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November 5, 2020

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November 5, 2020

The last AUA Fokker 70 left Bratislava

Michael David 5 November 2020 20:24

25 years after it was put into service by Austrian Airlines, the last Fokker 70, the former OE-LFP, left Austrian Technik Bratislava for Australia. Like most of its former sister aircraft, the aircraft, once named after the city of "Wels", was taken over some time ago by the Australian Alliance Airlines, which currently operates a total of 12 other Fokker 70s. The little sister of the Fokker 100 shaped the regional and Eastern European era of Austrian Airlines for around 20 years. Under the then AUA board members Mario Rehulka and Herbert Bammer, a purchase contract for 1995 Fokker 4s was signed at the beginning of 70 at a unit price of around 250 million schillings (approx. 19,5 million euros). The first two Fokker 1995s, the OE-LFO "Wiener Neustadt" and OE-LFP, were taken over in October 70 and flew mainly on new AUA routes to Eastern Europe. The birth of "Focus East", a more or less aggressive expansion strategy of Austrian Airlines in a number of Eastern European markets. Neither of the Fokker 70s acquired were originally intended for Austrian; the delivery positions were actually intended for Tyrolean Airways and Malev. Nevertheless, Tyrolean Airways, which at this point was already closely tied to Austrian Airlines through a majority shareholding, had already acquired its first three Fokker 70s. By 2008, the number of Fokker 70s in the Austrian Group had grown to a total of 12, six each for Austrian and Tyrolean. Three optioned Fokker 70s, two of which were held by Austrian Airlines, fell victim to Fokker's insolvency. Flight OS 70, operated with the Fokker 111 OE-LFO, achieved historical notoriety.

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AUA discontinues Klagenfurt - operating times are restricted

Amely Mizzi 5 November 2020 13:16

Klagenfurt Airport will restrict its operating hours again. The background to this is that Austrian Airlines will no longer fly to the airport from mid-November until mid-December 2020. The carrier is reducing its network-wide offering to just ten percent of last year's offering. As reported, sister company Eurowings will suspend the Cologne/Bonn-Klagenfurt route until at least December 18, 2020. This means that there will be no scheduled flights in Carinthia for the time being. The airport expects that only a reduced flight program will be available at the beginning of 2021. After scheduled flights at Klagenfurt Airport come to a standstill, the airport's operating hours will be restricted again for business reasons. An application has been made to the Ministry of Transport for operating hours from 9:2020 a.m. to 07:00 p.m. as of November 19, 00.

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From November 12, 2020: Mandatory rapid tests at Austrian Airlines

Jan Gruber 5 November 2020 12:47

From November 12th, Austrian Airlines is introducing, without any legal basis, a mandatory rapid antigen test before departure. For the time being, this is limited to the OS171/172 (Vienna-Hamburg-Vienna) courses. However, a negative result does not replace a negative PCR result required from November 8th, 2020 to shorten the German mandatory quarantine. "All flights that are listed as so-called 'Covid-19 Tested Flights' are marked accordingly on the Austrian website and are therefore recognizable to the passenger when booking. In addition, passengers are informed before departure via preflight email and check-in invitation. At the current time, the rapid antigen test does not replace the officially prescribed PCR tests. Passengers must therefore continue to observe local entry regulations," AUA wrote in a press release. Flights to/from Hamburg will be affected first. Just a few days ago, Flughafen Wien AG and Austrian Airlines AG presented the rapid test station in Terminal 3 of Vienna Airport. So far, it has been used very rarely, as on-site inspections by Aviation Direct have shown. From the outset, the airline remained silent about which flights would be selected for the rapid tests. In any case, this first test phase is scheduled to run until November 8, 2020. Participation is voluntary and free of charge, provided that the booked AUA flight was even selected for the pilot phase. The second step will start on November 12, 2020 on the Vienna-Hamburg-Vienna route. Participation will then be mandatory, but will continue to be free of charge. From a legal point of view, the carrier is on thin ice with this announcement, because linking transport to a test result for a medical procedure that has not yet been approved could be a

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SkyWork bankruptcy: employee claims covered

