMO services to meet their training needs.

What does the airline look for when selecting a maintenance partner?

When we are choosing maintenance partners, we are primarily looking for expertise and high-quality services. We then assess their strengths and weaknesses in the selection process. I’m convinced that our partners also carry out a similar selection process, so we just need to provide them with exactly what we are expecting from our providers. Ultimately, our partnerships should be based on reliability, industry expertise, financial stability, an excellent reputation, and a company that shares similar if not the same values, visions and goals.

Who are some of your maintenance partners and what do they cover in terms of repairs?

For our in-house maintenance work, Croatia Airlines Technical Services performs the highest level of maintenance on airframes, including line and base maintenance as well as C and D checks. For the out-of-scope maintenance repairs, we partner with OEMs and recognized maintenance providers.

Our major partners for component MRO are De Havilland Canada and Lufthansa Technik; for structural parts, Lufthansa Technik’s ARC division; and for the engine overhauls, Lufthansa Technik and Pratt & Whitney Canada. For the overhaul of the landing gears, we partner with Safran Landing Systems and Collins Aerospace.

How have the airline’s operations picked up since COVID-19 and how is the ongoing recovery in Croatia?

From the perspective of the technical services department, COVID-19 is a thing of the past due to our maintenance activities being at the same or even higher levels than before the pandemic. During this time, our MRO division was working with a lot of lessors on their bridging checks, so our resources were constantly engaged. On the other hand, we have had a major negative impact on our line maintenance business due to the lack of air travel during the pandemic, and we lost most of those customers. However, business is currently improving for line maintenance quite well, but we are realistic that it will take some more time to reach pre-COVID-19 levels.

How are you ramping up for the introduction of an all-Airbus A220 fleet eventually? What considerations are there for your maintenance operation?

Our focus is to align commercial and technical services department objectives when it comes to the introduction of the A220 aircraft into our fleet. We are now in the A220-EIS entry-into-service process and our aim is to expand all our scope and current capabilities into the new fleet. The current issue is to schedule an A220 Part 147-type training plan for our aviation maintenance license personnel. Simultaneously, we are preparing necessary logistical measures to ensure availability of ground support equipment and tools, materials, and components needed to support the new aircraft type. Furthermore, we will be focusing on the delivery processes and developing our maintenance, engineering and planning expertise for the new fleet.

How has the airline’s maintenance operation been impacted by global supply chain challenges?

Global supply chain challenges have adversely affected maintenance operations. Vendors are facing material shortages affecting their production. Distributors and workshops are facing parts shortages, which in turn delay their deliveries. At the end of day, the supply chain maintenance organizations are having delays and are struggling to complete projects on time. We are trying to mitigate the effects of global supply chain issues by optimizing the parts stock and by carefully planning the material needs, the same as the rest of the industry.

Are you still seeing extended turnaround times? When do you think these might level out?

Partially. The vendors that were underperforming before are still underperforming. Vendors that were adhering to turnaround times returned to normal. We expect everything to level out by the end of 2024.

What is your experience of the labor shortage when recruiting technicians and engineers? What has Croatia Airlines done to try to resolve these labor challenges?

The labor shortage is a well-known problem that has been communicated for years at various industry events, and there is no quick and instant solution. It is difficult to find appropriate technicians and engineers and to keep them in our company. To be able to retain and engage our workforce in the long run, we have a policy of investing in people and broadening their skill base, as well as offering good working conditions. Our policy is to create our own personnel and staff. We are employing personnel who have just finished high school or college, and will train them in-house according to our needs.

What are you prioritizing in terms of technology investments for the maintenance division?

Our major project is implementation of new MRO software, which is AMOS. AMOS is a fully integrated MRO solution that can manage the complex maintenance, engineering and logistics requirements of any modern airline and MRO provider,  irrespective of its size. Additionally, there is an AMOS mobile app for maintenance execution and easy stores handling, which leads to full support for paperless maintenance with e-signatures included. Also, some of the advanced functionalities and interfaces will allow connections with other existing software we use in company such as SAP and NetLine. Choosing the AMOS platform was crucial for Croatia Airlines because of its capability to go well beyond the requested scope, which would provide us with a long-term strategic advantage. AMOS will allow Croatia Airlines to introduce e-signature and go fully paperless with introducing EFB, electronic technical log book and similar software in the future.

About Croatia Airlines

Fleet size: Croatia Airlines operates a fleet of 13 aircraft comprised of five Airbus A319-100s, two A320-200s and six De Havilland Canada DHC-8-400 aircraft. The airline has orders in place for 15 A220 aircraft. It will take its first A220 from lessor Air Lease Corp.in 2024. In total, the airline will lease nine of the aircraft while six will be bought from Airbus.

In-house maintenance capabilities: With Croatia’s CAA approval, the airline’s scope is for base and line maintenance for Airbus A320-family, DHC-8-400 and ATR aircraft. Component maintenance (C-rating) is limited to the company’s battery shop, interior shop, wheel shop, oxygen service shop, and composite and sheet metal repair shop. Specialized services include NDT penetrant testing, as well as magnetic, eddy current, ultrasonic and radiographic testing.

Hangars and line stations: Croatia Airlines Technical Services has three hangars at its home base in Zagreb, with one position per hangar for aircraft up to A321 in size. The airline offers line maintenance services across five stations, with three in Croatia and another two in the surrounding regions. Routine and ad hoc maintenance support is monitored and organized 24/7 from its central maintenance control center in Zagreb.