1985 | Boeing 737-200 & 737-300

YU-CSO
Osijek

YU-DFA
Varaždin

Long time no see :^)

This was the brand I won the 1950s contest with ages ago and I finally decided to flesh it out a bit. Went the Tito's-train route again with the cheatline.

Yugoslav-Soviet relations would deteriorate once more in 1968 due to Yugoslav support for the Prague Spring, which soon led to sporadic groundings of the Soviet Tu-134s due to parts and maintenance issues. With the country now having fully open borders and heavy federal investment going into tourism, especially in SR Croatia where Ijekavia was based, it became rapidly obvious that the Tu-134 fleet's inconsistency would hamper the airline badly in the short term. A small order was thusly placed for 737-200s in 1970 and deliveries began in early-1971; although the Tu-134s would eventually return to full service and continue flying into the late 1980s, the 737 immediately became the backbone of the short haul fleet and maintained that role for the next decade-plus.

With economic turmoil increasing following Tito's death in 1980, Ijekavia entered a period of uncertainty with its fate tied to the country's political direction, a prospect which was looking increasingly cloudy by the month. A series of ill-advised government loans allowed a handful of new 737-300s to be purchased in 1984 to replace the now-severely aging Caravelles in the fleet; however the airline's financial situation quickly began to mirror the country's deteriorating domestic situation, as infighting between the Yugoslav republics intensified into the late 1980s. The Croat airline would further find itself directly caught in the crossfire of the ethnic crisis of the mid-80s - Milošević and Serbian nationalists desired Ijekavia's Zagreb base to be shuttered and the airline's operations be folded into the Belgrade-based YNA (Yugoslav National Airlines) to create a singular Yugoslav airline, whereas Croatia had no interest in acquiescing to that demand.