Austrian Airlines is the flag carrier 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.

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.

At one time Austrian had its head office in Vienna.^[6]

Austrian became a member of Star Alliance in 2000. That year, Austrian acquired Lauda Air, an airline whose operations included long haul flights. It 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 6.394 employees^[5]

In 2007 Austrian Airlines removed complementary in-flight meals and alcoholic drinks on short haul services, introducing what was called a "Self Select Bistro Service", except on flights from London to Vienna, and other flights above 1 hour 40 minutes in duration.^[7]

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.^[8][9] With approval from the European Commission, Lufthansa purchased Austrian Airlines in September 2009.^[10]

Shares in Austrian Airlines AG were suspended on Vienna Stock Exchange on 4 February 2010.^[11]

Corporate Design

Austrian Airlines' colour scheme has always been a pattern of red-white-red. The aeroplanes 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 text "Austrian Airlines" (until 1972, again from 1995 to 2003) or "Austrian" (19721995, from 2003 onwards). Austrian Airlines' slogan was "the friendly airline".

Austrian Airlines' arrow ("Austrian Chevron") had three versions. In 1960 it looked like the body plan of a paper aeroplane, but it got its current shape in 1972. As part of a rebranding exercise in 1995, the "Chevron" was placed on the red-white-red tail fin. The new Corporate Design, in use since 2003, the old "Chevron" shape was used again, just this time in a more modern style and a drop shadow placed underneath.

Many special colour schemes and surface varnishes have been used throughout the decades. Since joining Star Alliance, a few aeroplanes have flown with Star Alliance motifs on them. For the Mozart year in 2006, an Airbus A320 was decorated with a Mozart design, and an Airbus A340-300 was coated with an homage to the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. A Boeing 737-600 was given a glacier look for a Tyrol advertisement. Three designs were put on aeroplanes to mark Euro 2008. An Airbus A320 was given a retro livery on the occasion of the 50th anniversary 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 its subsidiary Tyrolean.

In 2006, to save about 40 million euros 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 of 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.^[12]

The airline's longest flights were terminated in March 2007, the Vienna-Singapore-Melbourne and Vienna-Kuala Lumpur-Sydney routes, ending operations on the Kangaroo Route. Austrian was the last European-based airline which offered direct flights from Melbourne to Europe, initially using the Lauda brand, and then Austrian airlines aircraft.^[13]

Austrian was one of the few airlines^[14] to fly into post-war Iraq when it began flights to Erbil in December 2006.^[15] However, the flights were discontinued the following year. Flights to Erbil were resumed on 2 April 2008.^[16] Austrian Airlines has flown from Vienna to Mumbai since November 2010 and resumed flights to Baghdad on 8 June 2011.

Codeshare agreements

Austrian Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines, * indicates as Star Alliance:

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

As of March 2011, the Austrian Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft with an average age of 10.6 years:^[18]

Fleet history

Over the years, Austrian Airlines operated the following aircraft types:^[20]

This transport-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Austrian Airlines fleet images

Incidents and accidents

The following is a list of incidents and accidents involving Austrian Airlines mainline aircraft. It excludes occurrences with subsidiaries, such as Tyrolean Airways or Austrian Air Services.

• On 26 September 1960 at 21:40 local time, an Austrian Airlines Vickers Viscount (registered OE-LAF) crashed during approach of Sheremetyevo International Airport, killing 26 of the 31 passengers on board, as well as five of the six crew members. The aircraft had been operating Flight 901 from Vienna to Moscow with an intermediate stop at Warsaw. As a probable cause for this to date only fatal accident for the airline, a malfunction in an altimeter was given.^[21]
• On 21 February 1970, an bomb explosion occurred in the cargo hold of an Austrian Airlines Sud Aviation Caravelle (registered OE-LCU) during a flight from Frankfurt to Vienna with 33 passengers and five crew on board, creating a hole in the fuselage. The pilots managed to safely return the aircraft to Frankfurt Airport.^[22] On the same day, another bomb had been planted on Swissair Flight 330, causing it to crash, killing 47 people. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed the responsibility for both assaults.^[23]
• On 7 January 1997, Austrian Airlines Flight 104 from Berlin to Vienna was hijacked by a Bosnian male who had forced his way into the cockpit armed with a knife (which was of a size small enough not to be banned from airplanes under regulations in force at the time). The pilots obeyed the perpetrator's demands to return to Berlin, so that he could negotiate with the local authorities over the renewal of his visa. Back at Berlin Tegel Airport, the McDonnell Douglas MD-87 was stormed by special police forces, and the hijacker was overpowered.^[24]
• On 5 January 2004 at 08:17 local time, an Austrian Airlines Fokker 70 (registred OE-LFO) crash-landed on a snow-covered field near Munich International Airport. The aircraft had been operating Flight 111 from Vienna to Munich, with 28 passengers and four crew on board, when its engines failed during landing descent due to icing. The aircraft was severely damaged, however only three passengers suffered minor injuries.^[25][26][27]

References

External links

• Official website
• Austrian mobile website
• Austrian Airlines Group
• Austrian Airlines stock information
• Austrian Airlines Business Class lounge information
• Sportsclubs of Austrian Airlines