Darwin Airline (Lugano) has now been forced to cancel the launch of its Aosta to Rome Fiumicino Public Service Obligation (PSO) route, originally scheduled to have launched in September last year. The Italian civil aviation authority (L'Ente Nazionale per l'Aviazione Civile - ENAC) confirmed that the Italian Ministry of Transport had annulled Darwin's bid to operate the route on the grounds that it is a Swiss company headquartered in Lugano, and is therefore ineligible to tender for European Union contracts. Turin's La Stampa newspaper says that it was the local Aostan carrier, Air Vallée (Rimini), that had raised the issue of Darwin's nationality with the Italian government in the first place. In the European Union, route PSOs are governed by Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008. They must be offered for tender in the Official Journal of the European Union and be open to any transport operator registered in an EU member state. However, due to ongoing negotiations between the bloc and the Swiss over cabotage rights (the legal restriction to domestic carriers of air transport between points within a country or bloc's borders), no Swiss carrier may vie for any EC contracts until the issue is resolved. Darwin, however, disputes this claiming instead that their contract was annulled on the grounds that only they had tendered for the route. It claims the resulting lack of competition among the bids had prejudiced the Italian state of any cheaper alternatives thereby nullifying the tender. The issue has also raised questions over Darwin's other Italian PSO contracts, Bolzano/Bozen to Rome Fiumicino and routes between Sicily and the islands of Lampedusa and Pantelleria, which thus far, have not come under any scrutiny.