Alongside Innsbruck and Vienna, further Austrian regional airports shaped the route network in which Tyrolean Airways operated, above all Salzburg, Graz and Klagenfurt. A smaller, now largely forgotten airline from Vorarlberg also belongs to this story: Rheintalflug.

Graz Airport: From the Monarchy to Today

Graz Airport is among the oldest in Austria. The first hangars were built on the former imperial and royal (k.u.k.) airfield as early as 1913, and the first aircraft took off there on 26 June 1914. After the turmoil of war and changing uses, the airport regained regular civil importance with the State Treaty of 1955. A 1,500-metre concrete runway was built in the 1950s, extended to 3,000 metres and fitted with a precision approach system in the early 1980s, and in 1984 a Boeing 747 landed at Graz for the first time.

Salzburg Airport: Austria’s Fifth Airport

Salzburg Airport “W. A. Mozart” opened in 1926 as Austria’s fifth airport. From the summer of 1926, Lufthansa already flew to Munich and Bad Reichenhall, and in 1927 the route Vienna–Salzburg–Innsbruck was added, an early model for the later domestic Austrian route network in which Tyrolean Airways would later also play a role. In 1947, Salzburg became the first Austrian airport to resume European scheduled services after the Second World War.

Klagenfurt Airport

The smallest of the three major Austrian regional airports is located in Carinthia and traditionally connected the region mainly with Vienna, as well as seasonally with international destinations.

Rheintalflug: Vorarlberg’s Own Aviation History

A particular, now little-known story is that of Rheintalflug. In 1973, the entrepreneur Rolf Seewald founded an air taxi company for charter and business travel in Hohenems. From May 1984 the company operated the route Hohenems–Vienna, and its first regular scheduled flight followed in 1992. Since the more convenient Altenrhein Airport lacked sufficient infrastructure, Rheintalflug used Friedrichshafen Airport on Lake Constance as its base for scheduled services, with Vienna-Schwechat as a connecting point for onward flights. Initially operating small Turbo Commander aircraft, the airline later flew Dash 8-100 and Dash 8-300 types, and eventually also Embraer ERJ 145s.

At the end of 2001, the shareholders sold Rheintalflug to the Austrian Airlines Group. Aircraft and routes were largely absorbed into the group’s fleet, some of them going to Tyrolean Airways. The Rheintalflug brand was not continued afterwards. As the de facto successor for the Lake Constance business model, InterSky Luftfahrt GmbH was founded in Bregenz in November 2001.

Read on: The History of Tyrolean Airways · Innsbruck Airport

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Sources (selection)

• dewiki.de: Graz Airport (German)
• salzburg24.at: facts and figures on Salzburg Airport (German)
• aviation.direct: in the wake of departure, the history of Rheintalflug (German)

Part of the Austrian aviation history section. An independent, private history project with no connection to Austrian Airlines AG or the Lufthansa Group.