Styrain Spirit

[Buster the Bear]

According to this report they are:

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?Feed=AP&Date=20060324&ID=5594624

[brabazon]

Two regionals (Air Wales (ok not totally but certainly out of sched. pax ops) and Styrian) gone in 2 days - coincidence or sign of things to come? Discuss.....

[tom de luxe]

According to this report they are:
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?Feed=AP&Date=20060324&ID=5594624
Yes they are and, unlike Air Wales, they have pulled the plug with immediate effect and pax are stranded. But there are various "special offers" by rival companies (Austrian, Swiss, Air France) for those who are stranded, os so the Website (http://www.styrianspirit.com/) says...
:uhoh:

[airhumberside]

Styrian Spirit had codeshare agreements with Air France (CDG routes) and Swiss (ZRH routes)

[tomuchwork]

As well the Austrian Regional Carrier Styrian Spirit ended up beeing bancrupt.
Newspapers wrote that politicians ****** up a take over. Instead of getting new money a/c and crews are grounded since today. Great - some more pilots on the market.... :{

They had 4 CRJs(3 200, 1 700) and a workforce of 152 employees.

[Algy]

Yup, shame but always going to be a tough business case. (http://shortlinks.co.uk/9z)

[View From The Ground]

Is there a list of airline shutdowns failures anywhere? My guess is that it would make horrendous and worrying reading for anyone who works in the industry. Amazing really... what is it that draws us to it like moths to a flame....since in a lot of cases the pay is not great....given the apparent risk in job security terms......

[Voeni]

I was very surprised when I heard the message. From the outside it looked they're business worked well, they introduced new routes and bought bigger planes (from -200 to -700 and they wanted to aquire a -900) and their growth seemed to be slow & solid.

Sad they left, good service, good staff and a business model, I thought could have worked out...

[Wing Root]

View from the ground,

What seems to be a fairly complete list is shown here...


http://www.justplanes.com/AirlineHist.html

[Riker]

I just read that Styrian Spirit (CRJ operator out of Graz) is bankrupt and no longer operating. Is that true? It operated both CRJ 200s and a 700 I believe on a mix of services from Graz and Zurich. I flew into STR recently and didn't see the normal flight that I used to see there but I assumed it was late...

If this is true I am sorry for the crews. Anyone know if they would be picked up by other carriers in the area? Would Lufthansa Cityline pick them up?

I had a good conversation with a crew about 9 months ago and they were very nice and professional. I wish them all luck!

[Austrian Simon]

Riker,

affirmative, Styrian Spirit went bankrupt on March 28th 2006 and stopped flying that day.

http://www.styrianspirit.com

Servus, Simon

[Alpine Flyer]

Apparently the load factor on some of the newer routes they expanded into was well below 50%.

They got some capital from the state of Carinthia although they were almost bankrupt at the time and would have needed more capital (from more provinces) to continue operations. There was no political will to give that money and no (more) private investment either.

Probably just the wrong business model and aircraft at the wrong time. Very bad for the pilots, who had just elected their first works council. Even worse for those who left Lauda Air and Tyrolean for Styrian.

[Alphopper]

A scandal that was.... Bundesland Kaernten pumped 8 millions Euros into SS... some pilots left VO/Lauda.... without the proper leave time... so not only did the bridge burn up behind them.... so did the job... poor guys...

[tomuchwork]

...and Austrian is happy again. :rolleyes: . Now they can continue keeping up the high price politics out of austrian regional airports, in this case especially LOWG.
The reason why Z2 went bancrupt is a good mix of very weak management guys(now they are f***ing around at fly niki), politicians trying to dictate new(and absolutely bad) routes like KLU - LTN or MBX - CDG. Finally as well operations guys like Manager Flight OPS and Head of Training where messing around and stressing flight crew with absolute no leader abilities!

After all there are just loosers - the province of styria(especially graz airport) is missing now a yearly income of around 1,5 million euros, the economy in the wider graz area will for sure not grow(actually newspapers write that new projects will likely start in the provinces of carinthia and salzburg instead of styria).:ugh:

Maybe people will learn at least something from this lesson -

1. for the crew - never leave a winning team :hmm:

2. for the next votes the styrian citizen will give the right answer to this
pricks of politicians.

Good luck of course to the non management ex employees of styrian!

[Riker]

Anyone know if any of the crews have been picked up elsewhere? Any other CRJ operators (would Lufthansa Cityline hire any?) or would they most likely qualify for Easy, Ryanair, Air Berlin, etc.? I am sure the former Styrian crews are very well qualified and I wish them well...

[Alpine Flyer]

...and Austrian is happy again. :rolleyes: . 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.

[doglegfinal]

Anyone know if any of the crews have been picked up elsewhere? Any other CRJ operators (would Lufthansa Cityline hire any?) or would they most likely qualify for Easy, Ryanair, Air Berlin, etc.? I am sure the former Styrian crews are very well qualified and I wish them well...

I've heard, that 8 of them are in the selection with VO, those where the ones who already flew for VO some years ago but left for Styrian Spirit.

[Alpine Flyer]

doglegfinal

They have good chances to be "taken back" if the left the company in a decent way and gave the company the required 6 months prior notice.

[tomuchwork]

1. As far as I know a couple of guys voted not to go to VO selection - they take it as a "last resort" of there is really nothing else to go to. 1 former VO captain is most likely joining them as FO :mad: because he absolutely doesn`t want to leave austria. The high quality FOs(there were a couple of them) surely will get a job with cityline or some other good airline.

2. The best example , where politicians are just giving money and not interfering with management(at least not in an so obvious way) is austrian airlines group - the state still keeps his big share(lets wait what will happen if they will sell it one day), helping to get bank credits to keep this airline alive.

Fact is - some airlines do have advantages since Z2 is down, the only loosers are local investors, the province of styria and last but not least the double f***ed Z2 crews.

[Buster the Bear]

The route to Luton was never advertised widely within the London area, so the passengers that were flying with Ryanair into Graz from Stansted, probably did not know the route had been resurrected albeit from London Luton.

[Alpine Flyer]

Given the recent massive expansion at Tyrolean which probably won't repeat quickly, looking for a job elsewhere makes sense. Austrian Airlines still isn't too healthy financially and Tyrolean's fate is quite linked to Austrian's.

The type rating isn't an asset with Tyrolean at the time, as their CRJ fleet is shrinking.

The state might help Austrian to get money, but that won't atone for the sins committed in the past and those committed by regional governments. At the same time the state has hiked the airport security fee 100% which doesn't exactly help an airline depending on transfer traffic to maintain a size too big for the home market alone.