Airline looks to future after Lufthansa take-over
Austrian Airlines will focus on its volume markets in the future, the carrier said.
In a presentation in Vienna, Austrian, which has just been taken over by Lufthansa, said it would also continue to serve niche markets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
The airline said it had "significantly" to reduce costs per seat as the current market would not allow fare increases.
To do this, it said it planned to use larger aircraft and cut the number of planes with fewer than 50 seats in its fleet.
Two of the routes it said where larger aircraft would be used were Vienna to Zurich and Dusseldorf.
It said the larger aircraft, B737-800s, would be brought in for the next summer schedule.
Austrian said it also planned to "rework" its network for winter 2010-2011.
But the carrier warned that it faced heavy competition from low cost carriers (LCCs).
It said 24% of flights at Vienna were by LCCs, compared with 10% at Zurich and 4% at Frankfurt.
Vienna was also "very small to function as a sustainable business location" so it was heavily dependent on transfer traffic.
Internally, Austrian said it was cutting staff by 6,000 by the end of 2010 to reduce costs.
Externally, it was negotiating to cut supplier cost and security fees.
The airline said it was also hoping for synergies from its deal with Lufthansa.
These included through integration of sales, maintenance, ground operations, IT and purchasing.
However it gave no figure for hoped for savings.
The presentation concluded: "Our perspective lies in our own hands.
"Quick success with a significantly improved cost basis opens up the chance for quick growth.
"The alternative is a slow, exhausting restructuring based on shrinking, especially on long haul routes."
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