During an interview with Austrian Radio, Austrian Airlines boss Annette Mann stated that if the Vida union's demands were accepted, other Lufthansa Group airlines that were supposed to be “more economical” could operate from Vienna. But what does that actually mean?

The Bord works council and the Vida union are currently fighting for higher salaries for the flying staff of Austrian Airlines. While AUA boss Mann is of the opinion that the company's latest offer, which was brought into the negotiations via the Chamber of Commerce, should be "very good", this is rejected by the employee representatives. The proverbial “devil” lies in the details, i.e. in the composition of the offer, for which Austrian Airlines claims to have already exceeded the “pain threshold”.

The increases, which at first glance appear to be high, include one-off payments and performance-related compensation, which the AUA only wants to pay out when the return is eight percent. To date, Austrian Airlines has never had a return of this magnitude. In the last financial year, which brought a record profit, the profit was five percent. For this reason, among other things, the works councils and trade unionists consider the offer unacceptable and have called on the flight attendants and pilots to go on strike.

AUA could have to bow to pressure from employees

In an interview with Austrian Radio, Mann admitted that it could well happen that one has to bow to the demands, because strikes would put the employee representatives in a position in which they could actually force things. However, the AUA general director did not take part in the previous negotiations. She estimates the “damage” caused by company meetings and the current strikes at around 20 million euros. But what if the union prevails and the social partners agree on significantly higher wages than those offered by the AUA?

In this case, Annette Mann announced that numerous routes would then be discontinued. These would then no longer be able to be operated economically due to increased personnel costs. At the same time, she points out that the carrier would invest in modernizing what she says is an outdated fleet. Not mentioned: The Lufthansa Group literally delayed these investments for almost 15 years and repeatedly referred to goals that could not be achieved.

Eurowings Europe base in Vienna as a possible “wild card” for the Lufthansa Group

However, the discontinuation of the routes would not mean that the Lufthansa Group would withdraw from them. Quite the opposite: Mann holds out the prospect that an unspecified number of routes could be served by other group members in the future. Namely from those who could fly “more economically”. No sister company has been specifically named yet, but in Germany-Austria traffic it should be comparatively easy to no longer have the routes served by AUA aircraft from Vienna, but rather by Lufthansa, Lufthansa City, Lufthansa Cityline, Air Dolomiti or Eurowings, for example German airports. If desired, night stops in Vienna would also be possible.

When it comes to aircraft stationed in Vienna, the Lufthansa Group still has a kind of “joker” up its sleeve. The Vienna base of the now Maltese Eurowings Europe has not yet been formally closed as the flying staff have a guarantee of employment until the end of 2024. The pilots and flight attendants are currently being taken to other bases to fly from there. It would be a small matter to equip Eurowings Europe with additional aircraft, deploy the Vienna base employees again from the federal capital and then fly either on behalf of the AUA or formally on their own account, but with OS codeshare. Many passengers who do not pay close attention to what they are actually booking when booking would only notice on the plane that they are not flying with Austrian Airlines, but with Eurowings Europe. Given that the AUA already had several aircraft from the then Austrian Eurowings Europe in wet lease before the Corona pandemic, this scenario - along with the change of operator on German routes - cannot be dismissed out of hand and would be quick with comparatively little effort implementable.

Purely theoretically, Discover Airlines could be brought to Vienna

On long-haul routes, AUA wants to part with its old Boeing 767 and 777 for the foreseeable future. It was only on Tuesday that the first used Boeing 787 aircraft made its first landing at Vienna Airport. This still has the Bamboo Airways livery. After a check by Austrian Airlines technology, further work is to be carried out in Taipei. The AUA is to receive a total of eleven Boeing 787-9s. This plan could well falter and a replacement would already be ready in Germany.

At least in theory, Discover Airlines could also operate from Vienna. With appropriate lead time, some Boeing 787s could also be handed over to this company so that it could, for example, take over US routes. On long-haul flights, it should be noted that Discover can only be used on routes that do not necessarily require an Austrian AOC. For example, the German aviation company could fly to the USA without any problems due to the Openskies agreement.

There are still no official plans for the launch of Discover Airlines, the reactivation of the Eurowings Europe base in Vienna or even the stationing of another Lufthansa carrier in Vienna. Annette Mann's statement to the ORF did not contain any company name, but it should be understood as a hint that the management of the Lufthansa Group in no way thinks that Vienna is the exclusive home of Austrian Airlines. Rather, other airlines in the group could also be stationed. Ryanair showed the way, as Laudamotion was replaced by Lauda Europe, Malta Air and Buzz. Ryanair's own base in Vienna has been closed.