At Klagenfurt Airport, events are escalating in a dispute between majority owner Lilihill and the public sector. In the meantime, not only has Liliair been more or less called off, but the wages and salaries of the employees can once again not be paid on time.

Previously, in a supervisory board meeting that had to be interrupted on Thursday, there was a serious disagreement regarding the contract that the airport's management concluded with Liliair. This requires the approval of the supervisory board, but this was denied. Some supervisory boards have publicly criticized the chairmanship of the former AUA managing director Peter Malanik. According to the critics, he is said to have led the meeting when the airport managers who were present were called out. Finally there was an interruption.

The first scandal then broke out on Friday. Lilihill's nominees for the Supervisory Board, Peter Malanik (Chairman), Kay Kratky and Dieter Kandlhofer, have resigned. Gilbert Isep, nominated by K-BV, has also resigned. Deputy Governor Martin Gruber has already reacted to the latter and announced that a substitute member will be sent shortly. Lilihill said, among other things: "The resignation of the functions is a necessary step, since the current composition of the Supervisory Board does not provide a basis for constructive cooperation for the development of Klagenfurt Airport. Legal action will be examined with regard to breaches of confidentiality by individual members of the Supervisory Board. The resigning members regret that important decisions were again prevented by the renewed blockade and that the basis for discussion was permanently damaged".

Employees should again receive wages and salaries "delayed".

Lilihill passes the proverbial "black Peter" to the public sector, because they blocked the contract between Liliair and the airport. This would mean that the virtual airline would not be able to take off from Klagenfurt. Liliair explains as follows: "Even the unique opportunity that Liliair, as the home base carrier, can make a decisive contribution to the economic success of Klagenfurt Airport and create new jobs has not increased with today's decision. Liliair would like to expand from the Carinthian state capital, but needs a so-called standard ground handling contract, which has so far been blocked by the minority shareholders. The fleet was to be increased to up to seven modern Embraer 175 and 195 aircraft over the next five years. The route network should be expanded to other short and medium-haul destinations. In addition to Klagenfurt, other regional airports in Central Europe should be served by Liliair. Liliair has already signed long-term contracts with Klagenfurt Airport without any concrete guarantees in order to ensure planning and operational security for the new Carinthian airline through an advance payment of 1,7 million euros and to ensure a smoothly functioning infrastructure at Klagenfurt Airport for the start of Liliair . Preventing these standard ground handling contracts between Klagenfurt Airport and Liliair has a huge negative impact. Instead of supporting and welcoming a purely private, location-relevant project with an investment of millions politically and in the media, the start of the airline was hindered and made more difficult by ongoing sabotage and enormous damage was knowingly caused to Carinthia as a business and tourism location".

But for the employees at the airport, things get proverbially "even thicker". Usually these receive their wages and salaries around the last of the month. This time there was a circular from management announcing that timely payout is not possible. The transfers are expected to take place around May 5, 2023. This is the second delay, because as early as April 2023, Klagenfurt Airport was unable to pay employees' salaries on time. At that time, a spokesman excused himself from an alleged "booking error", but it is suspected that the capital increase paid in by the public sector to pay wages and salaries - shortly after Easter - could have been used.

A commercial airport filing for bankruptcy would be a first

The present letter from the airport management makes no secret of the fact that the airport's financial situation is extremely tight. This has further consequences, because the KB-V and Deputy Governor Gruber are now publicly asking the management to check whether there is an obligation to file for insolvency. Theoretically, a creditor with whom the airport could possibly be in debt could file a bankruptcy petition against Klagenfurt Airport. It is not known what should improve so significantly in the financial situation of the airport by May 5, 2023 that wages and salaries can be transferred.

In the course of May 2023, the possible exercise of the call option will again be on the state government's agenda. In the past, the motions of the ÖVP state councilors were always overruled by their SPÖ colleagues. This time, however, the starting point seems to be completely different, because the latest events appear to have led to a rethink within the Carinthian Social Democratic Party. For example, an SPÖ deputy mayor of the city of Klagenfurt, which is involved in the airport, is now demanding that the call option be used. Alternatively, the city and state could handle the capital increase alone, so that the Lilihill shares are diluted and the private investor, who, unlike the public sector, has not yet paid in the capital increase, could lose the majority. Lilihill is making the deposit conditional on the government waiving the call option. At least in theory, Klagenfurt Airport could be completely taken over by Lilihill, the public sector or any other interested party via insolvency proceedings. However, an Austrian airport filing for bankruptcy would be a first, as this had never happened before in the history of the Second Republic. The decisions and events of the next few days and weeks will therefore have a major impact on the future of Klagenfurt Airport.