Augsburg Airways was a German regional airline. A member of Team Lufthansa and its successor Lufthansa Regional, it operated feeder services at Munich Airport on behalf of Lufthansa.

History

thumb|Company logo of Augsburg Airways that was used prior to the acquisition by Cirrus Group.

thumb|Augsburg Airways logo used as a Lufthansa partner.

thumb|A [[Beechcraft 1900 of Interot Airways (1990).]]

thumb|An Augsburg Airways [[Bombardier Dash 8| Bombardier Dash 8-100 in Team Lufthansa livery (1999).]]

Early years

The company was founded in 1980 as Interot Airways, offering corporate flight services out of Augsburg Airport on behalf of its then owner Haindl Papier, a large (West) German paper manufacturer.

In 1986, Interot Airways commenced scheduled passenger flights on the Augsburg–Düsseldorf route, using its then two Beechcraft Super King Air. In 1987, three Beechcraft 1900 were ordered, and the fleet was further expanded following an order for three aircraft of the larger Dash 8-100, which were delivered in 1991–92. By then, the domestic route network at Augsburg Airport had grown to include Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg and Leipzig

In 1994, Interot launched its first international route (to Florence), In 1996, the airline went into a cooperation with Lufthansa, becoming the first franchise partner of the Team Lufthansa brand, which coincided with being renamed Augsburg Airways.

Cooperation with Lufthansa

By 2000, Air Littoral, Cimber Air, Contact Air and Rheintalflug had joined Team Lufthansa, and Augsburg Airways operated a network of 30 domestic and European destinations including Bayreuth, Elba, Frankfurt, London, Newcastle, Paderborn, Prague and Strasbourg. On 1 June 2002, Augsburg Airways terminated its last routes from Augsburg Airport, and handed over control of its scheduling, sales, and marketing operations to Lufthansa, which was considered "necessary for the carrier's survival." Routes from Augsburg Airport where briefly taken over by Denim Airways. In 2004, Lufthansa reorganized its regional franchise partners under the Lufthansa Regional brand, of which Augsburg Airways became a member along with Air Dolomiti, Contact Air, Eurowings and Lufthansa CityLine.

In the same year, Augsburg Airways was acquired by Cirrus Group (the owner of Cirrus Airlines), which was restructured as Aton GmbH in 2008, In a similar manner, the cooperation with Contact Air had ended one year earlier. The last flight by Augsburg Airways under the Lufthansa Regional brand took place on 26 October 2013, and the company with its then 450 employees was subsequently shut down on 31 October.

Consequently, its Embraer fleet was transferred to Lufthansa CityLine, while the Bombardier Q400 fleet was returned to lessors and stored at Maastricht Airport.

Destinations

Until closing down, Augsburg Airways operated 36 destinations for Lufthansa Regional, among them Graz, Zagreb, Gothenburg, Dresden, Warsaw and Prague. Some of Augsburg Airways' aircraft were also available for charter flights, when they were not employed on the network.

Fleet

thumb|An Augsburg Airways [[Bombardier Dash 8|Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 in Lufthansa Regional livery (2011).]]

thumb|An Augsburg Airways [[Embraer 190 in Lufthansa Regional livery (2005).]]

Over the years, the following aircraft types were operated:

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|colspan=2|Beechcraft Super King Air