Austrian Airlines temporarily suspends flights to Northern Italy

Austrian Airlines is temporarily suspending several flights to and from Northern Italy as of Tuesday, March 10, 2020 due to the landing ban imposed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. This affects flights between Vienna and Venice, Bologna and Milan. The Austrian home carrier plans to cancel these flights until March 28. Flights to Rome and Naples are currently still offered. However, further flight cancellations cannot be ruled out due to the dynamic developments surrounding the coronavirus.

Official flight stop makes approach no longer possible

Venice, Bologna and Milan have been dropped from the programme

So far Austrian Airlines has operated up to three daily flights to Venice and Bologna, and up to six daily flights to Milan. The flight program was already thinned out last week.

Passengers whose flights have been cancelled will be rebooked, if possible, or will receive a refund. Austrian Airlines asks all passengers who have booked a connection in the affected period to check the status of their flight at www.austrian.com under “My bookings”. Customers who have provided their telephone number or e-mail address during the booking process, as well as members of the frequent flyer program Miles & More, will be automatically informed of changes in the flight program by SMS or e-mail.

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Austrian Airlines Searching for 35 New IT Specialists

• Lufthansa Group invests in the Vienna flight hub

• The digital workplace of the future is being developed by

 Austrian Airlines

In the year 2018, the Lufthansa Group already decided to bundle its know-how on crucial IT issues focusing on the digital workplace of the future at Austrian Airlines in Vienna. Since then, 45 IT specialists working at the “Center of Excellence Digital Workplace” in Vienna have been responsible for further upgrading the everyday working practices of Austrian Airlines employees as well as employees of all other Lufthansa Group companies through digitalization and innovation. The decision has now been taken to further expand these competencies in Vienna. Austrian Airlines is currently searching for 35 additional IT specialists to fulfil this task.

The red-white-red airline is developing the workplace of the future

Within the context of modernizing workplaces, employees in the IT competence centre of the country’s national carrier are responsible for introducing Office 365 throughout the entire Lufthansa Group. In this regard, modern applications to promote digital and interdisciplinary cooperation will be placed at the disposal of employees. Some 50,000 workplaces will be served from Vienna.

New flight connection: Austrian Airlines Launches Flight Service to Boston

Austrian Airlines will offer flight service from Vienna to Boston starting at the end of March 2020. Austria’s home carrier will initially operate four weekly flights to the American metropolis on the East Coast and increase frequencies to six flights per week as of mid-April. Accordingly, Boston will be served on a daily basis with the exception of Mondays. Austrian Airlines will deploy a Boeing 767 equipped with 211 seats.

“We are very pleased about this new and attractive destination. Boston is a city with great historical significance, just like Vienna”, says Austrian Airlines CCO Andreas Otto. “The city is also worth a trip from a business standpoint, not least because Boston is home to two of the world’s best universities, namely Harvard and MIT.”

• Austrian Airlines will fly to Boston on 29 March 2020 for the first time
• Initially four weekly flights, increase to six flights per week in mid-April 2020
• Expanded seating capacity to Chicago as of summer 2020

First additional Austrian Airbus completes maiden flight

                       Austrian Airlines’ 37th Airbus A320 departed for its maiden flight to London Heathrow under flight number OS 461 on Thursday 14th November. Around two hours later it landed at its destination. The jet with the registration OE-LZD is the first additional Airbus aircraft, which Austrian Airlines will phase-in during the next few years. The jets will successively replace the Dash 8-400 turboprop aircraft. In the course of fleet harmonisation, Austrian will transfer the decentralised flights from the federal states to Germany to the Lufthansa Group and bundle its fleet strength at the Vienna hub in order to better fend off the approach of low-cost carriers.                         

Austrian Airlines suffers significant decline in earnings

Austria’s national carrier,  Austrian Airlines achieved the break-even point after the summer according to its latest figures.  The airline reported adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (adjusted EBIT) of EUR 17 million for the first three quarters of 2019. However, this comprises a drastic decrease in earnings of 85 percent or EUR 93 million compared to the prior-year period (Q1-3 2018: EUR 110 million). Investments in the fleet and service had a positive impact, as reflected in the six percent rise in passenger volume to a total of 11.2 million.

“We succeeded in attracting additional customers despite the competition from low-cost airlines”, states Austrian Airlines CFO Wolfgang Jani. “However, the glut of budget airlines in Vienna and higher jet fuel costs intensify pressure on ticket prices and thus on our earnings”, he adds.

Austrian and Eurowings are blending in Austria

Lufthansa Group airlines Austrian Airlines and Eurowings are repositioning themselves to blend more in Austria and reinforce their cooperation, it has been confirmed by Lufthansa Group this week. 

