The idea of giving Dalmatia's heartland its own airport has been floating around for years, but the Heart of Dalmatia project at Pokrovnik, near Šibenik, is having a rough 2026. The two key documents — a feasibility study and a revised conceptual design — were meant to be wrapped up by the end of July. Nearly three months later, there's still no public confirmation they exist, and nothing on the developer's own website to suggest they've been delivered.
The project is no small-time venture. The company behind it, Zračna luka Srce Dalmacije, is majority-owned by the Croatian state, which holds a 55 percent stake, with the remaining 45 percent split between Šibenik-Knin County and five cities. Josip Skelin has been running the outfit as director since May 2025. Earlier groundwork — a geodetic survey, a climatological study and a design for a weather station — had reportedly been done by June, and an environmental impact study was contracted at the end of December 2025 with an 18-month deadline running to mid-2027.
Now a new wrinkle has appeared. During amendments to the Spatial Plan of Šibenik-Knin County, officials flagged that the planned airport could threaten the habitats of protected bird species — specifically the calandra lark, the short-toed lark and the stone-curlew. The planning documentation warns that nature-protection requirements might force a re-examination of either the location or the category of the airport. That's not a rejection, and nothing has been banned outright, but it raises a real question over whether the current design can survive an environmental review, and it's unclear whether these warnings contributed to the July delay.
Adding to the sense that the project has slipped down the agenda: at a joint parliamentary session on 22 October covering the future of Croatian airports — seasonality, regional development, transport connectivity — the Heart of Dalmatia airport didn't merit a single mention in the official summary, even though State Secretary Tomislav Mihotić, who helped set up the company, was part of the discussion.
For travellers, this is a watch-and-wait story rather than a planning one. Šibenik and the surrounding Dalmatian coast currently rely on Split and Zadar airports, both roughly an hour's drive away, and a dedicated airport at Pokrovnik would only matter years from now at the earliest. Big open questions remain: whether the overdue studies are done, how much public money has been spent, where the project sits in state transport plans, and whether bird-protection rules force a redesign. Until any of that lands, anyone heading to Šibenik's medieval old town, the beaches of the Šibenik archipelago or nearby Krka National Park should keep planning around Split or Zadar.
