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Styrian Spirit
Defunct Austrian airline From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Styrian Spirit was an airline based in Graz, Austria, the capital of Styria. It operated services to scheduled and charter destinations within Europe.
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The airline also operated as Slovenian Spirit and Salzburg Spirit on routes to and from Salzburg and Maribor, Slovenia. Two of its aircraft were painted in Salzburg Spirit and Slovenian Spirit livery.
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History
The airline was established on December 25, 2002, by HGI Beteiligungs AG, which was established in 2001. It started operations on March 24, 2003. Carinthian Spirit was also one of the brand names due to the participation of the state of Carinthia. The former Lauda Air manager and later FlyNiki CEO Otmar Lenz was a member of the Management Board from the company's foundation until December 2005. Andreas Rösslhuber then became a member of the board and was appointed as the reorganisation manager. However, due to the catastrophic economic circumstances, the reorganisation was not successful. The primary target group of Styrian Spirit were business travellers, but at weekends there were also offers for tourists.
Salzburg Airport announced at the end of March 2006 that it would contribute 1.5 million euros to the airline.
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Insolvency
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On 24 March 2006, the airline had to file for insolvency due to severe financial difficulties (debts of several million euros). Bankruptcy proceedings were opened on 28 March 2006. According to the insolvency administrator, the liabilities totalled around 9 million euros. Styrian Spirit still owed Graz Airport and Salzburg Airport landing and handling fees for the last few months. Graz Airport lost scheduled connections such as Stuttgart and Zurich due to the disappearance of the airline. Stuttgart has since been served by Austrian, while Zurich was taken over by Swiss at short notice. From 2007, Zurich was served by Robin Hood Aviation, which itself filed for insolvency in August 2011. Salzburg Airport also lost scheduled services to Zurich and Paris.
In September 2005, at the instigation of Carinthian Governor Jörg Haider, Hypo-Alpe-Adria-Bank granted a loan of two million euros without collateral to the airline, which was already in dire financial condition.[1] The members of the Executive Board of Hypo Alpe Adria Bank, Wolfgang Kulterer and Gert Xander, were charged with breach of trust in this connection. In January 2013, the trial concerning the granting of loans by Hypo Alpe Adria to Styrian Spirit was resumed at the Regional Court of Klagenfurt.[2] Both board members were subsequently sentenced to several years in prison.[3][4]
On March 24, 2006, Styrian Spirit abruptly canceled all flights. The carrier later announced it was declaring bankruptcy.
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Destinations
Styrian Spirit final destinations prior to airline closure (December 2005):[5]
Fleet
The airline operated a fleet of 4 Bombardier CRJ-200s and 1 Bombardier CRJ-700.[6]
References
External links
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