An Idea from Flight School
The company’s history does not begin with an airline, but with an academic thesis: Jakob Ringler examined regional air traffic at Innsbruck Airport in his diploma thesis. In 1976, still acting as a private individual, he approached the Canadian aircraft manufacturer De Havilland Canada. The manufacturer then produced a feasibility study, initially without a firm commitment from any investor, for operating a short-takeoff-and-landing regional aircraft from Innsbruck.
Ringler spent around a year searching for a backer. The board of Austrian Airlines declined to take part in the project and considered the Innsbruck to Vienna route uneconomical. Only the Tyrolean entrepreneurial family Langes-Swarovski could be persuaded. Gernot Langes-Swarovski is said to have settled the matter with a short sentence: “Jakob, we are doing this anyway.”
From “Aircraft Innsbruck” to Tiroler Luftfahrt GmbH
An already existing company served as the vehicle for the venture: “Aircraft Innsbruck”, run by Anneliese Schuh-Proxauf and Max Schuh. In 1978, Gernot Langes-Swarovski and Christian Schwemberger-Swarovski took over the company and, over the following months, converted it into Tiroler Luftfahrt GmbH. In 1979 it was renamed to the name still known today, Tyrolean Airways. Jakob Ringler took over as managing director of the new company.
Choosing the Aircraft: Why the Dash 7?
Because of its location in the middle of the Alps, Innsbruck Airport is considered one of the most demanding commercial airports in Europe. The memory of 29 February 1964 weighed heavily for a long time: on that day, a Bristol Britannia of the British operator Eagle Airlines, carrying 83 people, crashed in bad weather on the Glungezer, still the deadliest aviation disaster on Austrian soil to this day. In the years that followed, several airlines withdrew from Innsbruck, and for much of the late 1960s and the 1970s the airport saw hardly any scheduled service.
For his new company, Ringler deliberately chose the four-engined De Havilland Canada DHC-7 “Dash 7”, an aircraft with pronounced short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL) capability. By his own account there was no real alternative: the Dash 7 impressed with its climb and descent performance and with experience gained operating under similarly difficult weather and terrain conditions at Aspen Airport in Colorado. Not least, Ringler hoped that the rugged aircraft type would also build passenger confidence in flight operations out of Innsbruck. The first Dash 7 was ordered in early 1979 and delivered in 1980. Tyrolean Airways was the first European operator of this aircraft type.
1 April 1980: Scheduled Service Begins
On 1 April 1980, Tyrolean Airways began scheduled service with the 50-seat Dash 7, initially on the routes Innsbruck to Vienna and Innsbruck to Zurich. In 1981, a second Dash 7 allowed the route to Frankfurt to be added, and in the same year the young airline gained access to the worldwide booking and reservation system of Austrian Airlines. As early as December 1980, Tyrolean was also flying ambulance flights for injured skiing tourists to Rotterdam, Antwerp and London Luton, an early example of the small company’s versatility.
The new scheduled service noticeably revived Innsbruck Airport: already in the founding year of 1980, the airport once again exceeded 100,000 passengers a year. Within a few years, Tyrolean Airways had grown into one of the largest regional airlines in Europe.
Sources (Selection)
- aerotelegraph.com: Interview with Jakob Ringler, “The Dash 7 was the only option”
- aerotelegraph.com: Why Innsbruck was the cradle of Austrian aviation
- Wikipedia (German): Tyrolean Airways
- Wikipedia: Tyrolean Airways
Further reading: → Building a Regional Network (1980s)
← Back to overview: The History of Tyrolean Airways
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.