Austrian Airlines
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| Founded | 1957 | |||
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| Hubs | Vienna International Airport | |||
| Frequent-flyer program | Miles & More | |||
| Member lounge | Senator Lounge, Business Class Lounge | |||
| Alliance | Star Alliance | |||
| Subsidiaries | Lauda Air Tyrolean Airways |
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| Fleet size | 42 (excluding subsidiaries) | |||
| Destinations | 117 (including subsidiaries) | |||
| Parent company | Deutsche Lufthansa AG | |||
| Headquarters | Vienna Airport Schwechat, Austria Jurisdiction : Vienna[1] |
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| Key people | Peter Malanik (CEO) | |||
| Website | aua.com | |||
Austrian Airlines is the principal airline of Austria headquartered in Office Park 2 on the grounds of Vienna International Airport in Schwechat, Wien-Umgebung and a subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa AG.[2][3][4] Together with regional subsidiary Tyrolean Airways (Austrian Arrows) and charter arm Lauda Air, it operates scheduled services to over 130 destinations. Its hub is Vienna International Airport, with a focus city at Innsbruck Airport.[5] It is a member of the Star Alliance.
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History
The airline was founded on 30 September 1957, making its maiden flight on 31 March 1958 when a Vickers Viscount 779 took off from Vienna for London, England via Zurich. Austrian Airlines was formed through the merger of Air Austria and Austrian Airways. It launched domestic services on 1 May 1963. The airline's transatlantic services began on 1 April 1969 with a Vienna to Brussels and New York service in co-operation with Sabena.
Austrian became a member of the Star Alliance in 2000. That year, Austrian acquired Lauda Air, an airline whose operations included long haul flights, and acquired Rheintalflug on 15 February 2001. Its name was shortened to Austrian in September 2003 when it rebranded its three constituent carriers.[5] On 1 October 2004 the Flight Operations Departments of Austrian and Lauda Air were merged into a single unit, leaving Lauda Air as a brand name only for charter flights. It has 8,468 employees[5]
In November 2008 Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa announced that Lufthansa intended to acquire ÖIAG's stake and the 2% held by Austrian Airlines, giving Lufthansa a controlling stake in Austrian Airlines.[6][7] With approval from the European Commission, Lufthansa purchased Austrian Airlines in September 2009.[8]
Since the 4th of February 2010 the Austrian Airlines AG shares are suspended from the Vienna stock exchange.[9]
Corporate Design
The color scheme of Austrian Airlines was always held in red-white-red. The airplanes from the 1950s to 80s were silver at the bottom of the body, the upper part was white with the Austrian Airlines arrow and the writing "Austrian Airlines" (until 1972, 1995–2003) or "Austrian" (1972–1995, from 2003 onwards).
The typical Austrian Airlines arrow ("Austrian Chevron") had three versions. 1960 still looking like the body plan of a paper airplane, it got its now known shape in 1972. With the rebranding taking place in 1995, the "Chevron" was placed on the red-white-red tail-fin. But with the new Corporate Design since 2003, the "Chevron" form had a "renaissance": the old shape was used again, just this time in a more modern style and a drop shadow placed underneath.
Many special color schemes and surface varnishes have been used throughout the decades. Since joining the Star Alliance, a few airplanes already have been coated with Star Alliance motifs on them. For the Mozartyear 2006, an Airbus A320 was coated with a Mozart-Design, also an Airbus A340-300 was coated with an homage to the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra and a Boeing 737-600 was coated in a glacier-look for a Tyrol advertisement. Right now three designs have been put on airplanes regarding the Euro 2008, and an Airbus A320 in a retro-livery on the occasion of the 50 year celebration of the company.
Destinations
A major focus in the Austrian route network is Eastern Europe and the Middle East, much of which is operated by subsidiary Tyrolean.
In 2006, in a move to save about US$51 million per year, Austrian decided to eliminate its A330 and A340 fleet, which consisted of four Airbus A330-200 (OE-LAO, OE-LAN, OE-LAM, OE-LAP), two Airbus A340-200 (OE-LAH and OE-LAG) and 2 Airbus A340-300 (OE-LAL and OE-LAK). Some of these aircraft were sold to TAP Portugal, Swiss and the French Air Force. As a result in having less long haul capacity, Austrian suspended some of its long-haul flights to East Asia and Australia. Flights to Shanghai ended in January 2007 while flights to Phuket, Mauritius and Colombo and Malé ended in April 2007 and those to Kathmandu ended in May 2007. [10]
March 2007 also saw the termination of the airline's longest flights, the Vienna-Singapore-Melbourne and Vienna-Kuala Lumpur-Sydney routes, ending operations on the Kangaroo Route. This was Melbourne's last European-based airline connecting the city with direct flights to Europe.
Austrian was one of the few airlines[11] to fly into post-war Iraq when it began flights to Erbil[12] in December 2006.[13] However, the flights were discontinued the following year. Flights to Erbil were resumed on 2 April 2008.[14]
Austrian Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines, * indicates as Star Alliance:
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Special security
The armed monitoring of Austrian flights by EKO Cobra began in 1981. During each accompanied flight at least two undercover armed sky marshals are on board.
