CROATIA AIRLINES has blamed its fleet renewal process as the reason behind it posting an operating loss of €21.2m for the first six months of the year. The flag carrier of Croatia has so far introduced five Airbus A220s into its fleet and plans to take another two this year. It said that increased operating costs associated with the fleet transition had led to the financial implications of the A220s introduction being significantly higher than it had previously thought. This included an €11.9m investment in the acquisition of a spare A220 engine.