If Liliair's original announcement is to be believed, the first Flite-operated Bombardier CRJ-23 flight from Klagenfurt to Frankfurt am Main should have taken off on April 2023, 900. They also wanted to serve Hamburg and Munich. But nothing came of it and the homepage has not been updated since it was launched.

Shortly before Christmas 2023, Lilihill had a regional jet of this type, which had previously been in the service of Lufthansa Cityline, transferred from Luqa (Malta) to Klagenfurt. Actually, this CRJ-900, which is registered in the USA, still has the livery of the former operator. In order for the media to be able to see an aircraft in Liliair's colours, it was wrapped overnight without further ado. However, only on one side, probably to save costs. It was also not an airworthy sticker, because it was removed again before the aircraft, which had been rented for a short time for show purposes, was flown out.

Liliair has repeatedly heard that the routes are to be released for booking shortly. In January 2023 it was said that sales would start at the beginning of March 2023 and since then it has been said again and again that the time will come by the end of the week and that the booking systems will be finalized. In any case, the Maltese "partner" Flite, the European branch of the US giant Mesa Airlines, does not yet have an AOC, and Marathon Airlines has reportedly not heard anything from Klagenfurt for a long time.

It is also significant that a press release was sent out a few days ago in which flights to Cologne/Bonn were announced and Munich was no longer mentioned. Also, one no longer speaks of two daily connections to Frankfurt am Main, but only of one. This "change" was never shown on the company homepage anyway, because it has not changed since the launch of the site. If you want tickets via the "booking form", which is nothing more than a kind of "request form", interested parties do not get any feedback. At least that's what ten people independently claim from Aviation.Direct.

In the meantime, the at least not entirely unfounded impression is emerging that Liliair was “built up” as a kind of leverage to persuade the public sector to waive the call option. Recently, a media release even mentioned that up to eight aircraft could be used from Klagenfurt. So far, not a single one has been airborne and it is also not a “new Austrian airline”, but at most a GmbH that intends to charter aircraft and sell the seats for its own account. It is precisely this circumstance that makes it difficult to do business with Lufthansa, for example, because in the past not a single major European network carrier has concluded codeshare and/or interline agreements with “virtual airlines”.

Lilihill has meanwhile announced that Liliair will only be allowed to "take off" if a contract for an advance payment to the airport is approved by the supervisory board. It is a standard IATA form for handling charges. However, since Liliair is not an airline and the contractual partner for such services is always the operating carrier, it is not surprising that the public authorities have pricked their ears in view of a contractual penalty of three million euros that the airport would have to pay if the services are not provided is.

Regardless: For a private investor, the eternal bickering about the call option, which the ÖVP Carinthia wants to have seen long ago, is complicated. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that Lilihill is massively reluctant to invest and also wants clarity. Otherwise, the company would run the risk of taking money, but politicians would pull the call option, and then a year-long legal dispute about the compensation for investments would be inevitable. In any case, the state government of Carinthia wants to vote again in May 2023 on the use of the call option. So far one could be sure that the ÖVP voted in favor, but the SPÖ against. This time the situation is a little different, because Governor Peter Kaiser (SPÖ) has been critical of the airport these days. Lilihill's recent demands may not have gone down well with him.