The Bavarian airline company is stationing a Cessna Citation CJ2 + aircraft at Vienna-Schwechat airport. The carrier operates scheduled services from Mannheim on behalf of Rhein-Neckar-Air, which bears the economic risk of the operation. Occasionally one also flies for the Danish Sun Air of Scandinavia.

In Austria they cooperate with Elangeni GmbH, which is owned by the Naomi Private Foundation. Behind this is Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer, whose Jetalliance empire went bankrupt a few years ago. It is also noteworthy that the new company was originally founded as an antiques and jewelry dealer. In November 2019 the purpose of the company was changed to the operation of an aviation company. According to a media release, Elangeni GmbH received AOC and operating license (OL) from the Austrian authorities on July 15, 2020. There are currently no aircraft registered for this company in the aviation register maintained by the ACG.

Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer works as flight operations manager at MHS Aviation and is now building up his own aviation company with Elangeni GmbH. The operational implementation of the required flights will initially be carried out by MHS Aviation, which will station a machine at Vienna-Schwechat Airport for this purpose. In the long term, the fleet should be managed and marketed jointly, which should lead to cost advantages.

“First of all, we stationed a Cessna Citation CJ2 + at Vienna Airport. And while MHS will continue to offer its services as a commercial flight operator in Germany - we currently operate private jets such as the Gulfstream 550, Falcon 2000LX, Embraer Praetor, Bombardier Global Express, Challenger 300, CL604 and Learjet 45XR, as well as turboprop Dornier 328-100 in scheduled operations - we come to Austria with the new basis and partnership because we want to offer a serious and trustworthy alternative on the Viennese market. We give our future clients innovative, unprecedented promises and are convinced that we will satisfy customers with our quality, ”said MHS managing director Steffen Fries in a broadcast.

“We are very pleased about this step and the expansion of MHS into this dynamic region of Eastern Europe. MHS is known for its extensive know-how, has an excellent reputation and a solid customer network. With the new base and the AOC in Austria, we are offering business jet owners a fresh and innovative home. Elangeni will be the first operator to actually disclose and share with its clients fleet discounts and fleet-dependent cost advantages granted by suppliers. So that this does not remain an empty promise, we secure this in our contracts with customers, ”explains Lichtner-Hoyer.

The now defunct Jetalliance was founded in 1996 under the name AVIA Consult Flugbetriebs-GmbH. The company expanded rapidly and was also active in motorsport. In 2012 bankruptcy had to be filed and in the following year the group was broken up, dissolved and wound up. Incidentally, Gerd Brandecker is also involved in MHS Aviation. This manager worked in the regional airline in the 1990s. For a short time he was also the owner of Augsburg Airways before the stake was sold. Cirrus Airlines, partner of Lufthansa, filed for bankruptcy in 2012. MHS Aviation was and is not affected by this.