Darwin Airline
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| Founded | 2003 | ||||||
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| Secondary hubs |
Rome Fiumicino Airport (on behalf of Alitalia) |
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| Frequent-flyer program | Etihad Guest | ||||||
| Fleet size | 10 | ||||||
| Destinations | 16 (as Etihad Regional) | ||||||
| Company slogan | Flying evolution | ||||||
| Headquarters | Lugano, Switzerland | ||||||
| Key people | Emilio Martinenghi, President | ||||||
| Employees | 314 (as of October 2014) | ||||||
| Website | etihadregional.com | ||||||
Darwin Airline SA is a Swiss regional airline with its head office in Bioggio, Lugano. It operates scheduled domestic and international services throughout some western European countries using the brand name Etihad Regional since January 2014 as well as on behalf of Alitalia. Its bases are Geneva Airport and Lugano Airport.
Darwin Airline was established on 12 August 2003 and operations started on 28 July 2004. By October 2013 it had 220 employees.
On 25 November 2010, Darwin Airline announced its plans to take over some Baboo operating assets by early 2011. Under the plan, some parts of the combined airline would continue to be marketed under the Baboo name, while Darwin would be able to substantially expand their operations.
At the time of the merger, Baboo had returned its fleet of three leased Embraer E-190 to their lessors and only the remaining two Bombardier DHC-8-Q400 were transferred to Darwin Airline to be used on high-density routes as the 74-seater offered a substantial increase in seats compared to the Saab 2000. Later both DHC-8-Q400 were sold as they had too much capacity for the Darwin Airline's network.
On 2 September 2013, Darwin Airline opened a base at Cambridge with flights to Amsterdam, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Milan Malpensa and its Geneva base using Saab 2000 aircraft. These services were suspended in early 2014 due to low demand.
On 17 November 2013, Etihad Airways announced that it had bought a 33% stake in Darwin Airline. Following completion of the deal, Darwin will use the new brand name Etihad Regional but Darwin will continue to operate as normal and will operate flights for Etihad Regional and the new brand will have the subtitle "operated by Darwin Airline". The first Darwin aircraft featuring the Etihad Regional livery began operating between Lugano and Geneva on 17 January 2014; the airline announced that all ten of its Saab 2000 aircraft would be repainted in Etihad livery by the end of June 2014. Four ATR 72-500s leased to Etihad Regional will be also painted in the new livery as soon as they are delivered to the company.
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