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October 28th 2025

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October 28th 2025

Lufthansa Group introduces new food selection platform

Jan Gruber 28 October 2025 16:00

The Lufthansa Group is bundling the food and beverage offerings of its airlines Lufthansa, Swiss, and Austrian Airlines in the new digital platform "Culinary Journey." This provides passengers with a central overview of all available meals and snacks throughout their entire flight journey, improving pre-ordering and consistency of the offering, particularly for connecting flights. The new tool is available via the app and the airlines' websites, as well as via pre-departure information emails. It automatically provides each traveler with the appropriate culinary selection based on their booking – from Economy Class on short-haul flights to First Class on long-haul flights. This consistent experience also applies when passengers fly with multiple airlines in the group during a trip, for example, from Vienna via Frankfurt to New York. A key benefit of the "Culinary Journey" is the guaranteed availability of the desired dish thanks to pre-ordering. On long-haul flights, customers now have the option to choose from an expanded selection of up to nine main courses, including exclusive creations available only to those who pre-order. On shorter flights, passengers benefit from a ten percent discount on buy-on-board items such as sandwiches, salads, or cakes if they order them in advance. The introduction of the "Culinary Journey" also aims to enhance the airline group's premium experience across all travel classes. This will make the comprehensive offering more consistent and more accessible for customers across the Group, as Caroline Drischel, Senior Vice President of Customer Journey, explained. An integrated feedback function also allows customer opinions to be directly incorporated into the further development of the service.

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Wizz Air returns to Cologne/Bonn and opens several Eastern European routes

Stephen Steiner 28 October 2025 15:09

Wizz Air resumed operations at Cologne Bonn Airport with the start of its winter flight schedule on Sunday, October 26. To kick things off, a new flight to the Romanian capital Bucharest was added to the schedule, which will now be served up to four times a week. This strengthens Cologne Bonn Airport's connection to the Eastern European market. Wizz Air's expansion at its Rhineland location will continue in the coming weeks. Starting in December, the airline will add three additional destinations to its route network: Tuzla in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Skopje in North Macedonia, and Tirana in Albania. The new routes will start on December 12 (Tuzla, up to three times a week), December 15 (Skopje, four times a week), and December 16 (Tirana, three times a week). The airport welcomes Wizz Air's return and expansion of its services. Thilo Schmid, CEO of Cologne Bonn Airport, emphasized that the new destinations enrich the route network and offer passengers additional travel options to the important destination market of Eastern Europe. Wizz Air considers the connection to Bucharest particularly important for the Romanian community living in Germany. The focus on Southeastern Europe will be further sharpened in the upcoming summer flight schedule. Wizz Air has already announced that it will launch a connection to the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, starting June 2. This route, which will be served four times a week, represents the first direct connection from Cologne Bonn Airport to this Eastern European country and completes the launch of a total of five new routes.

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Struggle for connections: Linz Airport is fighting the crisis after AUA's withdrawal and with rescue plans

Jan Gruber 28 October 2025 14:37

Linz Airport is facing an acute existential crisis. Last Saturday, Austrian Airlines (AUA) took off for its last flight to Frankfurt, thus ending the strategically important connection to the international hub that had existed for 59 years. This move by AUA, which is justified by declining passenger numbers and massive losses, exacerbates the difficult situation of the regional airport, which is owned 50 percent each by the City of Linz and the State of Upper Austria. The airport has been operating in the red for five years, and its reserves have largely been depleted. Passenger numbers in 2024 were only around 180.000, a significant decrease compared to the 436.018 passengers in 2019. Against this backdrop, a comprehensive rescue plan is being discussed that comprises two central pillars: the revival of the Frankfurt connection through a public tender with possible start-up financing, and a partial privatization model through a regional consortium of entrepreneurs. However, both approaches are directly affected by EU state aid law, which slows down decision-making and increases uncertainty. The critical importance of the Frankfurt hub. Austrian Airlines' discontinuation of the Frankfurt route is a serious blow to Linz Airport. The connection served as an essential gateway to the world, providing travelers from Upper Austria with access to the global route network of the Frankfurt hub. The loss of this so-called hub connection significantly reduces the airport's attractiveness for business travelers and international connections. Austrian Airlines justified the withdrawal of the flight connection with a sharp decline in capacity utilization, which led to massive operating losses. The last flight landed in Linz with only 21 passengers. The state of Upper Austria

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“Milk x Honey” festival in Wiener Neustadt starts its third season

