The bickering about Klagenfurt Airport is still ongoing and will soon occupy the Carinthian state parliament again. The ÖVP wants to bring about a decision that will mean that if fewer than 100.000 passengers use the airport this year, the call option will have to be used.

As early as spring, the state-owned KBV, which is politically subordinate to ÖVP state councilor Martin Gruber, wanted pull the call option and thus bring Klagenfurt Airport back into public ownership. The project failed within the state government because, among others, SPÖ governor Kaiser saw a years-long legal dispute as inevitable.

Now the ÖVP is trying to go an alternative way, namely via a resolution in the state parliament. For this one is dependent on the votes of the opposition, because it cannot be assumed that the government partner SPÖ will agree. However, the opposition is divided, so that it is by no means foreseeable whether the ÖVP motion will find a majority or not.

In the course of the majority privatization of Klagenfurt Airport, it was agreed that the public sector could exercise a call option if Lilihill was unable to keep passenger numbers above 100.000. The ÖVP had wanted to do this for a long time, but the SPÖ also opposed it with reference to the corona pandemic.

“The country cannot simply take note when contractual agreements are again not complied with and written goals at Klagenfurt Airport are repeatedly not achieved. If the goal is missed again, there must be consequences this time, ”said ÖVP Carinthia club chairman Malle, who also demands that the airport should again be under the control of the state’s own KBV in the future. The basis for this is the passenger numbers for the current year.

Now that the ÖVP deputies have submitted the application for the call option 2022, it will be dealt with in the relevant committee of the state parliament. The outcome of the vote is completely open, because it cannot be assumed that the government partner SPÖ will agree, so that the opposition will de facto decide, since the ÖVP will look for alternative majorities.

At the beginning of November 2022, the airline Ryanair will initially add three new routes to Charleroi, London-Stansted and Dublin. A fourth goal will follow in December 2022 with Manchester. According to company information, additional routes are planned to be offered from Klagenfurt in the 2023 summer flight schedule, but there is still a veil on where the journey should go. The Irish low-cost airline is returning to Klagenfurt after many years of absence. However, there is also bad news at the same time, because the competitor Eurowings is again suspending the Cologne/Bonn route. This leaves only Vienna-Schwechat as a network connection for Carinthia. This route is served by Austrian Airlines.