First quarter ‘difficult in the extreme'
Austrian Airlines has reported a loss of €88.1m in the first quarter, up 45.9% compared to the €60.4m loss suffered in the same period 2008.
The airline's flight revenue fell 17% to €415.3m as demand slumped, resulting in a pre-tax loss in earnings of €77m.
Austrian said lower fuel costs were only able to make up for falling demand "to a partial extent."
Board member Dr Andreas Bierwirth said the first quarter had been "been difficult in the extreme."
Dr Bierwirth said markets vital to Austrian had been hit by the global economic crisis.
"Many countries in Central and Eastern Europe have also been affected by the crisis, which has led to a temporary reduction in traffic flows of crucial importance to us. However, we are anxious to maintain the network by operating smaller aircraft," he said.
Traffic from the Middle East had fared better with growth reported, Dr Bierwirth said.
He added: "The corrections necessary in this region have been relatively minor. In the summer months, for instance, we now offer just one, rather than two, flights a day to Dubai, and we now fly to Tel Aviv using an A321 instead of a Boeing 767."
Dr Bierwirth said Austrian was prepared should demand for travel fall further this year.
"Further capacity adjustments would be evaluated on a step-by-step basis, and would be implemented taking into consideration the transfer flows of importance to the company," he said.
The airline said it would "press ahead" with cost cutting measures introduced at the beginning of 2009, amounting to €225m in planned savings.
Austrian said measures introduced included production cuts, short-time working for staff and the suspension of pension fund contributions.
The airline hopes to improve its balance sheet with changes to its fleet and new aircraft orders.
One A321-100 and two Canadair Jet CRJ200 aircraft were grounded due to capacity cuts in the first quarter.
www.austrian.com