Showing posts with label Laudamotion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laudamotion. Show all posts

30 May, 2020

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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10 April, 2020

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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02 April, 2019

Birmingham to get a service to Vienna with Laudamotion

Laudamotion, Austria’s low-cost airline and part of Ryanair, the low-fare-high-fee carrier recently announced flights to Vienna direct from Birmingham Airport. Commencing October 2019, Laudamotion will be operating three weekly connections to the Austrian capital of Vienna.

Vienna was recently voted the most liveable city on the planet, and is known for its world-renowned art, culture and culinary delights. Tom Screen, Aviation Director, Birmingham Airport commented: “We are delighted to welcome Laudamotion as a new partner airline of Birmingham Airport. The three times a week service ensures passengers wishing to fly to the Austrian capital, now have even more choice from their local airport at competitive prices.

“Laudamotion operates to a number of European destinations and we look forward to working with the airline to expand further routes direct from Birmingham in the coming months.”

Andreas Gruber, Managing Director at Laudamotion said: “Our routes work because we have the right offer for price-sensitive customers. In particular, with our new City Shuttle routes, I'm sure to increase the traffic with our new non-stop service to and from Vienna.”



02 March, 2019

Ryanair's Laundamotion jet aborts take off at Stansted...................................eight injured

Panic at London Stansted.......Shortly after 8pm on Friday, March 1st an Airbus A320 of Ryanair's Austrian based Laudamotion was trundling down the runway at London Stansted when a loud big bang boomed around the cabin, the takeoff was abandoned and a full-scale evacuation called for.

During the scramble down emergency slides and the ensuing panic at least eight passengers were injured and many others left in a state of shock.  While others took to social media to document the terrifying event others merely counted their blessings for only having minor scrapes and abrasions.

The runway at London Stansted was closed for around three hours causing many flights to be delayed and diverted. The airport said around three hours after the aborted take off that the aircraft had been moved off the runway, an inspection the surface had taken place before the management allowed the runway to be fully reopened.

29 August, 2018

Laudamotion to double fleet in summer 2019

The Ryanair airline in Austria, Laudamotion has said it will increase its Airbus fleet from 9 to 18 aircraft with the aircraft arriving in summer 2019. 

Laudamotion’s CEO, Andreas Gruber, said, “Laudamotion now faces the future with great confidence, backed by the enormous financial strength of Ryanair, our new majority shareholder and Europe’s largest airline.  Laudamotion has already achieved load factors over 90% in its first summer season, thanks to the efforts of over 500 Laudamotion colleagues.  These 9 additional 2019 Airbus deliveries ensure that Laudamotion will grow again by at least 20% in 2019 to 5m guests p.a.  We look forward to offering even more low fare choices to Austrian and German customers.” 



13 July, 2018

Ryanair at war with Lufthansa over Laudamotion

A war of words has broken out between two major European airlines this week with one accusing the other of telling lies.

Ryanair and Lufthansa have both issued press briefings today attacking each other over Laudamotion - the airline set up by Niki Lauda from the ashes of the Air Berlin with the express intention of selling it off to Ryanair.

In an expected rubber stamping exercise the EU Commission approved Ryanair’s proposed acquisition of a 75 percent interest in Austrian airline of which it already owns 24.9 percent.

The Irish low-fare-high-fee airline welcomed the move, but then attacked Lufthansa by saying that the German carrier was trying to remove the 9 aircraft it had to lease to Laudamotion to get the airline off the ground. They said "This is the latest in a series of efforts by Lufthansa to destabilise and damage Laudamotion, which has seen:

– Lufthansa fail to deliver 2 of the 11 aircraft they were required to under the EU Competition decision concerning Lufthansa’s acquisition of Air Berlin.
– Some of the aircraft that Lufthansa had committed to deliver being delayed until after the summer 2018 season, further reducing Laudamotion’s ability to take up slots and offer S2018 flights and services.
– Laudamotion only able to operate a 19 aircraft fleet in summer 2018 by wet leasing 10 B737 aircraft from Ryanair.
– Lufthansa Group delay payment of over €1.5m of wet lease payments properly due to Laudamotion, for flights which Laudamotion operated for Lufthansa in March, April and May."

20 March, 2018

Lauda sells Laudamotion to Ryanair - slowly!


Things are moving fast at Laudamotion, not least its shares, hardly a week after publically launching the airline founded by Niki Lauda is selling out to Ryanair.

The Irish low-cost high-fee budget carrier has entered into a binding agreement to take an initial 24.9 percent stake in the Austrian airline born from the ashes of carrier NIKI that went down with the airberlin collapse.

With the new deal, Ryanair will provide start-up capital and lease six aircraft to Laudamotion to take their fleet to 21 and vastly increase the pace of development. Within the year Ryanair will increase its investment in Laudamotion to 75 percent.

Initially, Niki Lauda will chair the Board of the airline and oversee the implementation of his strategy to build a successful Austrian low fares airline but will step away from the airline towards the end of 2019.

19 March, 2018

NIKI reincarnated as Laudamotion - taking to the skies soon


Niki Lauda's reincarnation of his 'NIKI' airline will take to the skies over Europe this spring under the banner of 'Laudamotion'

The airline will offer flights to a range of destinations including many Mediterranean holiday destinations like Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza, Malaga, Santorini, Kalamata, Crete and many more. Lauda plans for the airline to operate a fleet of 14 aircraft, flying from Austria, Germany and Switzerland in a two-class configuration.

Laudamotion is the next step, the latest development and evolution of his airline NIKI, which was an extremely successful holiday airline that Mr Lauda started in 2003. It had a great reputation and built a strong route network and phenomenal client base. Lauda sold his shares in NIKI to airberlin in 2011 and although it was part of the airberlin group, it also remained an independent company with its own management board.  After airberlin filed for insolvency in 2017, Niki Lauda purchased the airline again and soon Laudamotion will be taking to the air. 

Laudamotion is starting at the right time to take advantage of the peak travel season and tickets are already on sale, starting at just €59.99 for Spain and to Greece from € 79.99.

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