SkyWork Airlines was a Swiss airline with its head office in

Belp Belp is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is close to Bern's Belp Airport. The municipality of Belpberg merged on 1 January 2012 into the municipality of Belp.

( BE) near

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

and its base at

Bern Airport Bern- Belp Regional Aerodrome , marketed as ''Bern Airport'', officially referred to as in German, is a regional aerodrome serving Bern, the capital of Switzerland. The aerodrome is located within the town limits of Belp, and used to feature sc ...

. It primarily operated scheduled flights to destinations across Europe, with additional charter operations throughout the summer months. The airline declared bankruptcy on 29 August 2018 and ceased all operations the same day.

History

Development

The airline's head office was originally in the north terminal of

in Belp. The last of three

Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was bought by Boeing in 1986, then by Bombardier in 1992, then by Longvi ...

were transferred to

Air Berlin Air Berlin plc & Co. Luftverkehrs KG (), branded as airberlin or airberlin.com, was a major German airline. At its peak, it was Germany's second-largest airline after Lufthansa, as well as Europe's tenth-largest airline in terms of passengers c ...

by October 2014. Also in October 2014, London-Southend replaced London-City as SkyWork's destination for London. By April 2015 SkyWork had announced a decrease in their London operations from 12 return flights per week to 9 per week. From July 2015 SkyWork served London-City Airport via a stopover at

EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg IATA airport 3-letter codes for the French area, the Swiss area, and the metropolitan area is an international airport in the administrative commune of Saint-Louis, in the French Alsace part of the Trination ...

. In 2016 the airline introduced flights from Bern to

Usedom Usedom ( , ) is a Baltic Sea island in Pomerania, divided between Germany and Poland. It is the second largest Pomeranian island after Rügen, and the most populous island in the Baltic Sea. It lies north of the Szczecin Lagoon estuary of the ...

via Basel as well. In November 2015, SkyWork announced the termination of their ACMI contract with

Darwin Airline Darwin Airline SA was a Switzerland, Swiss regional airline with its head office in Bioggio, Lugano flying under the brand name Adria Airways Switzerland. It operated scheduled domestic and international services in some western European countri ...

by December 2015. Scheduled flights to London-Southend were terminated due to capacity restrictions. At the same time, SkyWork announced the retirement of their fleet of

Dornier 328-110 The Dornier 328 is a turboprop-powered commuter airliner. Initially produced by Germany company Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH, the firm was acquired in 1996 by US firm Fairchild Aircraft. The resulting firm, named Fairchild-Dornier, manufactured the 3 ...

s by autumn 2017 as these were gradually replaced with

Saab 2000 The Saab 2000 is a twin-engined high-speed turboprop airliner built by Swedish aircraft manufacturer Saab. It is designed to carry 50–58 passengers and able to cruise at a maximum speed of . Production took place in Linköping, Sweden. It ...

s.flyskywork.com - Minor amendments to winter flight schedule
3 December 2015 In October 2016, SkyWork entered an

interline agreement Interlining, also known as interline ticketing and interline booking, is a voluntary commercial agreement between individual airlines to handle passengers traveling on itineraries that require multiple flights on multiple airlines. Such agreemen ...

with

Air France-KLM An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmospher ...

, integrating Bern into that group's global network through

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. In October 2017, SkyWork called off plans for extensive scheduled operations from

Sion Airport Sion Airport (Military: LSMS) is the airport of the city of Sion, Switzerland and is located 2.5 km southwest of Sion city in the Rhone Valley. The airport opened in 1935. Airlines and destinations The following airlines operate seasona ...

to several European cities, catering for skiing tourism, due to low demand. At the same time, the airline also cancelled its service from

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

London City Airport London City Airport is an international airport in London, England. It is located in the Royal Docks in the London Borough of Newham, Borough of Newham, about east of the City of London and east of Canary Wharf. These are the two centres ...

Demise

On 16 October 2017, the Swiss

Federal Office of Civil Aviation The Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) is the Swiss civil aviation agency, a division of the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications. Its head office is in Bern, and it has an office at Zurich Airport. It i ...

(''BAZL'') announced it would terminate SkyWork's

air operator's certificate An air operator's certificate (AOC) is the approval granted by a civil aviation authority (CAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial air transport purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets and s ...

after October if the airline failed to provide sufficient funds to operate the upcoming winter schedule. As the licence renewal did not take place until the end of the summer schedule, SkyWork Airlines was forced to cancel all flights for the first day of the winter schedule on 29 October 2017.flyskywork.com - Information
28 October 2017 On the same day, SkyWork had to extend the cancellation until 31 October. They also announced they had not yet found an investor to support the company and would continue the search. It was stated that base operations out of

alone were not financially viable. Competitor

Adria Airways Adria Airways d.o.o. (formerly ''Inex-Adria Aviopromet'' and later ''Inex-Adria Airways'') was the flag carrier of Slovenia, operating scheduled and charter services to European destinations. The company's head office was at Ljubljana Jože Puč ...

announced that it would take over some metropolitan routes in the event of the airline's demise. On the evening of 29 August 2018, SkyWork Airlines declared

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

after failed negotiations with a new investor. The airline ceased all operations and handed back its operating license to the authorities.

Destinations

SkyWork Airlines operated scheduled flights to Western European cities along with partially seasonal leisure destinations in Southern Europe from its home base in

, as well as a smaller summer seasonal focus city operation in

Fleet

As of August 2018, the SkyWork Airlines fleet comprised the following aircraft:flyskywork.com - "For you in service"
(German) retrieved 9 May 2018 The airline previously also operated a fleet of

s which were gradually replaced by larger

s by early 2018.airliners.de - "SkyWork moves back Dornier phase-out"
(German) 13 September 2017

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Defunct airlines of Switzerland Airlines established in 1983 Airlines disestablished in 2018 Swiss companies established in 1983 Companies based in Bern Swiss companies disestablished in 2018 Companies based in the canton of Bern