The Ryanair Group is planning the Vienna summer flight schedule for 2022 with 19 aircraft based in Vienna. Up to 400 departures per week to 93 destinations are offered in the high season. In the current 2021/22 winter period, 14 aircraft will be used from Austria's largest airport.

Palma de Mallorca will be approached more frequently than before the corona pandemic. In the 2019 summer timetable, three to four flights per day were operated on this route. This year it should be up to five a day. “No other airline offers as many flights on this route as Ryanair. There are 33 departures per week in the direction of the largest Balearic island," says Laudamotion Managing Director Andreas Gruber.

When asked that Austrian Airlines announced a few weeks ago that it was the capacity leader on this route, the manager replied: “AUA does not even offer half of our weekly capacity. How Austrian Airlines came to the conclusion that it is the capacity leader on Vienna-Palma is a mystery to me".

Gruber describes the reasons for the increase in the Palma route as follows: “We are seeing very high demand on this route. After the many lockdowns, there is obviously a strong desire for beach holidays on the Spanish Mediterranean island". The Ryanair Group is now the market leader in Spain and wants to expand this position further.

19 aircraft are stationed in Vienna

The fleet planned for Vienna will consist of 12 Airbus A320 operated by Lauda Europe and seven Boeing 737-800. The latter machines are used by Lauda sister companies. The stationing of Boeing 737-8200, which Ryanair describes as a “game changer”, is currently not planned, but Malta Air and Buzz are already flying this pattern to Vienna from other stations.

There will be particularly strong competition in the summer of 2022 Route Vienna-Heraklion before. This is not only offered by Ryanair, but also by Wizz Air, Austrian Airlines, Corendon Europe, Aegean Airlines and Condor. When asked if the market has enough passenger traffic for the proud six airlines to be able to fly profitably, Andreas Gruber replied: "Competition is always good, but I don't think that all six airlines that now offer Vienna-Heraklion actually take off will. I assume that one or the other provider will cut the frequencies or will withdraw before the first flight. Who will that be? The next few weeks will show that, because now everyone is trying to get as many bookings as possible for the summer and the closer it gets, the more nervous some competitors will become”.

"Not much competition between Ryanair and Wizz Air"

Wizz Air is repeatedly dubbed Ryanair's main rival at Vienna-Schwechat Airport. The Hungarian low-cost airline permanently suspended several routes in two steps. Before Christmas the Abandonment of 12 routes known and only recently became known more cuts of the summer timetable. Is the competition, or the “bloodbath” as Wizz Air boss Jozsef Varadi called it in 2019, now abating? "I don't see any major competition between Ryanair and Wizz Air in Vienna. If you look at the market shares that were only recently published by Vienna Airport, then Austrian Airlines is number one, followed by Ryanair and then nothing comes for a very long time."

Faced with Ryanair and Wizz Air on many routes in the single-digit euro range and are still competing on some routes, especially on price, Gruber said: "Of course there is a direct confrontation on some routes, but the fact is that the largest airline in Vienna is Austrian Airlines, followed by the Ryanair Group as a strong number two in location, which is clearly visible in Vienna Airport statistics released this week. Wizz Air is strong in announcing new routes and then quietly canceling them or not even starting routes at all”.

"Minimum prices miss the climate protection target"

Ticket prices in the single-digit euro range should no longer exist if the original plans of Transport Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) had already been implemented. No union-compliant solution has yet been found, but sources within the Ministry of Finance are saying that they are currently considering decoupling the ticket price from taxes and fees. This would mean that the passengers would have to pay the taxes – by whatever means – at a state counter or via an app, for example. Access to the security area would then only be possible with the additional proof of payment. However, this consideration from the ministry contradicts another EU regulation, namely the one that states that ticket prices including taxes and fees must be stated during the booking process. The minimum prices have not yet been fully planned anyway. There is headwind from Brussels, so that the Austrian government must first find a solution that also holds up before the ECJ. The fact that this actually since September 2020 should apply but have not been implemented to date.

Ryanair and competitor Wizz Air are talking in contrast to Austrian Airlines vehemently against the minimum price plans. When asked why the Irish group is massively opposed to this, Andreas Gruber replied: "We don't believe in government-dictated minimum prices at all, because they would clearly be against the consumer and against the competition. Under the guise of climate protection, they want to make flying within Europe artificially more expensive and ignore the fact that short and medium-haul routes emit less carbon dioxide than long-haul routes. Behind this is not climate protection, but a sponsorship of state-subsidized airlines like the AUA".