Austrian Airlines has provided more details on its summer recovery plans after a disappointing winter period. The carrier is set to ramp up its summer flights with up to 150 flights per week and the resumption of over 20 routes to popular vacation spots around Europe.
The airline expects a busy summer
Austrian Airlines has announced plans for its summer recovery, with many vacation destinations set to return for the summer season. More than 20 summer routes will return including:
- Barcelona
- Dubrovnik
- Florence
- Gothenburg
- Krakow
- Larnaca
- Mykonos
- Odessa
- Oslo
- Rhodes
In a press release, the airline said it would focus on flights to Greece and Cyprus, with up to 16 flights a week to Cyprus (Larnaca) and 10 per week to Greece (Heraklion). Italy, Spain and Turkey are also in the airline’s thoughts, with plans to increase the frequency of flights to vacation favorites including Ibiza, Palma de Mallorca, Catania and the Canary Islands.
Chief Commercial Officer, Michael Trestl, said,
“We are expecting increased demand in the tourism sector in summer and are therefore increasing our offer to vacation destinations by up to 20 percent from July.”
The airline’s intercontinental services are also set to resume, with top global destinations including Bangkok, Chicago and Tokyo on the cards. Austrian Airlines will also operate flights to Hanover over the summer for the first time since 2009 – initially, it will offer two flights a week before increasing the frequency to two flights daily by July.
Austrian hopes to offset a disappointing winter
Austrian Airlines had predicted it would return to around 50% capacity over the winter but has managed just 15%. It is now banking on a strong summer recovery and has already opened up booking for its summer season. Flights are set to increase in frequency by 20% from July, with current projections for around 150 flights per week.
Trestl is optimistic about the summer schedule, saying,
“With our expanded flight schedule, we want to create an attractive vacation offer for all Austrians. Of course, further development is highly dependent on the progress of the pandemic and the associated travel policies.”
Austrian Airlines goes ahead with downsizing
Even before the COVID pandemic, Austrian Airlines was in the process of restructuring due to stiff competition from low-cost carriers. In early 2020, Austrian Airlines outlined its plans to downsize, which included cutting its fleet from 80 aircraft to around 60. The carrier has now shed more light on the timeframe for its fleet downsizing.
It will remove one A319 from its fleet every month, beginning this summer, with all seven A319s set to go by early 2022. The airline has eight De Havilland Dash 8-400s left in its fleet, having already retired 10, all of which will be retired by March this year. Its fleet of six Boeing 767s will also be reduced to three. The first 767 will be retired in March, with all three jets expected to go by the end of the year.
Do you have your eye on any of Austrian’s summer destinations? Let us know where you want to go in the comments.