Croatia Airlines has brought forward the impending retirement of its last remaining example of the Airbus A320-200, with just four flights now planned with the type in February of 2026. The move comes as the Croatian flag carrier and Star Alliance member looks to accelerate its ongoing fleet modernization program.

Narrowbody twinjets from the A320ceo family have long formed the backbone of the carrier’s short-haul international fleet, but, now, Croatia Airlines is looking to the future by putting the newer Airbus A220 series at the heart of its operations. Let’s take a look at what February has in store for its last A320 standing.

End Of An Era

It has long been known that the first quarter of 2026 would represent the end of the road for Croatia Airlines’ scheduled Airbus A320-200 flights, with Avio Radar reporting back in June of 2025 that January 31, 2026, had been earmarked as the type’s retirement date. According to Ex Yu Aviation, the type’s tenure was subsequently extended to February 15 of this year, but, now, its final day of operations has been brought forward to February 9.

Data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shows that Croatia Airlines has planned just four A320 flights in February. Three of these will operate on February 8, starting with a round trip from Zagreb (ZAG) to Copenhagen (CPH) and back. This will be followed by a domestic leg to Split (SPU), where it will remain overnight before operating its final passenger-carrying flight the following day to take it back to Zagreb Airport for its retirement.

Simple Flying has reached out to Croatia Airlines for further information regarding its Airbus A320 retirement. We will update our coverage upon receiving a response from the carrier.

The Last One Standing

According to present fleet data made available by ch-aviation, there are still two examples of the Airbus A320-200 that are registered to Croatia Airlines. However, a quick look at tracking data from Flightradar24 shows that one of these, a 25.8-year-old example that bears the registration 9A-CTK, has already been withdrawn from service. Indeed, its last flight, from Amsterdam to Zagreb, was more than two months ago, on November 11.

As such, this just leaves one active example of the Airbus A320-200 in the Croatia Airlines fleet, which, as pictured above, wears a special livery celebrating the carrier’s membership in the Star Alliance. The aircraft in question is 21.9 years old, bears the registration 9A-CTO, and, according to Planespotters.net, has worn this paint scheme since it entered service with Croatia Airlines in November 2022. It also bears the name Dubrovnik.

This particular example of the Airbus A320-200 began its life with Air Malta back in April of 2004 as 9H-AER, but it only served the Maltese flag carrier for two years (including a brief spell on lease to Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling Airlines). The bulk of its career was spent at TAP Air Portugal, which it served from May 2006 to February 2020. After this, it was stored in Faro, Alverca, and Montpellier before finding its way to Croatia Airlines in 2022.

Fleet Modernization

A key driving force behind Croatia Airlines’ retirement of its small fleet of Airbus A320-200 narrowbody twinjets has been a fleet modernization program that is putting the newer A220 series at the heart of its operations. As detailed in the table below, the Croatian flag carrier and Star Alliance member has already taken delivery of seven examples of the type across two variants, and future deliveries will see its sub-fleet more than double to 15 A220s.

As reported by Simple Flying, Croatia Airlines took delivery of its first aircraft from the Airbus A220 series back in July of 2024, with the new twinjet entering service the following month. The carrier’s A220 fleet is full of quirks, such as the fact that its A220-100s are the most densely-configured in the world, with 127 seats. Meanwhile, its 150-seat A220-300s have a blocked seat due to their emergency exit configuration only allowing 149 guests.