People's

People's
IATA code :	PE
ICAO code :	PEV
Call sign :	PEOPLES
Founding:	2010
Seat:	Schwechat , Austria
Home airport :	St. Gallen-Altenrhein
Management:	Markus head
Passenger volume:	▲ 130,000 (2018)
Fleet size:	1
Aims:	continental
Website:	www.peoples.ch

People’s is the brand name of Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH . The company is an Austrian airline based in Schwechat near Vienna and based on the Swiss airfield St. Gallen-Altenrhein . The airline is a subsidiary of People's Holding AG based in Altenrhein near St. Gallen .

The flights on the only route Altenrhein-Vienna were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic from March 16, 2020 to probably June 2, 2020.

history

People's was founded in 2010 as “People's Viennaline” and began flight operations on March 28, 2011. It is a subsidiary of the St. Gallen-Altenrhein Airport , which operates as People's Airport St.Gallen-Altenrhein . It is registered as a subsidiary of Airport Altenrhein AG with the official name Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH (which also holds the Air Operator Certificate ). The airline was founded as part of the modernization program when the new name People's Airport St.Gallen-Altenrhein was introduced and construction work began on a new terminal and new hangar. The new establishment was intended to replace the airport's only scheduled flight connection to Vienna to date that was flown by Austrian Airlines . After the start of the project to develop the airline, the airport terminated the handling contracts with Austrian Airlines on March 26, 2011, exactly one day before the originally planned start of operations on March 27, 2011, which was then moved to March 28, 2011, what was announced on October 19, 2010.

Austrian, which has been flying the route three times a day on weekdays with De Havilland DHC- 8-400 since 2001 , was disappointed with the decision. Because of this behavior, the airport operator was heavily criticized. He defended himself by saying that Austrian Airlines had planned to close the connection anyway.

People's started selling tickets on the morning of December 4, 2010 at 00:00, but not over the Internet. For the period between December 4, 2010 and the day on which the electronic booking system was put into operation via the Internet, the company offered a special rate of 150 euros per direction. Online ticket sales began on Friday, February 11, 2011.

The first aircraft was taken over at the beginning of 2011. The machine, an Embraer 170 taken over by Finnair , which offers space for 76 passengers and 4 crew members and previously had the aircraft registration OH-LEO , was briefly presented before it was transferred for the C-Check . The machine was given a new paint job and was presented on March 21 at Altenrhein Airport and named “Laura” .

In September 2011, considerations became known that People's would like to enter the charter business in addition to scheduled flights . The reason is a current occupancy rate of around 40 percent.

At the end of May 2016, a campaign was started in which passengers on certain flights from Altenrhein to Vienna could set the price themselves. The airline hoped that this would lead to an increase in customers. The campaign was originally supposed to run until October 2016, but for economic reasons it had to be terminated early on August 12th.

In September 2016, the airline announced that a new connection from Altenrhein via Friedrichshafen to Cologne / Bonn would be started on November 2, 2016 . The route was operated twice a day from the start. Initially, a leased Embraer 145 was used . The stopover in Friedrichshafen created the world's second shortest international scheduled flight connection (after St. Maarten - Anguilla, 19 km, and before Kinshasa - Brazzaville, 26 km) with a distance of 21 kilometers (flight time: 4 minutes). However, the route was discontinued from April 15, 2017. In 2018 the airline changed its name to "People's".

Destinations

Since March 28, 2011, People's has been flying four times a day on weekdays and twice a day on Saturdays and Sundays from St. Gallen-Altenrhein Airport to Vienna Schwechat Airport and back.

From November 2, 2016 to April 15, 2017, the Altenrhein-Cologne route was served with a stopover in Friedrichshafen . The Altenrhein – Friedrichshafen section was one of the shortest international scheduled flights.

In the summer of 2011, a charter connection to Sardinia was also offered. In the 2014 summer flight schedule, the company took over two charter routes for a tour operator between Altenrhein and Olbia and Cagliari in Sardinia, which had previously been operated by InterSky . In 2016 the route network was expanded with charter flights from Altenrhein to Preveza (Greece), Palma de Mallorca (Spain) and Pula (Croatia), and in 2017 the destinations Naples (via Memmingen), Ibiza and Menorca were added to the route network. In 2018, the regional airline People's will also serve Kefalonia from Altenrhein, Preveza from Salzburg and Vienna, Calvi (Corsica) from Memmingen and Menorca from Zurich. In 2019 the route network was expanded with Lamezia Terme, Jersey and Menorca (from Bern).

In 2018, People's reached a record number of passengers. A total of around 130,000 people flew with the airline, 125,000 flew to or from Altenrhein. The development on the only scheduled flight is particularly gratifying. There one managed an increase of 8%, overall one has 74% occupancy. The charter flights achieved an occupancy rate of 76%.

fleet

A People's Embraer 170

As of February 2020, the People's fleet consists of one aircraft with an average age of 13.2 years:

Aircraft type	Remarks	Seats	Baptismal name
Embraer 170	in use since March 2011	76	Laura and Nora

See also

• List of airlines
• St. Gallen-Altenrhein Airport

Web links

Commons : People's Viennaline  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• People's airline website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ People's Viennaline for the first time with over 100,000 passengers , accessed on March 4, 2017.
2. ↑ "People's Airline stops flights Altenrhein-Vienna" in VOL.at (accessed on May 5, 2020)
3. ↑ orf.at: New name for Altenrhein Airport , from September 18, 2009.
4. ↑ peoples.ch: People's Business Airport terminates contracts with Austrian Airlines , press release of October 19, 2010.
5. ↑ airliners.de: Altenrhein Airport announces AUA , from October 20, 2010.
6. ↑ peoples.ch: People's Viennaline starts selling tickets. , Press release of December 3, 2010 (PDF).
7. ↑ airliners.de: Electronic booking system in operation
8. ↑ austria.com: “People's” is getting ready to go on January 20, 2011.
9. ↑ airliners.de: People's Viennaline examines charter flights , September 16, 2011.
10. ↑ People's Viennaline advertises customers with the ticket price they want. airliners.de, May 24, 2016, accessed on August 9, 2016 . 
11. ↑ People's Viennaline prematurely discontinues the desired tariff campaign. airliners.de, August 9, 2016, accessed on August 9, 2016 . 
12. ↑ suedkurier.de: Friedrichshafen: Cologne airline will be reactivated , September 15, 2016.
13. ↑ In four minutes from Altenrhein to Friedrichshafen , St. Galler Tagblatt, November 2, 2016
14. ↑ austrianaviation.net (German), accessed on April 1, 2017.
15. ↑ Company history on the People's website.
16. ↑ peoples.ch (PDF).
17. ↑ nzz.ch: Altenrhein Airport disembarks Austrian Airlines , October 19, 2010.
18. ↑ austrianaviation.net: Peoples takes over Sardinia Charter September 2, 2013.
19. ↑ abouttravel.ch: Pula, Palma, Preveza: More passengers and destinations from Altenrhein , from January 29, 2016.
20. ↑ People's increases passenger numbers and occupancy. aerotelegraph.com, February 11, 2019, accessed February 12, 2019 . 
21. ↑ Ch-aviation - People's Viennaline (English), accessed on October 4, 2017
22. ↑ People s Viennaline fleet details , accessed October 4, 2017