Niki said at the time the flights were announced that it believed there would be sufficient demand for the short flights, which despite a 25 minute block time were estimated to be just ten minutes in length. The majority of this demand would have been to feed its wider network from Vienna International Airport, according to the carrier.
Austrian Airlines has announced its plans to expand its North American offering to include five-weekly flights to Miami, as well as additional flights to destinations in Europe.
Turkish airline, SunExpress has recently announced its plans for a total of 21 new routes for the summer 2015 season, with departures mainly from Antalya, Dalaman, Izmir and Konya.
According to the German flag carrier, following “close consultation with Austrian Airlines and at the carrier’s own request,” Eurowings will initially station two Airbus A320s at Vienna International Airport to offer point-to-point connections on European routes, but could grow the fleet and network in the coming years.
The airline, part of the Lufthansa Group, has been forced to cancel a number of its domestic and European short-haul routes as a result of the walkout by the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union which has failed to reach an agreement on working contracts for its members with the Lufthansa Group.
The new twice weekly route will operate on Mondays and Fridays between May 1, 2015 and September 7, 2015, enabling passengers to enjoy long weekend or week long visits to each destination. The flights will be operated using a Boeing 737-300 configured with 147 seats.
The Austrian low-cost carrier is to launch flights from Bratislava to Brussels and Palma in summer 2015 and to facilitate its new services will operate one of the shortest international flights in the world between its base in Vienna and the Slovakian capital.
The network expansion supports the airline’s strategy to enhance aircraft utilisation during the quieter winter season. In recent years destinations in the Indian Ocean have seen market growth for Austrian passengers and the carrier’s existing flights to the Maldives have been extremely popular, showing the high potential in the Austrian long-haul tourism segment.
The oneworld alliance member will launch a daily service between Stuttgart and Abu Dhabi from December 1, 2014 using an Airbus A320 configured with 12 seats in Business Class and 132 in Economy Class. The service, which remains subject to government and regulatory approvals will be airberlin’s sole medium-haul link from Stuttgart, a market it currently mainly links to Mediterranean leisure destinations.
