Vienna International Airport

Austrian Airlines’ restructuring moves forward with the transfer of operations to Tyrolean Airways

Austrian Airlines on 1-Jul-2012 finalised integrating its mainline flight operations into its wholly owned regional subsidiary Tyrolean Airways as part of a comprehensive restructuring programme outlined by CEO Jaan Albrecht in Jan-2012 to bring “and sustainably keep” Austria’s largest carrier in the profit zone. The long-overdue streamlining of the company will also see the end of the Lauda Air brand from the summer of 2013. Austrian Airlines Group has recorded an annual negative EBIT for the majority of the last decade despite consecutive cost cutting exercises and a takeover by Lufthansa Group in 2009.

The group comprises three airlines – Austrian Airlines, Tyrolean Airways and Lauda Air – but Lauda’s Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) has just been returned to the country’s civil aviation authorities. Flight operations of the charter subsidiary were merged with Austrian’s back in 2004 for all but one aircraft. This aircraft has now moved to Tyrolean’s AOC.  

In Europe, Scandinavian airports are rising to the economic challenge

Major European airports – some privatised, others in the public sector – have released financial results for 1Q2012 and in two cases for FY2011. Unlike the last time an across-the-board results survey was undertaken, in 2011, there is a greater degree of uncertainty in some countries in this first quarter that is reflected in these reports but there still remain more positive than negative results, especially in Scandinavia.

airberlin joins oneworld alliance, but its full potential will not be immediately realised

The oneworld alliance on 20-Mar-2012 is welcoming airberlin as its 11th member, but the carrier's full potential will not be immediately realised.

airberlin's advantage is a continental European base, which oneworld lacks and barely had prior to the Feb-2012 collapse of Hungary's Malev. But the hub can only be utilised if oneworld carriers serve it, and so far they have been coy about adding services, preferring instead the country's –  and one of the world's – leading financial centres, Frankfurt, much to the disappointment of airberlin.

From airberlin's accession, oneworld will gain market share, but not only are SkyTeam and Star Alliance expanding as well, they are adding members in key growth markets. airberlin this week brings 38 new destinations to oneworld's network, although they are primarily leisure points and not the corporate destinations that bolster airline yields. The airline has evolved, with additional costs, from a low-cost carrier to a hybrid one targeting the corporate sector, but has yet to see a yield uptick.