Other European Frequent Flyer Programs - SkyWork Airlines, Berne

Anyone had any experiences with SkyWork Airlines? I made a booking with them, CHF79 all inclusive from Rome (FCO) to Berne (BRN), which is an amazingly good price. It seems that they offer you an iPad to play with in flight. Meals seems to be free, from their menu, while drinks, oddly, are payable. Or have I missed something?

www.flyskywork.com

Anyone had any experiences with SkyWork Airlines? I made a booking with them, CHF79 all inclusive from Rome (FCO) to Berne (BRN), which is an amazingly good price. It seems that they offer you an iPad to play with in flight. Meals seems to be free, from their menu, while drinks, oddly, are payable. Or have I missed something?

www.flyskywork.com

I'm flying with them in September on their LCY to BRN flights, paying 79 CHF one way as well. Which is an even better deal considering the hefty charges at London City. When are you flying?

From what I've seen and heard you can indeed request an iPad filled with games and movies. I get the same impression about the meals, as it specifically states 'SkyBistro includes a glass of water'. So I guess all other drinks are to be paid for.

I have flown with Skywork on several occasions...

Excellent service, excellent airline.

I am looking forward to trying them!

I will be doing the Rome-Berne on 14th June, which I see has now gone up to CHF179 minimum! I will report back as to how the trip was.

It seems that they offer you an iPad to play with in flight. Meals seems to be free, from their menu, while drinks, oddly, are payable. Or have I missed something?

www.flyskywork.com

I get the same impression about the meals, as it specifically states 'SkyBistro includes a glass of water'. So I guess all other drinks are to be paid for.

I flew Skywork beg of May. Very decent airline. With the huge added value of BRN. I hope they do well and soon join some FFP.
Curiously enough for this thread the photo I took onboard was the Ipad and a glass of water :D
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-DcjRkmMrHzg/T8OJzU9BYOI/AAAAAAAAAIw/BM8uLBHfSOs/s400/photo.JPG
They handed out the Ipad after take-off. Didn't really see how many they had but I don't think enough for every pax.
The meal is served together with water to all pax and after that the FA comes round with another cart serving soft drinks, alcohol (including spirits), coffee and tea which are all paid for.

There is a trip report on Skywork (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1252360-skywork-airlines-journey-through-bern-belp-airport.html) in the trip reports with plenty of pics.

GBM

It would appear that SkyWork now offers connecting flights. For example, I noticed that Rijeka (in Croatia) could be reached from Cologne-Bonn via Berne for as little as EUR90 OW, incl tax.

My own experience on SkyWork (FCO-BRN) was outstanding. The flight was so memorable and the service so great (with a nice meal), that I awarded it 10 out 10 points! This is how flying used to be!

It's on their website news. They now offer 16 connecting flights (http://www.flyskywork.com/en/company/press/press-releases/skyconnect).

The connecting flights in the 2012 summer flight schedule
Thessaloniki – London City
Thessaloniki – Hamburg
Thessaloniki – Cologne
Thessaloniki – Berlin-Schönefeld
Split – London City
Split – Hamburg
Split – Cologne
Split – Berlin-Schönefeld
Rijeka – London City
Rijeka – Hamburg
Rijeka – Cologne
Rijeka – Berlin-Schönefeld

Belgrade – London City
Belgrade – Hamburg
Belgrade – Cologne
Belgrade – Berlin-Schönefeld

GBM

It would appear that SkyWork now offers connecting flights. For example, I noticed that Rijeka (in Croatia) could be reached from Cologne-Bonn via Berne for as little as EUR90 OW, incl tax.

My own experience on SkyWork (FCO-BRN) was outstanding. The flight was so memorable and the service so great (with a nice meal), that I awarded it 10 out 10 points! This is how flying used to be!


Thanks for the nice report. That makes me trying them. Any advice for cheap flights with them? Which dates and which destinations?

You just need to surf around a bit on their site, which is a reasonably pleasant experience. I managed to get CHF79 (EUR69) flights around 3-4 weeks out, depending on the route, school holidays etc. Remember, there's another 5 francs or so credit charge surcharge, and the prices quoted are for one ways only.

