“Good night” for Lauda base in Stuttgart
The Ryanair flight number FR 3310 has a special meaning for the Stuttgart Lauda crews, because that was it. It was over, over and done with. The last commercial scheduled flight, which was operated with a Lauda Airbus A320, took off at 16:20 p.m. for Malaga, which is - according to the definition of the Robert Koch Institute - a risk area. Everyone was already given notice in the summer, but almost no one has new jobs. Video impressions of the last commercial Lauda take-off from the Stuttgart base:If the video is not displayed, it can also be accessed via this link. Most of the Stuttgart Lauda pilots and flight attendants are now customers of the German employment agency and the prospects of a new flying job are extremely poor in view of the corona pandemic and the currently poor market situation. Anger, disappointment and even hatred are correspondingly deep when two names are mentioned: Ryanair and Michael O'Leary. The Irish low-cost airline was already operating at Stuttgart Airport before taking over Laudamotion, but it was never happy. The Swabian market did not think much of Ryanair, about which one reads so many bad things in the newspapers, and accordingly its performance was not particularly impressive. The name of the man with the red cap, who has since died, came at just the right time, because Niki Lauda had an excellent reputation in Germany - probably due to his appearances on RTL. The Irish acted quickly and withdrew the Ryanair brand from Stuttgart and pushed the Lauda brand there. It seemed as though every available advertising space was plastered at the airport and even had an exclusively used check-in area in Terminal 1-West.
and 