Shortly after taking office, Austria's Labor Minister Martin Kocher (independent) said that short-time work should be reduced from around July 2021. Now the member of the government indicates that there could be an extension until at least the end of March 2022.

A few weeks ago, Kocher, who is considered a hardliner, added that the reduction in short-time work should begin in July 2021, provided the pandemic and labor market permit. Indeed, it can be assumed that some sectors will no longer need this labor market resource, but this is unlikely to be the case in aviation.

Günther Ofner, CEO of Flughafen Wien AG, described Martin Kocher's initiative to extend short-time working until the end of March 2022 as "good and reassuring news for tens of thousands of employees who fear for their future". At the same time, the manager expects the recovery to last until at least 2023. Maybe longer.

"The move by Labor Minister Martin Kocher to extend the Korona short-time work until March 2022 is therefore important and reassuring news for tens of thousands of employees and their families who fear for their future careers," said Ofner. "In order to achieve the best possible effect, a model that is as flexible as possible in terms of its detailed design is necessary, which should primarily be based on the extent of the revenue shortfall compared to 2019. In this way, the respective conditions in individual cases could best be met and the best possible job effect could be achieved with the least amount of resources. The short-time working model is significantly more cost-effective for government spending as well as for the economy and society as a whole than sending people into unemployment, especially because there is justified hope that travel will return to at least 2023 percent in 80 of the pre-crisis level ”.