The airline was founded by South Tyrolean entrepreneur Josef Gostner, who was part of ABD Holdings, a company that purchased Bolzano Airport from the South Tyrol government in 2019.[5] The airline originally intended to commence operations in May 2020 with one daily flight between Bolzano and Rome, along with further connections to Vienna and Munich afterwards and charter flights to southern Italy during the summer season. Gostner also had plans to lengthen the runway at Bolzano Airport by 260 metres (850 ft) to allow larger aircraft to operate at the airport.[6] However, it delayed the start of operations to June 2021 due to the impact of border closures associated with COVID-19.[7]
The airline operated its first flights on 17 June 2021 to Olbia and Ibiza.[8] It commenced twice-weekly flights between Bolzano and Berlin Brandenburg Airport on 30 June.[3] It temporarily suspended operations in late 2021 while Bolzano Airport extended its runway from 1,293 to 1,462 metres (4,242 to 4,797 ft) to allow the handling of larger aircraft. It resumed operations on 15 December. The airline offers 13 weekly flights from Bolzano within its winter 2021 schedule.[9]
As of December 2022, SkyAlps operates from Bolzano Airport to Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and several seasonal destinations. It primarily operates leisure flights with a focus on tourists travelling to ski resorts in South Tyrol.[9] It is the first airline to operate scheduled services from Bolzano Airport after Darwin Airline suspended its flights between Bolzano and Rome's Fiumicino Airport in 2015, although Austrian Airlines has operated charter flights from Bolzano since then.[4] Flights are operated by Luxwing, a Maltese charter airline.[10]
As of 2 August 2023, SkyAlps serves the following destinations, as listed on their website.[11]
Media related to Sky Alps at Wikimedia Commons
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