The Italian autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige has, officially, its first-ever local airline. This Monday, SkyAlps received its Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from ENAC, Italy’s national civil aviation regulator. The information was published by ANSA news agency.
Founded and managed by local businesspeople from the northernmost region of Italy, SkyAlps aims at connecting Bolzano — the most important airport of the region — to large cities in Europe, aiming at the inbound tourism, but also important destinations in Italy.
While the company had started operations with aircraft supplied by Malta’s Luxwing, and it had been selling flights as such, from now on SkyAlps is allowed to undertake their own operations and to sell flights with their own code.
“SkyAlps can take-off with its own AOC as the fifth [registered and active, ed.] airline in Italy and first ever from Alto Adige”, said SkyAlps’ President and co-founder, Josef Gostner.
With the announcement, the airline also announced its schedule for the next Summer season. Overall, twelve destinations will be reached from Bolzano.
The new AOC, SkyAlps said, will also allow the airline to connect with larger airlines to allow for seamless connections between Bolzano, Europe’s hubs and beyond.
SkyAlps’ strategy consists in benefitting from Bolzano’s short runway — which prevents most airlines from serving it — with a smaller aircraft, which can keep fares relatively high.
Josner, in fact, told Alto Adige newspaper in July last year that “I wouldn’t change our Dash for all the gold in the world”, referring to the aircraft’s performance in the critical Bolzano Airport. Moreover, he mentioned that the airline, which launched flights in June 2021, was already close to breaking even back then.
SkyAlps’ fleet, according to Planespotters.net, currently consists of four De Havilland Canada DHC-8-400 (formerly known as the Bombardier Q400), all registered in Malta and operated by Luxwing.
