Ryanair goes head to head with Austrian Airlines when it opens 64 routes to/from Vienna from 1st July

Photo Ryanair

Ryanair, Europe's biggest the low-fare-high-fee carrier has confirmed it will launch a price war against Austrian Airlines this summer when it introduces 64 routes to and from Vienna. 

The airline has rushed forward in the wake of news that Lufthansa's shareholders have agreed to the terms the German Government offered on a bailout deal, to say it will now operate the around 64 routes from Viena. 

The new schedule will include over 25 summer destination including Faro, Malaga, Malta, Rome, Naples & Palma, 20 city destinations including Dublin, Milan, Madrid, Lisbon & Warsaw. Ryanair will also operate 2 routes to/from Salzburg and 1 route to/from Klagenfurt.

In such a rush move, Ryanair has been forced to bring back Lauda aircraft,  on a wet-lease basis to operate the flight schedule in the short term. 

Ryanair's Austrian operation Lauda shuts down Vienna base

Laudamotion the Austrian sideline carrier of Ryanair confirmed on Friday that it would be it was closing down its Vienna base following a row with unions over pay and conditions.  The airline has already relocated many aircraft to other bases for storage during the pandemic. The move was part of the blackmail ploy by Ryanair's boss Michael O’Leary who had previously threatened the Lauda staff unless they agreed to a significant pay cut he was close its home base and bring in Ryanair crew and planes. 

Whilst the Vida union said it was aware everyone had to "make a contribution in times of crisis, however, the contracts Lauda was offering would push the income of employees that work full time and in shifts to below the “poverty threshold” was “out of proportion.”

A Lauda spokesperson confirmed the shut-down would see over 370 people lose their jobs and the airline would keep its bases in Stuttgart, Dusseldorf and Palma. Some of the airline's aircraft have been transferred to Duesseldorf,  London Stansted and Palma de Mallorca.

There has been much speculation in the local media that Ryanair was about to pull the plug on the whole Lauda operation, especially after news broke that the airline group had refused to pay the May salaries around 200 staff in Germany after the local office rejected proposals on reduced working hours.

The Lauda spokesperson claims this was purely an "organisational problem." and it was "working very hard to pay out the wages.".

One can only wonder what Niki Lauda, who had a long history of treating employees with consideration, respect and above all, fairness, would have thought of an airline bearing his name would think of the way the staff are being treated. 

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Ryanair doesn't want the Austrian government to provide aid to Austrian Airline as its owned by Germans

Ryanair's Austrian outfit, Lauda has strongly urged the Austrian government not to provide Austrian Airlines with state aid to help it cope with the ongoing coronavirus COVID-19 and would rather see the airline go bust and its 7000 staff unemployed, simply because Austrian Airlines is owned by a German company.

The Lufthansa Group is, apparently, in negotiations with the German government about a possible bailout,  however, this is just for the German operations of the group.  It is also holding talks with the governments of Switzerland to help SWISS,  with the Belgians to support Brussells Airlines and with the Austrian administration to help Austrian Airlines over the worst. 

“We do not believe that Lufthansa should receive state aid from Austrian taxpayers in exactly the same way we do not believe that Ryanair should receive state aid from Austrian taxpayers,” Andreas Gruber, Lauda's managing director. However,  he only said this after he had had a conversation with top officials from the Austrian government according to local sources. 

Lauda has around 550 staff and has ranked an 8% of the market share, whilst Austrian Airlines employs around 7000 people and 43% of the market share.  

However, Lauda has said it should get state-sponsored short term payroll support from the government, as should Austrian Airlines.   

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Niki Lauda May Buy Back Niki From Air Berlin

Former F1 driver Niki Lauda is interested in buying back insolvent Air Berlin’s Niki, the Austrian airline he once owned, joining a slew of companies and investors vying to grab parts of the German carrier.

Lauda expressed his interest in Niki in a letter to Air Berlin’s insolvency administrator but he has yet to look into Niki’s books, he told Austrian newspaper Kronen-Zeitung.

“Now let’s see what happens, whether I’ll be invited to the negotiations at all,” he was quoted as saying.