Image: APA/AUSTRIAN AIRLINES
Image: OÖNGrafik
Today, Friday, 150 AUA flights are canceled, the next company meeting will follow next Thursday, which will again lead to flight cancellations. The AUA management announced the best result on Thursday, with a profit margin of 5.4 percent or 127 million euros in operating profit (after three million the year before).
Nevertheless, the joy was not undimmed: the canceled 150 connections cost the airline four million euros, said AUA boss Annette Mann, who herself joined the press conference from Frankfurt because of the Lufthansa strike. The “reliability effects,” as possible customer defections were described, cannot be measured.
For the first time, a clause in the collective agreement became effective: If the AUA makes more than five percent profit, there is employee participation. From this title, 30 million euros will flow to the workforce. That means up to one month’s salary more for the 6,200 employees, said board member Francesco Sciortino, who, in connection with the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations with the on-board works council, pointed out that the union’s demands were leading the AUA into the loss zone. “Some of the workforce has made demands that are higher than the annual profit.”
Sciortino also referred to the tough competition in Vienna because low-cost airlines Ryanair and Wizzair are based there, which would push down the results per passenger.
The AUA wants and must continue to make more than five percent profit in the next few years in order to finance the replacement of the long-haul fleet (planned by 2028). According to the list price, ten Dreamliners would cost three billion euros. The first two aircraft will arrive in the first quarter and will fly to North America from summer.
The AUA will then have 68 aircraft. Because medium-haul aircraft also need to be replaced, the airline is pushing ahead with a mountain of investment until the mid-2030s, says Mann.
Image: OÖNGraphik
Lufthansa wants TAP and ITA
The parent company Lufthansa presented its net profit of 1.7 billion euros on a day when hundreds of flights had to be canceled. The current industrial dispute will last until Saturday morning.
CEO Carsten Spohr said the Lufthansa Group had “regained its financial strength.” This will enable record investments of 4.5 billion euros this year, primarily in new aircraft, renewed equipment and customer service.
As demand for flights continues to rise and more supply increases, ticket prices are expected to remain stable this year. Last year they rose by an average of almost six percent. Lufthansa wants to integrate the state-owned Italian ITA as quickly as possible; Lufthansa is also interested in the Portuguese TAP. (sib)
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