Avanti Air

Avanti Air is one of those airlines you don’t see every day – and that is exactly what makes it interesting. The small company from central Hesse almost never flies its own scheduled timetable, but works on behalf of others: for tour operators, for football clubs, for airlines that happen to be missing an aircraft. It used to fly the Fokker 100, and today it operates two Dash 8 Q400 turboprops. Here you’ll learn how to identify Avanti Air with confidence, what became of the Fokker era, and why you don’t need to look for an Airbus behind the name.

Avanti Air at a glance

Avanti Air is a German charter and wet-lease airline. The administration is in Haiger, a few kilometers from Siegerland Airport, where the airline has had its own company building since 2002. On its website, the brand writes itself in lowercase as one word: “avantiair”.

The business model is deliberately narrow. Avanti Air leases aircraft including crew, maintenance and insurance to other airlines – the so-called ACMI or wet-lease business – and flies ad hoc charters around the clock. On top of that come corporate and crew shuttles, special flights for sports teams and artists, as well as maintenance and training services. How wet lease works in general is explained in the article Wet lease explained; you’ll find the difference between charter and scheduled flights under Charter flights vs. scheduled flights.

Technically, the airline stands on its own feet: according to its own statements, it operates its own CAMO and a Part-145 maintenance organization, holds a German air operator certificate with worldwide operating authorization and is listed in IATA’s IOSA register. It has been a member of the European regional aviation association ERA since 2005.

From the Piaggio Avanti to the Dash 8: the history

Founded by pilots

Avanti Air began in 1994 as an aircraft management company. It was founded by two pilots, Markus Baumann and Stefan Kissinger, who still run it today. The first aircraft was a Piaggio P180 Avanti – the twin-engine business turboprop with pusher propellers gave the company its name. In the first years, more business aircraft followed, including a King Air as well as business jets such as the Citation, Hawker 800 and Learjet.

In 1996, Avanti Air took over its first own commercial aircraft, a Beechcraft 1900C, and entered the charter business. By 2000, two Beechcraft 1900Ds followed. With them, the airline flew shuttles for the oil and gas industry and, in 1999, a crew shuttle for Britain’s Britannia Airways. In the same period, the company headquarters moved from Frankfurt to Siegerland Airport.

The ATR years

In 2002 came the first ATR 42-300, and in 2005 the first ATR 72-200. With the turboprops, Avanti Air flew scheduled services on behalf of other companies, cargo flights for FedEx and charters for football clubs. Wet-lease customers in the early 2010s included Air Berlin and Austria’s InterSky. In 2010, Avanti Air received IOSA certification.

The Fokker 100 era

In the mid-2010s, Avanti Air switched to jets. In 2015 the authority granted approval for the Fokker 100, and in the same year the last ATR 72 was retired. Avanti Air was now a pure jet airline. In 2015 it also flew wet-lease operations for Germania and Germanwings.

In 2016 the second Fokker 100 joined, D-AGPH. From 2016, Avanti Air flew on ACMI contract for the Air France regional subsidiary HOP!, for example between Paris Orly and Tarbes-Lourdes. From 2017, summer charters for the tour operator Idealtours out of Innsbruck were added. In 2018 the fleet grew to three Fokker 100s with D-AOLH.

The jet chapter didn’t last long, though. As early as 2019, the airline was looking for a successor, and D-AGPH was retired in the same year. In 2021, Avanti Air sold the remaining Fokkers – according to the company, a consequence of the COVID crisis. In an interview, co-founder Stefan Kissinger also cited the demanding maintenance as a reason: engines could only be overhauled at a single facility worldwide.

A fresh start with the Dash 8 Q400

As the Fokker replacement, Avanti Air chose the De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400. The first aircraft, D-AASH, joined the fleet at the end of 2021 and is assigned by the airline to the year 2022; D-AASG followed in 2023. With the Q400s, Avanti Air flew seasonal charters out of Graz for the tour operators Rhomberg Reisen and Springer Reisen, ACMI for Air Serbia in 2023 and for the Channel Islands airline Aurigny in 2024. A shuttle service for Mercedes-AMG was added.

Since early 2026, Avanti Air has been flying for Air Uniqon, a virtual airline founded in 2025 without aircraft of its own. The routes lead from Friedrichshafen Airport to Berlin Brandenburg and Hamburg, among others. How long such contracts last is never certain with an ACMI airline – check current schedules before a spotting trip.

Period	Type	Spotter note
1994–1999	Piaggio P180, King Air and other business aircraft	Beginnings as aircraft management
from 1996	Beechcraft 1900C/D	First own commercial aircraft
2002–2015	ATR 42 and ATR 72	Turboprop charter and wet lease
2015–2021	Fokker 100 (up to three aircraft)	Historic: D-AOLG, D-AGPH, D-AOLH
since 2021/2022	Dash 8-400 (Q400)	Current: D-AASH, D-AASG

Why no A320 family?

