Small startup to form in Northern Italy

[Vic Diesel]

There might have been rumors about a small startup forming in Northern Italy - and they seem to gain in substance:

The small regional airport of Bolzano (LIPB/BZO) hasn't seen scheduled flights since 2015. But the owners of the airport, the brothers Gostner, who bought the airport together with Austrian entrepreneurs Rene Benko and Hans-Peter Haselsteiner from the provincial government, have new plans: they founded a new airline to connect the province of Alto Adige / Südtirol with Rome.

Sky Alps announced it will operate a daily flight between Bolzano and Rome/Fiumicino (LIRF/FCO), starting in May 2020. But their plans go even further: as of June 2020, the route will add the Western Sicilian airport of Trapani LICT/TPS). With the BZO-FCO-TPS routing, hopes are that tourists will add to the pax load. There are further plans in the making, including routes Rome-Perugia (LIRZ/PEG) and Rome-Ancona (LIPY/AOI).

The airline is said to have acquired their aircraft of choice on lease from Nordic Aviation Capital: the DHC-8-400 with serial no. 4175 was delivered as HB-JQB to Swiss carrier Baboo in 2007, served briefly with the later bankrupt Swiss carrier Darwin before serving some years with South African Express (as ZS-YBZ). The airline still has no website, no ICAO- nor IATA-code - but they seem to be determined to connect the sub-Alpine region to the "big world".

We will stay tuned.

Sources:
Austrian Aviation.Net
FVW.de
Stol.it

[TLspotting]

Sorry I missed your post, I made a new topic about start-up airlines...