The airline Austrian Airlines presented its deep red balance sheet on Thursday. However, the main topic of the press conference was the crisis in Ukraine, which is affecting the airline on several levels. First, there are local employees who are staying near Lemberg. You are in daily contact with them. Fees for the next three months have been paid in advance to help them along the way, said CEO Francesco Scoirtino. If some want to leave the country, the employer would help. Flights to Kyiv and Odessa have been suspended since February 21. This was later followed by the direction of Moscow and Lemberg.
Secondly, due to the closed airspace, the flight time in the direction of East Asia will be extended by one hour – to Shanghai, for example. At the moment, production – as the AUA calls its daily flight program – is still greatly reduced. Flights should be ramped up from May, Scoirtino said. However, it should then be tight in the airspace over Turkey. It remains to be seen whether there will be any delays. Whether the planned resumption of Tokyo can take place will also be re-evaluated.
A third effect is emerging on the transatlantic route: the Ukraine and Russia were previously important source markets that flew to the USA via Vienna. In this respect, it is still unclear whether there will be capacity adjustments here, according to the AUA.
The Lufthansa subsidiary is satisfied with the holiday flight business: 500,000 flights were booked within 14 days – even before the outbreak of the Ukraine war. It remains to be seen whether there will be any impact in this area.
Because the summer business should be very good, the AUA is again looking for employees despite short-time work. More than 100 flight attendants are hired. At the same time, the reduction in the workforce continues: 1195 of the planned 1350 full-time positions have been cut in the past two years. As CEO Michael Trestl says, without layoffs, but in a socially acceptable manner and through natural departures. Headcount at the end of the year: 5793.
Source: Nachrichten
