SkyWork has taken delivery of a Dornier 328JET in a bid to expand its charter capabilities and carry more passengers on set routes. The aircraft will be based at its facility in Bern, Switzerland.

The company operates weekend charter flights to Elba, Italy, and Ibiza, Spain with a local tour operator. The 328JET also makes two charter flights during the week, which SkyWork aims to increase as demand rises. The aircraft is used for ad hoc flights during the week.

The aircraft joins SkyWork’s Citation V Ultra, two Excels, a Citation Jet and an Eagle. Vice director Nicholas Gribi believes that the 328JET will complement these aircraft, as well as broadening the scope of services the company can offer.

“We have a 31 passenger configuration and we have also a vip configuration,” said Gribi, “which enables us to set it for 24 passengers with two sets of club seating. We can also take out some seats to offer more space and legroom for vip flights.

“We have learnt during the last year that there is certain demand for aircraft for charter with more than 15 passengers, going up to 40 passengers, and we have the special situation in Bern that some regional airlines went bankrupt, which offered a good opportunity for us to enter into a new market,” he added.

Despite ambitiously entering a new segment of the charter market, SkyWork aims to maintain its focus on air taxi and business jet charter flights. Gribi believes that the experience and local knowledge of its staff will enable it to facilitate the transition into heavier aircraft with ease.

“We have a lot of local know-how and have pilots from previous airlines who are still living here and staff who already know the aircraft quite well,” he said. “We have maintenance here in Bern and the aircraft is well-known and appreciated in this region.

“We have seen the need for bigger aircraft and this is a little bit between mid-size and heavy jets. It’s a really fast aircraft, it has few technical issues and for our business, with flights of one and a half hours,

it’s ideal.”

The only negative point that the company has encountered is the restricted length of the runway at Bern, hindering its ability to maximise the full potential profitability of the aircraft and carry greater loads.

“We have a little bit of restriction in Bern, as we cannot have a full payload in this aircraft because of the restrictions of the length of the runway,” said Gribi. “This restricts the range of the aircraft.”