New owner of St. Gallen-Altenrhein | Press Release

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St Gallen-Altenrhein (People's Business)

Press Release

Issued by Airport Altenrhein AG.

October 17, 2008

New owner of St. Gallen-Altenrhein

The airport St. Gallen-Altenrhein has been acquired by the Zurich based Swiss industrialist Dr. Dieter Bührle. Mr. Bührle has the firm intention to transfer shareholdings to intrigued parties from Switzerland, Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein to better represent the interests of all 3 countries in the regional airport.

The Dutch Strikwerda-Group and the Swiss industrialist Dr. Dieter Bührle have signed a contract for the sale of 100% of the stock of Altenrhein Realco AG and its daughter company Altenrhein Airport AG. This sale ends foreign ownership and brings the airport back into Swiss hands. It is however the new owner's firm intention to broaden stock holding and to also include other interested parties from Switzerland, Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein. This also serves to further emphasize the significance of the airport St. Gallen-Altenrhein as an important junction in the boarder triangle. A further goal is to solve the ongoing dispute in a matter agreeable to all parties involved and at the same time to support a prosperous future and development of the airport St. Gallen-Altenrhein.

Internationally, business aviation has seen an above average growth over the last few years. This is an ongoing challenge for the regional airport St. Gallen-Altenrhein, especially in light of the increasing importance of the business region Eastern Switzerland-Vorarlberg-Liechtenstein and the concurrent link to global business air travel. The development of a maintenance center for bigger business jets by the FFA group together with the already existing maintenance set-up Altenrhein Aviation (a member of the Pilatus group) will assure that the airport can fully meet all customer needs in the future.

As a result of the change in ownership a new board has been appointed for the airport St. Gallen-Altenrhein. The chairman, Prof. Dr. Roland Müller (Attorney in Staad, specialist in air law) the delegate to the board Carl. M. Holliger (Delegate to the board of the FFA group in Altenrhein) and the member of the board Bertold Bischof (Business economist, information scientist with the focus on finances in Feldkirch) make up the 3-man board. The CEO, Armin Unternährer will continue his current duties and responsibilities.