Domestic Airline Company Breaks into the American Market, Aiming for Flights from Croatia

After several years of efforts to break into the American market, the domestic airline company ETF Airways has received operational approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which opens up opportunities for them to start collaborating with American partners this winter, as well as potentially launching flights between the U.S. and Croatia in the future.

Negotiations with potential partners and application processes for tenders for specific routes that ETF can apply for are already underway, confirmed Stjepan Bedić, CEO of the airline company. This news comes three years after pilots Stjepan Bedić, Marko Banković and Dragan Stefanovski founded the new company with the help of domestic investors, financiers Ratko Bajakić and Zdenko Adrović, and economic analyst Velimir Šonja during the Covid-19 pandemic.

– To be able to fly from America, you need to pass inspection by the American aviation authorities and obtain approval. This is a lengthy process, as you must first obtain approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which is a commercial check to see what kind of competitor is entering the market. Then comes the FAA, which is a technical approval, from fuel planning to technical maintenance, so it is all quite a complex process. The first step was that they checked our Civil Aviation Agency a few years ago, which was unrelated to us. Many European airlines cannot fly to America because their national agencies have not passed that check, and their aviation authority is not at the level they require, Bedić explains to Lider.

Charter Flights in America

ETF Airways now has approval to operate charter flights in America, and to introduce some regular flights later, they only need to amend that approval, which is no longer such a problem once you have the main approval.

– This is important for us because there is a lot of work in winter from America to the Caribbean, and otherwise, we would like to fly from Croatia to America in the long-term plans, and we are exploring the possibility of doing that one day. Our planes are currently not suitable for that; they are for 189 passengers for flights of about 5-6 hours, so we would need to change the fleet. It would be feasible if we found a client who would lease us for a year because we are not a company that sells tickets; our clients are airlines or travel agencies that rent our services, Bedić reveals.

Now ETF has applied for all the tenders announced by local companies and agencies, and they will see if they will pass. Without FAA approval, they could not even apply. Meanwhile, their capacities are quite filled; they are sold out for flights in Europe from mid-March to mid-November 2024, so this year they are just ‘patching’ the winter.

They are offering American partners three aircraft and a total of about one hundred staff members, including 40 pilots and 60 cabin crew members. This year, ETF Airways transported nearly 400,000 passengers; one plane was in Amsterdam, one in Paris, and one in Bergamo, and they mostly flew to Greece, North Africa, Egypt, Turkey… They were engaged by two French companies, one Dutch, and one Italian. This year, they expect revenue of €30 million, which is less than last year because they flew for other companies this year, which covered the costs of fuel, handling, and air traffic control. So this year they will have more flight hours at a higher price, and double the profit from last year, amounting to €1 million.