Skywork planned S13 operation is out.
The english press release, as I write this, is not available on their website, but airlineroute (http://airlineroute.net/2012/08/23/sx-s13update1/) does a beautiful job as usual:

New destinations:
Brindisi, Djerba, Heraklion, Malta, Mykonos, Naples, Thira*, Tunis, Zadar and Zakynthos.


* had to look this one up. It's Santorini (JTR).
GBM

It would appear that SkyWork now offers connecting flights. For example, I noticed that Rijeka (in Croatia) could be reached from Cologne-Bonn via Berne for as little as EUR90 OW, incl tax.


SkyWork this summer is introducing "connection" services on selected markets only to test the market reaction.

I flew Skywork again this week. This time I got the Dash-8. Fairly full both flights, it seems they are doing well.
Still impressed by the overall experience.

They just need an FFP ;).


GBM

I flew Skywork again this week. This time I got the Dash-8. Fairly full both flights, it seems they are doing well.
Still impressed by the overall experience.

They just need an FFP ;).

GBM

Agree, I had two very pleasant flights with them on the LCY-BRN route earlier this month. Friendly crew, spiffy looking planes and a very nice Bircher Müsli for breakfast :)

Handing out iPads for IFE is a very simple idea that works very well.

Looking forward to having them around for the future *with* a decent FFP indeed :p

The cuts announced this/last week by Skywork Airlines www.flyskywork.com/en(based at Berne's Belp airport, BRN) have been the subject of a frontpage piece, and a business section lead story, in the highly respectable 'Der Bund' newspaper, the staid and reliable daily of the Swiss capital.
The article in the 7 February issue is at:
http://www.derbund.ch/bern/stadt/Skywork-dreht--an-der-Preisschraube/story/28525863

I have found that the DE-EN translation offered by Google, a digital marketeer, provides a reasonable overview. What follows here is solely my take on the article and other developments. It is not, in any way, except for obvious translated quotes, attributable to the article itself, which I leave you to examine yourself.

The cuts include dropping some Balkan routes (the rookie new owner is from the region), and shrinking service on others. The 'there-and-back-in-a-day' services to Vienna have been shrunk to one daily. The third daily return to London, a lunchtime special, is being removed from some (all?) of its schedules, from a point in February onwards.

Perhaps nothing new there, as a relative upstart seeks to adjust to soaring oil prices, tempting offers from competitors from more estabished Swiss airports and growing pains. The airline more than doubled its traffic over 2011-2012, and brought new life to the absolutely charming, sweetly tiny and largely moribund airport of Bern. The once thrice-daily Munich connection gradually withered and died when LH subsidiary(?) Cirrus went belly-up, and the twice-daily Orly link by AirFrance's Airlinair, started in 2009, ceases operation end-March.

With a quasi-hegemony on scheduled flights, and much of the scant charter traffic through Belp, perhaps apparent success went to the (changing) head of Skywork. The way he rattled his bars a few months ago at a proposed change in airport fees, with an ugly threat to shift the Skywork base to Basle (lock, stock and Basel...), must have given his backers and bankers a wobbly feeling. It was not rich in any of the subtleties of the Swiss way of doing business.

And now, are we seeing a script unfold of a stalling airline that tried to grow in an inorganic way? It's more than a matter of conjecture.
The article in Bund suggests that this is more than just the "adjustment" of which one quoted source speaks. The author of the article says that the cutbacks, and associated talk of additional charges to published and advertised fares, look like more than the trim-and-slim nature of the cuts. First, he implies, they hit the customer in the "wallet". Then, they reduce the appeal of the Skywork "offering". And, now, it seems, they actually raise doubts of the "reliability" of the airline.

In Switzerland, it's reliability that makes the difference. Reliability is part of the nation's geneset. So much so that it is a given, unspoken in its security. (Remember a nation weeping when Swissair grew lopsided and flopped?).
To question reliability is the next surest thing to starting a run of confidence-loss in a product.
For one of the nation's most staid voice-pieces to do so, well ...

To be clear, I am simply a disinterested observer, no more. The Skywork package has its attractions to me for several European routes, but they never yet got me onboard. I use Belp for LH(as was) and AF, and just love the dinky airport, the multi-tasking and aimiable staff, the 30 metres from check-in to plane, the always-empty-and-thus-private lounge... Written a few km north-west of BRN.

