European Coastal Airlines (Split) was forced to spend most of the summer grounded after its AOC was suspended, but CEO Klaus-Dieter Martin plans to relaunch services again in 2017.

The scheduled seaplane operator ran into trouble earlier in the year when Croatia’s Civil Aviation Agency (CCAA) briefly suspended its AOC over safety concerns. After becoming engaged in legal proceedings, ECA made the decision in early October to suspend all operations for the rest of 2016. In making the decision to ground its fleet and retrench 130 staff, ECA blamed Croatia’s regulatory environment.

ECA this week announced the appointment of Zdravko Delić as its new Accountable Manager, hopefully improving relations between the small carrier and the CCAA. “Mr Delic will further optimize our flight operations in Croatia and be a kind of focal point for our business partners, the Croatian Aviation Agency and other collaborators,” ECA said.

The airline also announced that all destinations will be operational again in 2017, with the addition of Mali Losinj - Trieste. Previous routes included: Ancona - Mali Losinj, Ancona - Split, Dubrovnik - Split, Mali Losinj - Ancona, Pescara - Split, Split - Ancona, Split - Dubrovnik, and Split - Pescara.

The airline will continue to use its existing fleet of four DHC-6s leased from RUAG Aerospace (Lucerne), with plans to add an additional three aircraft next year.