The return of Austrian Airlines to the transatlantic market

Operating a modern, fuel-efficient fleet on an expanding route system and carrying almost 1.5 million passengers in 1986, Austrian once again contemplated intercontinental service, now to both New York in the west and Tokyo in the west. the east, and to this end converted its previous order for two medium-range Airbus Industrie A-310-200s to the long-range A-310-300 version on June 25, 1986. The original memorandum of understanding for the A- 310-200 had been signed since 1979 or a decade before the service really took off. Three factors could be cited as to why the time may have come to relaunch this service:

First, in the 15-year interval since its first and only intercontinental service was discontinued, its domestic market had grown considerably, as evidenced by several increases in nonstop US-Vienna service by Pan Am, Royal Jordanian and Tarom from New York. , and by American from Chicago.

The Vienna hub had developed significantly and could now offer much more possibilities for connecting with Austrian and other carriers to almost anywhere in the world. Due to the country’s proximity to these destinations, Austria in particular maintained one of the most extensive route networks in Eastern Europe. Adding to the geographic location was the fact that its compact Schwechat hub could facilitate connections in as little as 25 minutes and theoretically allowed a passenger to fly from New York to any of the Eastern European countries with a stopover in Vienna in less time. than a later non-stop departure would have with one of the Eastern European flag carriers such as Aeroflot, CSA, LOT or Tarom. As a result, Austrian was known as “the western airline to Eastern Europe” and “the link between west and east”. Glasnost had also provided the impetus for unprecedented interest in Eastern European travel at the time and was seen as promoting higher transatlantic load factors to fuel Eastern European flights. Its overall route system also offered excellent connections to destinations in Western Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Finally, the right-sized, long-range aircraft was finally designed that could facilitate profitable year-round operations. Even the smaller long-range widebody airliners of the day, such as the DC-10-30 and L-1011-500, would only have been profitable during busier periods such as summer and holidays. The smaller capacity A-310-300 made year-round operation possible for many airlines such as Austrian, who could not otherwise maintain sufficient load factors to fill larger aircraft, and was therefore ideal for long and narrow routes, such as those between Lyon and Lyon. New York (Air France), Frankfurt and Newark (Lufthansa), Istanbul and New York (THY), and New York and Stockholm (Pan Am).

The decision to restore intercontinental service, scheduled for spring 1989, was officially made two years earlier, on June 25, and was scheduled to be operated by two Pratt and Whitney-powered A-310-300s serving Vienna. -New. York and Vienna-Moscow-Tokyo routes, the latter in cooperation with Aeroflot and ANA All-Nippon Airways. The profitability of both depended to a large extent on the transit passenger. On the New York route, for example, a break-even load factor of 66 percent was needed during the first year of operation, which was envisioned as consisting of passengers originating in the US, originating in Austria, and connecting, but both relied on the high-performing business frequent flyer. Austrian Airlines offered a first class cabin on its A-310-300 for the first time in its history.

Deliveries of the airline’s first twin-aisle wide-body aircraft, registered and named respectively OE-LAA “New York” and OE-LAB “Tokyo”, occurred in December 1988 and January 1989.

Returning to the US transatlantic market two months later, on Easter Sunday March 26, the Austrian Airlines twin-engine Airbus, sporting a red, white and red livery and seating 12 First Class, 37 Business Class passengers and 123 economy class, taxied to the International Arrivals Building (IAB) in warm spring weather.

Operating as OS Flight 502 and flown by Captain Braeuer and First Officer Kutzenberger, the aircraft was tugged away from the gate at 19:00 after a brief turn with 121 passengers, who were cared for by nine cabin attendants. , and took off into the sunset of an intense purple color with a gross weight of 153,603 kilos, of which 40,300 corresponded to fuel for the Atlantic crossing. The flight had taken 18 years to complete.

Airport, reservations, sales and marketing staff later gathered in the Icelandair Saga Lounge used by its business class passengers for a celebratory drink and group photo.

The Tokyo route followed in the summer and the four A-310s, registered OE-LAA, -LAB, -LAC and -LAD, served as Austria’s intercontinental widebody type, operating to multiple US destinations, Africa and the Far East in a final. two-class configuration.

By the summer of 1989, the Austrian Airlines route system covered 54 cities in 36 countries in the US, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Japan with an unduplicated route length of 100,358 kilometres, and had 26 Fokker F.50, McDonnell-Douglas MD-81/82/83/87 and Airbus A-310-300 aircraft, which had an average age of four years. Austrian Airlines described these types as follows.

Airbus A-310-300 – a long-range, medium-capacity, wide-body, twin-aisle twin-engine airliner – Austrian Airlines’ intercontinental airliner. Austrian Airlines dubbed it “Intercontinental European”.

McDonnell-Douglas MD-81 – A twin-engine, medium-range, narrow-body, single-aisle airliner – Austrian Airline’s workhorse in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Austrian Airlines described it as a “universal medium-haul airliner and the mainstay of its fleet”.

McDonnell-Douglas MD-82 – The carrier ordered this variant “for charter and scheduled special services.”

McDonnell-Douglas MD-87: The smaller-capacity, short-fuselage version was “tailor-made for your needs in capacity and range.”

Fokker F.50: A short-range, regional, low-capacity, narrow-body, single-aisle, twin-engine turboprop airliner operated by its subsidiary Austrian Air Services on select long and narrow domestic and international routes. Austrian Airlines considered him “a specialist in city-hopping projects”.

In addition to Austrian Air Services, Austrian Airlines owned 80 percent of Austrian Air Transport (AAT), which operated charter and inclusive tourism (IT) flights worldwide with aircraft from Austrian Airlines and Austrian Air Services, carrying 506,000 passengers. in 1988. It also maintained a close marketing arrangement with Tyrolean Airways, which operated services from Innsbruck with the 37-passenger de Havilland of Canada DHC-8-100 and 50-passenger DHC-7-100 at the time.