When next week European Coastal Airlines hydroplanes depart from the heart of Split city harbour on its flights to Dalmatian islands and northern Adriatic destinations, it will be a step forward of what is already happening since the last summer. Even with hydroplanes departing from the sea-airport in Resnik Split was the base of the only regular seaplanes' passenger service in the Mediterranean. Now it will become even easier to travel by them, and it's really promising, with trips to - let's say - Hvar lasting only minutes. OK, these are not big planes, and this service won't be a mass-traveling opportunity but having it as an option is really tempting. Good comparison is flying an hour to Istrian city Pula, comparing with an 11-hour ride by bus. Or it's just beyond any comparison?

However, when I said ECA is the only regular hydroplane service in the Mediterranean, it didn't mean it's the first one, even when we stick to Split. Flying with hydroplanes from Split, moreover from the city port, has rich history. Of course it has, it's Split, remember? Everything in this city has rich history.

Back in the 1930s, when Split was a city of some 30,000, without an airport but booming in every way, hydroplanes were maintaining regular line to Prague, today Czech Republic's capital.

Seaport was based in the western part of the harbour, locally called Matejuška, an old fishermen's cove and today's popular mingling spot.

Split architect Edo Šegvić, responsible for the excellent renovation works at Matejuška, wrote that in 1936 a small terminal with ticket booth was built by the sea. Flights started in June same year, and were operated by the then Czechoslovakian, now Czech airline ČSA, with Sunders-Roe Cloud planes. It didn't last long, only until 1937 when the hydroplane with a registration OK-BAK moved to another, obviously more profitable line from Rijeka to Prague and back. All we have now from this venture is few old photographs, articles in the local newspapers from that era. The last physical trace of the first sea-airport vanished few years ago, when Matejuška went under major renovation. Back then, the old ticket booth - later turned into a public toilet - was removed.

Of course, the one might say that important trace is also the opening of new era of seaplane flights, hopefully with better and longer luck.