Avanti Air is often lumped together with larger charter airlines that rely on the A320 family. According to all available sources, however, Avanti Air has never operated an Airbus of the A320 family. In its search for a Fokker replacement, the airline also ran the numbers on the Embraer E190. In an interview from November 2021, Stefan Kissinger explained that the E190 is too close to the Airbus A319 in operating costs – and that they had deliberately decided against the A319 because the competition in that market segment is hardly winnable.

Instead, Avanti Air bet on the turboprop. The reasoning: the Dash 8 is cheaper to operate than a comparable jet and only slightly slower on typical charter routes. At the same time, there is less competition in this segment. For groups of 60 to 80 passengers, as the airline often had with the Fokker, the Q400 is a good fit.

The current fleet: Dash 8 Q400

In 2026, Avanti Air operates two Dash 8-400s. According to the airline, both aircraft offer 78 leather seats in an all-economy layout with about 76 centimeters of seat pitch. Two pilots and two flight attendants are on board. The airline states a cruising speed of 330 knots and a range of up to around 2,775 kilometers, depending on payload. That lets the Q400 easily reach Mediterranean destinations from Central Europe, such as in Greece or on Corsica.

Type	Number	Seats	Registrations	Spotter note
De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400	2 (as of 2026)	78	D-AASH, D-AASG	Acquired secondhand, often at regional airports

These are not new aircraft: both were acquired secondhand. The Q400 is a rather rare type in Germany, because the big German airlines hardly operate turboprops of this size. All the more eye-catching when it turns up at a regional airport among jets.

How to recognize Avanti Air

With a fleet of two aircraft, identification is actually easy – if you know what to look for. Because Avanti Air often flies for others, the flight number may come from the customer. So don’t rely on the name on the departure board, but on the type, registration and ICAO code.

You recognize the Dash 8-400 by its high-mounted wings, the two large propeller engines with the main landing gear retracting into their nacelles, and the T-tail. On the ATR 72, by contrast, the main landing gear sits in fairings on the fuselage. How to reliably separate the two turboprop families is shown in the guide Telling turboprops apart. What the letters after the D- mean is explained in German aircraft registrations.

How ICAO code, flight number and callsign relate is covered in Callsign and flight number and in the overview IATA and ICAO codes explained.

Spotting Avanti Air

Avanti Air has no fixed home airport with daily traffic for spotters. The aircraft are wherever a contract is currently running. That makes it a typical “lucky sighting” – or a target for deliberate planning.

Friedrichshafen and the Air Uniqon routes

In 2026, Lake Constance is the best address. For Air Uniqon, a Q400 flies out of Friedrichshafen, among other places to Berlin and Hamburg. At BER, the observation deck at Berlin Airport is a good choice, and in Hamburg the well-known Affenfelsen. There, a turboprop among Airbus and Boeing jets is a real eye-catcher.

Graz and Innsbruck

In summer, Avanti Air flew holiday charters out of Graz Airport in recent years. In the Fokker days, Innsbruck was a seasonal base; from the observation deck in Innsbruck, Fokker sightings against an Alpine panorama were possible back then. Whether and when such seasonal programs return depends on the tour operators.

Regional airports and special flights

Sports charters, corporate shuttles and ad hoc flights also take the Q400 to airports where it otherwise never appears. When a football club flies to an away game or a company books a shuttle, it can suddenly be standing at your home airport. You’ll find tips for smaller airfields under Regional airports in Germany and Spotting at small regional airports.

Because the fleet is so small, deliberately tracking by registration is worthwhile. How that works with tracking services is shown in the article Tracking an aircraft by registration. How rare your sighting really is by comparison, you can judge with the guide Assessing the rarity of a sighting.

Avanti Air compared

Avanti Air is not the only German ACMI airline. A comparison helps put it in context:

Airline	Home	Typical aircraft	Feature
Avanti Air	Haiger / Siegerland Airport	Dash 8-400	Small charter and ACMI airline, formerly Fokker 100
German Airways	Cologne	Embraer E190	Wet-lease specialist of the Zeitfracht Group
HOP! (former customer)	France	Regional jets	Air France regional subsidiary, flew Avanti’s Fokkers on ACMI

If you’re interested in German wet-lease providers, you should also know German Airways. There, too, the flight number often leads to the customer, while the registration and ICAO code reveal the actual operator.

Common mix-ups

• Confusing Avanti Air with the Piaggio P180 Avanti – the business aircraft gave the airline its name, but it is long gone from the fleet.
• Attributing an A320 fleet to Avanti Air – according to all available sources, the airline has never operated an Airbus.
• Assigning a Fokker 100 to Avanti Air today – the last Fokkers were sold in 2021.
• Taking the flight number for the operator – on wet lease, the customer is often in the flight plan, not Avanti Air.
• Mixing up the Q400 with an ATR 72 – the position of the main landing gear reveals the difference.

Conclusion

Avanti Air is a piece of German charter history in miniature: from the Piaggio Avanti via Beech 1900 and ATR to the Fokker 100 and finally the Dash 8 Q400. For spotters, the airline is today mainly a collecting challenge with two registrations. If you know where a contract is currently running, you have good chances – everyone else will enjoy a surprise sighting at a regional airport.