The bankruptcy proceedings of Skywork Airlines, which went bankrupt in August 2018, were finally concluded a few days ago. The Bern-Mittelland bankruptcy office has approved the distribution quota.

From the former Skywork flight school, a regional airline for Bern was formed with the help of many millions of Swiss francs provided by Rolex heir Daniel Borer. The carrier was on an expansion course for a few years with Dornier 328 and at times also de Havilland Dash 8-400. You never made money and at some point the investor lost interest.

The majority of the company then went to Martin Inäbnit, under whose management, among other things, the float change to Saab 2000 was completed. The purchase of Embraer 170 or Sukhoi Superjet SSJ-100 regional jets was also considered, but no further orders were placed. On August 29, 2018, the last Skywork flight was operated and the company, which in its history has repeatedly been briefly on the brink, had to file for bankruptcy.

Previously, negotiations with the Zeitfracht Group, which should have led to a possible takeover, were broken off without result. Company boss Martin Inäbnit said in the course of filing for bankruptcy that he no longer sees any alternative or future for the regional airline. At first it was assumed that SkyWork was not completely bankrupt, but would not have made it through the winter.

However, in the bankruptcy proceedings, a large number of creditors have filed claims, some of which are extremely high. It can therefore be assumed that Inäbnit knew exactly that he was legally obliged to file for bankruptcy and that is exactly what the last Skywork boss did. According to a report in the Berner Zeitung, only those in the first and second tier, i.e. wages and salaries of employees and social security contributions, could be paid out in full by the bankruptcy office. Everyone else has now only been awarded a small quota.

Those in third place were awarded 11,5 percent of the registered and court-approved claims. This rate is quite low, but it also has to do with the fact that the Saab fleet was leased and the properties used were rented. The former Dornier 328 fleet, transferred from Borer to Skywork, had been sold long before.

According to the Berner Zeitung, Saab has to write off around 430.000 Swiss francs due to the SkyWork bankruptcy. Eurocontrol about 400.000 francs, Rolls-Royce 310.000 francs and the regional airline Eastern Airways, from which some aircraft were dry leased, 260.000 francs.

With the bankruptcy of the former home base carrier, Bern-Belp Airport not only lost its only major customer, but, according to the newspaper report, was also left with outstanding claims in the amount of 1,3 million Swiss francs. To this day, the regional airport has not recovered from the loss of scheduled flights, because up until now there has been no carrier that flies from Belpmoos on a scale comparable to Skywork. Of course, this also had an impact on the workforce, which had to be reduced.