Croatia Airlines – cut planning time by 40% and transformed planning with Farseer
Replacing 50+ interconnected Excel files with a unified platform for operational and financial planning — cutting planning time by 40% and giving the airline a single source of truth.
About Croatia Airlines
Croatia Airlines is the flag carrier of Croatia, providing scheduled and charter passenger services, as well as cargo transport and aircraft maintenance. The airline operates a fleet that is currently transitioning to Airbus A220 aircraft, supporting both regional and European connectivity.
With over 1,000 employees, the airline connects around 20 countries, carrying around two million passengers annually across more than 28,000 flights each year. Operating in an industry defined by high seasonality, volatile fuel prices, and constant regulatory change, Croatia Airlines depends on precise, flexible planning to maintain financial stability and operational efficiency.
The complexity of airline financial planning
Financial planning in the airline industry is uniquely complex, particularly for airlines like Croatia Airlines operating in highly seasonal markets.Unlike most businesses, the planning process does not begin with financial figures; it starts with the fleet planning and flight schedule as the primary driver, from which traffic performance metrics are derived and then translated into revenues and costs. Every change to the fleet and flight schedule has a ripple effect on a wide range of cost and revenue items ultimately impacting the entire P&L and overall financial performance.
Revenues are highly variable, driven by competition, demand, and strong seasonality, with peak demand during the summer months and significantly lower activity in the off-season. External shocks such as geopolitical crises, fuel price swings, CO2 emission regulation, and supply chain disruptions can upend assumptions overnight. The result is a planning environment that demands both granular detail and rapid flexibility.
“Financial planning in the airline industry is highly complex because it connects high capital investments, a high share of fixed costs, and highly variable revenues. Every change in the fleet or flight schedule directly affects costs, revenues, crew, maintenance and ultimately liquidity.”
When Excel couldn’t keep up
Before Farseer, Croatia Airlines managed its entire planning process in Excel around 50 to 60 interconnected workbooks organised across a large number of models and submodels. The output of one model served as the input for the next, all linked together through a web of cross-file references. Planning spanned multiple dimensions: corporate level, cost centre, account, aircraft type, route, and individual flight.
Preparing for each planning cycle meant manually updating every workbook, verifying formulas and links, and building custom Excel templates for each organisational unit. Adding a single new dimension a new account, a new route, a new flight required changes across every file in the chain. When files grew large, links would break, formulas would disappear, and recalculation slowed to a crawl. Version control was managed through email, and errors could propagate across planning cycles.
“Before Farseer, we planned in an Excel environment with 50 to 60 interconnected spreadsheets. The biggest problems were preparation; updating every sheet, checking links, verifying data consistency which consumed enormous amounts of time. And communication between controlling and planners relied heavily on email, where one of the biggest challenges was simply knowing which version was the latest.”
The breaking point came with COVID-19. As epidemiological measures shifted week by week, the airline was forced to continuously revise its flight schedule and plan. Assumptions changed overnight. The team couldn’t finish one version before the next was needed and Excel simply couldn’t deliver the speed required.
“Assumptions were literally changing overnight. We were forced to create a new a plan in very short time, but we hadn’t even finished one version before we had to start another. Excel couldn’t support the speed we needed.”
Why Farseer?
Croatia Airlines reviewed different solutions before selecting Farseer. The decision was based on the need to preserve the planning methodology and domain expertise while moving to a more modern, flexible, and reliable platform. Farseer met that requirement and more.
- Methodological flexibility — Farseer supported Croatia Airlines’ existing planning logic, models, and allocation structures without requiring significant changes to their planning approach.
- Granularity — the platform handled planning down to individual flight level for traffic performance and down to line-item level below accounts for financial planning.
- Intuitive interface — visually similar to Excel, which made it easier for planners to transition. Copy-paste, direct cell entry, and familiar navigation made adoption seamless.
- Data integration — integration with the airline’s data warehouse for automated import of actuals, with flexible Excel import for other inputs.
