Court documents seen by Total Croatia News show Croatian seaplane operator European Coastal Airlines (Split) has commenced pre-bankruptcy proceedings at the Commercial Court in Split. The motion was filed on April 18, 2017.

As previously reported, the start-up was forced to halt operations last year after its Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) was suspended by the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency (CCAA). The CCAA had taken the action citing safety reasons, but ECA disputed those claims. However, ongoing tensions between the airline and the regulator meant that ECA was unable to restart operations last year, leading to heavy financial losses.

CEO Klaus-Dieter Martin had planned to relaunch services again this summer, connecting Mali Losinj, Split and Dubrovnik on Croatia's coast with each other and with Trieste, Ancona and Pescara in Italy.

Total Croatia News says that talks are ongoing. Martin has told ch-aviation in an e-mailed statement that the "pre-bankruptcy" procedure would be similar to the US chapter 11 protecting ECA against claims from creditors until restructuring has taken place.