August 20, 2022 - Liberland seaplanes, whatever next? As discussions on seaplanes returning to the Croatian Adriatic continue, meanwhile on the Danube...

It is 6 years since the Croatian seaplane operator, European Coastal Airlines, was grounded before filing for bankrupcy. Since then, there have been plenty of announcements and initiatives from interested parties about the return of the seaplane service connecting the Croatian coast and its islands. But so far, nothing concrete.

But a new seaplane service came VERY close to the Croatian border a few days ago, but some distance from the Adriatic - on the Danube. 

The self-proclaimed Free State of Liberland, an unclaimed pocket of 7km2 on the Croatian side of the Danube, was claimed by Czech citizen Vit Jedlicka back in 2015 under the claim of terra nullius. Croatia promptly arrested Jedlicka and interned him overnight and ever since has done all it can to prevent Jedlicka from realising his ambitions.Serbia, on the other hand,  has been a little more hospitable, and the Apatin region across the Danube is reaping some economic benefit as a result, including the construction of the Eco Village, ARK Resort. 

If you haven't come across the Liberland story before, it is truly nuts, and I highly recommend this video about the first anniversary conference in 2016 (including an appearance of me speaking Croatian). Or you can read my report on TCN - Liberland Conference: Reflections of a Weekend in Alice in LiberWonderLand.

Freedom for Liberland! from David Freid on Vimeo.

As for why there are Liberland seaplanes but not Croatian... 

More information in this translated report from the Tango Six portal:

The first ultra-light hydroplane in Serbia: the amphibious "Legend" as the beginning of a new segment of domestic ultra-light aviation

Last week, the first ulta-light amphibious hydroplane of Czech production, registered in Italy, landed in Serbia. After modification, i.e. installation of floats in the Italian city of Cremona, the ultralight "Legend" (an interesting aircraft that irresistibly resembles a Cessna 172) was delivered to a customer in Serbia. As owner Aleksandar Zubac tells the Tango Six portal, his idea is to further popularize this segment of ultra-light flying.

Milorad Matić, the owner of the Aero East airplane factory, helped Aleksandar (whose record-breaking flight with a Tango Six motor kite he wrote about earlier) in the acquisition of the aircraft and the overflight. Since the aircraft is still under Italian registration and that Matić, in addition to their license, also has authorization to fly this type of aircraft, it was a logical choice for, as he tells our portal, a very interesting first flight:

- We flew from Cremona to Portorož, from there to Belgrade and Zemun Polje. The plane spent the night and had its first water baptism at Lake Pavlovačka. Since there are currently no registered water airports in Serbia, we submitted a flight plan for landing at the "operational site", i.e. a privately owned lake, which was approved. After that, we flew to a specially constructed pontoon near Liberland on the same principle for the recent Floating Man Liberland Summer Festival. - says Matić. As he says, the Legend is an amphibious vehicle with retractable landing gear, and the plan is for the SILA planes to also get floats and to modify three of them starting next spring.

The owner of the aircraft Zubac tells us that after kites, ultra-light aircraft and helicopters, a hydroplane is a logical evolution for him, since he deals with water tourism, which he has combined with aviation:

- To begin with, until I complete retraining, the plane is re-registered, and other regulatory prerequisites are taken care of, it will be based at the May 13 airport near Zemun Polje. The plan is for the aircraft to be based in a complex on the Sava called "Progar Cabin House", with direct access to the river. A hall of one thousand square meters is currently being built there, where Legend will be based. The plane cannot be used for commercial purposes; it will be intended to popularize flying from the water. I am engaged in the construction of facilities mainly on the water, the production of catamarans, and it will be interesting to combine these two types of transport.

I am currently in discussions with Aero East for additional purchases of two forces with floats. - said Zubac for our portal.

Help for the whole endeavor was provided by two veterans of hydro aviation from Italy, Graciano Macolari and Oracio Frigino, who have decades of experience in this interesting segment of general and ultra-light aviation. As Matić says, they are crucial both for the process of retraining and support during modifications with floats, as well as for the transfer of experience from Italy and the European Union when it comes to water operations.

