25th July 2006
Austrian Airlines Out Of Australia
After almost twenty years of serving Sydney, the Vienna-based carrier decided to close the route by March 2007. At the same time, its other Australian destination, Melbourne, will also be axed in an effort to slash costs and return to profitability.
Sydney and Melbourne have always been prestige destination for Austrian Airlines. But financially, they were more and more difficult. Despite the fact that the airline recorded good load factors, the yield, the paid fare, is just not covering the costs of the operations anymore. Austrian was filling its planes by offering really competitively priced tickets, quite often the lowest in the market. This mad the airline popular among travellers, but it didn't help at Austrian's bottom line.
The two Australian service will be discontinued by the end of March 2007. Austrian's offices in Sydney and Melbourne will most probably be closed too as they won't be needed anymore.
And the cut goes deeper. The Sydney flight made a stop in Kuala Lumpur, while the one to Melbourne stopped in Singapore for new fuel. This two destinations will also lose their service by Austrian Airlines.
Quindi un altro vettore europeo lascia l'Australia.
Le rotte in questione (SYD, MEL, SIN e KUL) tra l'altro sono state ereditate da OS quando si è fusa con Lauda Air.
La concorrenza con i vettori asiatici e medio orientali ha inciso sicuramente nella decisione.