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Austrian Airlines. We Fly for Your Smile.

Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Austrian Airlines

Austrian Airlines Group provides an attractive portfolio of services with top levels of quality and punctuality, outstanding price-performance ratio, a dense network of connections via the central Vienna hub, individualized fare selection options and the proven Austrian touch are just some of the features used successfully by the Group to distinguish itself from competitor airlines.

As its favourable geographical location- Vienna provides the perfect basis for an East-West hub. Making Austrian Airlines the only carrier to offer a high quality long-haul product on medium –haul flights.

Austrian Airlines in the Middle East

Mr. Karim El Sanadily heads the Regional Offices of Austrian Airlines in the GCC, Lebanon & Pakistan with its town office located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Due to the increasing demand Austrian Airlines was able to increase the number of flights from initially 3 flights a week to daily flights to Vienna.

The Boeing 767 aircraft continues to fly daily to and from Dubai, carrying the exclusive Austrian Premium Service on board- an exclusive package appealing to all the senses with highly improved Business Class facilities and services combined with market competitive prices in both Economy and Business Class. Passengers coming from Abu Dhabi and Al Ain are given complimentary transportation to and from Dubai airport.

Those who wish for a more enriching experience can rely on the Austrian Airlines team in the UAE in providing them information for holiday destinations in Austria and its surrounding European countries. The Austrian Urlaub, an exclusive holidays catalogue of Austrian Airlines offers a wide range of Luxury, Deluxe and Superior hotel and flight inclusive breaks to Austrian and other European cities.

Latest Updates from your “Red and White” Carrier

Flights to Baghdad
Austrian Airlines is planning to reincorporate their scheduled flights from Vienna to Baghdad from 31st October. The possible resumption is conditioned with a positively concluded flight safety analysis which is undertaken by the Austrian Airlines safety team in Baghdad in cooperation with national and international authorities. If this was the case, Austrian Airlines plan to fly four times per week from Vienna to Baghdad with the Austrian Premium Service Airbus A320 dedicated with 24 seats in Business Class that offer long haul comfort on short haul flights.

Austrian Airlines is a pioneer in Central- and Eastern Europe and in the Middle East: Since December 2006, Austrian Airlines is flying to Erbil in North Iraq. The company could sustainably develop its position in Erbil as it is currently flying five times a week from and to Vienna.
With the new destination Baghdad, Austrian Airlines return to the Iraqi capital and open up the second destination in Iraq which was initially incorporated into its route network in 1982. Flights to the Iraqi capital were then halted due to the Kuwait crisis in 1990.

The four Austrian Airlines flights from Baghdad to Europe are being coordinated within the Lufthansa Group: Austrian Airlines is flying on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Lufthansa will also be flying to Baghdad four times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Lufthansa flights will depart from Munich. By coordinating their services, therefore, Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines will offer one return flight a day between Europe and Baghdad, with two flights a day on Sundays.

Flight Network Optimization in Winter 2010/2011
• 300 extra connecting flights via Vienna hub
• More connections from Western to Eastern Europe
• Network redesign creates space for growth from 2011 onwards

Austrian Airlines is optimizing its flight network, with the changes to take effect from the beginning of the winter schedule on 31 October 2010. The most important change will be the increase in number of the so-called ‘waves’ per day. A wave, or traffic hub, is a time window when the timing of numerous arrivals and departures at an airport is harmonized so well that passengers are offered the highest possible number of connection opportunities.

Austrian Airlines is now increasing the number of waves provided at its Vienna hub from six to seven a day. By doing this, the carrier will produce a range of different effects:

1) The number of possible connections – a connection from Paris to Moscow via Vienna, for example, or a journey from Zagreb to Dusseldorf via Vienna – will rise by 300 a week. Austrian Airlines currently offers 20,000 of these connections, known as ‘hits’. This figure will rise to 20,300 from 31 October onwards.
2) Connection quality will improve in general, but first and foremost for journeys heading from Western Europe in the direction of Eastern Europe.
3) The seventh wave creates greater flexibility for further expansion of the Austrian flight schedule. It creates the space needed to support growth in 2011.
4) The new network structure enables Austrian Airlines to deploy its aircraft more efficiently. There will be fewer stand times. Productivity increases.

By optimizing its network in the 2010/2011 Winter Schedule, Austrian Airlines is taking the second crucial step in the implementation of its new market strategy, “Austrian Next Generation”. Austrian took the first step in this process in spring 2010, when it began deploying larger aircraft, increasing its flights on routes with high passenger volume, and offering attractive prices. Now, as promised, the company is to optimize its flight network. The Members of the Austrian Airlines Executive Board, Andreas Bierwirth and Peter Malanik, said the following: “Our new, active market strategy is taking effect. We are using focused measures to improve our product range, which is enabling us to win back both customers and market share. The new network design means we are offering our customers the next argument for flying with us.”

Austrian hub Vienna is Europe’s fastest transfer hub: access to 130 destinations in Austrian route network, 105 of which in Europe. Austrian Airlines passengers use Europe’s fastest transfer hub, the Austrian hub of Vienna, to change from one flight to another: passengers and their baggage can change aircraft in Vienna in as little as 25 minutes. This makes travelling an enjoyable experience and saves passengers valuable time, while transferring is very comfortable. Austrian Airlines serves more destinations in Europe than any other carrier with its Vienna hub: Austrian Airlines operates flights to 105 European destinations from the hub. The carrier is market leader in Central and Eastern Europe with 42 destinations, while it also offers a dense route network in the Middle East which now includes eight destinations: Tripoli, Cairo, Tel Aviv, Amman, Damascus, Erbil, Tehran and Dubai. In total, the Austrian route network includes around 130 destinations.

Flying to Dnepropetrovsk Again
On 1 July 2010, Austrian Airlines will fly to Dnepropetrovsk once again. This is a result of discussions between the EU authorities, the Ukrainian and Austrian authorities and Austrian Airlines. Until then, the flights will continue to divert to the Zaporozhye airport, which is approximately 70 kilometres away from Dnepropetrovsk. Austrian Airlines will continue to offer its passengers free bus transfer service between the Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye airports.

Previously Austrian Airlines had to modify its flight programme due to the remodeling work on the runway of Dnepropetrovsk airport. Since 1 May 2010,, Austrian Airlines had flown to Zaporozhye instead to avoid any problems that could have risen with the slot given to the airline. The airport offered Austrian Airlines another slot. However, this was so inconvenient time-wise that Austrian saw itself forced to fly to the Zaporozhye airport. From there, Austrian Airlines transferred passengers via busses to Dnepropetrovsk. After it became clear that other airlines could fly to Dnepropetrovsk again, Austrian Airlines reported this unfair treatment to the EU commission and the Austrian authorities.