History
The airline was established in 1998 and started operations on 28 March 1999 with two Dornier 328 aircraft, acquiring three more in 2000 and one more in each year of operation. It was founded by Air Engadina who owned 49% of the airline, the other 51% being owned by Dietmar Leitgeb, president and chief executive of Air Engadina. In 2001, a group of investors from the Italian province of South Tyrol acquired the majority stake. In October 2005 a codeshare agreement with Alitalia on the entire Air Alps network was established. The airline is owned by Alpen-Air consortium (89.82%), Sudtiroler Transportstrukturen (7%), and Beteiligungs-und Finanzierungs (3.18%).
In 2004, a new CEO and Operations Director was appointed. The Manager Network Development Koen Hertoge was responsible for the integration into the Alitalia Network for both national and international routes, which eventually helped Air Alps Aviation to be back in profit.
The company is currently (November 2007) employing 160 people, 60 in Innsbruck and 100 in Italy.
Read more about this topic: Air Alps
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“... all big changes in human history have been arrived at slowly and through many compromises.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
“I believe my ardour for invention springs from his loins. I can’t say that the brassiere will ever take as great a place in history as the steamboat, but I did invent it.”
—Caresse Crosby (1892–1970)
“The visual is sorely undervalued in modern scholarship. Art history has attained only a fraction of the conceptual sophistication of literary criticism.... Drunk with self-love, criticism has hugely overestimated the centrality of language to western culture. It has failed to see the electrifying sign language of images.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)