For the second time this year, the Carinthian state government voted on a possible exercise of the call option on the majority stake that Lilihill holds at Klagenfurt Airport. Once again, the SPÖ representatives rejected the ÖVP's application. That puts the topic – at least for the time being – off the table.

As early as May 2022, ÖVP provincial councilor Martin Gruber put the possible pull of the call option on the agenda of the provincial government of Carinthia. Previously, the Supervisory Board of the KBV had only passed a resolution to this effect with the votes of the representatives close to the People's Party. The members sent by the SPÖ have previously demonstratively left the hall. No wonder, because the decision of the KBV supervisory board had more of a symbolic meaning, since the state government has to agree and, on top of that, a resolution in the state parliament is necessary. The project ended in a government meeting, because the Spöler have voted against the ÖVP motion.

CRJ-900 was only pasted on one side for a short time

That's exactly what happened again on Tuesday and since the Social Democrats are in the majority, the representatives of the People's Party bit their teeth again. "The request for a call option was rejected by the SPÖ. An attempt was made to explain the motives to me. I respect this decision, I don't have to be able to understand it. As a government, we must not allow ourselves to be blinded by logos and castles in the air. I don't. To me, these jets are a pure diversion for Lilihill wanting to secure the properties."

In terms of diversionary maneuvers, an unusual phenomenon did indeed occur at Klagenfurt Airport on Tuesday. The Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft flown in from Malta arrived at Carinthian Airport fully liveryed by the former operator, Lufthansa Cityline. The side on which the entrance door is located and which was visible to the media representatives during the presentation was glued overnight Liliair logos. The Lufthansa livery was still on the other side. Remarkable: The US registration of the CRJ-900 was also taped on the "public page". And it got even stranger: After the press event, the Liliair decals were removed again and this machine appears again completely in the Lufthansa design. Viewed objectively, the statement by State Councilor Martin Gruber quoted in the previous paragraph cannot be refuted, at least as far as the aircraft is concerned. Incidentally, the operator of the two CRJ-900s that are to fly for Liliair Flite, the European branch of Mesa Airlines which is currently under construction.

SPÖ considers pulling the call option "unjustifiable"

Provincial Governor Peter Kaiser (SPÖ) justifies the rejection of the ÖVP application, among other things, with the fact that it would have had too little substance. In view of Liliair's presentation, it would not have been justifiable to exercise the call option. He wants to make “developments possible”. The option can also be exercised at a later date if Lilihill does not stick to agreements.

“I always saw the airport as a great opportunity. The different developments, which were rightly sometimes criticized, did not detract from this," said Kaiser, who also emphasized that there was no "government crisis" due to the recent vote on the call option.