- Fast versioning and scenario analysis — new plan versions could be created and compared quickly, enabling rapid response to changing conditions.
“We tested other solutions, but in the end we chose Farseer because it was very similar to Excel; intuitive, you can copy and paste, and it’s visually familiar. That made it easy for planners to transition. But underneath, it’s a properly structured model with fact tables, dimension tables, and variables everything we couldn’t have in Excel.”
Unifying operational and financial planning
Today, Croatia Airlines runs its complete planning process in Farseer from operational traffic performance to full financial planning. The platform serves as the airline’s single source of truth for planning, replacing the fragmented Excel ecosystem entirely.
The system covers traffic performance planning linked to the flight schedule, financial planning at corporate, cost centre, aircraft type, and route level, multi-level revenue and cost allocations, CAPEX and depreciation planning, and the automated generation of all financial statements; P&L, cash flow, and balance sheet across different reporting structures.
Built-in validation checks and a semaphore control system flag inconsistencies in real time. For example, alerting planners when a flight exists in the schedule but has no passengers planned. Changes entered in one place flow automatically through the entire model, eliminating the chain of manual updates that defined the old process.
“The semaphore system is phenomenal. It simply tells you: you have a flight but no planned passengers. You enter the data directly in Farseer, and it flows through the entire system automatically. Those controls are incredibly useful when inputs are constantly changing.”
Transforming speed, transparency, and collaboration
Even in its first planning cycle, Farseer has delivered measurable improvements across Croatia Airlines’ planning operations. The overall planning process has been shortened by an estimated 40%, technical preparation phase running roughly 50% faster. Automated data imports from the data warehouse replacing a significant amount of manual copy-paste work from SAP into Excel now completed in a fraction of time.
Collaboration between the controlling team and department planners has been transformed. Roles, permissions, and deadlines are clearly defined within the platform. Changes are recorded and traceable; who entered what and when replacing the opacity of the old email-based workflow. Planners across the organisation work in a shared environment, with real-time visibility into the data and the ability to present results to management directly in Farseer.
“What surprised me most was how easily people transitioned. We expected friction, resistance to a new system. But the opposite happened. Planners now prefer to show their results to management directly in Farseer rather than in Excel. We’ve shifted our time from static manual work to analysis and better communication things that add real value.”
The freed capacity has allowed the controlling team to redirect their focus from checking formulas and chasing versions to higher-value work: deeper analysis, closer collaboration with planners, and translating business activities into supporting more accurate financial planning.
“The overall planning process has been shortened by around 40%. But beyond time savings, what matters is reliability. The platform is stable, the data is trustworthy, and we spend far less time on the manual controls and corrections that used to frustrate the entire team.”
Addressing critical planning needs
- Planning speed and efficiency — overall planning process reduced by ~40%; preparation phase ~50% faster; automated data imports replace a significant amount of manual work.
- Operational and financial integration — traffic performance and financial planning integrated within a single planning model, from individual flight to consolidated P&L.
- Reliability and accuracy — structured data model with built-in validation controls replaces fragile, error-prone Excel links.
- Transparency and collaboration — defined roles, permissions, and improved traceability; planners and controlling work in the same shared environment with up-to-date data.
- Seamless adoption — Excel-like interface enabled frictionless transition for planners across the organisation.
- Flexible scenario planning — rapid creation and comparison of plan versions to respond to changing conditions.
Next steps
With the first annual planning cycle in Farseer now complete, Croatia Airlines is already looking ahead. The airline plans to expand the platform to forecasting and long-term multi-year planning, building on the annual planning foundation. Consolidation of financial statements for accounting purposes is also on the roadmap. The goal is to make Farseer the central platform not just for planning, but for a broader range of financial processes across the organisation.
“I would definitely recommend Farseer to other airline companies. It’s a flexible, reliable platform that can adapt to a client’s planning methodology. For airlines, it’s essential to connect operational performance with financial planning and Farseer makes that possible.”
