Fly Ernest (Milan Malpensa) has secured its Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) from the Italian civil aviation authority (Ente Nazionale per l'Aviazione Civile - ENAC) Skyliner Aviation has reported.

A virtual carrier until now, Fly Ernest has relied on narrowbody capacity chartered from technical partner Mistral Air (Rome Fiumicino) to undertake flights between Italy and Albania.

As such, its first in-house aircraft is set to be an A319-100 EC-HKO (cn 1362). The ex-Iberia (IB, Madrid Barajas) twinjet is currently in Shannon undergoing pre-delivery maintenance. It will be re-registered as EI-FVG.