The Croatian Civil Aviation Agency (CCAA) has suspended the Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) of European Coastal Airlines (Split) following a safety and maintenance audit this past weekend.

While no official notification has yet been posted to the agency's site, ECA no longer features in the CCAA's list of certified Croatian operators. As a knock-on effect, partner and Danish virtual carrier Nordic Seaplanes (Aarhus SPB) has also been forced to suspend its operations given it had been using ECA's AOC.

Airline Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Klaus Dieter Martin has attempted to downplay the CCAA's move despite earlier assertions that the seaplane operator may return to service by mid-week.

"European Coastal Airlines has paused its operations since last Saturday, August 13, 2016 due to additional administrational [sic] tasks requested by the authorities. For the time being our Flight Operation (and our AOC) is therefore on hold," he said in a statement.

"A long weekend has passed and my team has collected additionally requested paperwork for the authorities and has submitted those. The situation ever since has not changed. The additional requested documentation is currently been reviewed by the authorities."

In the interim, the carrier has obtained assistance from an unspecified third-party operator, Dieter Martin said adding that although he expects to now resume flights by the end of this week, all flights until Friday, August 19 have been cancelled.