Italian regional airline Sky Alps is launching a new twice-weekly service from Gatwick to Bolzano in the South Tyrol, with flights on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 15 December.
Fares will be around £350 for the return trip, including baggage, with ski carriage an extra £40 each way. Departure times from Gatwick will be 13:30, arriving in Bolzano at 16:50. The return flights leave Bolzano at 11:00, landing at Gatwick at 12:30.
And with a typical transfer time of just 30 minutes to the popular Dolomites resort of Alta Badia, Sky Alps will be hoping the new service is a winner British skiers who have previously had to fly into Venice or Verona, or Innsbruck in Austria, and face 90min-plus transfer times.
Operating a fleet of two 78-seater De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 aeroplanes, Sky Alps was founded 18 months ago. The niche airline launched its first flights in June, after postponements due to the pandemic, offering services from Bolzano to destinations in Germany, Spain, and other parts of Italy.
It will be aiming to make a virtue of the intimacy of Bolzano, a tiny airport with just two departure gates and one baggage carousel.
On its website the company sees itself as a champion of the Italian Alps: "The Alps are some of the most beautiful and most prized places to live in the world. We are their ambassador, and as such, we look forward to welcoming each and every person who wants to pay their respect, love and attention to this wonderful world and get to know it. We see ourselves as local globetrotters and avid aviators, whose love for far-off lands and cultures is just the same as for our Alps."