Amely Mizzi 28 October 2025 14:09

The "Milk x Honey" Festival in Wiener Neustadt begins its third edition on Thursday, October 30th. Until November 14th, the event in the Kasematten offers six evenings with innovative concert formats that combine classical music with various art forms. The festival is curated by clarinetist Christoph Zimper. The festival kicks off on October 30th with "Mendelssohn As I Know Him Featuring Anna Mabo." It combines Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20, with songs by the Austrian singer-songwriter and theater director Anna Mabo. Another highlight the following day is Igor Stravinsky's ballet music "The Firebird," which will be performed by the Freestyle Orchestra in combination with circus acrobatics. Cellists and violinists play acrobatically at dizzying heights, telling a story of resistance and renewal. Further interdisciplinary formats are on the program for the second week of the festival. For example, the meditative journey "Kirtan – or the Magic of Stories" on November 7th unites the cultural heritage of India, Brazil, and Austria and includes musical interaction with the audience. On November 8th, visitors can move freely through the casemates as part of "Austria Has Got Talent" and experience musical tastes from nine young ensembles. The finale on November 14th will be "Persian Ecstatic Dance," a boundless dance accompanied by Iranian musicians. Another innovative format is the reinterpretation of Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf 2.0" on November 13th, in which the White Lake Collective and sand artist Anna Vidyaykina combine music, art, and storytelling in a new dimension. The historic location of the casemates

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Lufthansa focuses on long-haul routes and thins out its domestic network

Jan Gruber 28 October 2025 13:45

The Lufthansa Group has presented its 2026 summer flight schedule, which shows a clear shift in focus to profitable long-haul connections and a significant reduction in the domestic German feeder network. More than 14.000 weekly connections to 330 destinations in around 100 countries are planned via the hubs in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and Italy. Despite the broad overall offering, the home market of Germany will be severely affected by cancellations. The Group is increasing frequencies on intercontinental routes that have proven particularly lucrative. From Frankfurt, for example, St. Louis, Rio de Janeiro, and Cape Town will be served five times a week, while Raleigh/Durham, Washington, and Nairobi will even be served daily. New to the flight schedule from Frankfurt is Trondheim, Norway, with four weekly connections to meet the continued high demand for Scandinavian destinations. At the Munich hub, the long-haul routes to Sao Paulo and Johannesburg, introduced in winter 2025/26, will also be extended into the summer, using modern Airbus A350-900s. The Group's subsidiary Swiss is strengthening its European network with Poznań and Rijeka and expanding its flights to Tokyo. Austrian Airlines is also focusing on northern destinations such as Westerland, Edinburgh and the Lofoten Islands. Parallel to the expansion of long-haul flights, Lufthansa is consistently implementing the announced reduction of its domestic German flight network. More than 50 frequencies on feeder routes will be cancelled from summer 2026, affecting connections between Munich and Cologne, Düsseldorf and Berlin, or between Frankfurt and Leipzig or Nuremberg. This is a direct reaction to the persistently high cost burden for flights to and from Germany, which has increased significantly in recent years, partly due to

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Technology conference at Vienna Airport: “New Technologies Summit 2025” launched

Stephen Steiner 28 October 2025 13:41

Under the motto "Experience the Future, Shape Innovation," the "New Technologies Summit 2025" began on November 3 and 4, 2025, at the Vienna Airport Conference & Innovation Center at Vienna Airport. The two-day conference, conceived as a further development of the "Expedition AI" event series, is dedicated to current developments in key areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous systems, virtual and augmented reality, and robotics. The conference aims to present practical applications and promote exchange between business, research, and politics. The summit was opened by State Secretary for Digitalization Alexander Pröll and Julian Jäger, CEO of Flughafen Wien AG. State Secretary Pröll emphasized that the event brings together the brightest minds to demonstrate the added value of digital innovation for companies and citizens. Julian Jäger emphasized that innovation is a lived reality at Vienna Airport and that the summit is an important source of inspiration for the early identification of new trends. The summit brings together leading companies, startups, and research institutions from across the DACH region, including well-known players such as IBM, EY, ÖBB, Asfinag, AIT, and Austrian Post. The venue itself, the Vienna Airport Conference & Innovation Center, offers over 2.600 square meters of event space and serves as a platform for knowledge exchange, inspiration, and collaboration. The "New Technologies Summit 2025" offers a diverse program of keynotes, panel discussions, and interactive workshops designed to provide participants with practical insights into technological innovations and strategies. The conference reinforces Vienna Airport's growing role as a center for technological development and as an important meeting point for the digitalization industry in the DACH region.

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Legal end to a financial drama: Deutsche Bahn bears the billions of dollars of Stuttgart 21 alone

Stephen Steiner 28 October 2025 13:39

Deutsche Bahn AG has conceded final defeat in the years-long legal battle over the dramatically increased costs of the major Stuttgart 21 project and will have to bear the resulting billions of euros alone. Following the rejection of its application for leave to appeal by the Administrative Court of Baden-Württemberg (VGh) in August, the company has now waived further appeals. The ruling, which establishes that the project partners – the state of Baden-Württemberg, the state capital of Stuttgart, the Stuttgart Region Association, and Stuttgart Airport – are therefore legally binding. Deutsche Bahn now faces additional costs of at least €6,5 billion, which exceed the framework stipulated in the 2009 financing agreement. The railway infrastructure project, whose total estimated costs are currently just over €11 billion plus a buffer of €500 million, will thus represent a considerable financial burden for Deutsche Bahn. The original cost ceiling, stipulated in the 2009 contract, was just over €4,5 billion. The difference, resulting from years of construction delays, rising construction costs, and complex geological challenges, must now be borne by the railway as the client. Olaf Drescher, Chairman of the Management Board of DB Projekt Stuttgart-Ulm GmbH, declared the chapter legally closed by waiving his right to appeal. Chronology of a Cost Explosion The history of Stuttgart 21 is a sequence of steadily rising costs. The original cost estimate in the early planning phases of the project was still well below the billion-euro mark of 4,5 billion euros. The relevant financing agreement from 2009 then stipulated the distribution of costs up to a maximum of

