Last weekend, the "European flight chaos" also hit the Austrian regional airport of Innsbruck. Airport boss Marco Pernetta is nevertheless convinced that passengers traveling from smaller airports have a significantly lower risk of long waiting times and delays.

“If you're flying from a regional airport to a Mediterranean airport, the chances of anything going wrong are actually very small. I know that we had a problem with this technical issue at the weekend in Innsbruck. The organizer program works very well. However, it becomes problematic if you have to transfer to major airports or have to depart from them. The lack of staff there is glaring and it won't be possible to fix it anytime soon," said the Innsbruck Airport Director in an interview with "Tirol Live".

However, if a machine breaks down like last weekend, it will be extremely difficult to find a replacement. Pernetta explained that there is currently "no free flight capacity on the European market". There would simply be no replacement aircraft. “You had to do magic overnight and somehow organize a plane to take people away. Of course, that led to delays of several hours,” Pernetta said about the weekend. “At the moment everything that has two wings flies and you can find pilots for it. Demand has increased somewhat surprisingly eerily. People want to go on vacation, even on long-haul routes, for example to the USA. On racetracks like New York, there are sometimes no free seats for weeks. As a result, everything is currently flying with fewer staff but more demand. If something then fails or a pilot or flight attendant tests positive, the flight is canceled without replacement. There is actually hardly a chance of getting a replacement aircraft.”

From Marco Pernetta's point of view, after two years of the corona pandemic, demand suddenly increased extremely sharply. “The planes are full. Nobody has to throw last-minute seats onto the market cheaply, as was the case in years when there was overcapacity. This year the market has turned completely after two years of Corona. There is excess demand on all travel routes. You also notice that on the street or on the train," the manager told Tirol Live.

In the medium term, the Innsbruck airport boss expects ticket prices to rise. The airlines are also feeling the sharp rise in everyday costs, for example when purchasing fuel. At the moment, airlines do not need to attract passengers with the cheapest offers, because demand is significantly higher than supply. However, there would be a higher demand between Innsbruck and Vienna, for example, and 19-euro tickets could lead to completely full planes, but that doesn't pay off at all, as the past has shown.

For example, Air Alps, SkyEurope and Niki have tried to compete with Tyrolean Airways (later Austrian Airlines) on the domestic route. All three providers withdrew after a short time and unanimously accused AUA of price dumping. The competition has resulted in air tickets between Innsbruck and Vienna falling drastically. "The airlines didn't earn anything anymore and that simply didn't pay off for anyone anymore, and then someone always left," says Pernetta. "Point-to-point in the double daily margin costs around 400 euros and companies now think twice about whether to spend the money or not. With 19-euro tickets you would also get people from the car or from the train onto the plane, but it still wouldn't pay off. And it's not even our intention to do that."

When asked about nine-euro flight tickets, which Pernetta says he has never found or if the return flight costs 120 euros, he said: "Innsbruck has never been a fan of nine-euro tickets. We have always made sure that we have airlines that sell their services at a bargain price. Tyrol as a destination shouldn't be sold off either. Not everyone understands that, but we have never had Ryanair in Innsbruck. My predecessor did it that way and I took it over one-to-one. The average prices of the providers in Innsbruck are 300 to 400 euros for the return and I think that is a fair price. I don't think these nine-euro tickets will continue to exist on the international market. The whole cost situation has increased extremely. That certain low-cost airlines will continue to be cheaper than others - the trend will remain.

However, it is not entirely true that the Ryanair Group has never flown to Innsbruck. In the first year of operation of the then Laudamotion, Innsbruck was included in the winter flight schedule from Düsseldorf and other airports. The aircraft was flown under the OE code, with Ryanair Boeing 737-800s also being used in a wet lease. However, the offer was not continued and Innsbruck apparently does not currently play a role in Ryanair's plans. From the comments of Marco Pernetta one can also interpret that the airport does not try to do this either.