Fleet
The Austrian Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of 27 December 2009):[16]
| Aircraft | Total | Passengers (Business/Economy) |
Notes |
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| Airbus A319-114 | 7 | 132 (0/132) | |
| Airbus A320-214 | 8 | 159 (0/159) | |
| Airbus A321-111 | 3 | 193 (0/193) | |
| Airbus A321-211 | 3 | 193 (0/193) | |
| Boeing 737-600 | 2 | 111 (0/111) | |
| Boeing 737-700 | 2 | 132 (0/132) | |
| Boeing 737-800 | 7 | 184 (0/184) | 1 in Lauda Air c/s 6 in Austrian Airlines c/s |
| Boeing 767-300ER | 6 | 225 (36/189) 230 (30/200) 240 (30/210) |
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| Boeing 777-200ER | 4 | 307 (49/258) 309 (49/260) |
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| Total | 42 |
*Note: Business and Economy on the A319, A320, A321 can vary depending on demand [17]
Fleet history
Over the years, Austrian Airlines operated the following aircraft types:[18]
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This transport-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
| Aircraft | Introduced | Retired |
|---|---|---|
| Airbus A310 | 1988 | 2004 |
| Airbus A319 | 2004 | |
| Airbus A320 | 1998 | |
| Airbus A321 | 1995 | |
| Airbus A330-200 | 1998 | 2007 |
| Airbus A340-200 | 1995 | 2007 |
| Airbus A340-300 | 1997 | 2007 |
| Boeing 737-600 | 2008 | |
| Boeing 737-700 | 2008 | |
| Boeing 767-300 | 2005 | |
| Boeing 777-200 | 2005 | |
| Fokker 50 | 1988 | 1996 |
| Fokker 70 | 1995 | 2007 |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-80 (all variants) |
1980 | 2006 |
Austrian Airlines fleet images
.jpg) Airbus A320-214 in retro livery |
 Airbus A321-111 in McDonalds livery |
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 Boeing 737-600 |
 Boeing 737-700 |
Incidents and accidents
- On 26 September 1960 an Austrian Airlines Vickers Viscount V837 (OE-LAF, c/n 437) crashed during approach eleven kilometers west of Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, 31 of 37 passengers were killed.[19]
- On 17 September 1984, a Swearingen SA-226TC Metro II (OE-LSA, c/n TC-315), operated by Austrian Airlines' subsidiary Austrian Air Service, approached Vienna's Schwechat Airport too low, collided with the approach lighting and crashed short off the runway. All eight passengers and two crewmembers on board survived the accident with minor injuries, but the aircraft was a write-off due to the extensive damage to the wings and the structure.[20]
- On 5 January 2004, an Austrian Airlines Fokker 70 (OE-LFO, c/n 11559) crashed on a snow covered field outside Munich International Airport. There were three minor injuries.[21]
- On 13 (Friday) February 2009, Austrian Airlines Flight OS780, Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 scheduled flight from Skopje to Vienna failed to retract landing gear after take-off and performed an emergency landing on Skopje Airport.[22][23] On board was Zoran Jolevski, Macedonian Ambassador to the US.[24]
References
- ↑ "Firmensitz von Austrian Airlines ist korrekt" APA-OTS, Retrieved on 25 September 2009
- ↑ "Contact." Austrian Airlines Group. Retrieved on 8 July 2010.
- ↑ "Offices in Austria" Austrian Airlines, Retrieved on 26 May 2009
- ↑ "Information about the city plan" City of Schwechat, Retrieved on 5 September 2009
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International: p. 81. 27 March 2007.
- ↑ Lufthansa kauft Austrian Airlines Welt Online, 13 November 2008
- ↑ Austrian Airlines soll an Lufthansa verkauft werden tagesschau.de, 13 November 2008
- ↑ Green Light for Merger of Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa Breaking Travel News, 28 August 2009
- ↑ BRIEF-Austrian Airlines shares suspended - Vienna bourse AFX News, 4 February 2010
- ↑ Airliner World January 2007
- ↑ "Where Iraq Works". Time. 5 April 2007. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1606880,00.html?iid=chix-sphere. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
- ↑ Starmer-Smith, Charles (14 November 2006). "Austrian Airlines launches flights to Iraq". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?xml=/travel/2006/11/14/etnewsiraq.xml. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
- ↑ Austrian Airlines starts scheduled flights to Iraq
- ↑ Austrian Airlines resumes service to Erbil, Iraq
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Austrian Airlines fleet list at ch-aviation.ch. Retrieved 2009-12-27.
- ↑ Austrian Airlines Fleet configurations
- ↑ Austrian Airlines historic fleet list at airfleets.net. Retrieved 2010-05-29.
- ↑ "Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19600926-0. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
- ↑ Accident 17SEP1984 Swearingen SA.226TC Metro II OE-LSA on www.aviation-safety.net
- ↑ Accident Database: Accident Synopsis 01052004
- ↑ 2 Dash 8 emergency landings in Skopje, Macedonia The Professional Pilots Rumour Network, 13 February 2009
- ↑ AUA-Maschine musste nach Start in Skopje umkehren derstandard.at, 14 February 2009
- ↑ Две безбедни принудни слетувања на аеродромот „Александар Велики“ MIA - Macedonian Information Agency
External links
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