Cirrus Airlines Luftfahrtgesellschaft mbH was a German

regional airline A regional airline is a general classification of airline which typically operates scheduled passenger air service, using regional aircraft, between communities lacking sufficient demand or infrastructure to attract mainline flights. In Nort ...

with its head office in Hallbergmoos and its maintenance facilities at Saarbrücken Airport. It operated both charter and scheduled flights, the latter on behalf of

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding ...

Swiss International Air Lines Swiss International Air Lines AG, colloquially known as SWISS, is the flag carrier of Switzerland, operating scheduled services in Europe and to North America, South America, Africa and Asia. Zurich Airport serves as its sole hub and Ge ...

and Air Moldova. Its main bases and hubs were Saarbrücken Airport and

Mannheim City Airport Mannheim City Airport (''City-Airport Mannheim'' in German, formerly Mannheim-Neuostheim/Neuhermsheim) is a minor regional airport serving the German city of Mannheim. It is mainly used for general aviation. Location The airport is located 3.5 ...

. The company slogan was ''connecting business.''

History

Cirrus Airlines was founded in February 1995 as ''Cirrus Luftfahrtgesellschaft mbH'' and operated an executive charter business. In March 1998, Cirrus Airlines received its licence to operate scheduled passenger services between Saarbrücken Airport and

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

. In August 1999, Cirrus Airlines took over Cosmos Air, its

Dornier 328 The Dornier 328 is a turboprop-powered commuter airliner. Initially produced by Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH, the firm was acquired in 1996 by Fairchild Aircraft. The resulting firm, named Fairchild-Dornier, manufactured the 328 family in Oberpfaff ...

and the route between

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...

and

Berlin Tempelhof Berlin Tempelhof Airport (german: Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof) was one of the first airports in Berlin, Germany. Situated in the south-central Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg, the airport ceased operating in 2008 amid controversy, le ...

and Baden Air in 2000. In February 2000, upon the 5th anniversary of Cirrus Airlines, it established a cooperative partnership with German-owned Lufthansa and became a Team Lufthansa franchise member. In April that year, Cirrus received licences to operate regularly scheduled service between

and Hamburg Airport and between Berlin and

Sylt Sylt (; da, Sild; Söl'ring North Frisian: ) is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, and well known for the distinctive shape of its shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian Islands and is the ...

. Cirrus steadily expanded its business, with scheduled services operating mainly from Saarbrücken Airport and

to domestic destinations. The following years the airline started to decentralize its operations, also flying low-density point-to-point routes and adding

Embraer Embraer S.A. () is a Brazilian multinational aerospace manufacturer that produces commercial, military, executive and agricultural aircraft, and provides aeronautical services. It was founded in 1969 in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, whe ...

-Jets to its

Turboprop A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. ...

-Fleet. In 2004 Cirrus Airlines took over Augsburg Airways, a Lufthansa Regional member. The headquarters were consequently moved to Hallbergmoos, near

Munich Airport Munich International Airport- Franz Josef Strauß (german: link=no, Flughafen München) is an international airport serving Munich and Upper Bavaria. It is the second-busiest airport in Germany in terms of passenger traffic after Frankfurt ...

. ''Cirrus Technik'' and ''Cirrus Flight Training'' remained at Saarbrücken Airport. The company introduced a modified

corporate identity A corporate identity or corporate image is the manner in which a corporation, firm or business enterprise presents itself to the public (such as customers and investors as well as employees). The corporate identity is typically visualized by ...

in January 2008. Cirrus Airlines was a company within ''Aviation Investment Corp.'' along with ''Cirrus Maintenance'' and ''Cirrus Service''. On 20 January 2012, the airline ceased operations and flew all aircraft back to Saarbrücken. This left some airports temporarily without scheduled service, like

Hof Airport Hof is a Germanic word found in German, Dutch, Old Norse, and Old English among others, designating a "courtyard, farmyard, royal court, hall, yard or garden". Technical meanings include: *Heathen hof, a type of Old Norse temple *''Bauernhof, Mai ...

and

Destinations

Dornier Do-328-110, Cirrus Airlines JP6899215

Cirrus Airlines served the following destinations: *

Hamburg Airport Hamburg Airport , known in German as ''Flughafen Hamburg'', is a major international airport in Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany. Since November 2016 the airport has been christened after the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt. ...

Zürich Airport Zürich Airport (), french: Aéroport de Zurich, it, Aeroporto di Zurigo, rm, Eroport da Turitg is the largest international airport of Switzerland and the principal hub of Swiss International Air Lines. It serves Zürich, Switzerland's lar ...

Ohrid Ohrid ( mk, Охрид ) is a city in North Macedonia and is the seat of the Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the eighth-largest city in the country, with the municipality recording a population of over 42,000 inh ...

Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; ...

Chișinău Airport Chișinău ( , , ), also known as Kishinev (russian: Кишинёв, r=Kishinjóv ), is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial center, and is located in the middle of the ...

Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centre ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

* Kiel Airport *

Berlin-Tempelhof Tempelhof () is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg. It is the location of the former Tempelhof Airport, one of the earliest commercial airports in the world. The former airport and surroundings are now a park called ...

* Berlin-Tegel Airport * Dresden Airport *

Olbia Airport Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport ( it, link=no, Aeroporto di Olbia-Costa Smeralda) is an airport in Olbia, Sardinia. It was the primary operating base for Italian airline Air Italy whose headquarters were located at the airport. It mostly handles ...

* Heringsdorf Airport *

Sylt Airport Sylt Airport is the airport on the German island of Sylt located in the municipality of the same name. It mostly features summer seasonal scheduled traffic to major German cities as well as general aviation and gliding. Sometimes the airport is ...

Erfurt Airport Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in th ...

* London City *

Rostock Airport Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

Stuttgart Airport Stuttgart Airport (German: ''Flughafen Stuttgart'', formerly ''Flughafen Stuttgart-Echterdingen'') is the international airport of Stuttgart, the capital of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is christened in honor of Stuttgart's for ...

* Bern *

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

* Vienna Airport * Brno Airport

Fleet

The airline operated: * 1

Airbus A310 The Airbus A310 is a wide-body aircraft, designed and manufactured by Airbus Industrie, then a consortium of European aerospace manufacturers. Airbus had identified a demand for an aircraft smaller than the A300, the first twin-jet wide-b ...

''D-AHLC'' * 2

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two ...

-500/800 ''D-ACIN'', ''D-ALIG'' * 8

De Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8 The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was later bought by Boeing in 1988, then by Bombardier in 1992; then by ...

* 8

Embraer ERJ-145 The Embraer ERJ family (for Embraer Regional Jet, model names EMB-135, EMB-140 and EMB-145) are regional jets designed and produced by the Brazilian aerospace company Embraer. The family includes the ERJ135 (37 passengers), ERJ140 (44 passenger ...

*19

-Turboprop and -Jet (1 donated to École Nationale D'Aérotechnique) * 3 Embraer ERJ-170 * 1 Beechcraft Super King Air 200

Incidents and accidents

* June 28, 2006: A Cirrus Airlines Embraer 145 flying on behalf of

overshoots the runways in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

. None of the 49 occupants on board are hurt. * March 19, 2008: Flight 1567 from Berlin-Tempelhof overshoots runway 27 of the

and comes to rest on a wall close to a highway. Five of the 27 people on board is hurt, and the aircraft, a

(D-CTOB), is severely damaged.

References

External links

{{Airlines of Germany Defunct airlines of Germany Airlines established in 1995 Airlines disestablished in 2012 Saarbrücken Companies based in Saarland German companies disestablished in 2012 German companies established in 1995