Austrian Airlines has made this announcement on March 27:
During the last two weeks, we flew home more than 3,500 people from all over the world.
Additional repatriation flights will follow this week from Lima, Denpasar and Kuala Lumpur on behalf of Österreichisches Außenministerium.
Next week there will be more. Huge thanks to our great employees who made this possible!
All photos by the airline.
Austrian Airlines has made this announcement:
All scheduled flights will be removed from the booking system
Short-time work: all of the approx. 7,000 employees have been put on short time working at least up until April 19th
The worldwide entry bans imposed as a consequence of the coronavirus have not been relaxed and there is still little demand for air travel. For this reason, Austrian Airlines will cease all regular flight operations until April 19, 2020. Two Boeing 777 long-haul aircraft flew to Punta Cana, Havana and Mexico City on behalf of the Austrian Federal Ministry of European and International Affairs to bring home Austrians stranded abroad.
Austrian Airlines originally announced a temporary cessation of its scheduled air traffic until March 28, 2020. Passengers booked on flights during this period will be rebooked on other airlines if possible. Passengers can also rebook their airline tickets or arrange for them to be held in abeyance for the time being.
Short time working for all Austrian Airlines employees extended at least until April 19, 2020
Austrian Airlines has reached an agreement with the Works Council, trade union and the Federal Economic Chamber on a short time working model. The country’s red-white-red flag carrier had previously submitted an application to the Austrian Public Employment Service (AMS) for short-time work on March 6, 2020.
The cornerstones of the agreement are as follows:
The “corona short time working” model stipulates a reduction of working time down to a minimum of 10 percent while ensuring payment of up to 90 percent of employee salaries. The difference will be covered by AMS funding or by Austrian Airlines. The airline originally concluded this agreement for a period of one month beginning on March 20, 2020, including a months-long extension option depending on the further development of the situation. The maximum possible duration of short-time working is six months.
In principle, all executives have also been put on short time working. However, the Management Board has the possibility to exempt employees from short time working for reason of operational requirements. In this case it is agreed that a salary waiver will take effect.
Austrian Airlines aircraft photo gallery:
Austrian Airlines has made this announcement:
All regular flights will be removed from the flight schedule until further notice
Austrian Airlines has decided to temporarily terminate all regular flight operations starting Wednesday night, March 18, 2020.
This move is in response to entry bans being imposed across the globe and a rapid decline in demand for air travel. The last flight for the time being departing from Chicago with the flight number OS 066 will land in Vienna on March 19, 2020 in the morning hours. Up until then flight operations will be scaled back in a controlled and structured manner in order to bring all passengers, crews and aircraft home if possible. Initially, Austrian Airlines will cancel all flights up until March 28, 2020. Passengers who have booked a flight during the time will be rebooked on other airlines if possible.
If necessary, for example in cases of a need for evacuation and other relief or emergency flights, Austria’s red-white-red flag carrier will keep one long-haul aircraft and one medium-haul jet ready for operation. The relief flights will be carried out in close cooperation with the Austrian Federal Government. “As Austria’s national carrier, we are aware of our responsibility and will cooperate with the government and try to bring home as many Austrians as possible”, says Austrian Airlines CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech. In the coming days the airline will increasingly carry out evacuation flights and rely upon the offering of the Lufthansa Group for rebooking passengers.
In general, Austrian Airlines passengers on cancelled flights will be rebooked
Passengers on flights planned within the next 48 hours and cancelled in response to the current situation will be automatically rebooked. Austrian Airlines asks passengers with such a flight to check the status of their rebooking on austrian.com under “My Bookings” within the next 48 hours. Customers who have provided a telephone number or e-mail address as well as members of the frequent flyer program Miles & More will be automatically informed about changes in the flight schedule by SMS or email. It is not necessary to contact the Austrian Airlines Service Hotline.
Flights scheduled later than 48 hours in the future will be directly rebooked by the Austrian Airlines Service Center. In this case, customers who have listed their telephone numbers or e-mail addresses at the time of booking will be informed about the status change of their flights. The Austrian Airlines Service Hotline at +43 5 1766 1000 is available to answer all questions relating to flight bookings. However, longer waiting times are to be expected due to the high volume of inquiries.
Passengers can help relieve the pressure on the hotline!
