SkyWork Airlines (Bern) will not launch flights from Bern to Elba Island as the runway at the Italian island, despite the completed extension, does not allow for safe operations. Instead, the Swiss carrier will only operate to Grosseto on the mainland.

The runway upgrade was necessary in order to allow safe operations of the carrier's Saab 2000s, although even with the works completed SkyWork would be limited to a maximum of 35 passengers on the take-off from Elba. The airline has also planned technical stops at Grosseto to refuel the aircraft.

However, the carrier has said that even with these limitations, safe operations proved to be impossible.

"At present, still not all documents necessary for flight operations are available. In order to clarify the possible flight operation, a team of very experienced pilots including the chief pilot of SkyWork Airlines went twice to Elba to perform test flights with the Saab. After these test flights, it was clear that the safety standards defined by SkyWork Airlines cannot be kept. The tested approach path cannot be flown safely inside the SkyWork safety envelope," SkyWork has told ch-aviation in a statement.

The carrier will provide a bus and ferry connection from Grosseto but this will add considerable time to the total journey duration.

It is recalled that SkyWork had intended to launch the Berne-Elba service in early May 2018.

According to the ch-aviation capacity module, SkyWork Airlines is presently the only airline serving Grosseto. Currently, Elba sees no scheduled traffic, although Silver Air (Czechia) (SLD, Prague Václav Havel) is set to resume a weekly service to Lugano on June 24, 2018.