In future, the Embraer 195 regional jets will be the smallest aircraft type in the Austrian Airlines fleet. The next larger category will be the Airbus A320, because the A319s will be phased out gradually around the middle of the year and handed over to the Group's sister company Lufthansa Cityline. Company boss Alexis von Hoensbroech stated during an online conference that he no longer considers the operation of smaller aircraft to be economically viable.

The decisions that the DHC Dash 8-400 turboprops and the Airbus A319 will leave the fleet were made before the corona pandemic. At the time, the company emphasized in a press release that this would help protect the environment, as larger aircraft produce less carbon dioxide per seat. However, the AUA will still have to prove whether phasing out the turboprop is a wise decision in the short and medium term in view of the effects of the corona pandemic.

“In the last few decades we have seen that flying regional aircraft is a dying business, at least within Europe. Most successful network operators have got rid of the majority of their small regional planes. We believe that this is a trend that you cannot work against, as ticket prices have fallen so sharply that the unit costs of the small planes are simply too high, ”said AUA boss Alexis von Hoensbroech during Routes Reconnected.

Embraer 195 are not up for discussion

At the beginning of the corona pandemic, Austrian Airlines set itself the goal of reducing capacity by around 20 percent. Expressed in aircraft: the fleet should be reduced from around 80 aircraft to around 60. They part with around a quarter of the fleet. The majority is accounted for by the once 18 turboprop aircraft of the type DHC Dash 8-400. The aging Boeing 767 fleet is also being hit by the collar: it will be halved.

“If you shrink, you have the opportunity to clean up the fleet faster. So we decided to get rid of our entire turboprop fleet, our entire A319 fleet and three of our oldest long-haul aircraft, which were almost 30 years old, ”said the AUA General Manager. “We still have 17 Embraer 195 aircraft to serve the smaller markets. We also had 18 Dash 8-400s. The jump from the Dash 8-400 to the Embraer 195 is a huge jump from 74 to 120 seats. The Embraer will cover the smaller markets and the next largest aircraft will be the Airbus A320 ”.