Originally Posted by tomuchwork
...and Austrian is happy again.
. Now they can continue keeping up the high price politics out of austrian regional airports, in this case especially LOWG.
Obviously it takes higher fares than those charged by Styrian Spirit to stay profitable. Let's not forget Z2 is the second airline out of GRZ to fail. Fairline failed even sooner using Saabs.
You only get politicians to "dictate" routes if you have to mix with them to get money.
Even politics is poorly advised to take equity in airlines to get routes served. The proper way to get this done in the EU is to issue a public service obligation, a kind of tender to have certain routes flown with certain frequency, equipment, quality, etc. Airlines can then bid for this route and the route is awarded to the airline asking for the lowest subsidy.
What the government of Carinthia did doesn't ensure that the taxpayer gets the connection politics wants at the best possible price.