The current security crisis in the Middle East has once again reopened an old debate about the role of national airlines. While parts of the airspace are closed, commercial routes are cancelled, and passengers across the region left without a clear plan for returning home, governments are once again relying on one of the few remaining options – organized repatriation flights.
In Croatia’s case, the Government, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MVEP) and the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure (MMPI), has organized a series of operations to return citizens from the crisis region over the past nine days. By 9 March, a total of 870 Croatian citizens had been repatriated, along with another 101 foreign nationals from more than twenty countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy and Slovenia. This ensured that all Croatian citizens who wished to leave the crisis area were given the opportunity to return home.
The operations were carried out through a combination of charter flights and flights operated by the national carrier, Croatia Airlines. Among them were special flights from Dubai and Riyadh. On a single flight from Dubai to Zagreb, 157 Croatian citizens were returned, including children, while another 150 passengers were repatriated on a separate flight from Saudi Arabia.
According to statements by the competent minister, Oleg Butković, the total cost of the repatriation operations amounted to around €850,000. At first glance, this is a significant amount for a relatively small number of flights, but in crises, such costs become almost unavoidable. And this is where the broader discussion begins.
A national carrier in crisis – a hidden function
National airlines are usually assessed through their financial results. In that context, Croatia Airlines is often the target of criticism due to chronic losses and the need for state support. Debates about whether the state should finance a national airline regularly return to the public sphere.
However, situations such as the current repatriation effort show that national carriers also perform a function that cannot easily be measured through balance sheets. When a crisis erupts – war, political instability, a pandemic or a natural disaster – the state suddenly needs an operational tool capable of responding immediately. In this case, that means an aircraft, a crew, an operational system, security procedures and logistics ready to be activated within just a few hours.
During the current crisis, Croatia Airlines provided exactly that. In coordination with state institutions, flights were organized to destinations outside the regular network, under complex operational conditions and airspace restrictions.
A lesson from the pandemic
This is not the first time that the role of a national airline has proven crucial. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Croatia Airlines organized a series of repatriation flights that brought Croatian citizens home from various parts of the world. One of the most notable was the historic flight to China, which transported large quantities of medical equipment and hygiene supplies to Croatia at a time when global logistics chains were severely disrupted.
Such operations are not part of the traditional business model of airlines. Yet in moments like these, a national carrier effectively becomes part of a country’s state infrastructure – a kind of logistical extension of the state.
What happens when a country has no national airline?
To understand this issue, it is enough to look at the situation in Slovenia. After the collapse of Adria Airways in 2019, the country was left without its own national airline.
In the current crisis, this has proven to be a serious operational challenge. The organization of repatriation flights has become the center of a public scandal due to high charter flight prices and controversies surrounding the airlines engaged for the operation. The state simply has no internal capacity and must rely entirely on the market – often at a moment when demand is enormous and available aircraft are scarce.
Under such circumstances, a government’s negotiating position is weak. Prices rise, the choice of operators is limited, and control over the operation is significantly reduced.
How much is a safety net worth?
Of course, repatriation flights can be organized without a national airline. The global charter market is sufficiently developed that it is usually possible to find an operator willing to perform such flights.
However, the key questions then become: how quickly an aircraft can be secured, how much the operation will cost, and what priority that flight will have for an airline simultaneously serving numerous other clients.
Countries with a national airline nevertheless have one advantage in such situations – their own operational capacity that can be activated without negotiations, without searching the market for an available aircraft, and without waiting.
Is it worth paying for?
For all these reasons, repatriation flights once again raise a recurring question in public debates: is maintaining a national airline – even when it operates at a loss – actually a strategic investment?
Critics will argue that it is an expensive symbol that the market can replace. Supporters will respond that markets do not function the same way in crises as they do under normal circumstances. The truth is probably somewhere in between.
Only one thing is certain: when a crisis occurs, a state will always find someone to operate the flight and bring its citizens home. The real question is under what conditions, with what speed of response, and with what level of priority. And it is precisely in that space – between the market and the national interest – that the reason lies why many countries, despite financial challenges, still consider national airlines part of their strategic infrastructure.
