Linz-Hörsching Airport is worried about the continued existence of the non-stop connection to Düsseldorf offered by Eurowings. Since the handover of Austrian Airlines to the German sister company, this has been repeated and suspended for long periods of time.

A media release from Linz Airport now reads: “It is currently becoming apparent that Eurowings will not be able to continue the Düsseldorf connection in the summer flight schedule. The aircraft used so far is too large with 150 seats and Eurowings does not operate any smaller aircraft in its fleet.

Added to this is the fact that Austrian Airlines has focused on business travelers in the past. Before the corona pandemic, the flight times between Linz and Düsseldorf were primarily tailored to their needs. With a few exceptions, trips were possible at twice the end of the day. With the handover to Eurowings, which had to be repeatedly postponed due to pandemic developments, the type of service also changed. The aircraft is no longer stationed in Upper Austria, but flies in from Düsseldorf. Significantly fewer frequencies are also offered.

In the run-up to this change, the Upper Austrian economy was warned that the changeover would mean that the offer for business travelers could become less attractive. The Lufthansa Group initially saw things differently and was happy to point out that there would be numerous transfer options in the Eurowings route network from Düsseldorf.

Austrian Airlines was on the move between Linz and Düsseldorf and between Graz and Düsseldorf or Graz and Stuttgart at rather high prices. There was repeated criticism of the company's pricing policy, because the "decentralized routes" offered from the federal state airports were often significantly more expensive than from Vienna-Schwechat. It also follows from this that the connections were not very attractive for many private individuals for cost reasons, but were used by business travellers. With the machine type de Havilland Dash 8-400 it was possible to fly profitably thanks to the high yield, but the demand does not really seem to be economical for the Airbus A320 series. In addition, travel in the double end of the day is not possible.

Linz Airport now wants to hold talks with the Lufthansa Group. The aim of this is that the Düsseldorf route from Linz is retained: "The airport is holding intensive talks with the Lufthansa group in order to switch the Düsseldorf connection to a smaller aircraft and to reconnect the destination as quickly as possible". Whether Linz Airport succeeds in "stationing" a suitable aircraft locally or in Düsseldorf is another matter entirely. The Lufthansa Group does not have any turboprop aircraft that would be ideal for this route, for example. It's unlikely they'll be wet leased.