Austrian Airlines Pulls Out Of Australia
Vienna based carrier Austrian Airlines has announced that it is withdrawing its services to Sydney and Melbourne from March 2007.
Not a single continental European airline will be operating on the famed kangaroo route, which will only be served from Europe by UK carriers, long standing British Airways and recent arrival Virgin Atlantic, although it is thought that BA will soon withdraw allowing its OneWorld partner Qantas operate the route.
Austrian Airlines and the airline it took over, Lauda Air which have operated on what they consider to be a prestigious route for almost twenty years, are axing the services in an effort to slash costs and return to profitability, which is not considered to be a surprise in the current operating climate as the route is expensive and operationally difficult.
While the carrier recorded good loads, yields and fares were not covering the costs of the operations, with Austrian filling aircraft by offering discounted tickets, competing at the bottom of the market with Asian carriers, who enjoy lower operating costs.
As a result of the cut in services to Australia, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur will lose their Austrian services as they were the stopovers for the services to Melbourne and Sydney respectively.
It is expected that 20 members of staff from Austrian’s 36 strong Australian workforce will be made redundant, with most going from its Melbourne operation, where it has a call centre as well as airport staff, with the off line sales and marketing operation consolidating in Sydney.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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