Photo: Konstantin von Wedelstaedt · Licence: GFDL 1.2 · Source: Wikimedia Commons
Austrian Airlines Takes a Stake
In 1994, Austrian Airlines AG took a stake in Tyrolean Airways for the first time: on 1 July 1994, it acquired 42.85 percent of the shares. Just a month earlier, on 1 June 1994, Tyrolean had taken over, through a transfer of undertaking, the entire flight operations of Austrian Air Service, Austrian Airlines’ domestic subsidiary at the time. At this point, the remaining shares in Tyrolean were still held by Gernot Langes-Swarovski AG (also 42.85 percent) and Leipnik-Lundenburger Industrie AG (14.3 percent).
Entering the Jet Age
On 13 June 1995, Tyrolean Airways took delivery of its first jet aircraft, a Fokker 70. In 1996, the first Bombardier/Canadair CRJ regional jets followed, from the 50-seat CRJ100/200 series, supplemented by further CRJ100 aircraft in 1999. This allowed Tyrolean, for the first time, to serve routes for which the pure turboprop types Dash 7 and Dash 8 were no longer sufficient, opening up a significantly larger European route network from its Innsbruck and Vienna bases.
A Rapidly Growing Fleet
By 1998, Tyrolean Airways’ fleet had grown to 31 aircraft, a mix of Dash 7/8 turboprops, Fokker 70 jets and CRJ regional jets. The company was by then already among the larger regional airlines in Europe, even before the full takeover by the Austrian Airlines Group that same year ushered in a new phase of growth.
Sources (Selection)
Further reading: → Takeover by the Austrian Airlines Group (1998)
← Building a Regional Network (1980s) · Back to overview
This chapter is part of the detailed corporate history of Tyrolean Airways. Independent, private history project with no connection to Austrian Airlines AG, the Lufthansa Group or the Swarovski corporate group.