The cuts announced this/last week by Skywork Airlines www.flyskywork.com/en(based at Berne's Belp airport, BRN) have been the subject of a frontpage piece, and a business section lead story, in the highly respectable 'Der Bund' newspaper, the staid and reliable daily of the Swiss capital.
The article in the 7 February issue is at:
http://www.derbund.ch/bern/stadt/Skywork-dreht--an-der-Preisschraube/story/28525863

These route cuts will have a fleet impact according to ch-aviation (http://www.ch-aviation.ch/portal/news/16888-skywork-to-return-two-dash-8-400s-to-lessor) :
SkyWork Airlines (SX, Berne (BRN)) will return two of its three Dash 8-400s to the aircraft's lessor according to a report by Austrian Aviation Net. SkyWork had recently already announced plans to cut some frequencies in its network for the upcoming summer schedule as part of its SkyFit2013plus restructuring plan. It will continue to operate five Do328-100s and one Dash 8-400 from its Berne base.


Taking the fleet details of skywork (http://www.flyskywork.com/en/company/about-us/fleet) of Dornier with 31 seats and Dash with 72 seats, this means 25% less planes but almost 39% less seat capacity.

Not good signs...
GBM

Can someone post details of the frequencies/destinations that have been cut - I can't find any details on their website, or in that Bund article. Thanks!

Can someone post details of the frequencies/destinations that have been cut - I can't find any details on their website, or in that Bund article. Thanks!

Cut-back (not cut-out) includes Berlin, Vienna and LCY (the de facto flagship).
(as seen in the Bund article, but clearly very well hidden ;-) )

Can someone post details of the frequencies/destinations that have been cut - I can't find any details on their website, or in that Bund article. Thanks!

Skywork have published under flight schedule (http://www.flyskywork.com/en/flight-information/flight-schedule) their S13 timetable (http://www.flyskywork.com/en/flight-information/flight-schedule?controller=download&action=getfile&filename=website%2Fstatic%2Fsource%2Fpdf%2Fflight_ schedule_summer_2013_en.pdf) and winter 12/13 (http://www.flyskywork.com/en/flight-information/flight-schedule?controller=download&action=getfile&filename=website%2Fstatic%2Fsource%2Fpdf%2Fflight_ schedule_winter_2012_2013.pdf). So you can check which have been cut back.
Quick glance of the impact of W12/13 vs S13 for business routes (reductions in red):
AMS - Daily to 6 weekly
BCN - 3 weekly to 5 weekly
SXF/TXL - 12 weekly to 13 weekly
BUD - 3 weekly to 2 weekly
CGN - Remains at 12 weekly
HAM - 12 weekly to 13 weekly
LCY - 17 weekly to 12 weekly
ROM - Remains at 3 weekly
VIE - 12 weekly to 6 weekly

GBM

Quick glance of the impact of W12/13 vs S13 for business routes (reductions in red):
AMS - Daily to 6 weekly
BCN - 3 weekly to 5 weekly
SXF/TXL - 12 weekly to 13 weekly
BUD - 3 weekly to 2 weekly
CGN - Remains at 12 weekly
HAM - 12 weekly to 13 weekly
LCY - 17 weekly to 12 weekly
ROM - Remains at 3 weekly
VIE - 12 weekly to 6 weekly

GBM

A very useful table, many thanks!

However, the published timetable (Summer 2013) shows discrepancies, and needs to be taken with a big pinch of salt.
The AMS route, for example, shows the removal of the Saturday flight BRN-AMS-BRN. The timetable then shows connecting flights AMS-BRN-BUD and AMS-BRN-NIC, on a Saturday.
Somewhere (but where?), there is sloppy editing. I have not checked other routes.

Airlineroute (http://airlineroute.net/2013/03/22/sx-brnmuc-may13/) reports service to MUC as of MAY6 '13

Planned schedule as follow.

