Austrian Regional carrier Styrian Spirit shut down operations Friday, stranding hundreds of passengers, and subsequently declared insolvency.The Graz-based airline had been hopeful of securing a potential partner who would have injected ?5 million ($6 million), but the deal fell through and 152 employees will lose their jobs. CEO Andreas Roesslhuber told ATWOnline a few days prior to the closure that the carrier needed ?6-?9 million in fresh capital. Total debts are estimated at around ?44.4 million.

Styrian operated services from several Austrian regional airports to Zurich, Paris, Berlin, London Luton and Stuttgart and from Zurich to Krakow. It had codeshare agreements with Swiss, Austrian and Air France. It also had marketing brands Salzburg Spirit and Slovenian Spirit. It operated a fleet of three CRJ200s and one CRJ700; a CRJ900 order had been delayed.