The Upper Austrian Linz Airport is getting a new home base carrier with DHL Air Austria. This is a subsidiary of Deutsche Post-DHL and a pure cargo airline. The logistics group is already active in Linz today.

It is a start-up that should take off shortly. State Secretary Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) said: “This location decision for Austria is a strong signal for our country. The new airline with an Austrian license creates up to 50 new jobs on the ground. This brings important added value for the region. This confirms the competence of Austro Control and the Supreme Civil Aviation Authority based in the BMK. This location decision is of course also sensible in view of Austria's geographical location in the heart of Europe: Due to its infrastructure, Austria has a central position and is a hub between West and East as well as between North and South. Austria offers the best framework conditions for domestic and international companies. Linz has thus established itself as Austria's cargo airport ”.

“With the new airline, we are adapting our European network and preparing it for further growth. We are very pleased that Austria has been selected as an attractive location for DHL Air Austria and are particularly proud that up to 2021 new jobs will be created here by October 50, ”said Ralf Schweighöfer, CEO of DHL Express Austria. “With this important step, we are making our air freight network in Europe more flexible and stable. At the same time, we are continuing to serve the high demand from our customers for cross-border express deliveries and are able to provide them with sufficient express capacities. At this point we want to thank the authorities, the ministry and Austro Control for the successful cooperation so far. ”“ The consequences of the Covid crisis are still clearly noticeable in passenger traffic. Holiday travel is recovering faster than business travel, ”explains Linz boss Norbert Draskovits. In a normal year Linz Airport has around 500.000 passengers, last year it counted 50.000 passengers. It is therefore all the more important that the second, major pillar, air freight, works very well. “In the past few months we have seen a real boom in air freight and we expect to see growth of 20% by the end of the year. Due to the decline in global long-haul traffic, freight capacities were reduced. Passenger planes were converted to freight planes. Handling such aircraft quickly is a particular challenge that we have mastered very well. We have thus succeeded in having a special machine in Linz every third day at peak times and were therefore able to benefit from the distortions in the supply chains. "