Skylink | SAAB 2000 | OE-LCA | 2005-present

Europe's aviation market has always been crowded and highly competitive. Small regional airlines have come and gone by the dozens. In the mid 2000s, with low cost carriers on the rise, open borders between many nations and road and rail infastructure booming in the western part of the continent, sustainability became a nearly unreachable goal for many smaller airlines, resulting in frequent bankruptcies of such operators. The founders of Skylink saw this as an opportunity. With Austia and the surrounding nations having few air connections outside of the hub and spoke system, and with a surplus of regional aircraft available for attractive rates in the market, they founded the airline with the purpose of linking together smaller population centers in Europe. Skylink opened up its doors for the first time on September 1st, 2005, operating domestic routes from Vienna and flights from Switzerland and Germany to smaller Austrian cities with a fleet of 3 Saab 340s and a single Saab 2000.

Due to the very attractive prices and large numbers of Saabs available, Skylink expanded rapidly, The airline tripled its fleet size and launched dozens of routes within its first two years, in the process opening up domestic routes in Germany, taking advantage of the EU's open skies policy. Breaking even in 2008, Skylink had cemented itself as a force to be reckoned with in the regional markets of Europe. The company thrived on routes where its frequent servies outmatched the low price offerings by LCCs, or in underserved markets that fell beyond the traditional hub-and-spoke system used by full service airlines. At the same time, Skylink has managed to maintain a reputable degree of service that allows it to stand out in the sea of regional European carriers. Thanks to this, the airline has earned a name for itself and has acheived a very impressive growth.

In 2020, Skylink's fleet is the largest of Saab aircraft globally, with 74 in total, split between 39 Saab 340Bs and 35 Saab 2000s, flying around from bases in Austria, Germany, France, Switzerland and Belgium. But with production of both variants having ended more than 20 years ago, and with the planes themselves only getting older, the company turned to manufacturers around the globe hoping to find a replacement. However, the recent pandemic has hit the regional airline especially hard, and all future expansion plans have been put on hold. Even though its survival is uncertain, Skylink is optimistic about its outlook on the future, hoping to return to normal operations within 3 years, aided by the fact that most of its routes are domestic or short haul, and expected to recover relatively quickly, and with the help of government aid.

OE-LCA is the 14th Saab 2000 added to Skylink's fleet, built in 1995 and delivered to the airline on January 5th, 2007 used from the United States, simultaneously being given the name of the Austrian city of Graz. Just like all Saab 2000s, it is configured with 50 seats. In 2019 it underwent a complete interior overhaul, as part of a fleetwide update that saw the addition of new seats that provided extra legroom and power ports at every seat. It's based in Skylink's first and largest base in Vienna, and can be spotted all across the airline's network, from short hops to Innsbruck to summer seasonal flights all the way to Greece.