Austrian Airlines Outlines Plans For Smaller Fleet

I'm supposed to fly a leg with them on a return ticket from Cyprus in August. Should I be even more concerned now? I'm pretty much resigned to this trip not happening, but not wanting to give up hope completely. Stay safe everyone.

Interesting that ALL turboprops are being retired. Wonder how they’ll utilize E-195 and A320s for very short regional flights (Budapest, Zagreb, Belgrade, etc.)

Rip turboprops. Vie-bud, plane flys over budapest verry low, lovely vieuw.

With OS's fleet aging while LH having abundant new wide-bodies, I wonder if there be some re-shuffling, between LH, LX and OS to re-distribute the planes. (and also lower the fleet age and maintenance cost). Pure speculation tho

@Mark G. Depending on who is flying where in August, if Austrian cancel the flight, they will normally rebook onto another Lufthansa Group flight that is operating.

Was part of the Lufthansa Group 787 order not destined for Austrian as announced last year, possibly still not still on the cards?

I seem to remember Swiss and Austrian liveries used in promotional pictures.

Nobody really knows how demand will return, although I think LH has the best prediction.
I suspect that in the medium turn OS will select to keep one daily flight the the NC area, either dropping JFK or EWR. Maintaining service to JFK is more prestigious although partner UAL has operations at EWR.

@Jordan: the E195 is basically adopting the DH8D's schedule. They already did fly to destinations such as Graz, Salzburg, Prague, Budapest, Zagreb, Leipzig and to all other Austrian airports and so on in the second half of 2019.

Can't help but think that the days of any regularly scheduled service to KLU are numbered.

@Thomas: GRZ and KLU would have been taken out of schedule anyways as soon as the Semmeringbasistunnel is finished; so maybe they now decide to cancel these routes together with the one to SBG even earlier. I think that only the flight to INN will survive.

So long as they don't eliminate the flying chef in the toque blanche. It's too precious.

@Simon - totally agree. But until the rail tunnels are done, getting to Kaernten is a pain. It already is!

@Thomas: very true

Unfortunately, I'd assume that one of the routes they will cut was the planned BOS route. Unfortunate. Hopefully, Austrian will try it at some point in the future.

Since Austrian has an all Boeing long haul fleet, I expected them to order some 787's in the future. That would fit in better with their 777's. But being apart of the LH group, perhaps they could exclusively use the A350 for their long haul operations.

Austrian is one of the few Lufthansa group airlines that could be serviced by A321XLR almost exclusively their on long haul routes, if Airbus can deliver its 4,700nm range promise.

I expect Austrian AirRail and Austrian - OBB Rail & Fly to be expanded, so that they don't need to fly to Graz, Salzburg and Innsbruck; and in a few years, Munich, Zurich and other Lufthansa hubs.

Personally, I think Austrian would want to try to absorb Ryanair Group as it breaks up. I believe Ryanair's move to a holdings with subsidiary brands is a way to sell Ryanair Sun to LOT, Lauda to Austrian, Malta Air to Alitalia, Buzz to KLM etc.

This is a good opportunity for airlines like Lufthansa to clean their route network from flights that might have had political influences in the past, just like its' a great opportunity to clean the fleet as well.

When the traffic restores, there's a lot of less legacy burden.

I wouldn't be surprised to see more fleet simplification. Long-term, I see them operating E275s for regional network, A320neos for European network, B788s for lower demand long-hauls and B78Xs for LAX, JFK, NRT etc.

Some B789 LH Group ordered will go to both OS and LX

They don't necessarily have to cut 3 long-haul routes, some destinations can be served less frequently.