An update on the ground of Croatia's seaplanes from European Coastal Airlines CEO Klaus Dieter Martin on August 18, 2016, and a cautious word of optimism on the resumption of flights from Copenhagen?
Peak season in Croatia continues without the seaplane network after the Croatian Civil Aviation Authority grounded ECA's four Twin Otters on August 13. ECA provided the following update on their Facebook page this evening, but is there a concrete glimmer of hope for the resumption of flights coming from Denmark?
"Dear passengers, friends and supporters,
ECA highly regrets to inform you that we are forced to cancel all seaplane flights until Tuesday, 23rd of August.
Papers with the authorities are still being revised and updated.
It is now still our highest priority to support our booked passengers. My entire team is currently contacting every single passenger, to issue refunds and to advise and help
with alternate transportation.
We will continue those efforts up until we fly again.
ECA and all employees would like to ensure that we are doing our best to support the authorities to review all the documents we had to supply, and to get us flying again soon.
On behalf of my entire team I would like to sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.
I would also very much like to thank those who are supporting us on social media and are posting positive messages. This is an amazing and positive support for my entire team.
Thank you.
Respectfully,
Klaus Dieter Martin
Managing Director"
As part of its investigations into the seaplane system, leading Croatian news portal Index.hr also reported that a seaplane operator in Denmark, Nordic Seaplanes, was also grounded as part of the CCAA investigation. The new airline, which started operations last May, flying from Copenhagen to Aarhus, was operation under the AOC of ECA, the only company to currently hold the appropriate certification for seaplane operations in Europe. With ECA grounded, so too was Nordic.
The Danish operator has been posting one sentence updates over the last couple of days after initially explaining why the flights were halted, and how the situation was beyond their control. This evening's update was somewhat different, however (Google Translate is our friend):
18/08/2016 16:55
NO FLIGHT Friday
Unfortunately, we can not fly Friday but we have a reasoned optismism for the flight Monday morning. Welcome on board. It was a tiresome week ...
To be continued.
