Welcome Air

Welcome Air
IATA ICAO Callsign
2W WLC WELCOMEAIR
Founded May 2000
Hubs Innsbruck Airport
Fleet size 1
Destinations -
Headquarters Innsbruck, Austria
Key people Helmut Wurm (CEO)[1]
Website welcomeair.com

Welcome Air, officially Welcome Air Luftfahrt GmbH & Co KG,[1] is an Austrian charter airline[2] with its head office in Innsbruck.[3] It is also the parent of air rescue company Tyrol Air Ambulance.

History

On 14 June 1995[4] Jakob Ringler, since 1983 one of the directors of Tyrolean Air Ambulance (founded 1963 as Aircraft Innsbruck),[5] founded Welcome Air Luftfahrt GmbH.[6]

Through a management buy out in 2000 Tyrolean Air Ambulance (renamed then Tyrol Air Ambulance), which had closely links to the local airline Tyrolean Airways as well as to the helicopter company "Heliair" (formerly "Aircraft Innsbruck"), became part of Jakob Ringler's "Welcome Air" after he took over the majority[5] (in 2011 93,27% belonging to Welcome Air)[4] On 22 May 2000 Welcome Air started its first flight with Do-328 from Innsbruck to Graz[7]

In 2009 Welcome Air was taken over by Lions Air Group (Switzerland) which also taken over the majority of Air Alps. The umbrella company Welcome Aviation Group set up to merge the companies Tyrol Air Ambulance, Air Alps and Welcome Air and their head offices into one in Innsbruck.[8]

In July 2011 Welcome Aviation Group announced a restructure and therefore Welcome Air will concentrate its activities on business & event charters and will end the year-round Innsbruck - Graz service, but continue the summer operations to Innsbruck/Graz-Olbia and Innsbruck-Nice for a while. Air Alps, which meanwhile ceased operations, concentrated its activities on the Italian schedule operations back then and Tyrol Air Ambulance on its ambulance operations.[8] Meanwhile, Welcome Air ceased all remaining scheduled operations and concentrates entirely on offering European charter services.[2]

In February 2015, Austrian Airlines announced the termination of their wetlease contract with Welcome Air for their Vienna - Linz flights from 31 March 2015. Austrian Airlines had started an airport rail link from Linz to Vienna only months before which was well received, resulting in the five daily flights reduction.[9] Welcome Air subsequently announced a reduction in the fleet size.[10]

Destinations

Current operations

Welcome Air Dornier 328

Welcome Air offers non-scheduled charter services for business and leisure throughout Europe.

Former destinations

In earlier years, the airline also served the scheduled destinations listed below.[11][12][13]

Austria
Belgium
Croatia
France
Germany
Italy
Netherlands
Norway
Sweden

Fleet

The Welcome Air fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of August 2016):[14]

Welcome Air Fleet
Aircraft Total Orders Passengers
(Economy)		 Notes
Dornier 328-100 1 — 31 used for charter services
Total 1 —

The airline previously operated a Dornier 328JET and two further Dornier 328 aircraft.

References

  1. 1 2 http://www.welcomeair.com/
  2. 1 2 http://www.welcomeair.com/charter/charter/
  3. ↑ "Impressum." Welcome Air. Retrieved on 27 January 2013. "Welcome Air Luftfahrtgesellschaft m.b.H. Fürstenweg 180 6026 Innsbruck AUSTRIA"
  4. 1 2 http://www.firmenabc.at/
  5. 1 2 http://taa.at/
  6. ↑ http://www.austrianaviation.net.com/
  7. ↑ http://www.lionsair.ch/
  8. 1 2 http://www.austrianaviation.net/
  9. ↑ http://www.austrianaviation.net/news-regional/news-detail/datum/2015/02/02/aua-kuendigt-welcome-air-wetlease.html
  10. ↑ Gruber, Jan. "Welcome Air halbiert die Flotte". Austrian Aviation Net. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  11. ↑
  12. ↑ http://www.austrianaviation.net
  13. ↑ http://www.lionsair.ch
  14. ↑ "Global Airline Guide 2016 (Part One)". Airliner World (October 2016): 5.

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