The Austrian airline Austrian Airlines has thinned out its winter flight schedule and will temporarily not fly other routes.
The Lufthansa subsidiary suffered heavy losses this year. Due to the corona pandemic, the airline had to take countermeasures with restructuring measures. At the beginning of November, the airline began to cut its flight schedule by a further seven routes. These included two routes to and from Germany. Austrian Airlines has cut its offer very heavily; further cuts are planned for this month, such as aerotelegraph.com reported.
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Winter flight schedule will be further reduced
In the first half of November, Austrian Airlines reduced its offer to around 20 percent, which is not enough. Because from the middle of the month further cuts are to be made. A spokesman for the Austrian Airline told aeroTELEGRAPH that the capacity will only be around a tenth of the previous year. “Due to the general weak demand, we will thin out the flight schedule from mid-November to mid-December 2020.”, said the spokesman.
In addition to the reduction in flight frequencies, some destinations are also no longer to be served for the time being. Thus the routes to Bangkok, Bologna, Chicago, Yerevan, Klagenfurt, Cologne, Košice, Nice and Podgorica are covered. This measure will only apply until mid-December.
At the beginning of November, the airline deleted seven routes from the flight schedule for the time being. These include flights between Vienna and Lyon, Nuremberg and Odessa. The reason is the generally weak demand this year. At the same time, after a long break, the airline has resumed flights from Vienna to Moscow. This route should be followed twice a week, the spokesman said.
From mid-November the airline will only fly to 40 destinations. Compared to the pre-Corona period, the airline used to serve more than 120 destinations.
Further restructuring measures will follow
During the corona pandemic, the Lufthansa subsidiary has to rely on alternatives. For example, the airline will probably be using a Boeing 767 instead of an Airbus A320 on the route to Cairo until mid-December. That way you can “transport more freight”, said the spokesman for Austrian Airlines.
Since the airline received government aid in the millions this year, it was also bound by Austrian environmental regulations. These state that the planes may not sell flights on routes that can be traveled by train within three hours. To this end, the airline is focusing on AIRail. In cooperation with the Austrian Federal Railways, the airline plans to expand the AIRail offer. The line between Vienna and Graz is due to join on December 13th. The AIRail extension offers passengers not only an addition to the flight plan, but also an increase in flexibility. In the future, passengers will be able to travel by train, which will take almost three hours by plane.
The airline also wants to get more passengers on board with the help of travel insurance. This insurance is to be expanded to include Covid-19 coverage. In addition to the abolition of the rebooking fee and the flexible rebooking options, passengers should be able to choose between the “Travel Care” and “Travel Care Plus” insurance packages. These insurance packages include, among other things, a compensation payment for passengers who have to go into quarantine at their destination due to a corona infection. Travel cancellation and travel interruption insurance is also included.
Conclusion on the shortening of the AUA flight plan
The omnipresent low number of inquiries leads many airlines to restructuring measures in order to be able to adapt to the low demand. Austrian Airlines must also take measures like this in order to survive this year without a hitch. Only 40 destinations are to be served by the Austrian airline. Under normal circumstances, the airline served more than 120 destinations. With such savings measures and with the help of short-time work, the airline wants to move into the next year. The partial lockdown, which will apply in Austria until the end of November, is expected to result in a further decline in demand. The airline is hoping for better times in the coming summer 2021.
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