A look at the Swiss regional airlines industry

                                                                                                    Picture: Skywork

While preparing for an upcoming trip to EBACE, Europe's executive aviation fair, that takes place in Geneva this May, I had a look at the aviation industry in Switzerland....and was amazed to find out that Wikipedia lists no less than 20 airlines in the country!...it's true that some of them are small charter or helicopter operators and that the list also includes the Swiss operation of Easyjet...

However, one thing that caught my attention is the several regional airlines operating out of the country, mostly with turboprops: there is Skywork, a growing airline based in Bern, that I already had the chance to write about, and also two airlines with curious names that I would never associate with Switzerland: Darwin Airline, based in Lugano and Baboo, based in Geneva (the latter was recently bailed out by the former). I guess the "raison-d'etre" of these airlines is to provide direct services from Swiss secondary airports, both domestic and internationally. Switzerland is certainly a small country and has no large metropolis, but when taking into account the cost of trains (at least for those that do not enjoy an type of special discount) these turboprops become competitive even when flying relatively small distances.

By the way, also in Switzerland you can fly what I guess is one of the shortest domestic services anywhere in the World (if you know of any other that is shorter, please, let me know): Zurich-Basel (92.5km or about 1h drive!)

New Flight between Barcelona and Bern

Barcelona's mayor recently surprised everyone by announcing a possible run-up for the Winter Olympics of 2022. Barcelona is certainly within easy reach of great ski resorts and the mountains of the Pyrenees. However, and in the meantime, for all those of its citizens that wish to try some new slopes, the Swiss carrier Skywork Airlines is soon to start a new regular, three-times-a-week link between Barcelona (BCN) and the Swiss capital. Until now the connection between the Catalan capital and Switzerland relied on flights to Geneva (GVA), Zürich (ZRH) and Basel (EAP). The service will also compete with sleeper pendular trains that cover the journey overnight.

Skywork Airlines has not missed the opportunity to point out in its website how these services compare in terms of price and time with these alternatives to travel to the central area of Switzerland and to the main attractions of the Bernese Oberland.

Skywork Airlines is what I would call a "boutique" airline, it belongs to the Gribi family of Switzerland, is based at Bern airport and its fleet is made of a Bombardier Dash-8 Q400, Fairchild Dornier 328-110, as well as four executive jets, one Citation Ultra, one Citation Bravo and two Citation Excel for charter services. In addition to the regular flights to BCN, it is opening soon a new connection to Rotterdam (RTM). In summary, this is a small but expanding project that, I am sure, those of us that like skiing will keep an eye on.