On Thursday, October 12, 2023, the Airbus A320 operated by Austrian Airlines with the registration OE-LBN set off for Tel Aviv on behalf of the federal government. Austrians are picked up there and brought back to Vienna.

The flight number OS 2651 will initially take you “ferry”, i.e. without passengers on board, to the metropolis in Israel. The OE-LBN then flies back to Austria with passengers on board. This is the first evacuation flight from Israel to Austria.

The evening before, some citizens were boarded an Israir plane flew from Tel Aviv to Larnaca. From there, scheduled flights will continue to Vienna. According to the Foreign Ministry, emergency shelters have been organized in Cyprus.

The Austrian federal government had actually planned that a Lockheed C-130 is to be stationed in Paphos. From there, the military aircraft was supposed to carry out “shuttle flights” between Tel Aviv and Paphos. The Austrians should then have been flown home from Cyprus on scheduled flights.

But that didn't happen because the only airworthy C-130 couldn't leave the Alpine republic at all. Due to a technical defect, smoke occurred and the crew had to be medically examined. So far, the Army aircraft is not operational again. Ultimately, this led to the Austrian federal government freely commissioning Austrian Airlines, i.e. without a tender, to operate return flights from Israel.