Jan Gruber 5 November 2020 12:27

The schedule of claims in the bankruptcy proceedings of the former regional airline SkyWork Airlines is now available at the Bankruptcy Office of Bern-Mittelland. Around 1.000 creditors have filed claims totaling 26,4 million Swiss francs. Of this, 17,5 million Swiss francs were rejected. Around 18,9 million Swiss francs were accepted. A claim of ten million Swiss francs was rejected in the third class, but accepted as a so-called subordinate claim. 1,8 million Swiss francs were accepted in the first and second class. 7,1 million Swiss francs are allocated to the third class. According to the Bankruptcy Office of Bern-Mittelland, the realization of assets of SkyWork Airlines AG brought in around 2,36 million Swiss francs - after deduction of all costs. This means that creditors in classes one and two can expect full coverage. For class three, the quota will currently be seven percent.

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Eurocontrol: Air traffic recovery could take until 2029

Amely Mizzi 5 November 2020 10:30

Will air traffic ever return to 2019 levels? Eurocontrol has put forward three different scenarios, each of which, in the best case scenario, predicts a recovery by 2024. In another scenario, however, this would not be the case until 2029. In the most optimistic scenario, traffic is expected to return to 2024 levels by 2019. In the second scenario – the most likely according to Eurocontrol – traffic in 2024 would only be 92 percent of the 2019 level. In the third scenario, traffic in 2024 would be 75 percent of the 2019 level and would not reach the 2029 figure until 2019. “Even in the most positive scenario, we do not expect a recovery to 2019 levels before 2024. There is a very real prospect that this recovery could take even longer, perhaps until 2029. This is a catastrophic picture for aviation and clearly shows why it is so important for states to take consistent and coherent measures to support the aviation industry and make passengers feel safe to fly again,” said Eurocontrol Director General Eamonn Brennan. Scenario 1 – Vaccination Summer 2021 Vaccine widely made available to travellers (or end of pandemic) by summer 2021, with traffic only returning to 2024 levels by 2019. Scenario 2 – Vaccination Summer 2022 Vaccine widely made available to travellers (or end of pandemic) by summer 2022, with traffic only returning to 2026 levels by 2019. Scenario 3 – Vaccine not effective Persistent

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Rostock is back without scheduled flights

Amely Mizzi 5 November 2020 09:38

Rostock-Laage Airport has no connection to the Lufthansa hub in Munich in the 2020/21 winter flight schedule. The carrier is not serving the route for the time being, but intends to offer it again in summer 2021. This means that the regional airport is completely without scheduled flights for the time being. In February 2021, Corendon intends to add the holiday destinations Hurghada, Fuerteventura, Las Palmas and Antalya. Whether this will actually happen remains to be seen due to the corona pandemic.

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Wizzair: So far flown in a loss of 243,1 million euros

Jan Gruber 5 November 2020 09:05

The Wizzair Group incurred a loss of EUR 2020 million in the first half of the 243,1 financial year. Of this, EUR 135,1 million was in the first quarter. Revenue fell by 71,8 percent to EUR 471,2 million. The cost per seat kilometer rose by 34,4 percent to EUR 4,52. The company estimates the financial resources available as of September 30, 2020 at around EUR 1,55 billion. Wizzair expects to burn around EUR 70 million per month by the end of the financial year. The company expects a difficult winter for the entire industry, but sees itself as well positioned due to many short-term adjustments to the route network. The company does not want to give a forecast for the annual result, but hopes to be able to fly back into the profit zone next year. “Wizz Air significantly outperformed the industry in the second quarter of the current financial year: we carried 5,8 million passengers with a load factor of 66 percent and 72 percent of our 2019 capacity, against the backdrop of constantly changing travel restrictions in all our markets. Our ancillary revenues continue to grow per passenger, driven by a robust performance of our core products. At the same time, our disciplined cost management enabled us to maintain our reported asset balance with a total asset balance of EUR 1,6 billion,” explains Group CEO Jozsef Varadi. “During the winter period, we expect conditions to be particularly challenging with ongoing travel restrictions due to COVID-19 as well as the seasonal decline in travel demand. We will continue to focus on cost management and strive to maintain cash-positive flying with a disciplined capacity approach