As far as hydroplanes in Serbia are concerned (outside the ultra-light category), there is currently only one aircraft on the YU registration. Cesna 206 YU-DNZ owned by Gas Aviation from Smederevska Palanka. We saw her recently at the air show in Prijedor.

Check out the Legend in action taking off from the water by Liberland - video courtesy of the President of Liberland, Vit Jedlicka.  

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November 9, 2021 - It is more than 5 years since European Coastal Airlines stopped its seaplane service in Croatia. Will ACI Air succeed where others have failed?

It was really great when it lasted, with the potential (ah, the P word again) to transform not only tourism, but also business and life in Croatia. The story of European Coastal Airlines has been well-documented, but I will never forget one incredible day when I left my apartment in Jelsa at 08:45, took off from Jelsa harbour to 09:00, had time for a meeting and a quick beer at Resnik (by Split Airport) at 09:15, then departed for Pula at 10:00, before arriving at 11:00 with quite simply the most spectacular views ever from a plane. My driver was waiting in Pula to take me to Novigrad for lunch and the business I was there to conduct. I left Novigrad at 16:30, leaving plenty of time to catch the 18:00 return flight to Resnik. A 15-minute wait and then the final journey to Jelsa and I was in the pub on the main square by 19:30.

All in under 12 hours.

ECA is no more, and there have been several attempts at restarting a seaplane service in Croatia. I have learned over the years to be a little wary of new airline announcements, but I do have a soft spot for the seaplane story. And as ExYuAviation reports, the concept of ACI Air - to utilise its marinas - could be an interesting new angle. 

Rather than get too excited (you can read the full story in the link in the previous paragraph),here is what ACI’s head of Special Projects, Zdravko Delic, said at the recent Aviation Arena Webinar:

“We are launching our airline with a focus on hydro flights, similar to what ECA established a few years ago. Unfortunately, that company went into bankruptcy. However, ACI sees an opportunity in the market. We plan to operate Cessna Grand Caravan amphibian aircraft. We will acquire one turboprop, while another two will be leased. Depending on demand, the airline will have up to five aircraft in its fleet.”

“We opted for the Cessna Caravan because it can land at all of ACI’s marinas, which we have 22 of. Furthermore, we have acquired six seaports that were previously established by ECA. Therefore, we will have some thirty departure points on the Adriatic. Our plan is to acquire our first aircraft by the end of the year, and we are in the process of obtaining an Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC). We expect to have it within the next few months. Our plan is to launch operations by May 1, 2022 at the latest.”

More on the story and the reaction of aviation enthusiasts in the region on ExYuAviation.

''ECA has never been supported by the Croatian administration even though we have linked the islands and the coast without the use of one kuna of state money,'' says D. Thiele, the representative of German investors who were shoved from pillar to post in an attempt to get the seaplane project off the ground again.

As Sasa Paparella/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 4th of April, 2019, two and a half years after inspectors of the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency (HACZ) grounded all four of ECA's airplanes for allegedly endangering flight safety back in August 2016, European Coastal Airlines (ECA) and the project of returning seaplanes to the Adriatic sea has now definitely collapsed. Soon, the dismantling of twelve airports on the water will begin, this encompasses all of the pontoons designed to receive ECA's airplanes set up at sea ports from Lošinj to Hvar, to Lastovo.

It's difficult to find someone willing to return the seaplanes to the Adriatic. German investors, who started the project all the way back in 2001, are extremely dissatisfied with the behaviour of the Croatian authorities.

"The ECA project has never been really supported by the Croatian administration. Investors from Germany and Malaysia have invested 25 million euro in the project to set up the transport infrastructure which is necessary for seaplane traffic. They did so without the use of one kuna from the state, and without an HBOR loan, even though we did apply for them. We have linked the islands and the coast and we employed 150 people,'' recalls Dietmar Thiele, executive director of OTAGO Beteiligungs GmbH, representing German investors and their Chinese partners from the Shanghai Jet star company, who were more than willing to invest in the reconstruction of seaplane traffic on the Adriatic.

Despite the total and utter lack of support from the Croatia authorities, and sometimes allegedly faced with the opposition of local and port authorities, the German investors were still able to launch the project and get all of the necessary permits to start the operations of the first hydro carrier in Europe.

