SkyWork Airlines

If you stood at Bern-Belp Airport between 2009 and 2018, you mostly saw one airline: SkyWork. The small Bernese company brought turboprops with Swiss registrations to Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna, London and vacation islands – and for years was the most important customer of its home airport. On August 29, 2018, it was over. This page shows you where SkyWork came from, which aircraft it flew, how to recognize its aircraft in photos and why its end was so drastic for Bern.

SkyWork at a glance

SkyWork Airlines was a Swiss regional airline headquartered in Belp and based at Bern-Belp Airport. The company existed from 1983 to 2018, but only appeared as a scheduled airline from 2009. That’s why you often read two start years: 1983 for the company, 2009 for scheduled operations.

The profile was clear: SkyWork connected the federal city of Bern with cities in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom and in summer also served vacation destinations. Because Bern-Belp is a small airport with a limited catchment area, the airline relied on small turboprops. At times it also operated a seasonal base at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg and flew charters.

SkyWork never belonged to an alliance. From 2016, however, there was an interline agreement with Air France-KLM: passengers from Bern could connect via Amsterdam into the network of KLM on a single ticket.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code SX: appeared in the flight number, such as on the last flight SX207 from Hamburg to Bern.
• ICAO code SRK: appeared in the air traffic control flight plan and in flight tracker data.
• Callsign SKYFOX: this is how the crews checked in on the radio.

For you as a spotter, the codes are mainly useful for sorting old data. If you go through historical ADS-B logs or screenshots, SRK is the unambiguous hit. How to trace individual aircraft via their registration is explained in the guide Finding an aircraft by registration.

History: from flight school to Bern’s home airline

1983 to 2008: flight school, business jets, first turboprops

SkyWork began very small in 1983: two founders ran a flight school in Belp. In 1989, the company bought its first Cessna Citation II and moved into the business of air taxi and charter flights for private and business customers. In 2003, the Dornier 328-100 arrived as the first regional aircraft, followed in 2008 by a Dash 8 Q400 from De Havilland Canada (then sold under the name Bombardier).

2009 to 2014: scheduled flights and rapid expansion

From 2009, SkyWork offered scheduled flights from Bern. In 2010, entrepreneur Daniel Borer took over the company. In August 2011, the airline also bought the tour operator Aaretal Reisen, which it sold again in July 2014. These years saw an expansion that, according to industry reports, cost a lot of money: between 2011 and 2015, around 70 million francs are said to have been burned, and the airline came to the brink of collapse.

In 2013, SkyWork announced a partnership with the German MHS Aviation, which also operated Dornier 328s. It was never implemented. In 2014, the airline pulled the emergency brake: it gave up the last of its three Dash 8 Q400s – to Air Berlin, according to Wikipedia –, cut staff and reduced frequencies. At times it moved its London flights from London City Airport to Southend. Martin Inäbnit, who had previously worked at Crossair, took over at the top.

2015 to 2017: austerity course, Basel and the Saab 2000

In 2015, SkyWork continued its austerity course. An ACMI contract with the Ticino-based Darwin Airline, which at times flew a Saab 2000 for SkyWork, ended in the same year. At the same time, Basel became more important as a second departure point, initially with a connection to London City, with Usedom added via Basel in 2016. Also in 2016 came the interline agreement with Air France-KLM.

The most important date of this phase for spotters: in July 2016, the first Saab 2000 arrived. The fast 50-seat turboprop was meant to replace the Dornier 328, which also happened by early 2018. In 2017, SkyWork additionally looked into regional jets and was recruiting staff for the Embraer E-Jet family. According to aerotelegraph, in May 2017 two Dornier 328s and three Saab 2000s were still flying from Bern, and the network comprised 18 destinations in eight countries.

October 2017: the near-collapse

On October 16, 2017, the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) limited the operating license to the end of the month because SkyWork could not prove financing of the 2017/18 winter schedule. From October 29, the aircraft stayed on the ground. Shortly afterward, an investor was found at the last minute, and on November 1, 2017, SkyWork flew again with an unlimited license. The airline took advantage of the gap left by the end of Air Berlin from the end of March 2018: it flew Bern–Berlin–Graz and back, thus once again offering a direct Berlin–Graz connection.

2018: Swisscoy flights, plans in the south and the end

From January 2018, SkyWork flew troops and cargo for the Swiss Army from Basel to Pristina for the Swisscoy deployment in Kosovo, partly with a stopover in Sarajevo. In summer 2018, Brač, Graz and charter flights to Preveza were added. But after failed talks with a possible partner – according to industry reports, the German Zeitfracht Group – SkyWork ceased operations on August 29, 2018. The last flight, SX207 from Hamburg, landed in Bern at 10:19 p.m. Around 11,000 booked passengers were affected and were brought home with other airlines.

The fleet: three turboprop families

SkyWork’s fleet was never big but typical of a Swiss regional airline: few aircraft, all with HB registrations, almost exclusively turboprops.

