Europe's first modern scheduled seaplane service, Croatia’s European Coastal Airlines (ECA), will resume flights in 2017 and expand its network after it was forced to suspend all operations in October of last year as a result of "administrative issues" and an "untrustworthy business environment". Prior to discontinuing services, the carrier was grounded for several weeks by the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency following reports of alleged poor maintenance. The CEO of the German-backed company, Klaus Dieter Martin, said, "The suspension occurred in the middle of the summer season. ECA knew that the move was uncalled for, which is why we hired several independent professionals to analyse the situation. All of them came to the same conclusion, that there was no foundation for the airline's grounding". ECA has filed two cases against the state with the courts for its responsibility over the service suspension.
According to the company's CEO, ECA will resume operations this summer and expand its fleet. "We plan to add three more aircraft for a total of seven operational hydroplanes. All of the destinations previously served will be resumed and we will add new routes from Mali Lošinj to both Trieste and Ancona. In 2018 we will link Mali Lošinj with Venice, as well as Dubrovnik with Bari and Brindisi. Those are just some of our upcoming plans". He added, "Unfortunately, up to this point, we have only implemented 25% of our business and development plans due to difficult and complicated concession talks. It took us between four to five years to strike agreements over the construction of certain seaports (water terminals)".
Following a fourteen-year battle with bureaucracy, ECA launched operations in 2014, connecting major cities and islands along the Croatian coast. In 2016 it commenced international flights. A part of its fleet has the ability to land on both water and paved runways, proving a lifeline for several smaller airports with little or no traffic. The company has invested some 22 million euros in infrastructure development in Croatia, including the construction of eleven seaports. ECA has received strong support from the German government and the German Embassy in Croatia, but has struggled with local policy-makers. The company has allegedly been asked for bribes by local authorities on a number of occasions in return for necessary permits. The airline recently let go of 140 employees as a result of its grounding but is hopeful to hire local staff in the coming months in order to prepare for its service resumption.
Comments
By the way, I read yesterday that they are bringing back the ferry from Rijeka to Dubrovnik. How will it impact domestic air travel?
OT
Anyone know what's going on with JU 500? It's been sitting on the tarmac for over an hour now.
OT: Alitalia starts flying to Split on July 23rd, 2pw!
The commercial aspects for both airlines apart, I would love such cooperation to happen!
Maybe an interlining could be a good start too- though not sure how much sense that would really make.
@9:37: Fair point :D
Disaster!!!! Thing of companies and their operation while they can not calculate on planes for one month.
And that is what we were talking about... To risky to have SSJ in operation. And it is just a begging, planes are still young.
+1
That ferry service btw will not have a noticeable impact on any air travel in Croatia in my opinion. Unless they decide to do heavy price dumping I don't know a single person of my friends in Istria nor in Dubrovnik area who would take this ferry for travel. Possibly tourists travelling by car will consider it after a long drive from countries in the North if price is right instead of taking the tolled motorway. As far as I see travel will again take 24 hours by ferry which is crazy and repellent for most people.
Sa rusima nemožeš biti siguran ni u šta. I još stvar imagea. Mjesec dana! Bogte, mjesec dana za 96 aviona. Koma!!!
Aprox. time travelling with ferry is 24 hours, flights take around 1:30h with stop in Split and price is almost the same.
Да ли је Сухој рекао да неће сносити трошкове? Питам пошто видим да си опседнут овом темом.
Као и остале фирме и ова ће пребродити овај проблем и наставити нормално да послује.
Pitam se samo koliko bi netko morao biti, hmmm avanturista (da ne upotrijebim pojam koji sam stvarno htio) da u našim krajevima kupi ovaj avion za europske linije.
aerodroma. Srecno uzletanje, miran let sa svih aerodroma. Pa i sa Kraljevacke Morave, Uzickih Ponikvi... Birokratijo. Ti civilna ili u uniformi, wake up! Will you?. Srecno vam novo letacko leto i dolazeci Bozicni praznici.
Rodney iz Kraljeva i Sydney - a.
Ali SSJ nije novi avion, on je 6 godina star. Dakle, nisu porođajne muke, nego ozbiljan problem.
Uz to support Boeinga i Sukhoia u ovakvom slučaju je nebo i zemlja. Sjetimo se kako ne Norwegian odmah dobio zamjenske avione za početak svojih širokotrupnih linija zbog problema sa 788.
Osobno mislim da ne treba uletavati u nove proizvode ako si mala firma zbog problema koje novi avioni uvijek imaju, a još manje da treba pokusirati sa proizvodom koji ima loš support.
Lets not forget the A380 and the crack they found in the wings, also 6 years into operation.
EK at that time had 19 or 20 ac of the type which all had to be sent to Europe for maintenance. This was a huge issue for the company, who for months had to ground crew, pull the type from destinations, hold crew longer at layovers, crew rostering alterations. EK later had to train thousands of crew for the B777 ac as a result. Due to regulations, and with the fleet of the time, crew were either trained A330/A340 and B777 or only the A380. Converting crew to a A380/B777 is still ongoing, 6 years since the problem.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-16942361
The info I got for ECA in 2009 after I had a meeting with them was that the assets of the original founder of the airline was being disputed in Germany after he was killed in a car accident.
Možda ECA krene da leti sa Moravske aerodroma ka jadranu, valjda će dati dragi naš bog, vreme je, probudi te se narode.
Srećno svima želim 2017. i dolazeći sve moguće praznike i slavlje.
Iskreno, nije ni meni poznato da se bilo sta u avijaciji, pa i u privredi
u toku proslave od dva dana nove godine bilo sta otvara... Ipak smatram da je ova, a i svaka, cela godina nova u odnosu na prethodnu godinu.Kao sto je svaki dan nov u odnosu na prethodni. Takva je moja percepcija. Oprrostite za ovoliko objasnjenje. Eto, zalutah na ovu raspravu. Naravno da ste verovatno u pravu?.
Srecna Vam novodosla 2017 godina. i svi praznici koji dolaze.
Radovan Marinkovic,
Kraljevo
For the same reason some say it might have played a role that they did get grounded / in high season - which is maximum possible punishment for an airline equalling to end of business of a small air company usually.
They should take care that they do not become even more expensive so as to not lose out on more customers.
No, činjenica je da je to još jedan argument protiv kupovine SSJ. Najmanje bitan (daleko bitnij je image i support), ali svakako nije nezamariv.
Well, I know it is strange to you, but there are 12 mayors, 4 generals, president of Trade chamber, 5 ministers, even one prime minister in jail because of bribe. Croatia was never so deep in bribe as other exYu countries (exempt Slovenia) and after entering in EU bribe is almost gone. Get use to that! Know it is difficult for you to understand but that is the fact.
INN-NS
What's going on here?
Jedina razlika izmedju Bomardiera i Suhoja je ta sto su se razni Q400 rusili po pistama i imali prinudna sletanja dok SSJ nije... dakle ipak njihov support team nije tako los. ;)
Hahn for example, with almost 3 million passengers try to find new buyer or will declare bankruptcy.