Austrian Airlines will start a twice-daily two-class service to Vienna from London City Airport commencing Monday 29 October.
Operating the Monday to Friday flight will be a Fokker F70, an aircraft not regularly seen at the airport and previously only flown by Air France for a limited period before the introduction of the larger BAe 146/AVRO types.
London City Airport chief executive, Richard Gooding said: "We welcome Austrian Airlines, a Star Alliance member, to our growing network of popular European destinations. Vienna is one of the furthest routes that can be reached from our Docklands hub and provides an ideal gateway to Eastern Europe and beyond."
The flight time of 2h 15min is on par with services out of Heathrow, the slightly slower speed of the Fokker more than made up for by the lack of taxiing time at the airport, that easily has the quickest turnaround in London.
London City will shortly celebrate its 20th anniversary and is set to move a record breaking 2.7m passengers this year. A big success has been the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) link to Bank in the City, just 22 minutes away with a seven-minute frequency.
Construction is ongoing for a link under the Thames to Woolwich, with completion due by the end of 2008. This DLR extension will open up the whole of Kent as a potential market.