"Regular lines began in 2014, and in August 2016, ECA performed 60 flights per day connecting 11 destinations, it transported up to 600 passengers per day and earned a daily income of up to 40,000 euro, as planned. However, the administrative overhaul of ECA prevented further business, resulting in enormous costs, which stalled any further funding of the project. HACZ grounded the seaplanes due to, as was noted, those established deficiencies. The unreasonableness and the illegality of this grounding has already been confirmed by four court witnesses, and this has lead us to a court dispute,'' Thiele stated.

To the contradictions that ECA was facing huge debts and would have otherwise failed because the model was not market-friendly, the response is as follows: "The business plan was based on achieving the project's profitability after five years, with seven seaplanes and 23 seaports," they added that every airline in the world plans for losses during their very first years of doing business, as they plan to cover said losses with the company's capital.

He added that the new Chinese investors were ready for the further financing of assets and new loans, the debts remained with the German investors, and the fleet would have been financed through leasing. Although the seaplanes have not flown since 2016, the project didn't fall away into the abyss immediately, but has been attempting a new beginning - some co-owners of ECA are opening a prebankruptcy process and are finding new investors from China's Jetstar.

The judge gave them two chances.

The Chinese wrote their intention to confirm that they want to invest 15 million euro in the project's renewal, to open a new company and to transfer the concession to twelve certified airports. The Chinese also sent that letter to the judge at the Commercial Court in Split, Velimir Vuković, who gave them an additional four months to complete the planned investment, but the executive powers failed to show any understanding.

In June 2018, the investors sent an official letter of intent to the Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butković, from whom they received no answer. In August 2018, they asked for an answer once again. However, in communication with the then State Secretary for Maritime Affairs, the receipt of the letter was confirmed, but any official response has remained entirely absent. At the end of the prescribed four month period, Judge Vuković was forced to open bankruptcy proceedings in September 2018, resulting in the collapse of all of the existing concessions, and the investors naturally withdrew.

Much like with answering the letters from the investors, Minister Butković's office failed to answer why investors didn't get an answer when asked by Poslovni Dnevnik to comment on the matter. Instead, the portal was told: "The Ministry fully supported the project of the introduction of seaplanes and regulated the legislative framework by amending existing laws in the field of maritime and air transport, as well as the adoption of the Ordinance on water airports. Representatives of the Ministry assisted the investor in the realisation of the project,'' the letter went on to state all of the apparent ways in which the aforementioned ministry helped. This letter, which came much, much too late, didn't do much for the exhausted would-have-been investors, of course.

However, not entirely beaten, the foreign investors have initiated several litigation claims for damages and lawsuits against HACZ. They informed the German Embassy of everything, ​​as well as the Chinese diplomacy.

The collapse of the seaplane company began with a real tragedy back in June 2015 when, as the German investors themselves say, "two irresponsible Croatian ECA pilots, without having a license to fly that type of airplane, illegally took a small seaplane from the Lake company to four places, and because of their inability and their failure to comply with the flight rules, caused a plane crash resulting in two dead and one seriously injured pilot. Although two persons were killed in the accident, the State Attorney's Office in Split hasn't opened an investigation into the matter for more than 3.5 years.''

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for much more.

Click here for the original article by Sasa Paparella for Poslovni Dnevnik

Are the seaplanes stopping the recently announced Split Airport catamaran from moving forward?

March 19, 2018 - A new airline is about to be launched in Dalmatia, promising the return of seaplanes among other offerings. Meet Split Air, Pride of Dalmatia. 

Four separate expert investigations into the grounding of Croatian seaplane operator European Coastal Airlines by the Croatian Civil Aviation Authority come to the same conclusion: the grounding was unjustified and the issues found by CCAA broadly dismissed, according to documents obtained by TCN on October 17, 2016. 

After a difficult few weeks, European Coastal Airlines made a surprise first flight to the island of Vis on September 8, 2016.

European Coastal Airlines CEO Captain Klaus Dieter Martin issues a statement on August 26, 2016 (with an update on August 27).

After days of uncertainty and without flights at the peak of the season, European Coastal Airlines announced on August 22, 2016 that flights will soon recommence. 

With flights still on hold, European Coastal Airlines CEO Klaus Dieter Martin issues a statement on the current situation regarding the seaplane operation on August 17, 2016.