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New on-demand concept: FlyVini launches pioneering flights from Mannheim

Stephen Steiner 28 October 2025 13:07

The new airline FlyVini will launch its innovative concept of on-demand direct flights from Mannheim City Airport starting in December 2025. Instead of fixed flight schedules, the company relies on a flexible "on-demand" system tailored to the needs of business and leisure travelers. This approach is intended to make regional air traffic in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region more efficient. The first "Pioneer Flight Week" is scheduled for December 1-5, 2025. During this period, the first commercial flights will operate from Mannheim. The destinations during this test phase are Berlin (Schönhagen Airport) and Hamburg. Round-trip flights to Berlin-Schönhagen are planned on December 1 and 5. The connection to Hamburg will also be offered on December 2 and 4, with round-trip flights each day. The flights depart from Mannheim in the morning and return in the late afternoon. The concept of FlyVini, which sees itself as a ride-sharing platform, is based on the idea that flight times and routes are calculated flexibly according to current demand. According to reports, flights will be operated with smaller aircraft, such as the Tecnam P2012 Traveller, which offers up to nine seats. In general, the company aims to connect decentralized airports and thus create a time-saving alternative to other modes of transport for distances between 100 and 900 kilometers. The establishment of the FlyVini concept at Mannheim City Airport follows the reorientation of scheduled services in the region, after the successor to the insolvent Rhein-Neckar Air, Mannheim City Air, began operating seasonal connections. With the introduction of

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Austrian Airlines will soon hand over its first Embraer to Air Dolomiti

Jan Gruber 28 October 2025 12:35

The Lufthansa Group is consistently pursuing its strategy of fleet consolidation and specialization at its subsidiaries. A key step in this process is the planned transfer of the entire Embraer E195 fleet from Austrian Airlines to the Italian regional airline Air Dolomiti. This extensive fleet transfer is to be completed gradually by the end of 2028 and will significantly simplify Austrian Airlines' short- and medium-haul fleet, while enabling Air Dolomiti to achieve significant capacity growth and a strengthened role in European feeder traffic. Austrian Airlines will hand over the first of a total of 14 aircraft of this type to its sister company in December 2025, according to industry sources. Air Dolomiti plans to commence commercial service with this aircraft in March 2026. The complete conversion marks the end of the Embraer era at Austrian Airlines, which will focus on a homogenized Airbus fleet on short- and medium-haul routes in the future. At Air Dolomiti, however, the Embraer E195 is becoming the central and sole regional jet class and forms the basis for the planned network expansion. Consolidation to reduce costs and increase efficiency Austrian Airlines' decision to retire its entire fleet of 17 Embraer E195s by 2028 is a fundamental component of its internal strategy to reduce fleet complexity. Operating multiple aircraft types with different requirements for maintenance, spare parts logistics, and crew training results in higher operating costs. By eliminating the Embraer type and concentrating on aircraft from the Airbus A320 family – including the purchase of modern Airbus A320neos – Austrian Airlines aims to optimize its cost structure and increase operational flexibility. The remaining three of the 17 Embraer E195s not allocated to Air Dolomiti

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Layoffs lead to threat of strike at Brussels Airlines

Jan Gruber 28 October 2025 12:08

The unions at Brussels Airlines have submitted an official notice of strike. The strike was triggered by the summary dismissal of three flight attendants who refused to board a flight to Ghana. The crew members justified their refusal with concerns about possible vermin, reportedly fleas or bedbugs, on the aircraft. The dismissal of the employees immediately provoked sharp criticism from the BBTK/SETCa and ACV Puls/CNE unions. Despite a deadline set by the employee representatives until Monday morning to reverse the decision, the company management did not respond. The unions are now demanding the immediate reinstatement of the three colleagues. According to Brussels Airlines management, the report of pest infestation was a false alarm. The company emphasized that it seriously investigates reports of pests, but an external inspection revealed that no pests were on board. According to the airline, the three flight attendants are said to have "seriously violated several procedures" and thereby caused damage to the company and its passengers. The company is withholding the exact details of the alleged violations, citing data protection. The unions view the airline's actions as a "dangerous signal" to all flight personnel and accuse management of failing to address the concerns of the workforce. An initial, symbolic action by the unions last Saturday had no impact on flight operations. However, with the official threat of a strike, the conflict is escalating, and there is now a threat of industrial action that could severely disrupt flight operations.

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