Part of the goal is to strengthen the Vienna hub and expand decentralised traffic from the Austrian federal states. For now, Austrian Airlines will be responsible for network planning at the Vienna hub in order to improve the management of transfer traffic. As of 1 January 2020, Eurowings will deploy four aircraft including crews in wet lease for Austrian Airlines.

At the same time, Eurowings will strongly expand its presence at Salzburg Airport and increase the number of Airbus A319 aircraft stationed in the City of Mozart to a total of three. This marks as the next step forward in the Lufthansa Group to merge the airlines together to get uniformity and cost allignment. Furthermore, Eurowings will expand its leisure flight program from Innsbruck Airport offering full charter flights to warm-water destinations. Thereby Eurowings is pursuing its strategy of consistently concentrating on decentralized routes i.e. point-to-point flight traffic. Eurowings is already number one at four major German airports, namely Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne and Stuttgart.

Austrian Airlines uses drone technology for aircraft inspections

• Automation: autonomous drone inspects paintwork damage on Airbus A320 aircraft
• Speed advantage: quicker aircraft availability
• Expanded deployment: extension of drone inspections to the Embraer fleet in September

Since the middle of the year, Austrian Airlines has been testing a completely new technology for the purpose of carrying out technical inspections of its aircraft fleet. The aircraft are checked for paintwork or structural damage by means of autonomous drones developed by the French start-up “Donecle”. This innovation not only reduces the workload for technicians of Austria’s national carrier, but the shorter duration of the checks lasting less than two hours instead of the previous time required of four to ten hours enables quicker availability of the aircraft in daily flight operations.

“Our aspiration at Austrian Technik is to stay up-to-date when it comes to new developments. Innovative systems such as these drones perfectly support us to further enhance our stability in flight operations and avoid flight cancellations”, says Michael Kaye, Vice President Austrian Airlines Technical Operations, commenting on the advantages of the new drone technology.

Over 1.5 million passengers flew with Austrian Airlines in July

Over 1.5 million passengers flew with Austrian Airlines in July 2019, that's a big increase of 5.7% from the prior-year month. European flight traffic again made a strong contribution to this result with a growth of 6.8 percent. The flight offering measured in available seat kilometers (ASK) reached the level of the previous year. Revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) climbed 1.4%. Capacity utilization (passenger load factor) of the flights equalled 86.6% on average in July 2019, an increase of 1.2 percentage points compared to the previous year. The number of flights operated by Austrian Airlines was increased by 5.6 percent to 13,491.

“Despite the current competitive situation in Vienna, we were able to increase the number of passengers on our European routes in particular”, says Andreas Otto, Member of the Management Board and CCO of Austrian Airlines. “This shows that more and more passengers are opting for our quality and service.”

Austrian Airlines transported about 8.3 million passengers in the months from January to July 2019, comprising a rise of 5.9 percent from the previous year. The flight offering measured in available seat kilometers was up 4.2 percent. Revenue passenger kilometres climbed 7.0 percent compared to the first seven months of 2018. Capacity utilization of the flights amounted to 79.5 percent, an increase of 2.0 percentage points. The number of flights operated by Austrian Airlines was up 3.7 percent to 79,910 in the months from January to July 2019.

Austrian Airlines offers cheap flights to France

Photo Austrian Airlines

Austrian Airlines is offering considerably reduced air fares to France. One-way flights to Paris, Lyon and Nice can be purchased starting at EUR 39. The special offers will start at midnight and will last for 24 hours or as long as tickets are still available. Passengers can select flights in the period between June 5, 2019 and December 13, 2019. In addition to the low air fares, passengers can also take advantage of customary amenities of a premium airline, for example, hand luggage free of charge or free seat selection at check-in.

Salzburg Airport closes for runway renewal

There is a major runway renewal project going on at the delightful Salzburg Airport at the moment, which effectively closes the airport until the end of May this year.

This renovation work means that all flights have had to be suspended, however, to help mitigate the situation, Austrian Airlines is offering expanded travel options by train between Salzburg’s Central Station and Vienna Airport. 

The existing AIRail cooperation with the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) will be increased tenfold from three to up to 30 daily train connections until one week after the shutdown of the runway. Accordingly, a Railjet with an Austrian Airlines flight number linking Salzburg and Vienna will be available to passengers every hour between 5 each morning until 2030. 

Lufthansa Group Airlines welcomed more than 11 million passengers on board in March 2019

In March 2019, the Lufthansa Group airlines welcomed more than 11 million passengers. This shows an increase of 1.7% compared to the previous year’s month. 

The available seat kilometres were up 4.9% over the previous year, at the same time, sales increased by 4.1%. In addition as compared to March 2018, the seat load factor increased by 0.7 percentage points to 80.5%. This is partially due to the postponement of the Easter holidays, which fell into March last year.

In the first quarter of 2019 as a whole, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group welcomed more than 29 million passengers, 3.1% more than in the first quarter of the previous year. At 77.9%, the seat load factor in the first quarter was on a par with the previous year.

