Darwin Airline (Lugano) flights between Bolzano/Bozen and Rome Fiumicino could soon be taken over by a fledgling start-up backed by a group of South Tyrolean businessmen.

Quoting the Südtiroler Wirtschaftszeitung, Austrian Aviation Net says the start-up is in the process of developing a business plan which would allow it to operate a double-daily Bolzano-Rome service as well as charter flights on a fully commercial basis.

No flights to Germany are planned as Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) already has a presence at the nearby airports of Innsbruck and Verona through its Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna), Air Dolomiti (EN, Verona), germanwings (4U, Cologne/Bonn), and Lufthansa CityLine (CL, Munich) subsidiaries.

Other than Darwin, Air Alps (Innsbruck) was the last dedicated operator of the route back in 2012 offering a 4x daily return service on-board Do328-100 metal at its peak.