Airline: Croatia Airlines
Flight #: OU462/LX4425
Route: SPU-ZRH
Class: Economy
Seat: 11C
Date: Wednesday 10th January 2024
Having spent four days on trains, making my way across Europe to Split, I had decided to take a faster and much easier way home, fly! However, being the off season, direct flights from Croatia’s second city to the UK were limited and so the journey home would be two legs, flying via an intermediate point from the journey to Split, Zurich.
Whilst exploring Split the previous day (read about that here) I had tried to find the local bus station ahead of time, ready to catch the bus to the airport, however after some research I found this was a 10–15-minute walk from the centre of the city. The buses were also similar to those in Aarhus, where they are timed based on the scheduled flights, however in Split they are timed to arrive 80 minutes before departure, leaving less time than recommended by Croatia Airlines’ website. As such I decided to scrap the bus and took the short walk back towards the train station from where I could get a Bolt taxi.
After a 30 or so minute drive from the harbourfront, the taxi dropped me off outside the airport’s new terminal that opened back in 2019. This new terminal more than tripled the airport’s floor space and allows it to handle more than 5 million passengers per year, the bulk of whom visit during the peak summer months. As such, on a random Wednesday in January, the airport was deserted and, having arrived before check-in opened, I headed up to the 2nd floor to grab a coffee and a muffin whilst I waited.
Whilst sitting and waiting, a pair of police officers patrolling the terminal came and asked for my passport and where I was flying to. Seemingly satisfied, I have no idea of the purpose of this but generally questioning the police causes more problems than its worth so I just got it over and done with. Whilst this was going on, some more passengers arrived in the and were able to check-in and so I headed back down to get checked-in and drop my bag of at oversize luggage (a result of the various straps on my rucksack, not the amount I had!).
From leaving my table in the café and heading via check-in, oversize luggage and security to reaching the departure lounge took me just 11 minutes and that was with a wait at oversize luggage. Security was very swift even with only one of the seven lanes being open and, having reached departures, I managed to find a table to settle down to write the first blog of the trip, St Pancras to Brussels by Eurostar (read about that here).
The size of the airport continued to seem excessive during this very quiet period with 11 gates serving just a handful of flights between them during the entire day. Of the 11 gates, 1-6 are for intra-Schengen flights (like mine to Zurich) whilst gates 7-11 are for non-Schengen destinations and require passing through passport control to access. Gate 4 would be from where I started my journey home, with this being less than a minutes’ walk from the exit of security. Unfortunately, during the construction of the new terminal, someone decided it was sensible to put dots all over the windows (probably to aid with the heat in the summer) and so I was unable to get a photo of my aircraft from the terminal building.
The aircraft forming my flight was 9A-CQB, a 15-year-old Bombardier Dash 8-Q400, which arrived in from Munich at around 1130. Interestingly it parked at an angle on the stand to remove the need for a pushback tug, as when we departed it would just complete a tight turn to depart under its own power. Seemingly we had a fresh crew for our flight as they headed through the gate around 10 minutes after the aircraft arrived and just before 1200 boarding began with #BoardingNotBoarding as we headed outside to wait on the tarmac for a few minutes.
Croatia Airlines’ Dash 8s are laid out in a 2-2 configuration with the 76 seats laid out in 19 rows and ‘lettered’ A, C, D & F. I was about halfway back in 11C, and although I lucked out with no-one sat next to me this was slightly foiled by row 11 having no window. Other than 11A, there were only a handful of other empty seats on this fairly busy flight across the Alps. Boarding was completed quickly and the engines started at 1217, with our taxi starting just three minutes later, right on time. After a very short taxi, we took off from Split’s runway 05 at 1223, with what the captain advised was a 90 minute flight ahead of us.
An immediate 270° right turn took us out over Kastela Bay and the Adriatic sea before then heading back overland and following the coast north-west to Zadar. The onboard service began not long after departure with an offering of water and ‘crackers with fresh cheese’ which turned out just to be cheesy crackers. Unfortunately the clouds and an poorly placed window prevented views for the majority of the flight and so I settled down to read ‘Ticket to Ride’ by Tom Chesshyre.
After around 40 minutes in the air, an update on the flight was provided by the First Officer and, having managed to get a glimpse out of the window, we appeared to be just passing over Venice and its famous lagoon. Not long after this the Alps began appearing through glimpses in the cloud and around 75 minutes after departing Split, the seatbelt sign was reilluminated for our approach to Zurich.
The clouds again obscured any views until we were about 2,000 feet above the ground and as it came into view below us I could see that Switzerland had been graced with further snow since I had left two and half days earlier. We touched down on Zurich’s runway 14 at 1353, exactly 90 minutes after take off and after a another short taxi arrived on stand at 1356, nine minutes early. Unfortunately, this early arrival was eaten into as we waited for a bus to arrive to take us to the terminal, but I did watch TAP’s CS-TNQ taxi out, starting my excitement building for my next trip, to Lisbon.
As I made my way through Zurich’s huge terminal complex, following signs for transfers, I reflected on the short flight with Croatia Airlines. Overall, the flight was pretty good and the fact that they still provide some, if limited, free onboard service gives them a mark above other ‘full service’ airlines. Unfortunately, the Dash 8s are beginning to feel a bit tired inside, although Croatia Airlines is due to get a new fleet of Airbus A220s in the next year or so which will be a great improvement.
Lounge 0*
Seat/Facilities 3*
Food 3*
Service 5*
Punctuality 5*
Overall Rating 16/25 (read about my rating system here!)
Flights & Times 