Cargo capacity in March was 10.5% up on the previous year, while the tonne-kilometres sold were 1.1% lower. This results in a load factor of 64.7%, which is 7.6 percentage points lower. In the first three months of 2019, freight capacity was increased by 8.6%. Sales fell by 3.0% in the same period. This results in a 7.5 percentage point lower cargo load factor. 

Network Airlines with around 8.4 million passengers

Austrian Airlines to offer more flights to Paris, Amsterdam and Copenhagen

Austrian Airlines aircraft in Vienna                                                             Photo Austrian Airlines

Austrian Airlines has confirmed it will increase frequencies to some other key European destinations in the upcoming summer flight schedule which are in addition to the previously announced expansion of its offering primarily to Germany. 

The carrier will offer twelve more weekly flights to Paris than in the summer flight schedule for 2018. On balance, Austria’s home carrier will offer a total of 39 weekly flights to the so-called “City of Love”. 

One additional daily flight connection to Amsterdam will be offered, or seven more flights each week. Overall, Austrian Airlines will have 34 weekly flights to Amsterdam in its portfolio. 

Travellers to Copenhagen can also be pleased with the addition of four weekly flight connections. Thus, Austrian Airlines will operate 31 flights per week on the Vienna-Copenhagen route. All the above-mentioned changes apply to flights starting on 1 May 2019 and are bookable as of today. 

More Austrian Airlines flights to Germany, Japan and the USA

More Austrian Airlines Flights to Germany, Japan

and the USA this summer

Austrian Airlines will once again offer a dense network of destinations in the summer of 2019. The number of flight connections to Germany will be increased. Holidaymakers have the option of selecting among different destinations for example in Greece, Italy, Spain and many more. There is also a premiere on the airline’s long-haul offering starting at the end of April. “We already look forward to our inaugural flight to Montreal. Moreover, we will introduce two additional flight connections to Tokyo in the summer and thus fly there daily”, says Andreas Otto, Member of the Management Board and CCO of Austrian Airlines. The summer flight schedule will take effect on 31 March 2019. 

Continued focus on Germany 

Austrian Airlines will once again increase the number of flights from Vienna to Germany in the upcoming summer season. Accordingly, Austria’s home carrier will fly up to 39 times per week to Hamburg, comprising a rise of eleven flight connections compared to the 2018 summer flight schedule. Up to 56 flights will be offered to Berlin-Tegel and up to 40 weekly connections to Düsseldorf, an increase of two per week in each case. One additional flight will be operated to Stuttgart, pushing up the total to 32 flights per week. On balance, Austrian Airlines is expanding its flight offering from Vienna to Germany by up to fifteen frequencies each week. All in all, it will operate as many as 263 weekly flights linking Vienna and Germany. 

Austrian Airlines starts the new year with passenger growth

More growth from Vienna with Austrian Airlines                                                  Photo Austrian Airlines

Austrian Airlines has started the new year off with impressive passenger growth of some 7% in January when compared to the same month last year.  

Approximately 791,000 guests flew with Austria’s hometown carrier in the month of January 2019, 7% up on 2018's total. Once again, the strong performance in European flight traffic was the main growth driver. However, the intercontinental segment also showed significant growth. The airlines' flight offering measured in available seat kilometres (ASK) was up 8.2%t. Revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) climbed by 8.9% compared to January 2018. Capacity utilisation of the flights equalled 70.2 % on average, a rise of 0.5 percentage points. The number of flights operated by Austrian Airlines in January 2019 was increased by 4.4% to 9,088. 

• About 791,000 passengers flew with Austrian Airlines in January, an increase of 7.0% 

• Capacity utilisation up 0.5 percentage points to 70.2 % 

• Revenue passenger kilometres rose by 8.9% 

“This is a very gratifying start to the new year”, says Andreas Otto, Member of the Management Board and CCO of Austrian Airlines. “Apparently our customers prefer to fly with a longstanding partner of whom they know that his flight schedules are reliable.” 

2018 a record year for Austrian Airlines which is now looking for 19 trainees

Vienna based Austrian Airlines is looking to hire an additional 19 trainees starting this September the airline has announced.  Every year the friendly local carrier trains a large number of apprentices in different areas of the company. The field of aircraft engineering is particularly exciting. 

The airline is once again recruiting sixteen candidates this year for apprenticeship training in its own training workshop. In addition, three trainees will be accepted for training as office clerks. The training program is carried out in cooperation with the Vocational Training Institute (BFI) for Lower Austria and can be concluded in combination with a higher education entrance qualification (“Matura”). Currently, 54 apprentices are being trained at Austrian Airlines. 

