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TYROLEAN: REGIONAL SPECIALISTS OF THE AUSTRIAN AIRLINES GROUP

By Heiko Stolzke

The approach to Tyrolean's home base in Innsbruck is nothing short of a visual spectacle, and pilots are required to navigate their way to runway 26 between high mountain crests that overlook the city. Just above the roofs of Innsbruck, the aircraft turn for the final approach. As Johann Messner, President of Tyrolean, points out, the regional airline's home airport "may not be easy to fly to, but our infrastructure here is optimal." In October 2001 Messner took over management of the airline as the sole director. Together with Lauda Air and Austrian Airlines, the Innsbruck-based airline is a member of the AUA Group.

Since 1998, Tyrolean has been a 100% subsidiary of Austrian Airlines (AUA). Co-operation with the Vienna parent company is evident at every level of Tyrolean. "Within the Group, we are responsible for regional traffic, whereas our colleagues from AUA and Lauda concentrate on the longer routes," says Messner, describing the division of functions. Although the three airlines work closely together when planning routes, Tyrolean has maintained its independence: for example, whereas Lufthansa City Line was forced to take over some of its parent company's routes after 11 September, Tyrolean does not operate any AUA routes for which demand is lower. "On this point we are relatively independent," says Messner.

At present Tyrolean connects six Austrian cities and 40 European destinations with each other. In addition to routes from the European metropolises to Graz, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Linz, Salzburg and Vienna, Tyrolean also offers scheduled services to Chisinau in Moldavia or Kharkiv in the Ukraine. "South-east Europe is a growth area for many Austrian companies - and here interest is growing in fast connections which bypass the capital city connections," says Messner, identifying a future market for the company.

But on the traditional routes, too, Messner also sees expansion opportunities in the long-term. "It is true that at present passenger numbers are down by around 8%, but we have not postponed any orders or trimmed back our network." In Messner's view, there remains plenty of growth potential in the routes to Germany. "At the moment we fly three times a day from Innsbruck to Frankfurt, but we considering adding a fourth routing," says Messner. In his view, the German market is one of the company's most important business segments. "Austria is a good home market, but it is not particularly big."

In Innsbruck they are not expecting the collapse of Swissair and Sabena to trigger any significant amount of growth, as Crossair is well established on those routes. Messner is not afraid of competition from low-cost airlines like Ryanair. "That is a quite different market, outside of the established alliances." The corporate structure of the Tyrol-based carrier is flexible and efficient. "We don't have any huge hierarchies or long decision chains." That the airline is effectively managed is borne out by the statistics: thus its pre-tax profit for 2000 was Euro 21 million, on a total turnover of Euro 394.4 million. Its workforce currently stands at around 1,000.

Being a member of the Star Alliance is especially beneficial when it comes to flying to the Frankfurt and Vienna-Schwechat hubs. Hence, for example, as far as Messner is concerned Hahn airport is not a viable alternative to nearby Frankfurt. "Passengers want to get to their intercontinental flights quickly - and with no complicated bus transfers either."

As well as its scheduled services, the Tyrolean fleet also serves a number of charter destinations throughout Europe. In the holiday flight sector, the Innsbruck airline benefits from the fact that its home airport is so close to the winter sports paradise of the Alps. Between December and April the airline carries a lot of ski tourists to the Alps, especially from the UK. By contrast, the biggest group of customers in the summer is Austrians heading for the Mediterranean in pursuit of the sunshine. "The country to which we fly the most services is Greece," explains Messner.

Tyrolean has no plans to depart from its present mix of jets and turboprops. As far as they are concerned in Innsbruck, the economics are quite straightforward. "For distances of 250 kilometres, turboprops are more economical." On connections up to 500km the two types of plane are equally economical. "Only when travel time exceeds two hours does the jet become more profitable," says Messner. Hence, for example, a Dash-8 is used on the Innsbruck-Frankfurt route. "The jet is five minutes faster, but this time is lost again in ground handling at large airports alone because of the long distances involved. In Messner's view, "upgrading to jets is often simply a matter of prestige." Service is more important for a good corporate image than the aircraft. For this reason the airline still does its own catering and manages its own menu preparation. The results are quite convincing: instead of standard menu trays, even in Economy Class passengers are offered a basket of rolls to choose from.

The backbone of the Tyrolean turboprop fleet is the Dash 8-300, of which 12 are currently in service. The airline also operates another five Q400 Dash 8's and two Dash 8-100's. Ten Dash 8-300's and the Q400's are fitted with an elaborate noise suppression system, known as UltraQuiet. This combines classical noise and vibration damping with active noise components. Microphones in the fuselage and on the engines register any frequencies that are especially loud and unpleasant and produce "anti-noise" which destructively interferes with the unwanted noise.

Longhaul flights with only modest passenger demand are flown by nine Canadair jets in Tyrolean colours. When it comes to maintenance of the Bombardier twin jets, the airline joins forces with Lauda Air. Maintenance operations for the Dash-8 family are concentrated directly in the home airport of Innsbruck. Here, various modifications are also currently being carried out to the newly delivered Q400. "There are still many improvements possible - but Bombardier is trying hard to provide good support," says Messner, referring to the airline's experience with the new type.

Fokker 70's are operated on the domestic European routes with high passenger volumes and also on charter flights. The airline will be looking around for a replacement for the 80-seat twin-jet in the foreseeable future. However, a detailed schedule has not yet been worked out, and it is still not clear whether the airline will go for the 728JET. "We will watch with interest how the aircraft performs in service with our colleagues," says Messner.

From page 20 of FLUG REVUE 2/2002