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 North ...

with its head office in

Hallbergmoos Hallbergmoos is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the district of Freising (district), Freising in Bavaria in Germany. The Isar River flows west of the town. The town is directly south-west of Munich Airport Economy Augsburg Airways, a ...

and its maintenance facilities at

Saarbrücken Airport Saarbrücken Airport , or ''Flughafen Saarbrücken'' or ''Ensheim Airport'' in German language, German, is a minor international airport in Saarbrücken, the capital of the Germany, German state of Saarland. It features flights to major cities th ...

. It operated both charter and scheduled flights, the latter on behalf of

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

Swiss International Air Lines Swiss International Air Lines AG, stylized as SWISS, is the flag carrier of Switzerland and a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group, as well as a Star Alliance member. It operates scheduled services in Europe and to North America, South America, ...

and

Air Moldova Air Moldova was the flag carrier airline for The Republic of Moldova, headquartered in the country's capital Chișinău. It mainly operated scheduled and charter services to destinations within Europe from its base at Chișinău International A ...

. Its main bases and hubs were

and

Mannheim City Airport Mannheim City Airport (''City-Airport Mannheim'' in German language, German, formerly Mannheim-Neuostheim/Neuhermsheim) is a minor regional airport serving the Germany, German city of Mannheim. It is mainly used for general aviation. Location T ...

. 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 (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

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

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

and the route between

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

and Berlin Tempelhof 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 Team Lufthansa was an alliance of regional airlines which flew niche routes on behalf of Lufthansa. It was replaced with Lufthansa Regional in 2003. Overview Team Lufthansa was founded in 1996 by Lufthansa in the wake of the deregulation of the ...

franchise member. In April that year, Cirrus received licences to operate regularly scheduled service between

and Hamburg Airport and between Berlin and

Sylt Sylt (; ; Söl'ring North Frisian: ) is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, with a distinctively shaped shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian Islands and is the largest island in North Fris ...

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

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 corporation. It develops and manufactures aircraft and aviation systems, and provides leasing, equipment, and technical support services. Embraer is the third largest producer of civil air ...

-Jets to its

Turboprop A turboprop is a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft Propeller (aeronautics), propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction drive, reduction gearbox, gas compressor, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propellin ...

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

, near Munich Airport. ''Cirrus Technik'' and ''Cirrus Flight Training'' remained at

. 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. The corporate identity is typically visualized by branding and with the use of trademarks, but it can also i ...

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 and

Destinations

Cirrus Airlines served several scheduled destinations throughout Germany and Western and Central Europe, such as

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 ...

, London-City, Cologne/Bonn and

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

Fleet

Cirrus Airlines operated the following aircraft during its existence: * 1

Airbus A310 The Airbus A310 is a wide-body aircraft, Aircraft design process, designed and manufactured by Airbus Industrie GIE, then a consortium of European aerospace manufacturers. Airbus had identified a demand for an aircraft smaller than the Airbus ...

* 1 Beechcraft Super King Air 200 * 1

Boeing 737-500 The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Febru ...

* 1

Boeing 737-800 The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a twinjet, twin-engine narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third-generation derivative of the Boeing 737, it ha ...

* 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 bought by Boeing in 1986, then by Bombardier in 1992, then by Longv ...

*19

(1 donated to

École nationale d'aérotechnique École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

) * 8

Embraer ERJ-145 The Embraer ERJ family (for Embraer Regional Jet) are regional jets designed and produced by the Brazilian aerospace company Embraer. The family includes the ERJ 135 (37 passengers), ERJ 140 (44 passengers), and ERJ 145 (50 passen ...

* 3

Embraer 170 The Embraer E-Jet family is a series of four-abreast, narrow-body, short- to medium-range, twin-engined jet airliners designed and produced by Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer. The E-Jet was designed to complement Embraer’s earlier ...

Incidents and accidents

* June 28, 2006: A Cirrus Airlines

Embraer 145 The Embraer ERJ family (for Embraer Regional Jet) are regional jets designed and produced by the Brazilian aerospace company Embraer. The family includes the ERJ 135 (37 passengers), ERJ 140 (44 passengers), and ERJ 145 (50 passen ...

flying on behalf of

overshoots the runways in

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

. 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