Type	Period	Seats	Spotter note
Cessna Citation II	from 1989	Business jet	From the air taxi days before scheduled service
Dornier 328-110	2003 to spring 2018	around 30	High wing with T-tail, long-time companion of the scheduled era
Dash 8 Q400	2008 to 2014	significantly more than the Dornier	Largest type in the fleet, three aircraft in total
Saab 2000	July 2016 to August 2018	50	Six at the end, all leased
Embraer 170	ordered, never in service	typically 70–80	Used aircraft, not taken over because of the bankruptcy

The Dornier 328 was the backbone of the early scheduled years. The high-wing aircraft from Oberpfaffenhofen, with its good 30 seats, suited thin routes like Bern–Hamburg or Bern–Sylt. The Dornier made its last flights for SkyWork in spring 2018; the last own aircraft was sold in September 2018. You can find more about the manufacturer at Dornier.

The Dash 8 Q400 was a growth aircraft for SkyWork. With significantly more seats than the Dornier, it was meant to serve stronger routes. After the austerity course in 2014, it disappeared from the fleet again.

The Saab 2000, finally, defined the last two years. It is one of the fastest turboprops in regional service and today a rare type for spotters, because only a few airlines still use it. The manufacturer is Saab. The Embraer 170 would have been the first jet of the scheduled fleet – but the used aircraft were parked in Spain and never came to Bern.

Dornier 328 or Saab 2000? How to tell them apart

On archive photos from Bern, you mainly encounter these two types. Both are turboprops with Swiss registrations – but easy to tell apart in detail.

The Dash 8 Q400 falls outside this scheme: it is also a high-wing aircraft with a T-tail, but much longer than the Dornier and with tall landing gear legs in the engine nacelles. If you’re unsure about turboprops in general, the guide Telling turboprops apart helps.

How to recognize SkyWork

The surest feature is the registration: all aircraft flew with Swiss registration, so with HB- on the fuselage. What the individual letter groups in Swiss registrations mean is explained in the article Swiss HB registrations.

The Saab 2000s arrived from 2016 in a plain livery: all-white fuselage, a red Swiss cross on the tail, the airline’s titles on the fuselage and the logo on the engine cowlings. That made them look almost like a neutral livery at first glance – one reason why SkyWork photos in collections are sometimes assigned wrongly.

Another clue is the location. Most SkyWork shots come from Bern-Belp, where the airline ultimately accounted for around 60 percent of all flights. Outside Switzerland, you met it at airports such as Hamburg, Vienna, Amsterdam Schiphol, Berlin Tegel or London City.

The route network

SkyWork flew a classic regional network: city connections for business travelers and summer routes for vacationers. In summer 2017, 18 European destinations were in the schedule from Bern, including:

• Cities: Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne/Bonn, Munich, Vienna, Amsterdam and London City
• Vacation destinations: Sylt, Usedom, Jersey, Palma de Mallorca, several Mediterranean islands and Zadar
• From Basel (summer 2017): Jersey, London City, Usedom, Sylt and Vienna

In winter 2017/18, the network from Bern shrank to seven destinations: Amsterdam, Berlin Tegel, Hamburg, London City, Munich, Palma de Mallorca and Vienna. In summer 2018, Brač and Graz were added, as well as the Berlin–Graz connection, which was linked to the Bern flights via Berlin and filled a gap after the end of Air Berlin.

After SkyWork’s end, Bern Airport faced a problem: its by far most important customer was gone. In the later bankruptcy proceedings, ordinary creditors received only around 11.5 percent of their claims, according to media reports, and Bern Airport lost around 1.3 million francs. Among the creditors were also Saab, Rolls-Royce and Eastern Airways.

SkyWork and Swiss regional aviation

SkyWork joins a long list of Swiss regional airlines that didn’t survive. Crossair of Basel was absorbed into Swiss in 2002, and the Ticino-based Darwin Airline, at times operating as Etihad Regional, ceased operations at the end of 2017. Today Helvetic Airways flies as a Swiss regional airline with Embraer jets – exactly the aircraft type SkyWork had last wanted to rely on.

The pattern is similar: small home airports, thin routes and strong competition from rail and big hubs make the business difficult. If you’re interested in the bigger picture, read the overview of regional airlines in Europe and of the big airline collapses in Europe.

Common mix-ups

• Misreading the founding year – the company began in 1983 as a flight school; scheduled flights only existed from 2009.
• Automatically assigning white Saab 2000s to SkyWork – other operators also flew the type in plain liveries.
• Counting the Embraer 170 in the fleet – it was ordered but never flew for SkyWork.
• Confusing the Dornier 328 and Dornier 328JET – SkyWork flew the propeller version, not the jet.
• Taking the 2017 near-collapse for the end – SkyWork kept flying for almost ten more months afterward.

Conclusion

SkyWork Airlines was the airline that made Bern-Belp a real scheduled-service airport. A small flight school became a regional airline with the Dornier 328, Dash 8 Q400 and Saab 2000, connecting the federal city with metropolises and vacation islands. Financially, though, it never stood on solid ground: after costly expansion, an austerity course and a near-collapse, the end came on August 29, 2018. For spotters, what remains are archive photos with HB registrations – and the search for the aircraft that fly with other operators today.