Austrian Airlines kindly asks passengers whose planned flights are not scheduled during the next seven days to refrain from contacting the service hotline in the days ahead. In this way, they will give the service employees the possibility to first deal with passengers who would normally be departing in the next week. These passengers will also be rebooked and correspondingly informed as needed.
As was announced last week, Austrian Airlines offers an expanded opportunity for passengers to rebook their flights on a goodwill basis. Tickets with a departure date before April 30, 2020 which were booked up until March 12, 2020 will be kept in abeyance and remain valid for the time being. Passengers will then have the chance up until June 1, 2020 to select a new travel date and, if need be, to choose another destination. In order to take advantage of this offer, passengers can contact the Austrian Airlines Service Center by telephone or make use of the contact form available on the Austrian Airlines Website at http://www.austrian.com. Passengers who booked a flight before March 16, 2020 with a scheduled departure after March 18, 2020 will either be rebooked on another Lufthansa Group airline.
Austrian Airlines CCO Andreas Otto asks all customers to be patient. “Our employees are doing their best to process requests as quickly as possible. However, there are longer waiting times as a result of the high volume of inquiries. For this reason, I am kindly asking that you display patience. Rest assured that nobody will be let down here. All customer inquiries will be handled by us”, he states.
Stranded Austrians can contact the Federal Ministry of European and International Affairs
Austrian Airlines is in contact with the Austrian Federal Ministry of European and International Affairs to clarify issues relating to the operation of additional evacuation flights to bring back Austrians who are abroad. For this reason, Austrian Airlines asks all Austrians who are stranded in other countries and who want to return home to get in touch with the hotline of the Federal Ministry of European and International Affairs at +43 1 90115 4411.
Short-time work for Austrian Airlines employees
On March 6, 2020, Austrian Airlines submitted an application for short-time work for the entire company. At present, it is negotiating an agreement with the Works Council in order to adapt to the new situation. Relevant details are planned to be presented in the course of this week.
Austrian Airlines is preparing for a relaunch after the crisis
In the meantime, Austrian Airlines is preparing to relaunch operations after the crisis. The airline is taking a flexible approach towards restarting the business “so that we can be ready to go as soon as possible once demand recovers”, CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech explains, “This is not a ‘goodbye’, it’s a ‘servus” and ‘see you later’.“
Austrian Airlines aircraft photo gallery:
Austrian Airlines made this announcement:
Twelve short- and medium-haul aircraft and two long-haul jets currently remain on the ground calculative
• Reduction throughout the European network
Austrian Airlines has previously announced the cancellation of 40 percent of the Italian flights in March and April, as well as the further cancellation of flights to Tehran and China.
Now the red-white-red airline must carry out further schedule thinning. Austrian Airlines is cancelling 20 percent of all flights in the entire continental network in the month of March. This affects the entire route network within Europe, inner-Austrian connections are also affected. However, all destinations will continue to be served by Austrian Airlines. The already published thinning of the flight offer to Italy is included in this cancellation. Flights will be cancelled in the period from March 8 to 28, passengers will be automatically rebooked on other flights or receive a refund. As a result of this reduction, twelve short- and medium-haul aircraft of Austrian Airlines will remain on the ground calculative. The previously announced flight cancellations of Beijing and Shanghai will add two more long-haul jets in March and April.
Passengers whose flights have been cancelled can of course rebook free of charge or receive a refund on request. Austrian Airlines asks all passengers who have booked an Italy connection in the affected period to check the status of their flight on austrian.com under “My Bookings”. Passengers who provided their telephone number or e-mail address during the booking procedure as well as members of the frequent flyer program Miles & More will be informed automatically via SMS or e-mail of flight changes.
Austrian Airlines aircraft photo gallery:
Lufthansa Group has made this announcement:
The safety of passengers and employees is a top priority for the Lufthansa Group. After thoroughly evaluating all currently available information on the corona virus, Lufthansa Group has decided to suspend its Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian Airlines flights to/from mainland China until February 9, 2020 with immediate effect. In addition, acceptance of bookings for flights to/from (mainland) China has been suspended until the end of February. Flight operations to/from Hong Kong will continue as planned. The Lufthansa Group will continuously monitor the situation of the corona virus and is in contact with the responsible authorities.
Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian Airlines will fly to their respective destinations in mainland China one more time. This is intended to give our guests the opportunity to take their planned flight and our crews to return to Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
The Lufthansa Group offers a total of 54 regular weekly connections from Germany, Switzerland and Austria to the Chinese mainland. Destinations are Nangjing, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang and Qingdao. Furthermore, Lufthansa Group airlines offer 19 weekly connections to Hong Kong.
