At the end of May 2023, the provincial government of Carinthia will again deal with the possible exercise of the call option for Lilihill's majority stake in Klagenfurt Airport. So far, the private investor could be sure that the governor party SPÖ dhe rebuffs the request of the coalition partner ÖVP. But this time the situation is different.

Both Governor Peter Kaiser (SPÖ) and his deputy Martin Gruber (ÖVP) have stated, albeit in very different terms, that the call option will be speeded up. As a result, this will again be on the agenda at one of the next meetings of the state government, probably at the end of May 2023. Significantly, Kaiser told the “Kleine Zeitung” with reference to the ten-point plan that he expects Lilihill to implement the announced hub connections in the first half of 2023.

Additional hub connections are still not available

Apart from Vienna, Klagenfurt should have been connected to major hubs for a long time, because originally it was said that this would be the case from December 2022. As is well known, nothing came of this and apparently it looks as if the fact that the wages and salaries of the employees "due to an accounting error" were transferred late and that just after receipt of the capital increase of the minority shareholders, which belongs to the public sector, also caused the SPÖ to think about it. At the moment, the state of Carinthia and the city of Klagenfurt are even arguing about the said payment being entered in the company register, because according to the K-BV should this be refused by the airport management.

In addition, the difficult financial situation at Klagenfurt Airport was pointed out in the previous year and a capital increase was presented as inevitable. Apparently, the Regio-Airport is in acute danger of insolvency and the payment by the minority shareholders has at least temporarily solved the problem. However, majority owner Lilihill only wants to transfer the much larger chunk if the city of Klagenfurt and the state of Carinthia refrain from exercising the call option. The public authorities do not want to get involved in this and are already preparing legal measures.

Without a codeshare or interline, it is not a hub connection

Incidentally, flying from Klagenfurt to Munich, Frankfurt, Amsterdam or other larger airports is not a hub connection. Passengers benefit little if there are purely point-to-point flights. Without interlining or code sharing with large providers, ideally with the top dog at the respective large airport, there will be nothing with transfer connections. For passengers, especially those traveling with checked baggage, it would be extremely annoying if you first had to pick up your suitcases at the conveyor belt and then check them in again at the counter.

Large airline groups in particular, such as Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and IAG, are extremely selective when it comes to choosing their interline and codeshare partners. Some basics such as IOSA safety audit must be fulfilled. In addition, certain minimum standards regarding the product must be met. EDP ​​must also be designed in such a way that seamless cooperation is possible. In principle, the large network carriers do not conclude such contracts with “any virtual booths”. For regional carriers, codeshares on routes that mainly have transfer passengers from large carriers on board are by no means good business. There is not a lot of money for the feeder service and without their own point-to-point passengers who pay heavily for their tickets, such a cooperation would be economic suicide for the "small partner". In the past, numerous regional airlines have gone bankrupt with codeshares with major airlines, which were perceived as “saving”. Conversely: Destinations that are particularly important for network carriers are served by the company itself or with the help of its own subsidiary and it accepts any losses because it pays off in the bottom line – i.e. in the network.

Simply founding a GmbH and announcing flights to Frankfurt and/or Munich and believing that the Kranich Group is waiting for some virtual carrier that will bring passengers from Klagenfurt to the hub is simply a fatal misjudgment. Or what happens if you simply add EWR to the luggage label in Carinthia in addition to KLU? In the absence of an interline contract, this is simply sorted out at the hub and ends up at the baggage carousel. Why should Lufthansa "accept" a piece of luggage just because EWR and the flight number were written on it by "someone"? Of course, there are some providers in the world of startups who want to enable so-called virtual interlining. This doesn't really work in practice and anyone can "stitch tickets together" themselves, but when it comes to luggage you will have to check it in again. Liability becomes complicated if the connection is missed. In the absence of genuine cooperation agreements, nobody is then responsible and, in case of doubt, the passenger is left with the costs. So it's not a real hub connection and if Klagenfurt were such an attractive market, the big airlines would match each other with their own aircraft for the transfer passengers. The opposite is the case, because with the exception of Austrian Airlines, all previously existing hub connections have gradually disappeared into thin air.

Business jet customers criticize poor service

Contrary to previous announcements, the private majority owner only wants to allow the Liliair brand to be withdrawn if the call option is waived and the supervisory board waves through the contract for an advance payment to the airport. It is supposed to be a handling fee, although it is questionable for what and for what why Liliair as GmbH, which is not an airline and therefore cannot be a direct contractual partner of the airport, because this is always the operating carrier that wants to transfer at all. In addition, for some time now the media releases have not matched the representations on the homepage, which has not been updated for a long time. In any case, the first flight will not take place in April 2023.

So the next few weeks will show how things will continue at Klagenfurt Airport. Meanwhile, Aviation.Direct is receiving more and more complaints from private pilots and business jet operators. These are mainly concerned with the fact that the service at Carinthian Airport is said to be inadequate from the point of view of those affected. For example, it is criticized that essential contacts cannot be reached or can only be reached via a contact form and answers are said to be a long time coming. This is very surprising, because business travel and general aviation are an important source of income for Klagenfurt Airport, because on the line you have except a few Ryanair and Austrian Airlines connections no longer have any other customers. Eurowings has the Cologne/Bonn flights now finally abandoned. This route was repeatedly "paused" before.