SX216 BRN0630 – 0730MUC D38 x67
SX218 BRN1640 – 1740MUC D38 x6

SX217 MUC0820 – 0920BRN D38 x67
SX219 MUC1850 – 1950BRN D38 x6



It would be good if LH picks it as a codeshare to replace the previous Cityline/Cirrus (http://www.ch-aviation.ch/portal/news/7137#disqus_thread) ceased operation.
GBM

Another tiny airline, CSO tried flying MUC BRN 5x weekly to get the LH contract. They started on May 28 and stopped 3 months later:

http://tix.airport-cochstedt.de/frontpage.jsp?menuId=23

Another tiny airline, CSO tried flying MUC BRN 5x weekly to get the LH contract. They started on May 28 and stopped 3 months later:

http://tix.airport-cochstedt.de/frontpage.jsp?menuId=23

I forgot that one.:)

Airlineroute (http://airlineroute.net/2013/03/25/sx-s13update2/) published a summary of changes, I exclude the ones I posted:

Basel – Elba eff 06JUN13 NEW 1 weekly service
Berne – Brindisi 07MAY13 – 21OCT13 NEW 1 weekly service
Berne – Catania Service increases from 1 to 2 weekly remain unchanged
Berne – Djerba 07MAY13 – 22OCT13 NEW 1 weekly service
Berne – Elba Planned service increase from 3 to 4 weekly cancelled. The airline will continue to operate 3 weekly flights
Berne – Figari eff 17MAY13 Service increases from 1 weekly (Day 6) to 3 weekly (Day 567), 4 weekly (Day x124) from 05JUN13
Berne – Mahon eff 08MAY13 Service increases from 1 weekly (Day 3) to 2 weekly (Day 37; Previously planned service increase to start from 03JUN13)
Berne – Naples eff 06APR13 NEW 1 weekly service
Berne – Nice Planned service increase from 3 weekly to daily cancelled
Berne – Rijeka Service increases from 1 weekly (Day 5) to 2 weekly
Berne – Split Planned service increase from 2 to 3 weekly from 14JUN13 cancelled
Berne – Zagreb Service increases from 2 weekly (W12; Day 16) to 3 weekly

Following planned new routes are being cancelled. The airline previously planned 1 weekly service:
Berne – Irakleion Previously planned from 21MAY13 to 21OCT13
Berne – Malta 07MAY13 to 26OCT13
Berne – Mykonos 07MAY13 to 26OCT13
Berne – Thira 07MAY13 to 26OCT13
Berne – Tunis 28MAY13 to 26OCT13
Berne – Zakinthos 03MAY13 to 26OCT13

LCY - 17 weekly to 12 weekly
GBM


According to the new summer timetable published today by Belp Airport
http://www.flughafenbern.ch/de/index.php?section=flightplan
the London route now has the SkyWork lunchtime/teatime rotation back on Mondays and Fridays.

So the cut has become a shave.

I flew SX to Hamburg last Monday for the first time and found both the airline and BRN airport very convenient. See here (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1454175-skyworks-airlines-sx-brn-ham-pictures.html) for a trip report.

ch-aviation (http://www.ch-aviation.ch/portal/news/18230-skywork-airlines-to-remain-a-niche-carrier-despite-shareholder-reshuffle#disqus_thread) with a piece on Skywork
SkyWork Airlines (SX, Berne (BRN)) has completed a management buyout with previous majority shareholder, Daniel Borer, downsizing his stake from 85% to 20%. Business partner, Sebastien Merillat, has increased his share to 40% with SkyWork CEO, Tomislav Lang, now holding the remaining 40%. Despite the change in ownership, which in fact occurred 3 weeks ago, SkyWork EVP Rolf Hartleb has reiterated that while the Swiss operator would remain a niche carrier, it will venture into the 3rd party training market following the recent acquisition of a Do328-100 simulator based at CAE’s Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) training base.

per ch-aviation (http://www.ch-aviation.ch/portal/news/18857-skyworks-second-base-to-be-in-a-german-speaking-country-lang)

SkyWork Airlines (SX, Berne (BRN)) is looking to set up a second base "in a German-speaking country" in 2014, the airline's CEO, Tomislav Lang, has said. Lang refused to further expound on the statement. SkyWork's plans for a second base mimic that of fellow Swiss operators, Darwin Airline (F7, Lugano Agno (LUG)), who themselves have already made public their plans to base a Saab 2000 in Leipzig/Halle (LEJ) for use on double daily flights to both Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) from September onwards with further unconfirmed plans for a possible first UK base in Cambridge (CBG) due in 2014.

My bet is on Liechtenstein :p or Majorca (if they ever declare independence) :D