Austrian Airlines made this announcement:
Focus on vacation destinations in the Mediterranean, Kavala and Samos added to the offering
Once again daily flights to Rome and Barcelona
Long-haul routes: launch of flight service to Boston, Tokyo flights commencing two weeks earlier
Passengers can once again look forward to an attractive Austrian Airlines flight schedule in the upcoming summer months. Many new destinations or increased frequencies on other routes, for example in Greece, Italy or Spain, are now included thanks to the strategic concentration of capacities in Vienna.
In the long-haul segment, Austrian Airlines’ initial flight to Boston will take place on March 29, 2020. Austria has never been directly connected to the American metropolis up until now. Compared to last year, Austrian Airlines will be offering around 40 more flights per week from Vienna next summer.
The flight schedule will take effect on March 29, 2020.
Focus on holiday destinations
Austrian Airlines will fly up to 70 times per week to 19 destinations in Greece during the summer season. This represents an increase of twelve weekly flights compared to the previous year. The coastal city of Kavala and the island of Samos are new to the summer flight offering. Weekly flights to Rhodes will be increased from three to eight, and Heraklion on Crete will be served seven times each week, three times more than in the previous year. One frequency will be added to Corfu and Kos, raising the weekly number of flights to five and three respectively. Classic destinations such as Zakynthos, Karpathos, Mykonos or Skiathos will all continue to be part of Austrian Airlines’ summer offering.
Italy remains a popular holiday destination and thus thirteen Italian destinations are included in the new summer flight schedule. Rome is new to the offering, with three daily flights destined for the city on the Tiber. Sardinia lovers will benefit from three additional connections to Olbia (pushing up the total to six per week) as well as a further flight to Cagliari (thus three times each week). Frequencies to Palermo in Sicily will be raised from one to two weekly flight connections. Overall, Austrian Airlines will fly to destinations in Italy up to 138 times per week, generating an increase of 26 weekly flights compared to the 2019 summer flight schedule.
Alongside the inclusion of Barcelona in the offering with two daily flights, people taking vacations in Spain will have a large selection of connections to the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands. Austrian Airlines will operate one weekly flight to Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Tenerife, two flights to Ibiza and once a week to Menorca.
Germany as well as Central and Eastern Europe remain core markets
Austrian Airlines will operate about 280 flights per week from Vienna to nine destinations in Germany in the upcoming summer season. Nuremberg is new in the flight offering and will be connected up to twice a day. Central and Eastern Europe are also once again strongly represented in the summer flight schedule for 2020. The Austrian home carrier will serve 33 destinations up to 440 times per week next summer. The latest addition is the Croatian coastal city of Zadar, which will be served on a daily basis.
Flights to Boston as of the end of March, Tokyo flights to commence earlier
The first Austrian Airlines aircraft headed for Boston will take off on March 29, 2020. The American metropolis will initially be served four times per week, to be increased to six weekly flights starting in the middle of April. The connection to Tokyo, which Austrian Airlines operates in summer only, will be resumed two weeks earlier than planned due to the high demand and freed up capacities. During this period, a Boeing 767 will operate the route four times a week. In the regular summer flight schedule, Austrian Airlines will offer daily flights to Japan as usual, deploying a Boeing 777.
Top Copyright Photo: Austrian Airlines Boeing 767-3Z9 ER WL OE-LAW (msn 26417) IAD (Brian McDonough). Image: 946360.
Austrian Airlines aircraft slide show:
Austrian Airlines has made this announcement:
From now on, Austrian Airlines passengers on flights operated by a Boeing 777 aircraft can virtually discover their favorite seat and reserve it directly during the booking process via a new 3D Seatmap. Previously, this was only available in a two-dimensional version. For the implementation of the 3D Seatmaps, Austrian Airlines is working with the Spanish agency Renacen.
With this innovative service, passengers already get an insight into the experience on board during the booking process – in all travel classes: Economy, Premium Economy and Business Class. Austrian Airlines operates flights to Los Angeles, New York, Cape Town, Mauritius, Bangkok, Tokyo and others with Boeing 777 aircraft. With this innovation project, the Austrian home carrier is a pioneer within the Lufthansa Group. By the end of the year, the function will also be available in the Web Check-in Portal. A further expansion of the service is planned.