• Sixteen technical apprentices and three office clerk trainees are needed 
• Training commences on September 2, 2019 
• 54 apprentices are currently undergoing training at Austrian Airlines 

More women are wanted in Austrian Airlines cockpits.......

Vienna's hometown airline, Austrian Airlines is continually expanding with more aircraft operating more routes connecting more people. During the first half of 2018 alone, the carrier hired 400 new employees, mainly pilots and flight attendants. At present the airlines is looking to add 100 fully trained pilots to its roster. In addition, training courses for future pilots will be offered again in the coming year. “We are pleased that we can offer so many career entry opportunities to experienced pilots and those who still want to become pilots”, says Helmut Haubenwaller, Head of Crew Training at Austrian Airlines.

More women in the cockpit

The airlines is particularly keen on attracting more women to its flight deck crew, over the last three years, the percentage of female pilots at Austrian Airlines has risen from three percent in 2015 to the current level of five percent. This is a positive development. However, it also demonstrates that women are still strongly underrepresented in this profession. For this reason, the declared objective of Austrian Airlines is to have more women in the cockpits of its aircraft.

Learning to fly from scratch

Four so-called ab initio courses will be offered in 2019, each with 24 training positions for interested candidates without previous flight experience. The requirements demanded of prospective candidates include EU citizenship, a secondary school leaving certificate, a secondary school vocational certificate, or the subject-related university entrance qualification of the country of origin. Furthermore, candidates should be at least 165 cm tall and have an unrestricted passport. In addition, they should have a very good command of written and spoken German and English. People wearing glasses or contact lenses may only have maximum of +/- 3.0 diopter lenses. More information for potential applicants is available at www.austrianpilot.at

(photo Austrian Airlines)

Vienna calling...................more time for Waltzing and swirls as Air Canada launches new route from Toronto

Vienna calling...... The leading international Canadian carrier, Air Canada have confirmed this week that they will be introducing a new year-round service between Toronto and Vienna from 29th April next year.

The airline says it will operate Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners on the route which featuring Signature Class, Premium Economy and Economy cabins. During the winter season, from November until March, flights will operate five days a week, outside those months there service will operate on a daily basis. This service is offered in partnership with Star Alliance joint venture partner Austrian Airlines complementing their Montreal-Vienna flights also beginning in April 2019.

Year-round non-stop flights to with Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners

Star Alliance joint venture partner Austrian Airlines

to begin Montreal-Vienna service in April 2019

Major expansion plans for Austrian Airlines

A major expansion plan is coming to the Austrian Airlines route network this winter as the airline announces more than 40 additional flights each week will be operated to 14 destinations.

The airline says this expansion will include the German cities of Berlin, Dusseldorf and Hamburg as well as other destinations such as Copenhagen, Kiev, Athens and Krakow. These frequency increases will be made possible on the basis of enhanced efficiency in the route network. “Alongside the European flights we are increasing our frequencies to North America as well”, explains Austrian Airlines CCO Andreas Otto. “As a result, we are strengthening Vienna as hub for our flights.”  

From the end of October 2018, the airline will operate up to 48 weekly flights to Berlin-Tegel and 36 flights to Dusseldorf, an increase of seven flights per week in each case compared to the winter of 2017/18. Austrian Airlines will fly up to 29 times each week to Hamburg, or three additional flights in the upcoming winter flight schedule. On balance, Austria’s flag carrier will offer up to 17 more weekly flights to Germany or a total of up to 238 flight connections each week from Vienna to Germany. 

The Lufthansa group's July results

14.2 Million people flew with Lufthansa group in July 

In July 2018, the Lufthansa Group of airlines welcomed around 14.2 million passengers across its vast network, that's an 8.2 percent increase over July 2017. The available seat kilometres were up 7.0 percent sales were up 7.0 percent and the load fact was pretty stable at 86.3 percent. 

Best airline in Europe for business ........ Lufthansa

The Business Traveller Awards were held this week in Frankfurt, Germany.  Every year, readers of the renowned German business travel magazine Business Traveller evaluate various companies from the travel industry in a survey conducted by an independent market research institute.

The top three places in the category or “Best airline for business travellers on German and European routes” were taken by Lufthansa Group airlines. For the fifth year in a row, SWISS defended its first place in this category, followed by Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines in second and third place respectively. 

A total of four awards for Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa and SWISS at this year’s Business Traveller Awards  “The Lufthansa Group Airlines are aligning their product development towards current and future customer needs. We individualize and digitize the customer experience along the entire travel chain and thus redefine our premium claim. The fact that SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa occupy the first three places in Europe shows that customers appreciate these investments just as much as the outstanding service provided by our employees,” says Dr Andreas Otto, Chief Commercial Officer Austrian Airlines and Head of Product management of all premium airlines of the Lufthansa Group. "Thanks to our excellent network, business travellers can reach around 300 destinations worldwide quickly and efficiently via our four hubs.