October the 24th, 2026 – The idea of a future Šibenik Airport sounds feasible and very reasonable, but it seems like there’s been more than a few spanners thrown in the works…
The feasibility study and the revision of the conceptual design were supposed to be completed by the end of July this year, but almost three months later there is no public confirmation that the documents have been finished. As SibenikIN reports, in the meantime, the issue of the planned airport’s impact on the habitats of protected bird species has also been raised.
At a joint thematic session of the parliamentary committees for tourism and for maritime affairs, transport and infrastructure, held on Thursday the 22nd of October, the operations of Croatian airports, investments, their financial sustainability and future development were discussed. Representatives of the competent ministries, airports and the aviation sector took part in the discussion, and among the topics were the seasonality of traffic, the development of regional airports and the need for better transport connections.
However, the official parliamentary report fails to mention the Heart of Dalmatia airport project at Pokrovnik, in which Croatia holds a majority ownership stake. Although this does not rule out the possibility that the project was mentioned in passing during the session, it was not singled out among the development topics in the official summary.
the documentation should have been completed by july
Back in June this year, local portal ŠibenikIN reported on the status of the planned airport project at Pokrovnik. At that time, Šibenik Deputy Mayor Danijel Mileta, referring to a report by the company Zračna luka Srce Dalmacije that had been submitted to the City as one of the co-owners, confirmed that the feasibility study and the revision of the conceptual design with technical details were in preparation. According to the announcements at the time, both documents were supposed to be completed by the end of July 2026.
However, almost three months after the announced deadline expired, no publicly published confirmation has been found that the documents have been finished and handed over to the client. Such information is also not available on the company’s official website. At the same time, on 30 December 2025 the preparation of the environmental impact study and the main acceptability assessment of the intervention for the ecological network was contracted, with an 18-month deadline, i.e. approximately until mid-2027. According to the information obtained from the month of June, a geodetic elaborate, a climatological study and a project for a meteorological station had already been prepared, while the procedure for obtaining special conditions for the station itself was still ongoing.
protected bird habitats could become a serious problem…
In addition to the questions of deadlines and documentation, an additional obstacle has appeared that could affect the future of the project. As ŠibenikIN wrote in July, in the process of amending the Spatial Plan of Šibenik-Knin County the question of the planned airport’s impact on the habitats of protected bird species was raised.
Particularly highlighted were the calandra lark, the short-toed lark and the stone-curlew, whose habitats could be threatened by the construction and use of the airport. In the spatial-planning documentation it was warned that, due to nature-protection requirements, it might be necessary to re-examine the location or the category of the planned airport. Such a warning doesn’t mean that the ambitious Šibenik Airport project has been rejected or that construction at Pokrovnik has been banned. However, it opens the question of whether the existing conceptual design will be acceptable from the point of view of nature protection and whether additional changes will be required. It isn’t yet known whether these warnings have affected the preparation of the documentation that was supposed to be finished in July.
the state is the project’s majority owner
The Heart of Dalmatia airport project is being developed by the company of the same name, in which the Republic of Croatia holds a 55 percent ownership stake, while the remaining 45 percent belongs to Šibenik-Knin County and five cities. Josip Skelin was appointed director of the company back in May 2025.
Interestingly, State Secretary of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure Tomislav Mihotić, who earlier participated on behalf of the state in the establishment of the company for the development of the Šibenik Airport, also took part in today’s parliamentary session on the future of Croatian airports. The Pokrovnik project has for years been presented as a possible contribution to transport connectivity and tourist development of this part of Dalmatia, but before any possible realisation a series of professional, spatial, environmental and financial questions still need to be resolved.
After the expiry of the July deadline for the key documentation, questions now remain open as to whether the feasibility study and the revision of the conceptual design have been completed, how much money has so far been spent on the project, what its current status is in the state transport plans, and whether nature-protection requirements will lead to a change in the planned location or category of the airport.
The post What’s Going on With the Potential Šibenik Airport? appeared first on Total Croatia.