Airlines Two European regional airlines give up

The Swiss regional carrier SkyWork Airlines was the first: It announced to cease all operations and filed for insolvency due to its debt. Over 10.000 passengers were affected by the insolvency of the Bern-Belp based carrier. The airline, which offered connections to several European airports was not able to continue operations.

Only few days later, VLM Belgium, a new founded carrier, was forced to follow SkyWork Airlines and cease operations. It was the second time that VLM was forced to file for bankruptcy. The former carrier, which was founded in 1993, ceased operations in 2016. Some months later SHS Antwerp Aviation relaunched VLM Airlines without success: Since last week, the airline does not operate further flights.

With the end of SkyWork and VLM, two turboprop aircraft operators leave the European market. SkyWork operated a fleet of six former Darwin Airlines Saab 2000 and VLM flew with six aging Fokker 50. The aircrafts are not the only similarity between the two carriers: Both airlines offered flights from secondary smaller airports (Bern-Belp and Antwerp) to destinations like London City, Munich and Cologne, which are interesting for business travelers. Due to the market pressure, both airlines decided to diversify their business and offered additional ACMI and charter flights with larger jet aircraft. VLM Airlines and its Slovakian subsidiary operated one Airbus A320 for the German Thomas Cook Airline Condor and one A321. Skywork wanted to introduce a larger Embraer E170 jet to offer additional touristic services.

According to Austrian aviation newspaper, two other regional airlines are currently considering taking over parts of Skywork or succeeding them at Bern-Belp airport. Swiss Helvetic, which is already offering flights from Bern has announced interest in taking over SkyWork and the Slovenian regional airline Adria Airways could establish a new base in Bern.

The two insolvencies show, how difficult it is to operate a successful regional airline in Europe. Due to the high number of low cost carriers, the number of unserved routes is small and the costs for establishing the routes are high. More and more regional carriers are not able to compete with the prices low cost carriers are offering. As a result, several regional airlines have decided to focus on operating flights on behalf of larger airlines. Last week, Irish CityJet announced to cease operating scheduled services under their own brand effective from October 2018 but focus operating ACMI flights for Aer Lingus, Scandinavian Airlines and Brussels Airlines. These partnerships enable regional airlines to focus on the operational processes while the larger airlines take care of the sales for the routes.