Montana Austria

Montana Austria
Boeing 707-138B from Montana Austria, Vienna 1977
IATA code :	-
ICAO code :	QF
Call sign :	MONTANA
Founding:	1976
Operation stopped:	1981
Seat:	Vienna , Austria
Home airport :	Vienna Airport
Fleet size:	3
Aims:	international
Montana Austria ceased operations in 1981. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

Montana Flugdienst GmbH (external appearance Montana Austria ) was an Austrian airline based in Vienna , which existed from 1976 to 1981.

history

The company was founded by flight captain Hans-Jörg Stöckl in October 1976, against fierce opposition from the then monopoly Austrian Airlines . Flight operations began on November 7, 1976 with a Boeing 707 between Vienna and Bangkok . The later fleet comprised three Boeing 707s, including two of the 707-138B, a special version originally made for Qantas with a shortened fuselage and longer range. Montana mainly flew to overseas tourist destinations, especially Bangkok (via Baghdad / Sharjah ) and New York. In addition, Montana was also active in the freight business and mainly flew for other airlines in the ACMI in the off-season .

Towards the end of the 1970s, the company got increasingly into economic difficulties. On May 13, 1981, a Montana machine was confiscated by US Customs in Houston and the crew arrested. This prevented a planned smuggling of arms to South Africa, contrary to the international embargo against the apartheid regime . On July 24, 1981, Montana finally filed for bankruptcy after the financier Carl Press had made the deferred lease payments for the aircraft due.

fleet

When operations ceased, Montana Austria had three aircraft in operation:

• 2 Boeing 707-138B , registration number OE-INA, OE-IRA (ex Braniff International Airways )
• 1 Boeing 707-396C OE-IDA (ex Wardair Canada )

See also

• Former Airlines List (Europe)

literature

• BI Hengi: Gone . To forget. Past. Former airlines worldwide - bankruptcies, mergers and sales since 1970 . NARA-Verlag, Allershausen 1999, ISBN 3-925671-27-7
• Klaus Vomhof: Leisure Airlines of Europe . SCOVAL, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 2001, ISBN 1-902236-09-2 .

Web links

• Montana Austria - the forgotten airline , report on the airline on austrianwings.info
• Image of the OE-IDA seized in the USA after its conversion by the US Air Force

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Leisure Airlines of Europe, K. Vomhof, 2001
2. ↑ Zoll was not fooled . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna May 14, 1981, p. 7 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
3. ↑ Montana bankruptcy: 2500 fear that they will return home . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna July 25, 1981, p. 7 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
4. ↑ Fleet history on ATDB.org