The European Coastal Airlines seaplane network got a little wider on July 1, 2016, with commercial operations commencing in two new seaports.
Ahead of a busy party season on Zrce on the island of Pag, young partygoers got a welcome boost to shorten their travel times at the beginning of a busy festival season, with the launch of commercial flights to Novalja, the town close to Croatia's most famous party beach. Zrce has at the beginning of a very busy festival season, and revellers will now be able to get to the party in just 43 minutes from downtown Split. Additional locations servicing Novalja are the northern cities of Pula and Rijeka.
Flights to downtown Rijeka also began today, an important connection for the airline, which commenced the first scheduled seaplane operation in modern European history in August 2014, with a flight from near Split Airport to Jelsa on the island of Hvar. Since then, ECA has expanded steadily, and now offers connections from as far south as Dubrovnik Airport to Ancona and Pescara in Italy, with several coastal and island destinations in between. ECA had been flying to Rijeka Airport on the island of Krk, and it is now possible to fly from downtown Rijeka to Mali Losinj, Rab, Novalja and Split downtown.
Infrastructure is improving, and the airline has also just completed its seaport at Mali Losinj, with flights to commence shortly - currently, ECA flights to the airport at Mali Losinj only.
One popular addition to the ECA timetable in recent weeks has been the introduction of panorama flights from downtown Split, a chance for those not travelling to enjoy the seaplane experience. The 15-minute flights, which take off and land at the seaplane port in Split's downtown harbour, take in the islands of Solta and Brac, providing spectacular views of a number of attractions, such as the iconic beach of Zlatni Rat in Bol on Brac (see lead photo, courtesy of Nenad Bakic), as well as the chance to see two of Croatia's seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites from the air, the Stari Grad Plain on Hvar and Diocletian's Palace in Split.
