InterSky, legally Intersky Luftfahrt GmbH, was an Austrian airline headquartered in Bregenz, which operated scheduled services from its base at Friedrichshafen Airport, Germany, to major cities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well as seasonal holiday flights to the Mediterranean from other airports. The airline ceased operations on the evening of 5 November 2015 due to financial difficulties.
History
Early years
Intersky was established in November 2001 and started operations on 25 March 2002. At that time the company was owned by Renate Moser (50%), at the time the first female airline CEO, Rolf Seewald (35%), the co-founder and later the owner of Austrian airline Rheintalflug, and other shareholders (15%).
The Bern location came about because then airport director, Charles Riesen, was looking across Europe for an airline that would revitalize the derelict Bern-Belp Airport. The first InterSky flight took place on March 25, 2002. Initially, it began flights between the Swiss federal capital and the cities of Berlin and Vienna.
Supported by the owner Renate Moser, Klaus Bernatzik, who joined the company as CFO in 2003 and previously worked for Rheintalflug and Eurowings, rejected InterSky's previous strategy after suffering major losses in 2002. Following the example of British airline Flybe and under the impression of the low-cost boom that had emerged in Europe, he radically changed the business model. Later on, catering at InterSky was only available against payment and flight tickets were only available via their own website on the Internet. Within a year, the airline was in the black. In accordance with InterSky's claim to sustainable growth, investments were only financed from surpluses - rather unusual for the aviation industry.
InterSky served Berlin-Tempelhof Airport right from the start. When it became known that the airport would be closed at the end of 2004, Renate Moser joined several citizens initiatives to keep the airport open. Together with other airlines, she supported a legal dispute that finally guaranteed this until the end of October 2008. InterSky flew to Tempelhof until the end and on the last day before the closure, they conducted several sightseeing flights to say goodbye to the airport together with the employees. An InterSky aircraft was one of the last machines allowed to take off from Tempelhof. On one of the last Tempelhof flights, pilot Viggo Bergers said goodbye in front of hundreds of onlookers with the usual aviation wobble of the wings.
In 2004, after the departure of Hahn Air Lines, InterSky starts relocate its operational base to Friedrichshafen Airport in Germany, which was not fully utilized in Bern. Operations in FDH were profitable from day one, so the airline decided in 2005 to withdraw entirely from Bern and to relocate remaining flight operations to Friedrichshafen. Afterwards, InterSky was the largest airline in Friedrichshafen. In 2010, it was the sixth largest low-fare airline in Germany in terms of flight movements.
In October 2009, the airline transported its millionth passenger. In 2010, InterSky carried 250,000 passengers, more than ever before in the company's history.
As of 2010, the airline had 110 employees. In October 2010, InterSky announced it was ending its long-running route from Friedrichshafen to Cologne due to the heavy competition from Germanwings which had started flying the same route a few months earlier. InterSky also postponed plans to add a fifth aircraft to the fleet.
In July 2011 Intersky announced that Renate Moser and Rolf Seewald were to take over operative management after four years' absence. Claus Bernatzik, Renate Moser's son, left the company by end of the year. In August 2012 it was announced that InterSky had ordered two ATR 72-600s. The two aircraft were scheduled to be delivered in December 2012 and March 2013. These aircraft became the first ATRs to be operated by an Austrian carrier.
In the same month the airline also announced plans to open a new base at Hamburg Airport. The plan was cancelled in October 2012, after OLT Express Germany also announced plans to fly between Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden and Hamburg. Since OLT Express Germany filed for bankruptcy shortly afterwards, InterSky started operating the route in March 2013 on a wet-lease contract with Avanti Air. It stopped flying the route in January 2014 after Germanwings announced plans to start the same route from spring 2014.