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Setback: Two courts overturn Lauda and Ryanair’s “Ireland clause”

Amely Mizzi 5 November 2020 08:44

In Germany, Ryanair suffered two serious defeats in the Laudamotion case before the regional courts in Kleve and Berlin. Both courts overturned the "Ireland clause" in the conditions of carriage. In Austria, the regional court in Korneuburg ruled on this passage last year. The company that brought the case was RightNow, which specializes in purchasing unused airline tickets. Passengers transfer their taxes and fees to the service provider and receive a certain amount from them. RightNow then collects the money from the airlines and, if necessary, takes the case to court. If this is unsuccessful, the service provider is left with the costs, as the passengers are literally "off the hook" with the purchase of the debt. The low-cost airlines Ryanair, Easyjet and Wizzair, however, do not show the taxes and fees on their tickets. They claim that the respective national legal situation would allow the sole display of the final price. The consequence of this is that when passengers who did not fly want their taxes and fees back, they are told by customer service that they did not pay any taxes at all. Various courts have declared this practice to be illegal in individual cases, because the taxes and fees are simply included in the price, but do not have to be paid by the airlines if the flight was not taken. A nice little extra money for the low-cost airlines. Ryanair in particular is against transferring to service providers who then recoup this very “extra money”. However, airlines are simply obliged by law to refund the taxes on request in the event of a no-show or cancellation. The specialist provider was able to

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Nuremberg offers severance payments for voluntary resignations

Amely Mizzi 5 November 2020 08:20

Nuremberg Airport is suffering from significantly reduced passenger volumes due to the corona pandemic. Fewer than a million travelers are expected for 2020, around 25 percent fewer than in the previous year. As part of a voluntary program, staff are now to be cut. This affects Flughafen Nürnberg GmbH and its subsidiaries Airpart GmbH and Flughafen Nürnberg Service GmbH. Employees are now being offered severance payments that should lead to voluntary resignation. The aim is to avoid redundancies and at the same time carry out the staff cuts in a socially acceptable manner. The airport has also postponed investments that are not considered necessary due to the current situation. It is also using short-time work and is not filling positions that have become vacant due to retirements. "Even in these exceptionally difficult times, we are working hard to fulfill our mission of connecting the Nuremberg metropolitan region with Europe. In order to be able to guarantee this in the future, measures are necessary in all areas of the airport. The aim is to work with our employees to stabilise our airport in times of drastically reduced traffic volumes and to secure it for the future,” said Airport Managing Director Michael Hupe.

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Lufthansa loses 1,3 billion euros in the third quarter

Amely Mizzi 5 November 2020 08:17

The Lufthansa Group lost around 2020 billion euros in the third quarter of 1,3 due to the corona pandemic. However, the group emphasizes that it has 10,1 billion euros in liquid assets available. 6,3 billion euros of this is attributable to government aid that has not yet been drawn down. The adjusted EBIT in the third quarter of 2020 changed its sign, as in the same period last year it was positive at 1,3 billion euros. Now the same amount is in the red. The operating cash outflow, before working capital changes and investments, averaged around 200 million euros per month. Revenue fell to 2,7 billion euros in the same period (previous year: 10,1 billion euros). The group result was minus 2 billion euros (previous year: plus 1,2 billion euros). Operating expenses were reduced by 43 percent in the third quarter compared to the previous year, also due to significantly lower fuel expenses, fees and the reduction in other costs that are directly dependent on the scope of the flight program. By using short-time work for large parts of the workforce and other measures, fixed costs were reduced by more than a third. "With strict cost savings and the expansion of our flight program, we were able to significantly reduce operating cash outflows in the third quarter compared to the previous quarter. Lufthansa Cargo also contributed to this with a strong performance and a positive result of 169 million euros. We are continuing to pursue this path with all our determination. Over the course of the coming year, we want to return to a positive operating cash flow. To this end, we are driving forward the restructuring throughout the Group and making the Lufthansa Group sustainably more efficient in all areas," says

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